Sentiments On Common Sense

This entry has been cross posted to www.leadertalk.org

I just returned from a trip to the U.S. to hire some teachers for my school.  Those trips are grueling, intense and a chance to examine my personal educational beliefs at a core level.

We move out on these trips with great purpose.

We work in teams.

We talk. We collaborate. We commiserate. We come home exhausted.

We interview 15-18 teachers a day and make some very basic decisions (to offer a contract or say “no thank you”) which are VERY important decisions about who will be the teachers in some of our classrooms this next academic year.

Before we went out on our recruiting trips this year, I had our administrative team review an article from Independent School Management titled “Why the Worst (and Best) Teachers Matter”.  Unfortunately it is a copyrighted article not available on the web unless you are member of ISM, but I will quote from the article which focuses the reader on the aphorism that “a rising tide lifts all boats” is not necessarily true day in and day out in the classrooms.  The author notes that “bad” teachers also have an effect on the good teachers in the schools in which we work.  Evidence points to the fact that..

Relationships among people in an organization matter a great deal.

Simply put, students get higher marks when both their teacher and their teacher’s peers are above average; when teachers peers are lower in ability and effectiveness, students achievement levels reflect that.

Technically speaking….

…the study notes that “replacing one peer (teacher) wiht another has one standard deviation higher value-added will increase her students tests scores by 0.86 percent of a standard deviation.” That improvement is noted for reading; for mathematics improvement “is associated with a 3.98% of a standard deviation increase in math test scores.”

Noteworthy?  I think so!  In fact as I read the article, and did as the author suggested and examine this trend in it’s entirety, I believe it confirms just what I believed for some time.  Teachers, like students, benefit from direct learning from their peers, and that learning and professional improvement result from exposure to better peers.  It is probably a “no-duh!” for many administrators out there when I state that it really has nothing to do with the school, and the organization and more about the quality of the teachers in the classrooms.  Great schools, as common sense would tell you, have bad teachers and bad, or poor performing schools have some good teachers.  In the Atlantic Monthly article “What Makes are Great Teacher?” author Amanda Ripley notes in her article detailing the “New Teacher Project” that,

For years, the secrets to great teaching have seemed more like alchemy than science, a mix of motivational mumbo jumbo and misty-eyed tales of inspiration and dedication.

She goes on to share that…

But we have never identified excellent teachers in any reliable, objective way. Instead, we tend to ascribe their gifts to some mystical quality that we can recognize and revere—but not replicate. The great teacher serves as a hero but never, ironically, as a lesson.

Noting that…

Parents have always worried about where to send their children to school; but the school, statistically speaking, does not matter as much as which adult stands in front of their children. Teacher quality tends to vary more within schools—even supposedly good schools—than among schools.

So, what should we be looking for out there?  What kinds of traits do we look for, and HOW does my team of administrators gleen realization of these traits from brief 15-30 minute interviews. My take as always been to find learners, not learned teachers.  I have always looked for teachers who have an innate joy and love of life.  I look for teachers who have demonstrated leadership and goal aquisition in the past.  I look for teachers who have perserverved, not through hardship, but toward a single-minded high standard for the student learning experience.  My common sense is once again confirmed as noted by Ripley when she quotes the Journal of Positive Psychology.

In a study published in The Journal of Positive Psychology in November 2009, they evaluated 390 Teach for America instructors before and after a year of teaching. Those who initially scored high for “grit”—defined as perseverance and a passion for long-term goals, and measured using a short multiple-choice test—were 31 percent more likely than their less gritty peers to spur academic growth in their students. Gritty people, the theory goes, work harder and stay committed to their goals longer. (Grit also predicts retention of cadets at West Point, Duckworth has found.)

Interestingly this hit a nerve with me.  It makes a lot of common sense.

Grit.  Stamina. A learner. Flexible. Adaptable. Grit.

Technorati Tags: recruiting, hiring, great teachers, bad teachers, supervision and evaluation, Atlantic Monthly, What Makes a Great Teacher?

Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/68898571@N00/3562074395

Tags: Atlantic Monthly, bad teachers, Educators, great teachers, hiring, K through 12, Mathematics, recruiting, supervision and evaluation, What Makes a Great Teacher?

Image via Wikipedia

Dispatch from the Road: Shanghai, Jin Qiao, January 13, 2010.  My first posting of the new year and new decade.
I have fallen a bit off the blogging wagon as of late, and need to step it up a bit more again.  This reflection habit keeps me a bit more balanced.  Shanghai winter is upon us and the dashboard says 30 degree F. / -1 C as I look over my driver’s shoulder.  Brrr….

==============================
Ok… you have to admit. You have toys in your house.  No matter what you do. No matter how old you are, you have toys!

