If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Today, our kids face a new form of bullying through the use of social media. Simply search "Facebook bullying" on Google and the horrors of what is happening in cyberspace to kids around the world is instantly revealed.
This is an interview with Dee Marie, MA, CYT who has been practicing yoga therapy in clinical settings since 1986 and instructing classes for students comprised of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities.
It takes a community to prevent bullying in schools, which is expected to affect 13 million children in the U.S. in the current school year.
Recently we published a blog addressing educator reactions to the presence of transgender children in elementary schools. Since then we have received requests for more specific information about our vision for proactive policies and practices. This is a response to those questions.
As kids head back to classrooms this month -- many of them on school buses -- it's time for parents and guardians to step in and step up to their responsibility, and help avert another year of bullying before it has a chance to begin.
I think about what my transgender son must have prepared for as the new school year lay ahead. Was he thinking, "Will I have to endure another year of daily taunts and torments in the hallways at school? Will teachers step in when they hear someone calling me a name or harassing me?"
Part of adolescence is learning how to change. Learning to be who you are and accepting that your exterior doesn't define you. The process matters, and Nadia Ilse missed it. She took a short-cut and her mother approved.
It was a very difficult time in so many ways. Imagine a brother and sister keeping this vital secret at such a young age. Every day we worried that someone might find out and we would have to move again.
When Carrol Grady received a phone call telling her that her organization was being disinvited from having a booth at this week's North American gathering of Seventh-day Adventist teachers, she was shocked and distressed.
My 30th high school reunion is this weekend. And I'm not going. I'm not going to my 30th reunion because I'm not over the bullying. Admitting such a thing, even to myself, is difficult.
Helping children understand in the early years of schooling that there is not just one "right" way to be a boy or a girl will open up opportunities for each child to explore their education more fully.
The homophobia that permeates much of the world doesn't reside in people who want to maim and kill those who prefer same-sex partners; it resides in people who are "uncomfortable" with notions of sexual diversity. These are the folks whose hearts and minds we need to target.
Parents send their children to school to learn and they expect them to be safe. All parents have those expectations, and it is our job as public school educators to make sure that happens.
Teachers, you can help us -- and we desperately need you to. It isn't hard: open your eyes, pay attention when students are using antagonistic speech and report them.
The unfortunate truth is that bullying is a cornerstone of human nature. Whether it's a product of evolution, genetics or society is beyond me to say, but its prevalence suggests that there is a bully in all of us.
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