In this hour, we explore Bullying. Beat up during recess? Teased on the school bus? New research shows bullying has serious consequences for children on both sides of the problem. Guests include Dr. Howard Spivak, the director of the Tufts University Center for Children and the chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Task Force on Violence; Dr. Susan Limber, a developmental psychologist and a researcher at the Clemson University Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life in South Carolina; John Scagliotti, the award-winning director of Oliver Button is a Star - a new film that deals with building acceptance for kids who don't fit boy/girl stereotypes; and Dr. Gary Namie, a social psychologist who, with his wife Ruth Namie, co-founded The Workplace Bullying & Trauma Institute in Bellingham, WA and co-wrote The Bully at Work: What You Can Do to Stop the Hurt and Reclaim Your Dignity On the Job.
Host Dr. Fred Goodwin begins with an essay in which he says he recently attended the 50th reunion of his grade school class, and was surprised to see that one of the school's two or three bullies had shown up. Not only that, he is now sophisticated, professional man - a lawyer. Then he found out that another kid who was a bully had been in and out of prison much of his adult life. No one seem to know what eventually became of him. Dr. Goodwin says that the very different 50-year trajectories of these two eighth-grade bullies tells us something important about the school bullies we all remember. Bullies often meet criteria for conduct disorder - a condition associated with aggressive and antisocial behavior, as well as school failure. But like most behavioral disorders, this diagnosis covers a spectrum. At the far end are kids as young as age four or five who chronically engage in cruel and defiant behavior -- torturing animals, beating up smaller kids, and the like. Kids with early-onset conduct disorder usually grow up to be antisocial adults -- repeat criminal offenders, and, often, violent ones at that. At the other end of the spectrum are kids who are okay as youngsters, but go through a period of impulsive, aggressive and reckless "acting out" during adolescence. Most of them grow up to be fine -- often they excel at careers where aggressiveness, properly channeled and controlled, can be an asset.
Chances are we can all recall memories of school yard bullying -- some may laugh about it now, others may still feel angry or hurt. Maybe some of the bullies finally feel remorse. But remember what it felt like THEN? Next, we turn to someone whose wounds are still fresh - high-school senior Isabella Eisner of Belmont, California. She says that kids started bullying her in the fifth grade, when she began to develop a bigger nose and bushy eyebrows. Classmates called her things like Pinocchio, Gonzo, and Big Bird, and also ridiculed her Jewishness. She says it was particularly difficult because her mom had just been diagnosed with breast cancer, and she had nowhere to turn. The bullies took advantage even of this; they taunted her by saying she had cancer and was a freak. Isabella says she started to feel so ugly that she believed no one would ever like her or want to go out with her. She became very depressed and even thought about killing herself. In high school, she ditched school because of the bullying, and she began to fail classes, even though now she gets straight "As." More recently, though, she says, she's become a lot stronger. She feels she's grown into her features a bit, and she has a boyfriend who tells her she's beautiful. She no longer cares so much what other people say.
Then, Dr. Goodwin interviews Dr. Howard Spivak, the director of the Tufts University Center for Children and the chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Task Force on Violence, and Dr. Susan Limber, a developmental psychologist and a researcher at the Clemson University Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life in South Carolina. She's been working to implement an anti-bullying program in U.S. schools that has been very successful in Europe.
Dr. Spivak begins by explaining that it's important not to dismiss bullying as a normal part of childhood -- we know now that there are serious short and long-term consequences for both the bullies and the bullied. Bullying behavior should be viewed as a red flag that something is wrong. Dr. Goodwin asks where we should draw the line between teasing or horsing around and bullying. Dr. Spivak answers that it's a matter of degree and frequency. There is a big difference between horsing around and being verbally or physically abusive.
Dr. Limber says that the problem is widespread. According to a study published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 17 percent of children in 6th -10th grades said they were bullied with some frequency, and 19 percent said they bullied with some frequency. 6 percent had both bullied and been bullied, and she said there is reason to be particularly concerned about these kids. She adds that although both boys and girls bully, boys are more likely to use physical aggression and girls are more likely to use social isolation. In any bullying situation, the key is an imbalance in power or strength.
