Yellow Ribbon Week - Good Intentions, Bad Idea for Schools
"How in the world can a Bully Prevention Week be a bad idea!?"
Don't make the same mistake that thousands of schools around the country are making.
For those of you that don't know, Yellow Ribbon Week (otherwise known as the week of non-violence) is a specific week in the year that schools choose to teach Bully Awareness and Anti-Bullying. It usually falls around Martin Luther King Day and is celebrated with all sorts of student activities pointed at reducing bullying.
On the surface this sounds like a great idea. And I think that it was probably created with good intentions. Educate students on how to stop bullying. Promote tolerance and kindness. Sounds terrific!
But here's the problem. Many schools ONLY commit to a bully prevention program for Yellow Ribbon Week. Then, after all the hoopla, they go back to doing the same old thing with the same old policies and nothing REALLY changes. Students treat each other just the way they did before. Teachers ONLY concentrate on reading, writing and arithmetic and everything goes back to the way it was.
Although Yellow Ribbon Week may be a great springboard for introducing new Bully Prevention Policies, Bully prevention and bully awareness should be an activity every day of the year. Students should be constantly reminded about being kind, working together, cooperating, and tolerance for people who are different from themselves.
The solution is not "one week out the year" to work together. There are many solutions all yearlong. Here are a few:
- Daily Announcements Encouraging Kindness (only takes a few seconds out of each day)
- Changing Assigned Reading to books that encourage bully awareness
- Posters throughout the school as a reminder of bully prevention policy
- Have all students recite a Bully Free Pledge every morning
- Constant POSITIVE reinforcement from principal and teachers
- Have students wear Bully Prevention t-shirts one day each week
- Share the school's Bully Prevention Policy with parents and teachers
- Have outside Anti Bullying assembly speakers for the parents, teachers and students
These are just a few. Be creative. Make it fun. The more fun students have being kind to each other, the more they'll respond.
Make Bully Prevention and Bully Awareness an activity every single school day, not just one week out of the year. You're students will thank you and it will make being in school a much more pleasant experience for all involved.
Don't make the same mistake that thousands of schools around the country are making.
For those of you that don't know, Yellow Ribbon Week (otherwise known as the week of non-violence) is a specific week in the year that schools choose to teach Bully Awareness and Anti-Bullying. It usually falls around Martin Luther King Day and is celebrated with all sorts of student activities pointed at reducing bullying.
On the surface this sounds like a great idea. And I think that it was probably created with good intentions. Educate students on how to stop bullying. Promote tolerance and kindness. Sounds terrific!
But here's the problem. Many schools ONLY commit to a bully prevention program for Yellow Ribbon Week. Then, after all the hoopla, they go back to doing the same old thing with the same old policies and nothing REALLY changes. Students treat each other just the way they did before. Teachers ONLY concentrate on reading, writing and arithmetic and everything goes back to the way it was.
Although Yellow Ribbon Week may be a great springboard for introducing new Bully Prevention Policies, Bully prevention and bully awareness should be an activity every day of the year. Students should be constantly reminded about being kind, working together, cooperating, and tolerance for people who are different from themselves.
The solution is not "one week out the year" to work together. There are many solutions all yearlong. Here are a few:
- Daily Announcements Encouraging Kindness (only takes a few seconds out of each day)
- Changing Assigned Reading to books that encourage bully awareness
- Posters throughout the school as a reminder of bully prevention policy
- Have all students recite a Bully Free Pledge every morning
- Constant POSITIVE reinforcement from principal and teachers
- Have students wear Bully Prevention t-shirts one day each week
- Share the school's Bully Prevention Policy with parents and teachers
- Have outside Anti Bullying assembly speakers for the parents, teachers and students
These are just a few. Be creative. Make it fun. The more fun students have being kind to each other, the more they'll respond.
Make Bully Prevention and Bully Awareness an activity every single school day, not just one week out of the year. You're students will thank you and it will make being in school a much more pleasant experience for all involved.
John Abrams
http://www.CaliforniaBullyAssemblies.com
Southern California's Top School Assembly Performer
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_J_Abrams
http://www.CaliforniaBullyAssemblies.com
Southern California's Top School Assembly Performer
Comments
Post a Comment
thank you