Bullying rears its ugly head again - 06 August 2012
I've watched keenly the re-emergence of bullying onto our national agenda this week as the new US documentary "Bully" gains traction ahead of its pending cinema release.
The Sunrise program have long championed the eradication of bullying in our schools and the documentary clearly had an impact on presenter, Melissa Doyle. Still, I found a little irony in this story following that of another on whether we need to blame education/schools for the sub-par performance of our Olympians - apparently we need to squeeze more sport into our schools now too to prevent this national shame. Hmm.
Anyway, the great part about "Bully" is the highlighting of the genuine damage done to our young people and the strong hint that effective solutions come from the bottom up. No longer can or should we rely on politicians to solve this problem with populist policy. We need to mobilise our students, teachers and families in a united way.
And this isn't because we fear only for the victims. The hardline and stigmatising tactics we currently condone are not only failing, they are raising a generation of selfish, disenfranchised and disconnected adults - who are also having kids. The cycle continues.
I'm running a seminar in Darwin this Thursday afternoon on Bullying and I urge all locals to come along and learn about just how you can mobilise your school community behind a bullying free vision. You can find out more and register by clicking here.
And below you can view the trailer for "Bully". I think it could well be worth a trip to the cinema.
I've watched keenly the re-emergence of bullying onto our national agenda this week as the new US documentary "Bully" gains traction ahead of its pending cinema release.