BULLYING IN OUR SCHOOLS

Is there really any wonder why bullying is so pervasive in our schools? Can we honestly expect our children to recognize the dignity and value of their fellow students when the grown-ups they see on a daily basis are failing to value fellow citizens who possess differing viewpoints?

Children are malleable in their social development and very often exhibit in their behavior the kinds of attitudes they observe at home. When diversity of thought and tolerance of others is openly valued and practiced in a child's home environment, those same values are transported to a child's school. Similarly, when bullying, intolerance, dehumanization and narrowness of thought are displayed in a child's home environment, children living in those homes carry those attitudes to school too.

In today's American society political extremism has grown immensely and intolerance of opposing ideas has reached new heights. Diversity is considered an ugly word. Political opponents are vilified, dehumanized and equated with the purest of evil. Fellow citizens with different political ideas are labeled the enemy and calls for their annihilation fill our airways. We can call such actions political sport, but in the end, all it really amounts to is bullying on a far grander scale than what happens in our schools.

Given that grown-up bullying is so rampant in our society, it really shouldn't come as any surprise that bullying in our schools is rampant too. After all, children usually mimic the habits and attitudes we adults teach them.