Hats off to the Obamas for drawing national attention to the problem of bullying in our school communities. Hosting a conference at the White House to draw more media attention to bullying is an excellent step forward.
Like most symbolic White House gatherings, though, this conference recommended some good steps forward but also carefully avoided some important strategies that need to be put in place if we are ever going to truly stop bullying.
Here's my report card on what I heard on the live feed from the White House Thursday.
Raising the level of public awareness about the importance of addressing bullying in schools:
A+
"Bullying is not just a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up," the president said. "We can take steps -- all of us -- to help prevent bullying and create a climate in our schools in which all of our children can feel safe; a climate in which they all can feel like they belong."
I couldn't agree with him more.
Drawing attention to the fact that bias issues underlie many bullying incidents.
B
The president deserves credit for acknowledging that many students are targeted because of some aspect of their identity. "[Bullying] is also more likely to affect kids that are seen as different," the President said, "whether it's because of the color of their skin, the clothes they wear, the disability they may have, or sexual orientation."
He acknowledged the families of two youths who committed suicide last year, one of them, Carl Walker Hoover, because of being tormented by homophobic harassment.
But he failed to explain that bias-infused harassment affects all youth, not just those who have are seen as "different." Anti-LGBT stigma and the pressure to conform to gender norms, for example, affects all girls and boys regardless of how they may identify sexually at any point in their lives.
Calling for system wide efforts for curricula that address rampant anti-LGBT stigma, racial and ethnic stereotypes, mental and physical disabilities, religious differences, and pressures to conform to gender norms.
C
Acknowledging the families of those who endured bias-based harassment is not the same as calling for pro-active education that prevents that bias from developing in the first place. It is definitely possible to pull school communities together to take initiative against bias. I know we can because we have been helping to do that for years with GroundSpark's Respect for All Project.
Shifting the focus from individual responses to bullying to communitywide culture-changing ones.
B-
The selection of experts on the panel that spoke after Mr. and Mrs. Obama were focused primarily on psychological and behavioral factors, which, of course, contribute to bullying. But only one, Professor George Sugai, encouraged the discussion to focus on sociological factors, namely changing the culture in schools.
Advocating for funding and programs that train every teacher on how to address bullying and the bias that underlies it.
C
One speaker mentioned that we need more teacher training. While another commented on the fact that while 40 states have anti-cyber bullying laws, none of them have provided funding to enforce them. Lack of training for individual teachers and for school staff as a whole is probably the single most significant stumbling block to changing school culture.
Moving from rhetoric to action
B
The White House announced several programs that Facebook, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, and others are launching to step up ways to address bullying.
And kudos are deserved for the federal government's launch of www.stopbullying.gov, which amazingly includes a section for LGBT youth. But the website has no resources to help schools and educators address bias issues, or to help train teachers or to help with a systematic approach to change school climate.
Overall Grade Point Average
B
Areas for Improvement
1.Tie federal funding for education to mandatory anti-bias and anti-bullying training for school personnel that focuses on school wide culture change, not just stronger discipline.
2.Bravely call for more pro-active curricula that help students learn about why all kinds of stigma, including homophobia, are harmful to everyone and how they can be allies to stop it.
Mr. President, you made significant progress during this grading period, and we hope you can realize your full potential in the semesters to come.