Module 2: RESPECT OTHERS

Page 15

They could be encouraged to consider the best way of communicating their findings to the school. One way could be through posters perhaps entitled Bullies watch out! giving clear steps of action for people to take if they are bullied or see bullying happening.

monitoring and preventing of bullying

Encourage the class to brainstorm in small working groups about how bullying can best be dealt with in the school. They may be helped by the questions given on worksheet 7 page 17 Bullies beware! They should draw up recommendations offering any resources they have created during their previous activity.

This activity could lead to initiative being taken for meetings with staff and senior pupils to establish a whole school policy.

Follow-on research projects

These projects could be done particularly with more able pupils through a study of history and present world events. They could relate what they have learnt on a personal level to an exploration of the most effective ways of combatting the bully in the wider community and among nations.

Topics that could be considered are

• The need for justice backed by force to protect the weak against the strong; the innocent against the dictator, (e.g. actions of the United Nations.)
• The effectiveness of non-violent action as lived and promoted by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King rendering bully tactics ineffective.
• The elements needed in the peace-building process after war has taken place in order that bullies find it more difficult to re-assert their power, (eg. after World War 2 in Europe, or the more recent Cambodian experience.)
• An examination of the outcome of civil and militant struggles as in South Africa and Ireland where bullying has eventually had to give way to the establishment of a democratic process of political negotiation.