To answer the question of what problems students today see in schools I asked my 16-year-old daughter Maddison, her friend Drake, and my 12-year-old son Blake. My daughter and Drake attend the same high school and are juniors. My son attends the middle school next door and is in 7th grade. Both schools are fairly small, the high school has around 700 students and the middle school has a little over 500 students.
Maddison is a well above average student and great athlete. She takes all honors and AP classes and is captain of the school’s swim team. She is involved in several service organizations and is the captain of the Scholars Bowl Team and president on the Foreign Language Club. Maddison is hoping to attend Stanford University and major …show more content…
More recently in 2013 the Centers for Disease Control reported that 20% of high school teens are being bullied (Cyber Bullying, n.d.). Other studies show that the percentage of children being bullied is closer to 28% (Regoli, R., Hewitt, J., & Delisi, M., 2014). This number scare me, my child attends a high school with a little over 700 students, that means that 196 of them are the victims of bullying, that is more than her entire graduating class. So what is happening in the schools, or what could be happening to prevent such awful statistics from rising, as parents what can we do to stop this epidemic? The first thing that needs to be done is creating more and better communication. As a parent I need to talk with my kids and make sure that they understand what bullying is. I need to do this in a safe and non-confrontative way so that they feel they can trust me and tell me what’s really going on in their lives and at school. Teachers also need to take this important step of talking to their students about bullying. Kids need to have trusted adults that they can turn to who can help keep them safe. There are many programs through the government as well as private companies that emphasize anti-bulling behaviors. One of the most popular programs is OLWEUS Bullying prevention program. This program starts with a school survey to figure out where and who is being bullied and then goes on to teach the children and educators about ways to recognize bullying, how to stop it, and how to prevent it (Bullying, 2016). The program uses text and videos to teach children these important lessons. This program is unique in that it accompanies the common core structure. There are lessons that are taught while teaching specific academia. For instance, in the OLWEUS Bullying prevention program there is a lesson that is to be taught alongside language arts. The child reads the
Maddison is a well above average student and great athlete. She takes all honors and AP classes and is captain of the school’s swim team. She is involved in several service organizations and is the captain of the Scholars Bowl Team and president on the Foreign Language Club. Maddison is hoping to attend Stanford University and major …show more content…
More recently in 2013 the Centers for Disease Control reported that 20% of high school teens are being bullied (Cyber Bullying, n.d.). Other studies show that the percentage of children being bullied is closer to 28% (Regoli, R., Hewitt, J., & Delisi, M., 2014). This number scare me, my child attends a high school with a little over 700 students, that means that 196 of them are the victims of bullying, that is more than her entire graduating class. So what is happening in the schools, or what could be happening to prevent such awful statistics from rising, as parents what can we do to stop this epidemic? The first thing that needs to be done is creating more and better communication. As a parent I need to talk with my kids and make sure that they understand what bullying is. I need to do this in a safe and non-confrontative way so that they feel they can trust me and tell me what’s really going on in their lives and at school. Teachers also need to take this important step of talking to their students about bullying. Kids need to have trusted adults that they can turn to who can help keep them safe. There are many programs through the government as well as private companies that emphasize anti-bulling behaviors. One of the most popular programs is OLWEUS Bullying prevention program. This program starts with a school survey to figure out where and who is being bullied and then goes on to teach the children and educators about ways to recognize bullying, how to stop it, and how to prevent it (Bullying, 2016). The program uses text and videos to teach children these important lessons. This program is unique in that it accompanies the common core structure. There are lessons that are taught while teaching specific academia. For instance, in the OLWEUS Bullying prevention program there is a lesson that is to be taught alongside language arts. The child reads the