Bullying: Be part of the solution

A few months ago, one of the teachers with whom I communicate sent this to me, and I forwarded it all the parents and teachers on my "friends" list. Since then I've heard back from at least a dozen teachers telling me that they tried it in their classrooms with remarkable success. Two other teachers wrote to tell me that it has been adopted as standard practice by their respective schools. We all know teachers--or are teachers. If you shared this, perhaps we can make a difference.

A teacher in New York was teaching her class about bullying and gave them the following exercise to perform. She had the children take a piece of paper and told them to crumple it up, stomp on it and really mess it up, but do not rip it. Then she had them unfold the paper, smooth it out and look at how scarred and dirty it was. She then told them to tell it they’re sorry. But, even though they said they were sorry and tried to fix the paper, she pointed out all the scars they left behind. And that those scars will never go away no matter how hard they tried to fix it. That's what happens when a child bullies another child, they may say they’re sorry but the scars are there forever. The looks on the faces of the children in the classroom told her the message hit home.