Dr. Spivak then discusses the consequences of bullying. Bullies often have poor school performance, increased risk of fighting, and increased risk of weapon-carrying. Kids who are victims of bullying are at risk for depression, low self-esteem, and social isolation. Dr. Limber adds that those who are both bullies and bullied may be at the greatest risk. They often demonstrate the problems suffered by both groups, and some research indicates these may be the kids who are most likely to be involved in extreme violent behavior, such as school shootings.
They then discuss what schools can do to prevent bullying. Dr. Spivak says the most successful bullying-prevention programs create a shift in the values of the school with respect to how kids treat each other. They focus on respectfulness and interpersonal relationships, since much bullying happens in the context of a value system among peer groups in which bullying is accepted behavior. Dr. Limber works with U.S. schools to implement one such comprehensive program, called the Olweus Bullying Prevention program, which comes from Norway. The program includes schoolwide interventions -- surveying the kids, implementing school-wide rules, having a program kickoff to raise awareness -- and classroom interventions -- setting aside time each week to talk about bullying. It also involves effectively intervening not only with kids who bully and are bullied, but also with the bystanders, to encourage them to be good friends and report problem behavior.
Finally, they discuss the causes of bullying behavior. Dr. Spivak says it has two sources - temperament and environment. Kids behave in the way that they see others behave -- whether it's healthy conflict resolution or aggression and power-plays. The primary place kids learn behavior is in the home.
To contact Dr. Spivak, please write to: Dr. Howard Spivak, Director, Tufts University Center for Children, 750 Washington St., Box 351, Boston, MA 02111. Or visit http://www.tucc.tufts.edu/.
To contact Dr. Limber, please write to: Dr. Susan Limber, Institute on Family & Neighborhood Life, Clemson University, 158 Poole Agricultural Center, Clemson, SC 29634. Or visit http://www.clemson.edu/.
Next, reporter Gabriel Spitzer takes a closer look at how one a bullying prevention program actually works inside a school. One popular is based around a country song called "Don't Laugh at Me," and the organizers have now sent out more than 60,000 copies of the curriculum and trained about 18,000 educators through workshops. As Spitzer reports, Fair Oaks Elementary in Pleasant Hill, California, "Don't Laugh at Me" has become the cornerstone of a school wide effort to prevent bullying. Educators use everything from art class to recess to try to create an environment where kids have nothing to fear from their classmates.
To learn more about the Don't Laugh at me program, please visit http://www.dontlaugh.org/.
After a short break, The Infinite Mind's Marit Haahr interviews John Scagliotti the award-winning director of Oliver Button is a Star - a new film that deals with building acceptance for kids who don't fit boy/girl stereotypes. Mr. Scagliotti has won two Emmy awards for the film Before Stonewall and a Golden Eagle award for After Stonewall. He's also the creator of In the Life, the first gay and lesbian national series on PBS.
Oliver Button is a Star is based on Tomie dePaola's classic children's book Oliver Button is a Sissy. The hour-long film seamlessly interweaves a variety of elements -- a reading of the story by a first-grade teacher to her class, a musical performance of the story by The Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus, and childhood memories of feeling "different" recalled by the author, dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones, arctic explorer Ann Bancroft - no relation to the actress, and celebrity makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin, who recently passed away. Mr. Scagliotti says he made the film because bullying and being called a sissy or a tomboy are universal experiences, and yet, for kids on the receiving end of the bullying, they can leave deep scars.
He says the story of Oliver Button is a simple one -- it's about a boy who doesn't like sports but loves tap-dancing. He's teased and bullied and called a sissy. In the end, he enters a talent competition, and although he doesn't win, his talent is recognized, and he is indeed a star.
