When people start talking about bullying, everyone always starts with the schoolyard bully who is there taking your lunch money. Now, with the attention being given to suicide victims in high schools and colleges especially, the bully is the student or group of students who are bigots and base their hatred on sexual orientation. Then, of course, there is the focus on cyber-bullying, because as things go in the 21st Century, technology is a part of all aspects of life, even the negative ones. But all of these conversations are related to bullying occurring with children, teens, and young adults, what about the bullying that happens in the professional world?
Here, bullying doesn't exist, or so people would have you think. Adults no longer get accused of bullying unless they fall into one of these categories: sexual harassment, discrimination (racism, sexual orientation, gender) or slander. Sure, these are really bad forms of bullying, possibly some of the worst in the adult world and are punishable by law, however, what about all of the other bullying that happens that ISN'T quite this bad and doesn't get prosecuted. I'm just going to mention a few instances of professional bullying that I've witnessed in the past year... I know there's more so feel free to add your own experiences in the comments.
Teachers: According to many conservatives, teachers are overpaid, under-worked and ungrateful people who don't deserve any of the credit they are given. People are allowed to say "people who can, do; people who can't, teach" on national television without any flak whatsoever. This is bullying, however subtle.
Muslims: Remember the mosque and community center that was supposed to be built "within the shadow" of ground zero? Remember how it was ok to say that they had no right to build a mosque so close to ground zero because the 9/11 attacks were carried about by Muslim terrorists. How can people be allowed to have such utter disregard for our First Amendment right of freedom of religion? Why is guilt by association ok simply because a terrorist was from a specific religion? Are all Christians terrorists when one person kills 85 people in Norway and has a religious reason for it?
Politics: The presidential campaign is the #1 source of bullying examples in the United States every four years. The candidates hire hundreds of people to "dig up the dirt" on their opponents and then go on million dollar smear campaigns to make the other person look as terrible as possible for whatever reason they can find. If you are putting someone else down in order to make you feel better about yourself you are the classic bully. So why do we accept it as a normal part of our electoral process? What lesson does this teach kids? (if you're the best bully, you can be president)
According to Bandura's Social Learning Theory, children can learn behaviors simply by observing it. Students are encouraged to watch and participate actively in society especially in the political process. Put these two statements together and you are encouraging students to observe bullying therefore exacerbating the situation. Let's put an end to bullying in the adult world because we can't ask our students to accomplish something we can't ourselves.
Here, bullying doesn't exist, or so people would have you think. Adults no longer get accused of bullying unless they fall into one of these categories: sexual harassment, discrimination (racism, sexual orientation, gender) or slander. Sure, these are really bad forms of bullying, possibly some of the worst in the adult world and are punishable by law, however, what about all of the other bullying that happens that ISN'T quite this bad and doesn't get prosecuted. I'm just going to mention a few instances of professional bullying that I've witnessed in the past year... I know there's more so feel free to add your own experiences in the comments.
Teachers: According to many conservatives, teachers are overpaid, under-worked and ungrateful people who don't deserve any of the credit they are given. People are allowed to say "people who can, do; people who can't, teach" on national television without any flak whatsoever. This is bullying, however subtle.
Muslims: Remember the mosque and community center that was supposed to be built "within the shadow" of ground zero? Remember how it was ok to say that they had no right to build a mosque so close to ground zero because the 9/11 attacks were carried about by Muslim terrorists. How can people be allowed to have such utter disregard for our First Amendment right of freedom of religion? Why is guilt by association ok simply because a terrorist was from a specific religion? Are all Christians terrorists when one person kills 85 people in Norway and has a religious reason for it?
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| image - politicalhumor.about.com |
According to Bandura's Social Learning Theory, children can learn behaviors simply by observing it. Students are encouraged to watch and participate actively in society especially in the political process. Put these two statements together and you are encouraging students to observe bullying therefore exacerbating the situation. Let's put an end to bullying in the adult world because we can't ask our students to accomplish something we can't ourselves.
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