No Name-Calling Week: A Family Dinner Table Talk

This week's Family Dinner Table Talk, from HuffPost and The Family Dinner book:

To whoever first started chanting, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me" -- it's catchy and empowering, yes, but very often, not true. Words hurt feelings. A lot. And yet, it happens often at school. The problem has become so common that this week was No Name-Calling Week, a time to make kids more aware and compassionate.

Book publisher Simon & Schuster and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) came up with the idea to have a whole week against name-calling. They were inspired by the "The Misfits," a book about four friends in the seventh grade who start a No-Name Party during school council elections. (Spoiler Alert: They go on to win the election and get support from the principal to start a "No Name-Calling Day" at their school.)

No Name-Calling Week's website includes ways to get your friends and teachers involved, like making anti-bullying posters to decorate classrooms or performing a play to address issues around name-calling at a school assembly. Specific lesson plans for elementary, middle, and high school levels are free to download and all the materials you'll need to launch a No Name-Calling Week at your school (not just this week, but any time of year) are there too. Author Signe Whitson also lists a few books that open up a conversation about childhood bullying and how to handle those scary situations. Because words can hurt but also heal -- and talking about their power to do both is a good place to start.

Questions for discussion:

• Have you ever been called a name you didn't like? How did that make you feel?
• Why do people call each other names when they know it could be hurtful?
• What are some ways that we can all help stop name-calling in schools and anywhere else?
• What can you do when you hear someone being called a bad name?

This Week's Recipe:
Each week, we give you something to talk about at dinner time, and now, something to eat too! Tonight's recipe comes to us from The Naptime Chef: Sweet & Spicy Mango Grilled Chicken.

****** In her new cookbook, The Family Dinner, Laurie David talks about the importance of families making a ritual of sitting down to dinner together, and how family dinners offer a great opportunity for meaningful discussions about the day's news. "Dinner," she says, "is as much about digestible conversation as it is about delicious food."

We couldn't agree more. So HuffPost has joined with Laurie and every Friday afternoon, just in time for dinner, our editors highlight one of the most compelling news stories of the week -- stories that will spark a lively discussion among the whole family.

Click here to see last week's Family Dinner Download

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For more tips and recipes, check out The Family Dinner: Great Ways to Connect with Your Kids, One Meal at a Time by Laurie David and Kirstin Uhrenholdt (thefamilydinnerbook.com).

Comments

[CASAFamilyDay]

05:25 PM on 01/31/2012

We agree, talking with kids openly is the only way to gain insight on how they are feeling in tough situations. There are many times to do this – on the way to school, on the weekends, before bed or around the dinner table any day of the week. The routine of frequent family dinners can create a safe place where kids are comfortable enough to share the highlights of their day, and also the problems they may be having. Keeping the lines of communication open is key. For conversation starters to use around the dinner table visit www.CASAFamilyDay.org.

[Jan Baer]

07:53 PM on 01/29/2012

My granddaughter was hounded, chased, and threatened by 4 girls because she wore a necklace with a stone the color of one of the gangs at high school. She managed to get home and inside the door before they reached her. She stayed home from school, and the school wouldn't discuss what their actions would be. The next day the girls were at school and were saying they were going to find her sister in the grade behind and get her. Both girls had to find a new school--the family had to move. (This was in northern CA.)
Also, a girlfriend of theirs was in a relationship with another girl at a nearby high school, and the staff, teachers, and students taunted them. One of the mothers went to the school, but the girls were afraid to complain or take steps to stop it because one of the girls had another year there. Both of these situations are intolerable. Kids appear to feel free to go after anyone they don't like, and the parents and schools need to deal positively and decisively with it. It can't all be on the child who is shy or who is gay or who is overweight, or however they aren't in conformity with the bullies of the school. There are ways to establish a school climate that creates respectful behavior on the part of the students. Thank you GLSEN for No Name Calling Week. www.grandparentoptions.com

[Angelmagik2]

06:51 AM on 01/28/2012

Desensitising is the answer learn to accept your imperfections as normal and learn how to accept teasing for what it is. One of my son's teachers encouraged all the the kids to have a tease name and he and is friends are really relaxed about it now. Once the worst is said and acknowledged it can't get any worse. So what you may be fat, wear glasses, have pointy ears etc but that's who you are. Learn to Love yourself and if others don't. That's their problem and you know how to identify their imperfections as teasing is normalised.

[DietRite]

12:34 AM on 01/28/2012

OK, this school bullying prevention stuff has gotten completely out of hand. As an adult, you get bullied every day. You need to learn to deal with it. Obviously, I'm not referring to the extreme situations. I was shooting a commercial in a school last month, and there were 50 million bullying posters...it was ridiculous. I asked the principal, "Is this really a problem?" She said, "Just the average, nothing extreme, but the school district is requiring that one of these posters be on almost every single wall." In addition, every surface was also covered with cloying, gooey banners touting phrases that even the most concerned parent, would find ridiculous.

Just wait till these kids enter the job market.

[Dheffernan]

01:13 AM on 01/28/2012

Peoplewant to protect kids from all the bad stuff, we are raising a generation of helpless kids who are going to have a tough transition into adulthood. There needs to be a middle ground.

[Jan Baer]

08:21 PM on 01/29/2012

Too many kids are dropping out of school to get away from bullying, and some are killing themselves. That's not really ok. It is true that each of us has to "toughen up" if we're going to survive in this competitive society, but that is more difficult for some, and also takes longer for some. When adults ignore bullying in their classroom, and many do, that's not ok, either.