Hobson 1 Lucas Hobson MUSED 353 21 November 2011 Middle-School Bullying and How To Deal With It Bullying is a major

problem in secondary schools, particularly during early adolescence. Sullivan, Cleary and Sullivan state that bullying is very widespread, pointing to studies suggesting that up to seventy-five percent of students in some schools have been victims of bullying during the current school year (10). They also write that bullying happens most often during early adolescence, and tapers off as students grow older (8). This makes bullying a particular problem for middle school general music teachers. It is important to distinguish bullying from normal levels of teasing. Teasing is omnipresent during middle school, and a little of it is actually shown to make children grow up to become more self-sufficient adults. Teasing is a part of normal social interactions during adolescence and is often reciprocated (Perlstein 107). Teasing becomes bullying when it becomes aggressive, repeated, and occurs in a relationship where there is an imbalance of power (Plaford 5). Sullivan, Cleary and Sullivan help break down types of bullying into categories: physical bullying and nonphysical bullying. Nonphysical aggression can take place with verbal abuse, nonverbal abuse (gestures, facial expressions), indirect nonverbal abuse (ignoring and isolating students, and damaging the victims property (5). Bullying can be modeled by a downward spiral. According to Sullivan, Cleary, and Sullivan, the bully first watches for a potential victim. He or she then

Hobson 2 tests the waters with small, symbolic acts of bullying. If the victim does not handle the test well, he or she will be subjected to more and more substantial bullying. The bully begins to gain an unrealistic sense of their power, and the victim develops a low self-esteem. The spiral ends with the bully going into the real world and being criminally punished when his or her actions are not tolerated, or the victim even tries to commit suicide (25). There is also a ripple effect to bullying. At the center is the bully and victim. Parents and family are in the second circle, and feel anger and empathy. Students in the school constitute the third and fourth level. They begin to feel uneasy and unsafe at school, which hinders their wellbeing and teachers ability to teach them (Sullivan, Cleary, Sullivan 22). Bullies can be divided into multiple categories. The clever bully is often very popular and successful academically and socially. They often act out of arrogance or ignorance. A second set of bullies lack the academic and social success of clever bullies. These children are often engaged in at-risk behaviors, have problems with schoolwork, and are bullying to try to displace their own lack of self-esteem and self-confidence (Sullivan, Cleary, Sullivan 16). It is likewise intelligent to study the characteristics of victims. Students are at risk to become victims if they are unassertive, quiet or shy. Once labeled as a victim, these students status dropped, and they become more likely to be bullied (Macklem 64). Targets can also be chosen for a wide range of reasons, including racism, sexism, homophobia, and having mental, emotional, or physical disabilities. (Sullivan, Cleary, Sullivan 16-32).

Hobson 3 Children can be identified as both victims and bullies in some instances. Bully-victims can also be thought of as ineffectual aggressors. They are often confrontational with both students and adults, and generally have excessive, attention-seeking behaviors. These students feel that teachers and other adults in the schools bully them, and are disliked by peers (Mackley 76). Understanding the role of onlookers is crucial to understanding how bullying works and how to effectively counter it. Bystanders can be sidekicks, reinforcers, outsiders, or defenders. Sidekicks and reinforcers actively support the bullying. Outsiders appear to remain neutral in the bullying, but by doing so condone the bullying episode. Defenders are those who have the courage to actively support the victims. Bullying occurs because the bystanders appear to support it. If the bystanders demonstrate support for the victim, the group dynamic will often be changed enough to stop the episode (Sullivan, Cleary, Sullivan 19). On the other hand, bystanders often reward the bully, both actively and passively, by supporting the bully, ensuring that the bullying will continue (Macklem 67). Plaford offers an explanation for bullying in the theory of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence can be defined as having an understanding of your emotions (46). Educators should be aware that not all children have a large emotional vocabulary or ability to control their emotions. If they cannot express their emotions in more ways than mad, glad, and sad, they will incorrectly identify their emotions. George Orwell used the same concept in creating Newspeak in the book 1984. We must be able to label feelings in order to understand and appropriately deal with them. other facets of emotional intelligence can be taught;

