Bullying and Effective Character Education

           

Bullying and Effective Character Education
by:  Tammy Luce
EDU 6989  Professional Issues            

 

            Bullying has become a national epidemic.  Every day we see examples of this in our schools and throughout our communities.  All one needs to do is pick up a newspaper, or turn on the news to find yet another example of this.  And the stakes seem to be getting higher.  Within the last year there have been several children across our nation who have killed themselves because they were victims of bullying and they believed they had no hope.  How does that happen in this day and age?   Aren’t we supposed to be more socially enlightened than ever before?  Isn’t technology supposed to make us more connected, efficient, and capable of handling everything?   Or is it possible that it’s doing just the opposite?

            In the book Please Stop Laughing at Me, Jodee Blanco chronicles her very personal story of bullying and victimization through middle school and high school.  She writes “I know cruelty is currency in high school.  It can buy power and popularity.  My former classmates sense my desperation and amuse themselves by taking advantage of it.  They need me.  They’re just as scared as I am about making friends.  They have to prove to the in-crowd they’ve got what it takes.  I’m their best hope.  All they have to do is make everyone see me as the outcast.  Then they can say to the popular group, ‘We have a mutual interest.  None of us likes Jodee.’   It confirms their social status.” ( Blanco, J., 2003, p. 138).   Thousands of students across the country face this same behavior in our schools everyday.  And the truth is through technology, there is now a new technique available, cyber-bullying. Perhaps it’s time we do something about this.

             Character education within our schools may be a great starting point.  Although there are some people who believe it’s not the schools job to develop the character of our children and are very critical of these type of programs, I suggest, they are wrong.  According to our text, Taking Sides, “Character education holds that widely shared, pivotally important, core ethical values – such as caring, honesty, fairness, responsibility, and respect for self and others – form the basis of good character.” (Evans, D., 2008, p. 337).  In many homes today, children are not taught these values and subsequently don’t exhibit them to others at school.  Caring, honesty and respect are replaced with apathy, lying and hatred, which easily translate to bullying.  How many more children need to die, before we begin to take character education seriously.  The problem now exists.  Knowing this, if we do nothing, we’re adding to the problem.  But, there is another way, we can start implementing new programs that teach our kids old fashioned citizenship values.   It just might work.

Blanco, J., (2003).  Please Stop Laughing at Me.  Avon, MA:  Adams Media. 

Evans, D., (2008).  Taking Sides.  New York, NY:  McGraw Hill.