I am sure this is a topic that is covered fairly often in English classes, but here goes… Skip the survey, but read the article as well as some of the comments on the bottom. The findings of the study indicate that bullying is more prevalent than was previously thought, especially among high-school students, and not only younger pupils. Do you think bullying is a problem in Slovakia? What forms does it take here? I am guessing that it is less common than it is in the US, but if so, why? What should be done about it? Is all of the guilt on the bully's side, or can the "victim" sometimes be partially to blame? Can violence, or the threat of violence, be a solution in some cases, as certain of the comments indicate? Finally, one of my students gave a presentation last year about how Slovak kids in British schools are now getting the reputation of being violent bullies towards their British peers. Is this surprising to you?
Mária Dudáková III.IBDA
ReplyDeleteBullying has always been a global problem and this fact is not likely to change. Although bullying seems to be much more worse in the USA than in Slovakia (of course we can’t exactly know this because we can only suppose it’s true from the media and the surveys that have been shown to us), it’s always caused by some of the following. The bully is compensating for something by beating on weaker kids, or by making fun of them. The bully had been raised in a wrong accomodation, in which case the parents are responsible for his/her behaviour. The bully might simply be an evil person regardless of the previously mentioned things.
Of course as it was mentioned in one of the comments in the article, there is physical and there is psychical bullying. Each of them is as bas as one another allthough a lot of people claim that psychical bullying (such as calling names and making fun of someone) is not bullying at all. They think it’s just fun and don’t consider the victims hurt feelings. To make matters worse this can sometimes break out into serious psychical disorders (on the victims side) and there were even a few records of a suicide.
In my opinion bullying can be found everywhere in the world, even in Slovakia. Despite a few minor problems in grade school I had there is not much to speak of as far as my personal experience goes. Of course it is important to note that the school I’m currently attending (GJH, previously Košická) is one of the best in Slovakia and therefore the social group of students attending here are fairly different in many ways from the ones in ordinary schools. So it may very well be true that I’ve been sort of lucky and that bullying is really strong even in our country.
I guess that statistics are not shocking just for me. Though, when“U.S. high schoolers say they have bullied or teased someone at least once in the past year, and nearly half say they have been bullied in that time,...”, we can say that everyone experienced bullying, but with one and only difference. Difference which determines whether the one was a bully or bullied. I think that the most significant fact which determines this position is the upbringing of a child. In my opinion, a child who comes from a modest family with true moral values is more likely to end up as bullied. Why? The reason is very simple indeed. Child brought up in this kind of family does not see anger or any fights at home and thus he can’t oppose and defend himself if he is somehow threatened with something and just because he is not used to that kind of situation. On the other a kid from the family which have some difficulties,where anger and fights are highly present, is used to violation and anger,thus the kid consider it normal and so a fight easily becomes a part of his behavior outside the family as well. Unfortunately, environment from which a kid comes from is not the only thing that affects a kid’s behaviour. Kids are not used to differences and when a group of peers are almost the same and only one is different, he immediately becomes a victim of bullying. Inequality of a social status, difference of look or even sexual orientation become the “popular” issue on which bullying is based. The worst thing, however, is that a poor bullied kid has then a psychological problem and instead of some therapy he simply ends mockery by ending his life, as it was also the case of Justin Aaberg.
ReplyDeleteMedia play a huge role in bullying as well, as stated in the article. Just consider all those aggressive games or movies on which more and more kids become addicted. Too bad that they are just another source that approaches violation to kids and thus they loose any negative approach towards it. I can only say that it is immoral that even though media creators are aware of this negative effect on children they keep creating more and more products in which violation exceeds its limits.
I guess a lot of people is aware of these facts but the only thing that i don’t understand is that nobody does anything to prevent it or just increase the number of cases of bullying. They instead carry out new researches where they find out the situation got only worse. It is like all those researches were rather pointless than helpful. And I also think that even a 1 hour session in school where a teacher would concentrate in this issue would help to inhibit bullying in school. But why there isn't anything like that, I don't know.
oli
What is amazing about this survey is the result. I did not expect that more than 50% of surveyed people have bullied during last year, or that more than half of asked were bullied. What I think is responsible for the demand of people to bully, is their childhood. Missing elements in the early time of process of making character can result in some psychical problems. I do not mean, that it is the mistake of parents, but this morning part of human live is fundamental.
