Question:
Is It correct to say the word ” Bully” when trying to teach or talk to children about bullying or it is better to use another word?
Answer:
Yes and no. Bullying is both well understood and meaningless. What I mean by that is when you say the word bullying, people understand generally what is happening.
The pro blem is that it doesn’t tell us specifically what is happening. So I would use the word, but as part of the lesson explain to the kids, when they report bullying, they need to be specific about what exactly happened. This person punched this other person. This person called the other person a bad name. That way the adults they report to can act on it. When they say someone is bullying me, the adults don’t know exactly what that means. Most kids get this and it can be reinforced by the adults when a kid reports. So and so is bullying me. Ok – what exactly happened? That will help the kids get int he habit of being specific instead of general and that should also translate to other skills, like getting them to write paragraphs and essays with detail!
Note: this question was asked as part of the online program: Why Bullies Bully and How to Stop Them – free at Udemy – https://bullyvaccineproject.com/why-bullies-bully-how-to-stop-them-using-science/