One of my colleagues has an unfortunate addiction to golf clubs.  He has about 5 sets in his garage right next to his motorcycle and beer fridge.  All of these items he refers to as his toys. Another colleague loves woodworking and has an admirable set of woodworking tools that he refers to has his toys.  My toys have, in recent years, been computers.  I practically wore out a Macbook Pro keyboard by using it for both my amusement and my work for two consecutive years.  Does the fact that I used the computer for fun and entertainment make it less valuable as a tool for work, for my own efficiency and my own learning?  Other “toys” I have are sharp knives in my kitchen, great bowls for cooking, a turkey rack (see photo) and even that cute little metal thingy that I use to lace my poultry for quality cooking results.  All “toys” that I use to create, and enjoy!

I sit in the car this afternoon reflecting (no stewing) over an email I received from a community member stating that some people believe that technology tools — computers — have provided students with toys but “many” wonder about the buy back in terms of student learning.  The fact is that the students are, in our 1:1 program, really enjoying having full, unfettered use of their computers.  I believe the same holds true with the teachers.  The students have loaded on their own music, began building their own photo libraries. They have added bookmarks, tabs and links to the multiple browsers they use on their machines.  The really like their computers and have “fun” using them to learn, to communicate (formally and informally). They use them to create artwork, movies, podcasts, reports and documents. They use them to research, learn, comprehend and create new understandings about their world.  In short, it is a great learning toy… er… tool.

Applying a measure of common sense here, I believe that any school worth its salt would certainly choose to have students use tools they like and can customize to be their own, or not.

Using the argument about the “return on the investment”, I would argue the schools that choose the tools that are usable, motivational, fun and engaging get far more return on their investment than those who choose tools that are arduous, annoying, hard to use, not engaging (read boring here!) and laborious. Are we not here to get kids to engage deeply, passionately and with great fervor?

Thoughts?

Technorati Tags: students and computers, laptop programs, toys, tools, learning

Tags: laptop programs, learning, students and computers, tools, toys

I have been bouncing around the new Google Chrome beta for the Mac for the last couple of hours.  My first impressions are very positive. It seems faster and more robust.  I can’t say much more other than I am bouncing back and forth between 3 browsers now using Firefox, Safari and now Chrome to do my websurfing.  I am using Firefox here because of the Scribefire add-on I like to do my blogging with in the window below. I just moved this article over to Firefox to pull quotes….

Will Richardson writes about some of his thought on what it means to “get it”.   He notes that he recently made a trip to the George Lucas Educational Foundation annual meeting- he apparently is a board member-  and notes that one of the most common topics of conversation in his circles is the idea of people “getting it”. Not to over simplify things here but…. what the heck is he talking about?  Will, may I ask that you define “it”? 

At my level of work, I spend so much time trying to get people to understand “it” as well.  “It” means social learning. “It” means 21st century skills. “It” means basic educational standards.  “It” is not as simple as “it” seems. 

Will notes that “getting it” can be taken in three levels:

Level 1 seems to be “getting” that there are all these new tools and technologies out there and that we can now publish all sorts of content really easily. And that kids are already using social networks and that these tools are cropping up more and more in classrooms around the world. When I hear the question “How do we help other teachers to “get it?” ….

Level 2 takes it a step further and implies that “getting it” means that there is some real change involved in what’s happening right now, that it’s not just about tools, but about connections and building learning networks for ourselves and for our students…

Level 3 is not so much about what happens in our practice or in our classrooms but what happens to our schools. That at a time when learning can be individualized and where creativity and passion are just as important as reading and math, our expectations for the roles of schools in educating our kids have to be more than just playing on the edges.

Taken as a whole I can see where Will is going on this “it”.    The key question is not in finding the right answers, but in asking the right questions.  I, like Will, ask the same question (just in a different way).    It is not, “What should we be talking about?”.  Instead I think it is “What’s there to “get” anyway?

Speaking of “getting it” or not…. check out this post from ASCD scholar facilitator Tom Hoerr in his post “Better Leading Through Technology?” (blocked in China) Where he asks: 

But . . . is technology being marketed as a cure-all? Do we seek technological solutions where none is necessary?

Thanks Will for the great post!

Will Richardson, GLEF, George Lucas Education Foundation, Educational Technology, Leadership IT, ICT

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This just in off my smartbrief update from ASCD. This is an impressive list of ASCD Scholars representing educational leaders from around the world.

School Leadership in Theory and Practice
ASCD Conference Scholars — a group of teachers and administrators from across the U.S., Canada, Singapore, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates — are blogging and tweeting about school leadership in theory and in their own practice before, during and after ASCD’s 2010 Annual Conference in San Antonio. Readers can follow them and join the discussion on the ASCD blog and Twitter.

This looks like a great set of conversation starters! Share the link and dive in and participate!

Technorati Tags: ASCD, ASCD Scholars, Blogging, Twitter, ASCD2010

Tags: ASCD, ASCD Scholars, ASCD2010, Blogging, twitter

Funny thing just occurred to me the other day.  After nearly a full semester of working with new colleagues, I looked up and realized that I still think about those folks I have worked with last year and wonder what they would say about a particular issue or problem.  The impact of a resignation can range from severe to a mere annoyance.  One particular resignation has been on my mind lately and I have to write about it.

