Our Approach to Anti-Bullying
So many schools see bullying as a behavior in need of being stopped. We disagree.
We are not disagreeing because that first sentence here is wrong. We are disagreeing because that first sentence is incomplete.
If our primary task is to stop bullying behavior, we fail to look more deeply into the human heart. Those who bully have a story to tell and in the vast majority of cases, those who bully have been bullied….by someone…..at some time. And the angers are unseen and unattended by others. Those who bully usually suffer in silence and the more this happens, the more the rage inside builds, spilling over to innocent others who now are the recipients of that rage.
As we fail to understand this, and as we continue to try restraining the bullying behavior without seeing and acknowledging the wounds in those who bully, we fail to address the situation properly. Thus, there are attacks and wounds and cycles that seem never to end.
As we restrain bullying behavior, we have an obligation to see the wounds within those who bully…and to try to help them bind up those wounds through forgiving.
As we fail to see this, we are not stopping bullying. Instead, we are inadvertently allowing a wounded heart to become a resentful heart which becomes a heart that wants to hurt others….no matter how much we try to constrain this. We need forgiveness education for those who bully……now. In our Store section is an anti-bullying curriculum that provides this broader perspective on a world-wide problem. Take a look. Your actions in helping those who bully could save lives.
Robert
School administrators do need your approach. It would round out what already exists. It seems to me that your approach would be very helpful.
I agree with you, Samantha. I wish this were around when I was a child. Teachers really did not know how to handle those students who threw their weight around. This kind of therapy might have cured the bullying behavior.
Administrators are so busy that they often do not think outside the box. In this case they need to think outside that box.
Best of all, the person forgave the gunman and his cousin was Nathaniel Hatch.