Yay, the letter I sent in to the New York Times was today's lead letter! I couldn't be more excited and proud. If you haven't seen it yet, here it is:
To the Editor
Re: There's Only One Way to Stop a Bully” by Susan Engel and Marlene Sandstrom
(Op-Ed, July 23, 2010)
I can't agree more that schools must teach kids "how to be good to one another, how to cooperate, how to defend someone who is being picked on, and how to stand up for what is right." These things need to be taught in homes too.
In a national survey I conducted on bullying and conflict, 73% of the students surveyed said peers are somewhat or very mean to each other. Bullying and other mean behaviors will only decrease when we model, teach, and expect the opposite. By assiduously fostering empathy, conscience, and kindness, along with teaching kids how to work out conflicts and stand up for those who are bullied, we can reverse the trend of youth cruelty and set the foundation for a healthy future for all kids.
The time to begin is now.
Naomi Drew
author of No Kidding About Bullying
What Do You Think?
To leave a comment, click on the word “comments” (ignore the number that precedes it). Write your comment in the box, then click on “Select profile . . .” If the top group of options doesn’t apply to you, select “Name/URL” to comment with your name (you can leave the URL part blank), or select “Anonymous.”
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
It's Just Gotten Easier to Comment!
Some of you have let me know that posting comments to my blog has been a little challenging. In order to make commenting easier, we are always going to include directions on how to comment at the bottom of each post. Please let me know if this helps. So, here, for the very first time, are the directions.
By the way, please let us know if there's anything else we can do to make this blog more user-friendly. As always, we love hearing from you and are very interested in what you have to say.
What Do You Think?
To leave a comment, click on the word “comments” (ignore the number that precedes it). Write your comment in the box, then click on “Select profile . . .” If the top group of options doesn’t apply to you, select “Name/URL” to comment with your name (you can leave the URL part blank), or select “Anonymous.”
By the way, please let us know if there's anything else we can do to make this blog more user-friendly. As always, we love hearing from you and are very interested in what you have to say.
What Do You Think?
To leave a comment, click on the word “comments” (ignore the number that precedes it). Write your comment in the box, then click on “Select profile . . .” If the top group of options doesn’t apply to you, select “Name/URL” to comment with your name (you can leave the URL part blank), or select “Anonymous.”
Friday, July 23, 2010
Stopping Bullying
In another must-read piece in the New York Times: "There's Only One Way to Stop a Bully," two Williams College psychology professors say that bullying will end only when schools teach kids "how to be good to one another, how to cooperate, how to defend someone who is being picked on, and how to stand up for what is right." I couldn't agree more! These things need to be taught at home too. We ALL need to be part of the solution.
Regarding schools, though, since the advent of No Child Left Behind, there's been such a push for kids to do well on standardized tests, character education and social skills programs have been largely eliminated. Now, with youth cruelty on the rise, it's more important than ever to teach kids kindness, compassion, and common decency. Also critical is for kids and adults to be upstanders who speak up for kids who are picked on rather than looking the other way.
I'd like to urge all of you to share the Times article with your schools. If they say there's no time to teach anything but the three R's, help them understand that with over 50% of today's kids being bullied, we all need to respond. According to testimony before the American Medical Association, kids who are bullied are more likely to be depressed, lonely, anxious, and think about suicide. We can't afford to lose any more kids to the scourge of bullying, especially when solutions exist. If Johnny can read and write but he's too depressed to get out of bed because he gets bullied every day, what's all the rest worth, really?
We have the power to make things better. Now we need to harness the will to move ahead.
What do you think?
To leave a comment, click on the word “comments” (ignore the number that precedes it).
Write your comment in the box, then click on “Select profile . . .” If the top group of options doesn’t apply to you, select “Name/URL” to comment with your name (you can leave the URL part blank), or select “Anonymous.”
Regarding schools, though, since the advent of No Child Left Behind, there's been such a push for kids to do well on standardized tests, character education and social skills programs have been largely eliminated. Now, with youth cruelty on the rise, it's more important than ever to teach kids kindness, compassion, and common decency. Also critical is for kids and adults to be upstanders who speak up for kids who are picked on rather than looking the other way.
I'd like to urge all of you to share the Times article with your schools. If they say there's no time to teach anything but the three R's, help them understand that with over 50% of today's kids being bullied, we all need to respond. According to testimony before the American Medical Association, kids who are bullied are more likely to be depressed, lonely, anxious, and think about suicide. We can't afford to lose any more kids to the scourge of bullying, especially when solutions exist. If Johnny can read and write but he's too depressed to get out of bed because he gets bullied every day, what's all the rest worth, really?
We have the power to make things better. Now we need to harness the will to move ahead.
What do you think?
To leave a comment, click on the word “comments” (ignore the number that precedes it).
Write your comment in the box, then click on “Select profile . . .” If the top group of options doesn’t apply to you, select “Name/URL” to comment with your name (you can leave the URL part blank), or select “Anonymous.”
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