Again Ed Week has an article about bullying that resounded with me. The article indicates that researchers are just beginning to focus on 'relational' aggression - a means by which people use bullying tactics to control friends and enemies.
At first, I was a little surprised to learn that this was a relatively 'new' research subject, but then I realized that humans have a hard time identifying what they themselves do. (For instance, it is easy to recognize when someone is nagging you, but it is much less likely that you will recognize that you are nagging someone.) Relational aggression is not limited to K-12 schools. It happens in colleges, offices, neighborhoods, churches, and virtually every place that people come together in groups to spend significant amounts of time. In fact, it's common to see reflected in movies and on tv even. We adults just don't have the same scrutinizing eye assessing our behavior.
I completely agree that the most beneficial thing we could do is to help our kids learn to stand up for others. This helps both the person being defended and the person standing up reclaim power and build self-confidence. It build real, honest, respectful community among people. Maybe those students can take that same responsibility into the 'adult' world and make a change for the better.
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