[Mpls] Bullying

[Michael Atherton]

Shawn Marie Christenson wrote:

> Atherton wrote:  
> > Since the original topic of this thread was bullying, please
> > explain how positive role models prevent bullying.  Consider, in
> > your explanation, a nice middle-class mid-western high school in
> > Roseville, MN which has historically had a problem with hazing.
> > Were there an insufficient number of good teachers and role models?
> > Did the students come from bad homes?  Or is there something
> > intrinsically empowering about humiliating and forcing your will
> > on others?
> 
> SMC: We learn our behaviors from those around us right?  We 
> learn A LOT of them as kids and carry it forward in life as we make 
> decisions to bully or haze or anything else negative (or positive) we do.

I believe that our behaviors are a function of genetics and what
we learn.  In my view there are some people who are just born mean
and will be unlikely to be overly influenced by social role models.
One alternative, the "blank slate" view assumes that people are molded
entirely by their environments.  Even if you believe this, you need
additional assumptions to believe that role models are the primary
factor.  We would either have to assume that the world is predominately
filled with positive models (not very likely) or that positive models 
exert a disproportionate influence. Following this line, we could assume 
that people are intrinsically good and are diverted from goodness by
the evil influences of society, but returned to goodness by the
positive role models.  But, there are so many counter examples in 
history and contemporary society that I don't understand how people
can maintain such beliefs.

There's a famous social experiment that has been cited in relation to
the prison scandal in Iraq where college students were *randomly*
assigned to groups of guards and prisoners.  With no outside
influence the guards became bullies and the prisoners victims.

So how can we use this knowledge to establish effective educational
policy?  First, we realistically assume that without supervision
some children will be inclined to dominate and bully others.  Next, 
we need to determine what warning signs we need to be watchful for.
Then, we need to determine what interventions would be most effective.
I think that there's good research to guide administrators in this 
process.  What is not going to be effective is indifference, a do nothing 
policy, or the belief that good role models will be sufficient to alleviate
bullying.

Michael Atherton
Prospect Park