It’s NOT Just Joking Around!
Defining the Difference:
Imagine that you’re walking down the street and suddenly, you fall into this deep hole, and can’t find the way out. Two people pass by, hear your cries for help, and offer assistance: one is a renowned academic who specializes in the geo-thermal dynamic of holes, wrote his doctoral thesis on escape routes, but has never actually been in a hole himself; the other is an ordinary person who fell into the very same hole you did the week before, found his way out, and is offering to crawl back down inside, take hold of your hand and guide you out the same way; who would you choose to save you? I’m that person. While I support the valuable work of academics who have dedicated themselves to understanding bullying and its affects, and recognize their work as vital to the future of our children, what I do in schools is much different than those who utilize empirical data and case studies as the building blocks of their solutions strategies.
I offer an innovative, deeply personal approach to bullying and peer abuse – the human side that only someone who’s been alone, trapped inside that hole herself, shivering and afraid, can provide, and the subsequent perspective of survivor, who to this day, still copes with the aftermath of the abuse that she endured.
How many teachers, counselors, and administrators, are “Adult Survivors of Peer Abuse” that have never come to terms with the fact that they were bullied? What about the adults who were the bullies when they were students – those rare few who have the courage to admit it, and carry the burden of guilt every day? How many adult bullies work in the American school system now? These adults teach our children, but what are they teaching? What messages are they verbally and silently sending? It’s NOTJust Joking Around!™ is the only program that teaches and supports faculty and staff as they reconcile their own feelings about the issue. Even for adults, change comes from the inside out, not the outside in.
I work well with students because I understand that motivation for change must be found within, and supported by adults and classmates alike. Fueled by the insight and compassion that can only come from a survivor, I welcome the continued opportunity to help provide our youth an emotionally safe environment to learn. If they are afraid to come to school, and afraid at school and after school how can they possibly focus on their studies? A confident child is harder to bully, a compassionate child will not bully. |