ReplyDeleteStrange thing is, that many people consider hitting people in anger normal, and that stealing from stores is so augmented (more than one quarter). The comment also mentioned, that people in religious schools cheats more than others. It could be possible, but what is more presumable, believers are not ashamed to say that it is real.
People (and especially young students) behave like what they see in their environment, home, or in the media. That is how society around you influence your attitudes and opinions. One of the problems, which is still unsolved, is the problem if fight back or not. I do not prefer fighting back, but I understand there are some situations when this method is necessary (Example from the text: “My mom preached the don't fight back deal for years, talked to principals and all kinds of BS, but I was heavily bullied throughout elementary and middle school to the point where I didn't ride the bus but biked to school every day to get away from them on the bus and before class started.”).
I like the story of the man who has commented this article. He was bullied, he was listening to his mother not to fight back and lost much. Then he joined the wrestling team and things have changed. It looks like all problems could be solved by force, and if not, than you could use bigger force. That is one of the worst attitudes I heard above. I think this changes nothing. What if all students join some wrestling clubs ? Would it be good ? Just fight for everything you want by strong arm ?
Csar Jyrene said, that bullying could be useful sometimes. I absolutely do not agree. Bullying is good for nothing. There are better ways how to solve problems. Because problems are the purpose of bullying. It is all about putting forward myself in front of the others. I think it is more often seen in the United States than in Slovakia, and the argument is clear. In the USA, there are bigger differences between people.
In my opinion, a lot of these "bullying surveys" are greatly exaggerated. Sure bullying is a problem and there is an increasing frequency of this happening but it's not at that high of a level as some of the surveys would have you think. What exactly does it mean that 50% of teens have bullied, teased or taunted someone at least once in the last year? I have no idea why teasing and taunting and especially the "once a year part" have to do with bullying. First of all, there is a HUGE difference between taunting or teasing and genuine bullying. Especially in a teen (mainly male) environment, there is a lot of teasing and taunting that goes around (for example for a spot on the football field or something similar). However, none of this gets to the level of bullying. Secondly, bullying is a long process that repeats on a regular basis. Making "fun of" someone once in an entire year is a long shot from making their life hell every single day.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do think that the general knowledge about both bullying and cyber-bullying is on a low level. Both young children, teens and parents need more information about these problems as most of the studies done show that the trend is increasing. They need to know how to counter this threat, what to do about it, and also in the case parents how to know that their child is being bullied. We need to encourage kids to try and solve problems by peaceful measures, but also to fight back when they are being pushed around.
I think that the frequency of bullies at schools depends a lot on both the environment that the child lives in and the kind of school it goes to. For example, a child living in a city with both his parents and living happily in a small flat will be much less prone to bullying than a single parent kid from a rundown village whose step father drinks and beats him when drunk.
To conclude, I think that the article gave a very shallow scope of the true nature of the problem and mixed together a lot of unrelated facts and studies (for example the main title being bullying while showing some studies about students cheating on tests) to create a frightening picture about bullies and bullying.
Responding to Ondrej
ReplyDeleteI agree with your opinion about exaggeration of these bullying surveys. I think the problem lies within the true meaning of the word bullying. It is not defined clearly. As you said, taunting and teasing could not be bullying at all. On the other hand, I do not agree with statement, that bullying is a long process that repeats on a regular basis. For example when some older student beats you up and steal your money. I would consider it as bullying even if it happens only once a year.
Tomáš Langer
A comment from Mai:
ReplyDelete@ Ondrej
I agree that some of those surveys are a bit exaggerated and they might not be trustworthy. Bullying is something that is very difficult to define and sometimes it could be misleading. An example might be, as Ondrej have mentioned, taunting during a football match. Some students may find taunting on a football field helpful. It motivates them and they are able to perform better. On the other hand, there are some students that might feel insulted by taunting and may even call it bullying. Also teenagers are still very young and they might not be able to correctly evaluate the situation. These factors can make those surveys inaccurate and scare a lot of parents and teachers. Statistics are very helpful but we shouldn’t rely on them because at the end of a day they are nothing but numbers.