National Bullying Month PACER Video's Cute Teen Stars Say: Be Nice!
October is National Bullying Month, and the PACER Center: Champions for Children with Disabilities has rounded up teen stars like Annie Thurman from The Hunger Games (a home-schooled, 90-pound redhead who played the tribute from District 9) and mop-top Mikey Reid (Sinjin on Victorious) to tell kids that "the end of bullying begins with you."
We love the message. But will the bullies listen? Those kids who bullied their bus monitor would probably chew the nice actors up and spit them out like so much playground gravel.
"Recognizable names and faces from television and the movies speaking out about bullying prevention can have a profound influence on kids," says PACER director Julie Hertzog. The organization got its start combating bullying because children with disabilities are two to three times more likely to be bullied than others.
The real trick to prevent bullying, says Sticks and Stones, a book about bullying by Slate writer Emily Bazelon that will come out in February, is to teach kids empathy. Bazelon's research shows that teaching kids to put themselves in the other kid's shoes can go a long way towards preventing bullying. To this end, the blog Dinner A Love Story suggests some books that help teach kids compassion. In our house we do a lot of "How would you feel if someone did that to you?" ... a message that hopefully will translate to compassion for others as kids get older.
What do you do to teach your kids not to bully? Tell us in the comments.