Hobson 4 but are best learned by observing parents. Not all children have strong parents, so not all children learn proper ways to control their emotions. Students on the lower end of emotional intelligence tend to bully and be bullied more. In order to address the issue, emotional intelligence should be taught to students (Plaford 48) The social-cognitive theory and Social Information Processing Model also support this line of reasoning. Smith summarizes them by writing that deviant processing of social information may result in aggression, and specifically bullying (47). Much can be done to stop bullying before it begins. Hammel and Hourigan, writing to help teachers create inclusive music classrooms for students with special needs, offer multiple suggestions. They tell the reader that effective classroom management begins long before the students enter the music room (97). Teachers should create clear and simple rules, in collaboration with school-wide behavior plans and students (98). Special-needs-students can be particularly at risk for bullying such as being excluded by peers because of emotional and cognitive disabilities. Teachers can create special signals to let those students know when their behavior is not appropriate. This not only allows instruction to go on uninterrupted, but also helps the students to develop appropriate social behaviors in class (99). The use of regular praise for appropriate social and academic behaviors with all students establishes a positive classroom environment and reinforces positive behaviors and skills in students (100). Macklem states that teenagers who develop at least one best friend are much less likely to be bullied than those without at least one close friend (113). Hammel and Hourigan offer insights on getting students to form relationships with

Hobson 5 their peers. They state that the problem is getting students to come out of their comfort zone, and that one solution is through the use of ice breakers (108). Communication is very important; talking to students and parents can allow teachers to get a better sense for who is at risk in their classroom. Music educators should model inclusiveness, acceptance, and kindness, so that students will have positive role models (110). Emotional intelligence can also be taught; the first step is to teach students appropriate terms to express their emotions, so that they can better understand them. Plaford suggests having students select words such as frustrated, overwhelmed, or content from a list to describe characters in stories. This can be easily adapted for the music classroom by having students describe the mood of songs and pieces of music. Plaford also suggests that we hold discussions about how we make decisions based on emotions (102). This can also be adopted to general music. Students can discuss how Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, or other composers dealt with problems in their lives and whether it was appropriate or not. They can listen to songs and make decisions about how to work through problems presented in the songs. They can create alternate lyrics working through those problems. General music teachers can easily address Standards 4,6,7,8 and 9 while also teaching students how to effectively cope with emotions and stress. Another important step in both classroom management and defusing aggression in the classroom is learning emotional triggers for students. This allows the teacher not only to intervene before these triggers are set off, but to help the student to learn to deal with these triggers (Plaford 110).

Hobson 6 Unfortunately, no amount of prevention will be adequate to completely stop bullying. Teachers need to be prepared to identify bullying when it occurs. Sullivan, Cleary, and Sullivan offer a list of indicators that bullying is occurring. A student may be a victim if he or she appears unhappy or despondent, he or she is often socially isolated, always left out of group activities, frequently absent, or his or her grades start sliding. Teachers should also note if students start snickering and nudging each other when a certain student draws attention to him or herself (13). Teachers need to be very aware that students often do not report bullying as it occurs. The students may be afraid of reprisal or of breaking a no tattling code (Plaford 15). Intervention is necessary when bullying is suspected. Bullies, victims, and bystanders all need to be part of the intervention process. Students need to know that the bullying behavior is known, is not acceptable, must immediately stop, and that there will be consequences if it does not stop (Plaford 15). Hazler has several suggestions for dealing with bullying. Teachers should stop the incident with the minimum amount of force necessary (76). They should remember to label the behaviors, not the student, as unacceptable (131). Teachers should refrain from making snap judgments about incidents (78). Finally, Hazler notes the importance of being persistent in dealing with bullying (81). Hammel and Hourigan write It should be every music educators goal to establish an inclusive, compassionate, safe, and productive teaching and learning environment (117). Bullying is endemic to middle schools, and students know it (Perlstein 3). Through proper prevention and intervention, bullying can be kept to a

Hobson 7 minimum, and safe and supportive environments can be encouraged in the general music classroom and beyond.

Hobson 8

Reference:

Hammel, Alice, and Ryan Hourigan. Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Hazler, Richard. Breaking the Cycle of Violence. Washington, DC: Accelerated Development; A Member of the Taylor and Francis Group, 1996. Macklem, Gayle. Bullying and Teasing; Social Power in Children's Groups. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2003. Monks, Claire, Iain Coyne, and Peter Smith. Bullying in Different Contexts. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Perlstein, Linda. Not Much Just Chillin'; The Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers. New York: Ballantine Books; The Random House Publishing Group, 2003. Plaford, Gary. Bullying and the Brain; Using Cognitive and Emotional Intelligence to Help Kids Cope. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006. Sullivan, Keith, Mark Cleary, and Ginny Sullivan. Bullying in Secondary Schools; What It Looks Like and How to Manage It. Great Britain: Paul Chapman Publishing; Corwin Press, Inc., 2004.