Mr. Scagliotti says teachers and schools are often afraid to deal with issues of gender, sexual identity, and homosexuality. To try to open up dialogue around these issues and the pain caused by hate speech, he and the other people behind Oliver Button created a study guide to be used in schools. Like the film, it deals with issues of tolerance and difference without discussing homosexuality, per se. Scagliotti says that for children who are gay, being bullied and called a sissy can have serious long-term consequences -- they can start to repress their feelings and internalize the hatred. This can lead to self-destructive behavior, including drug use and, in some cases, suicide.
Scagliotti concludes by saying he made the film because he wanted to show that things like tap dancing and the arts -- things that when done by little boys are often considered "sissy" -- can be wonderful, positive things for society.
Oliver Button is a Star can be seen at film festivals around the country and on local PBS stations. To contact John Scagliotti or learn more about the film, please visit http://www.oliverbuttonisastar.com/.
Bullying doesn't magically end once our school years are over. According to a study conducted by Wayne State University in Michigan, one out of six Americans will experience workplace bullying in a given year. To discuss workplace bullying, Dr. Goodwin interviews Rebecca Faulkner, a museum curator in New York, who shares her personal experiences of being bullied at work, and Dr. Gary Namie, a social psychologist who, with his wife Ruth Namie, co-founded The Workplace Bullying & Trauma Institute in Bellingham, Washington. He and his wife are also the authors of The Bully at Work: What You Can Do to Stop the Hurt and Reclaim Your Dignity On the Job.
Ms. Faulkner begins by describing the boss who bullied her when she worked for a small film production company. The boss would call Ms. Faulkner into her office and point out a small error in a document. Her criticism would quickly escalate until she was calling Ms. Faulkner stupid and uneducated; she frequently said she couldn't believe Ms. Faulkner had a graduate degree. The boss would then begin really shouting, and it wouldn't stop until Ms. Faulkner broke down into tears. Ultimately this happened at least once each week. Although Ms. Faulkner knew she was qualified for the job, she began to wonder if she really was stupid or inept.
Dr. Namie says Ms. Faulkner's story is typical. A woman attacking another woman now accounts for the statistical majority of workplace bullying behavior. In most cases, someone is new to the relationship -- whether it's the supervisor (and in 72% of cases, the supervisor is the bully) or the employee.
Dr. Namie says he defines workplace bullying with a high standard of harm, so that critics cannot dismiss it as merely teasing or an extension of managerial prerogative. He draws the line when one person's need to abuse interferes with work and harms another's health. Ms. Faulkner says she did, in fact, suffer from depression after she left the job, and it took her three months before she felt ready to reenter the workforce. Dr. Namie says anxiety, loss of concentration, and depression are common health consequences.
Dr. Namie then offers advice for the targets of workplace bullying. First, name it, so that you externalize the problem and stop the downward spiral into self-blame. Second, take time off (using vacation or disability) to look for legal solutions and gain the emotional distance to be ready for step three. And third, expose the bully. Go to the highest level in the organization and make what he calls a "business case" -- focus not on the harm the bully caused you but rather on his or her effect on the company's bottom line (high turnover, workers' loss of concentration, increased error rates, etc.). If, at that point, the company cannot protect you, then it is probably best to leave. But, he says, people who leave under these circumstances have their pride intact, and they are much more likely to recover quickly than people who leave in shame.
To contact, Dr. Namie, please write to: Dr. Gary Namie, The Workplace Bullying & Trauma Institute, PO Box 29915, Bellingham, WA 98228. Or visit http://www.bullyinginstitute.org/.
To order The Bully at Work: What You Can Do to Stop the Hurt and Reclaim Your Dignity On the Job, click here.
Finally, we hear from commentator John Hockenberry, who recalls his place in the school yard hierarchy: "I was bully food. I was bully lunch meat. I was the puddle the bully stomped his foot into and splashed the crowd of people waiting at the bus stop. It was what the bully scraped off his shoe."
Additional Resources:
http://www.nmha.org/whatdoesgaymean
- Marit Haahr
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