Posted on

6 Dangerous Trends: Bullying: What is Bullying?

Bullying Prevention Begins with Knowledge About Bullying

bully prevention starts with knowledge of bullying behaviorBullying is a relationship issue where power and aggression are used to affect another person.  The bullying behavior is done intentionally and is repeated over time.  This behavior is not a one time event that can be seen as a usual type of conflict between individuals.  The person who is the aggressor develops power over the person who is the target, and as time goes on if left unchecked, the target loses power while the aggressor gains power.  The target of this behavior can become increasingly powerless to stand up for themselves.

Bullying others may give some a sense of power over their target and a feeling of importance that they may be having a difficult or perceived difficult time obtaining with more positive social behaviors.

Bullying is not a problem that only children have to deal with.  Nor is it one that is limited to boys being the perpetrator.  While bullying behavior seems to peak in middle school, it begins as early as second grade.  Teachers and parents may even be able to see signs of bullying tendency in children as young as preschool aged children.  Do not mistake though that the behavior that affords dominance and social status stops when children leave school.  This behavior may continue well into adulthood and statistics show that 60 % of children who practice bullying behavior will have criminal convictions by the age of 24.

What is your knowledge of bullying?  Take a quiz and see how many myths about bullying you hold?     What Is Your Knowledge About Bullying Quiz

Posted on

Life Skills: Respect For Teachers

Learning From and Showing Respect For Our Teachers

In our lives we will have quite a few teachers.  They will come to us as older, younger and our age.  They will come as good, bad and indifferent influences.  Even with that in mind, everyone of them will influence our life experiences.  Some of them will be in front of a classroom, while others we will read their teachings or experiences.  Some of them will be in the flesh, others will be in the media or the internet.  Some will be there when we least expected them and others will show up, shall we say unwanted (though needed).

Some of them will have virtually no impact on us.  We will get through their classes or be taught a skill by them and after our test we will be done with them.  Others we will be reminded of from time to time when their subject comes up in our lives.  Still others will be on our shoulder constantly reminding us of something that was important to them and more probably, important to both of us.  We may not have even known it was important to us until they made us aware.

When we are young and still in school we can show respect for our teachers by Continue reading “Life Skills: Respect For Teachers”

Posted on

Life Skills: Teaching Respect – What If We Treated The Earth The Way We Treat Our Friends?

What would the world look like if nobody showed respect for each other in the community?  Respect is “being treated in a way that demonstrates empathy for how we might feel in the same situation”.  I recently heard a quote that paraphrased said, it was easier to condemn another than it is to understand them.  Empathy and respect are so interrelated in our day to day life and also in the way we treat the environment.  Are we trying to understand our place here on this planet in relation to fellow humans and our home the Earth?

In our community we demonstrate empathy with a smile to those around us. Don’t all of us appreciate a kind word and a smile from another?  We clean up our trash or mess so that others can enjoy the area at a park.  Do we not appreciate an area we are about to use being clean and neat?   We speak kindly to those that are serving our needs at a restaurant, doctors office, grocery store.  Would we not appreciate the patience of others while we are serving their needs?  What would it look like if no one smiled at each other, if they left a mess for others to deal with, if they were noisy at the library or while we were working, if they bumped into us as we walked down the street and then gruffly dismissed us?   Our world would certainly not be a pleasant place to be.

Now the question is, What will our earth look like if we do not reduce what we are taking from it, reduce the amount of “messes” we leave for it?  What will our environment be like if we do not show respect for our home Earth?  Will there be beautiful and usable beaches and forests, mountains and animals for our children in the future? Continue reading “Life Skills: Teaching Respect – What If We Treated The Earth The Way We Treat Our Friends?”

Posted on

Andrew R. leads classmates in support of troups

For my community service project my Kindergarten class and I each wrote a letter to a soldier thanking them for their service to our country. On the opposite side of the page we used small pieces of white and red construction paper and some stars to create an American flag.

My mom is going to send all of our letters to an organization called  www.amillionthanks.org and from there they will be distributed to an American soldier.

I had the idea to do this after learning in school about Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day all the things that the military does for us to keep our country safe.

Posted on

Life Skills: 5 Lessons in Teaching Children Respect of Their Body and Mind

We must use the word RESPECT when we are teaching our children anything that is important for them to learn to do on a regular basis.  Respect for their body and mind can start at a very early age as we begin to teach them their own life.  We show respect for our bodies first and foremost by what we put into it.

Lesson #1: We show respect for our body by knowing about the nourishment we put in our bodies.  What kind of food are we delivering to our body?  Should it not be fruits and vegetables, water, maybe some milk or juice, some forms of protein.  We can help them to understand how to use the local farmers and the benefit of doing so.

Lesson #2: Getting a good nights sleep also shows respect for our bodies.  Children who are 5 and 6 years old need up to 12 hours a sleep per day.  Children 7 – 12 years old need 11 hours per day and 12 – 18 year olds need 9 hours per day.  Getting the correct amount of sleep shows respect for our bodies. Continue reading “Life Skills: 5 Lessons in Teaching Children Respect of Their Body and Mind”

Posted on

Life Skills: Teaching Children Respect – By Role Modeling Our Expectations, Not Creating More Rules

Showing respect for others is more than just knowing the “nice” words to say at the right time.  It is also about recognizing the right thing to do at the right time.  One of the teachings we have in our classes is “You do the right thing because it is the right thing to do.”  Now while we teach that so that the students learn that doing the right thing is not just about ‘not getting in trouble’, it is also about showing respect to others.

Following the rules of the society you are in, is about respect.  Unfortunately our litigious society has so many rules and laws in place – when in reality we can establish some good guidelines in our schools (or classroom), homes and communities that would really be better for teaching respect.  What we are really looking to teach is that everyone has the right to be safe and have fairness applied to them.

How do we teach that to children? Continue reading “Life Skills: Teaching Children Respect – By Role Modeling Our Expectations, Not Creating More Rules”