I am a teacher with over 20 years experience and I am most concerned about the prevalence of schoolyard bullying. Not a week goes by when I don't see incidents of bullying with my own eyes or read about it in the media. It is getting worse not better! I have found that the best thing to do to try and stop bullying is to talk about it and to talk about strategies to try and prevent it happening.

The worst thing a teacher can do however is to talk about it in a "preachy" way because kids just switch off.

I have found a brilliant discussion starter resource. It is a story by a Professor Cecil Thistlethwaite and the story he has written is available online as an e-book and I would like to direct other educators toward this resource as well.

The story talks first of all about having a positive "I will not be easily bullied' attitude and then it models the way the main character handles the different types of bullying characters he meets in his journeys.

I honestly believe that one day this book may rank alongside great motivational type stories such as "The Little Red Engine That Could." The web address if you want to check out what I'm raving about is http://www.eloquentbooks.com/TheAdventuresOfHiramBBat.html

A nearby local authority has introduced 'Assertiveness training' into the school curriculum. It's a secondary school - 12 to 18 years.
Incidence of bullying has dramatically decreased.

Assertiveness is one of the subjects I train so I'm delighted it has been prioritised. As far as I'm concerned assertiveness should be mandatory in schools and in businesses.

Get Curious!

I always make kids talk about their feelings. Sometimes, bullies are bullied at home.

One day when I was in grade 5 I was getting a lot of harrasment from one of my school mates. He was not in a posture to bully me but he was thriving on making fun of me. One night I couldn't sleep well and I just decided I would not contend with such harrasment any longer.

The next day during our morning recess the "kid" began harrassing me in front of other students. I hauled off and punched him hard in the solar pelexius. He went down moaning and groaning. I began to worry that he might just die but he lived. There was never a disrepectful word spoken to me by any of my classmates during the forthcoming years.

One Saturday our football team took a road trip to Memphis to watch a college football game. The horseplay on the bus started about the time the bus driver shifted into second gear. There were no coaches on board and the bus driver was the only adult on the bus. He appeared not to be concerned with any of the good natured abuse that was going on. I was a freshmen but I had no idea there would be a free-for-all going on all the way to Memphis. There was a brown bag in my lap that contained two ham & cheese sandwiches and nothing more. I had to skip breakfast in order to catch the bus so I ate one of my sandwiches for breakfast. The roughhouse horseplay seemed to amuse the oldest of the football players the most. One of our freshmen seemed to be catching most of the trouble but it appeared to me that he was bringing it on himself for the sake of attention. A sophomore named Eddie Haynes was picking on a freshman named Mike Hall. At one point Eddy had taken a plastic tube of Cheez Whiz (soft spread cheese) away from Mike and was squeezing the contents into Mike’s hair. Mike appeared to be too weak or too helpless to prevent it. This seemed to delight Eddie but it was causing Mike to become so distressed that he began crying. It was a classic case of a bully picking on the weakest person on the bus. Eddie was not what one would call a supreme athlete. If the truth were known I could have probably whipped him with one hand tied behind my back.

One of the two senior players who were seated on the backseat of the bus called Mike to the rear. The two seniors told Mike to sneak up to Eddie when he wasn’t looking and then just duke him with a fist as hard as he could punch. Mike insisted that he would suffer a beating from such an attempt but the two seniors assured him they would offer him protection and or sanctuary. (I watched his happen from a very close proximity.) Eddie was now picking on someone else and enjoying it to such extents that he didn’t see Mike sneak up behind him. When Eddie turned his head he didn’t see the punch coming. Mike put all his strength into his punch and struck Eddie in the left jaw. WHAM! The impact caused Eddie's knees to buckle and he was knocked senseless but not unconscious. Everyone in the bus began to hoot or howl or laugh including myself and the bus driver. Eddie couldn’t see straight and he began shaking his head. Mike ran passed me as retreated toward the rear of the bus. The two seniors were horse laughing. When Eddie finally regained his composure it was to the sight and sound of everyone on the school bus pointing and laughing at him. His first question was, “Who hit me?” This brought on another onslaught of laughter but no one would volunteer any information. Eddie stomped toward the back of the bus where Mike was seated beside the two seniors. They warned Eddie that there would be no retaliation on Mike and their word was final.

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