Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Bullying

Jamie Boldish
Final Exam Essay 2
Bullying

When defining what bullying is I can up with three main components. The first component of bullying is that bullying is an aggressive behavior that tends to involve unwanted, negative behaviors. The second component of the definition of bullying is that bullying involves a pattern of a behavior being repeated over a period of time. Lastly the third component of what bullying is, is bullying involves an imbalance of power and strength.

There are many different types of bullying. Research has found that there are nine different types of bullying. These nine types are verbal bullying including derogatory comments and bad names towards another student. Second, bullying can occur through social exclusion or isolation. Third, physical bullying such as hitting, kicking, shoving, and spitting is another form of bullying. Fourth, bullying can occur through the use of lies and false rumors. The fifth type of bullying is having money or other things taken away or damaged by students who bully. The sixth type of bullying that is seen is one student being threatened or being forced to do things by another student. Seventh, racial forms of bullying happen. Eight, sexual bullying can occur towards both male and female students. Lastly coming in as the ninth form of bullying is cyber bullying, which is bullying that occurs over cyber space, for example a student can be threatened via cell phone or Internet, and this is still considered bullying even though it is not happening face to face.

There are three main reasons why students are bullies. The first reason can be students who bully have strong needs for power and negative dominance. The second is students who bully find satisfaction in causing injury and suffering to another person. Third, students who bully are often rewarded in some way for their behavior with material or psychological rewards. There also many other reasons for why students bully other students.

By being aware of what bullying is, know some of the reason why students bully one another, and knowing that bullying looks like, (The nine different forms that bullying) we as teachers should be able by being proactive and preventing bullying from happening. One way of doing this is explaining the effects that bullying has on the children or teens that are victims of bullying are. The impact that bullying has on students that are bullied is truly scary. Students who are bullied can face depression, low self esteem, possible health problems, poor grades, and suicidal thoughts can come into play.

Adolescent culture shapes teenage perceptions and behaviors. What we do, what we learn and what we experience as children play a huge role in shape who we become, the way in which we carry ourselves, reacted to certain situations and how we overall behave. If a child is bullied during their childhood years then this is going to play a huge role in who they become as they grow up. I listed above the impacts that bullying can have on children and those impacts, no matter which one the child may suffer from can follow them into their adolescent and sometimes all the way to and through adulthood.

The ninth form of bullying is cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is bullying that takes place over cyber space, for example a student can be threatened via cell phone or Internet, and this is still considered bullying even though it is not happening face to face. Cyber bullying is on the rise these days that technology is becoming more readily available to children and teens. Children as young as first grade have been seen carrying around a cell phone. This fact is just making it much easier to participate in cyber bullying. Also with the bullying occurring over cyber space children do not get to see the impact it can have on the child that they are bullying.

Furthermore, media plays a large role in bullying as well. In the United States we live in a culture where children and teens are constantly being reminded about the importance of being beautiful, thin and athletic. This can encourage bullying by making it much easier for students to pick out and point out flaws that other students might have.

Media, cyber bullying and technology have such a negative impact on today’s youth. The media is telling children and teens that they are not perfect and that in order to be perfect and accepted by society then they need to look like a celebrity. In addition technology being more readily available is making cyber bullying occur more often because it is so easy to get a hold of a piece of technology these day. Also technology is getting rid of the students being able to see one another when being bullied and seeing the impact it has on the other student. Furthermore another downfall to technology is if a student is being cyber bullied this bullying can follow them outside of school and even wherever they go that they bring the technology along with this. This can make students feel like they have no escape from the bullying.

In relation to the post on the Cortland PE Group about the teacher bullying the student I find this to be completely ridiculous. We are asked to reflect about that should have been done in this situation, in my opinion this situation should have never happened. No teacher should ever treat his or her students this way. Children go through enough dealing with peer bullies that they should not have to deal with teachers acting as bullies as well. I also find it ridiculous that the student had to record this event happening for someone to believe that what he was saying was really going on. As teachers we are supposed to act as role models for our students. If students see us bullying they are going to think that it is ok for them to be doing it as well. Also when a student comes to us with a problem, issue or concern we need to always take what they are saying seriously. This situation was handled very poorly and when the student first tried to tell someone about what had happened they should have listened to him and then the issue would have been solved right then and there, and then the student would not have been put through what he went though for half as long.

As teachers there are many things that we can do have a positive effect on the lives of our students. One way we can do this is be advocates for the prevention of bullying. No student wants to be bullied, so why not do everything we can as teachers to help put an end to bullying. One idea that I have to help advocate for anit-bullying would be to send out an anti-bullying flyer to all my classes. Not only would I ask the students to read the flyer I would also ask the students to have their parents read the flyer as well. There is honestly no better support then having the parents of your students on your side!

One more thing we can do as teachers to put a stop to bullying would be to have an anti bullying seminar or programs for our student to attend. If this is not a possibility then I would make a point to have a discussion about bullying during one if not more of my class periods. All in all we need to get the message out to our students that bullying is not tolerated in school, outside of school or in the cyber world.

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