Motive
When the
I also noticed
that it was the rare parent that would seek the professional needed to help
their child talk about things on their minds and provide healthy outlets for
their frustration. Regrettably, most of
these kids just sat in class, not focusing on their education, but on their
lack of control and the elevated level of discomfort in their lives outside of
school.
Students didn’t
feel comfortable going to the school’s counselors, for one reason or
another. Instead, they were way more
likely to disclose personal information to the teachers they saw on a daily
basis: the ones whom the students trusted, and the ones who cared about them.
After hearing
many students’ responses about numerous topics, from their new learning
environment to their own personal lives, bullying was at the heart of the
matter. While asking students how they handled
these situations when they arose, it seemed that most would retaliate with
negative words or actions.
In the growing
age of social media, when what used to be behind-the-back gossip and bathroom
fights are posted on the World Wide Web for all to see and respond to,
addressing the evolution of bullying requires an equally innovative approach.
To develop this new approach, we isolated a few key issues: How can we bring
these victims and harassers together in a controlled environment? Can we
broadcast the sessions so bullies can’t hide? Can students take the lead in
this process? Can we help both sides find a common ground? And, perhaps most
importantly, can we help them create a sense of empathy?
Then
and Now
The group
started with caring 8th graders who recognized a problem and wanted
to be in a group that helped. With a little promotion and word of mouth, a
group came together that we called “The Roundtable.” Over the course of two
twenty-minute homeroom periods, the members gathered in a small meeting room in
our
We videotaped
those two sessions, edited them to fit into a single homeroom period, and used
our closed-circuit TV system to broadcast the first episode of “The Roundtable”
to the entire school. Impact was immediate. In one class, directly following
the show’s conclusion, a girl raised her hand and said that her uncle had
sexually assaulted her. The video had not even addressed sexual assault, but after
seeing students telling their own opinions of issues close to their hearts, the
girl felt comfortable enough to open up to her classmates and teacher about her
own intensely personal experience. (The teacher reported the claim to our
people in charge of child abuse cases, who then handled the investigation
appropriately.)
This incident,
and others like it, sent a clear message: if we can get this kind of response from
kids, where they feel encouraged to address issues that have been boiling
inside them for so long, then we just can’t stop doing this.
Since that
initial broadcast of our first session four years ago, the group has remained
fluid in both its membership and its format. It’s had as many as 90 students in
it at one time, and it’s been as small as six students as well. It’s had
members from grades 6, 7, and 8 come together to discuss school-wide issues,
and it’s had one-grade-only sessions to address more specific concerns. It’s
taken on an intervention platform, where students with poor reputations come in,
and their peers help them find alternatives to negative behavior. It’s held
meetings in the library, and it’s met during lunch. No matter where, when, or how
often it continues to meet, if the group helps one kid be less violent toward
others, then mission accomplished.
Taping and Airing
Our TV
Production teacher, William Steelnack, tapes these sessions and edits the
content to keep the message clear. Students are respectful during the
discussions, but every now and again their honesty is overwhelming. Quotes have included, “No one in this building
cares about us except you two,” “Teachers don’t care, counselors don’t care,
and you can’t talk to anyone around here,” and “They don’t want to
listen.” We use these comments as fuel
to drive us to help students further, but we don’t use them in the broadcasts.
We don’t want to create more division among teachers or students; our mission
is to prevent conflict, not to create it.
Each episode
follows a standard format. The video begins with a scripted introduction in
which a student prepares viewers for what they are about to watch and encourages
them to pay attention because “they might just learn something.” For the main
content, we take the students’ comments from a wide range of topics and combine
them into a logical order, with title screens to signal the start of each new
segment. This allows us to create a consistent narrative while using elements
from discussions filmed days or even weeks apart. At the end of each video, we
pose some discussion questions to keep the conversation going in each room. We
try to air a new episode every two weeks.
Teachers and
schools that don’t have access to a TV studio can still emulate this production
model by using some basic, readily accessible equipment. Hand-held digital
cameras are commercially available for under a hundred dollars, and tripods are
cheap. As for editing software, our school computers use Windows XP, which
includes the program Windows Movie Maker. After transferring footage from a
digital camera, teachers can easily create a digital video file using this free
program, which they can then burn to a disc or send electronically to other
teachers to watch with their students. We’ve found that this last step, having
teachers actively watch the video with their students, is a key to having our
message stick with the audience. When teachers are engaged, students are
engaged, and the discussions that naturally take place give each student in the
school the chance to become an active participant in the process. Really, creating
something like this is almost easier done than said.
Results
Let
us make the motives of this group clear.
The purpose was to give attention to the issue in schools: bullying. Not
to lower school-wide violence, raise standardized-test scores, or create world
peace. If these happen as a result of
the simple motive of wanting to help one child realize the impermanence of
bullying, and understand its causes and solutions in the short and long term,
then so be it.
Frame
your group around this simple motive and mission. Let kids take the reigns, while guided by a
few teachers that care and want to listen and help. This will create teamwork
among the students, their peers, and their teachers, and will give that team an
opportunity to exert a positive influence, which can last a lifetime.
Sean Brooks and William Steelnack will be presenting at the
National Middle School Association’s annual conference in
Sean
M. Brooks teaches Health Education at
William
Steelnack teaches Broadcast Communications at
*
*