Forget tougher punishments and hiring more police for schools. The solution to crime and violence is in your lunchroom. alternet.org/environment/25122/?comments=view&cID=35161&pID=34156 and youtube.com/watch?v=fKr4HZ7ukSE

I have not yet seen this movie but anticipate that like so much in the media, it will most likely focus on the failure of schools to address the problem. It is rare that anyone looks at the source of bullying. The fact is that parents raise children (though many now believe that is the school's job) and much of the responsibility lies on their shoulders. Bullies raise bullies. Uninvolved parents raise bullies. Parents that do not provide necessary STRUCTURE and COMPASSION raise bullies.... and now the schools have to deal with it and some how miraculously undo the lessons that parents teach everyday, consciously and unconsciously through their own interactions with their child and with other adults. When you yell at the service clerk and badmouth your neighbors or perhaps even family and spouse, your children are watching and defining their own interactions in terms of these examples.

The bullying epidemic is, in my mind, just another symptom of social disfuntion in the U.S. We are so focused on competition and self-interests; beating everyone else and getting ahead at whatever price. We see it on television everyday; we watch it play out in the vicious campaigns of politicians. We are currently creating a society that values "success" over character. In the very schools that are left to teach compassion and empathy, we are now trying to stamp all of this out as we set teachers against one another to compete for meager salary benefits. And this is all supposed to breed greater creativity and innovation? This hostile, competitive attitude is what is going to bring our country back from the edge?

Now, I have been informed that the government is investigating requiring schools to impliment creativity instruction! Creativity occurs in the rich, interactive, UNSTRUCTURED moments when an inquisitive mind ask "why?" and "what if?" and then embarks on a journey of inquiry and experimentation to find the answer. Creativity is not a lesson that can be taught from a book; it is a mind-set that is nurtured from birth, one that we are, once again, stamping out of our children. Today, we inadvertently teach children that what matters is the test, getting the right answer... and there's always a right answer. Competition can be healthy to an extent as it can teach us to be resilient, tenacious, and train us to succeed in stressful situations. It can at times pushes us to our personal best but, anyone would agree that competition can also be unhealthy and, at its worse, a destructive force. Competition and out-of-control testing in academics at the moment is teaching our children to be risk adverse and crushes academic curiousity. Children do not ask "what if?"now as much as they want to know "what was the right answer." How sad that once they leave school there will rarely be answers set in such black-and-white terms. Instead the world is shades of gray, though politicians may argue otherwise. We are setting our kids up for failure in the real world. We are setting our country up for steady and predictable decline.

If you really want the schools to stem the epidemic of bullying then politicians need to pull out of education and let the real experts handle it. They need to let schools return to being a nurturing environment where kids learn academics at a high level - not always measurable by a simple number that can be understand by politicians and non-educators - and learn how to socialize in a positive way. We need to trust the professionals that work in our schools. No one goes into teaching for money or benefits; they go into this career because of a passion to help others reach their potential. Anyone without that goal quickly burns out and leaves. The compensation is just too meager to justify the emotional and physical tolls teaching takes without that passion, that inner fire to make a difference. The difficulty of teaching children as well as the lack of professional support is a main factor in attrition.

We also need parents to take greater responsibility for the development of their childrens' character as well as their actions. They need to stop questioning teachers. If your doctor sees that you are doing something that makes you ill and gives you advice, maybe even a critcism, and a prescription, you listen. When a teacher says that your child is harassing another child in school, you acuse the teacher of not doing his/her job and somehow triggering the behavior because of course your child never behaves in that way at home or with neighborhood friends. After looking through the resources on this page, I found the following link: The suggestions are such magnificant examples of common sense parenting but unfortunately, I have heard firsthand parents scoff at such advice. "Don't tell me how to raise my child," is the common retort. Unfortunately, in these cases it is usually the schools that are teaching the tough lessons of compassion, morality, and acceptable social conduct to the child, not the parent. In the race to get ahead there is little time, in some parents' minds, to invest in the next generation and the development of their character and morals. Sometimes parents even reinforce bully-like behaviors. Afterall, you'll never come in first in the competition if you aren't "tough." Despite what many may assume, this is as much a problem in wealthy neighborhoods as poor. In fact, in many rich neighborhoods, we can add a sense of entitlement and superiority to the list that truly impedes communication between school and family making resolution of such issues all the more difficult. What a shame! If only we, as a society, had our priorities straight (1. children come first and 2. we should all try to "love thy neighbor" and live with an appreciation or least tolerance of differences - compassion and empathy are not weaknesses!) we might not be in this predicament at all.

www.education.com/reference/article/ten-actions-to-eliminate-bullying/ this was the link I was referring to above

I don't know if anyone will embrace this idea, but I think it is time the staff at YouTube received a visit from a large crowd outside their offices with each person wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with some of the hateful things that bullies have been permitted to air online with YouTube's permission. Due to past errors of judgement, I may no longer have the clout to successfully organize and carry out such a protest but I strongly encourage others with my passion against bullying to take up this idea and send the staff at YouTube a message.