I am speaking of my friend Craig.  He was a master at handling PR situations with grace and style.  He, in his own way, connected with me and with all the other people in our organization.  He did this through humor (noting on this years calendar the birthday of a Twins catcher on April 19), through life experience and through thoughtful, reflective questioning developed through his work as a journalist.

What makes Craig missed instead of missing?  In my opinion it is his ability to connect his work to all facets of the organization. It is by keeping in mind that what we do in our own small part has a significant impact on all parts, and if we move forward ignoring that fact, then we we leave… well… we would be just missing, not missed.

I hate using baseball analogies (preferring golf instead) but will here.  One should think like a catcher, keeping your eye on the entire field, directing the pitches and catching everything coming your way. Sometimes you’re the leader, sometimes you just make the pitcher look great.  Either way, if you leave you will be missed. If you don’t deliver, you will shortly be missing.

Thanks Craig for the laugh!

Joe Mauer card image from http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/pics/joe_mauer_autograph.jpg.Technorati Tags: professionalism, connections, leadership

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Tags: Baseball, Joe Mauer

I had a nice compliment this week from visiting consultants we had at school. In our debrief with them at the end of an intense week of embedded PD, they noted to me that they liked working at my school because I keep my job focused on the big picture. Hmm… I thought… the “big picture”.   What exactly does that mean?

After it is all said and done, my search for the view from 35000 feet continues to keep me up at night. I wake up suddenly with a start and realize that we had not thought of this or that, and I really need to hone in on that idea further.  One of those is the role of libraries in our effort to provide a balanced digital and print environment to our students.  Yes… that’s right.. BALANCED!  Seeing as how the idea of balance needs to be defined, I was glad to see that one of my favorite blogger authors Doug Johnson (note:this site is blocked in China) has co-authored an article with Joyce Kasman Valenza in the School Library Journal titled “Things That Keep Us Up at Night”. (SLJ, 10/1/09) The article is targeted at librarians, but really has hit home with our administrative team at my school this week as well.  They write…

The future of the school library as a relevant and viable institution is largely dependent on us and how quickly we respond to change.

Libraries are no different than the classroom environment in many ways. The library, like the classroom is beginning to face an identity crisis of sorts.  The role of the learning space is being stretched by always available, always accessible and always relevant resources at the fingertips of the students.  The people who run libraries and classrooms are facing a sea of changing faces, with our students being completely at home in the digital environment and engaged in what seems like so many, many things simultaneously. Some of it good, and some of it bad and some of it useless and some it needing the guiding hand of a

trained professional educator, while other parts of it can be easily mined, harvested and mashed-up and republished.  Johnson and Kasman Valenza note that the challenge of keeping up with these trends will keep us all busy. Again, speaking to librarians they state,

Look around your state conferences. How many of your colleagues graduated from library school more than 20 years ago? Remember what the landscape looked like in 1989? How do we stay one step ahead of our staff and students in information accessing, evaluation, use, and communication in order to be seen as experts and collaborators? Do we know more about current information strategies than our school’s technology coach? No excuses. We must! If we are truly information professionals, we need not only to keep up, but also be on the cutting edge of changes in the search and information landscapes.

My favorite part of the article though speaks to “Advocacy by nonlibrarians”.  Here they write:

Rather than creating a perfect library, we need to reshape our thinking and create the perfect library for our individual institution. We can do this by changing our mind-set from adopting best practices as defined by our own professional organization to adopting a “customer service/support” orientation by crafting goals that support the larger goals of the organization.

Should this not hold true for all parts of our schools?  The best part of this though is that this is librarians thinking about and discussing their craft knowledge and reapplying it to a potentially new setting with a focus on the goals of the larger organization.  This is big picture thinking in action!  No wonder they can’t sleep. This is exciting stuff!

The authors write at the end of their article a bit of a call to action for libraries and librarians.  The word apathy certainly is written here, but I that the gist of the message is that without urgent action educational change, technological change and the variety of political forces in schools will define the role of the library for us.  I agree with the authors when they state their clear warning that:

Our best librarians will evolve, adapt, and thrive in effective
schools. But will they be called librarians? And will they be in
sufficient numbers for the profession as a whole to survive?

From 35000 feet I know that some things will be changing soon.

—————————————————-

Flickrstorm Photo Tagged “38800 FT” on : http://www.flickr.com/photos/20420218@N04/3903688501

Tags: digital resources, Doug Johnson, librarians, Library, school libraries, School library, School Library Journal, Technology

In my last post, I noted that I’d been saving this bookmark in my computer for quite a while.  Sean Nash from the blog nashworld wrote in July about the “Four Pillars of Technology Integration.” I wrote last week about our experiences with our Challenge Based Learning workshops that we were hosting in the month of September.  Today, I would like to explore the ideas that Sean has written about focusing on “Unfiltered, Ubiquitous Access”.

Sean spends a lot of time and lines writing about the requirements of the law in his state. The US has a lot of people telling each other what kids should and could see in their school networks, all the while the little darlings are going home and REALLY wanting to explore those sites because there are adults who have told them NOT to go there. Sigh… same story now as it was in the old days when boys would cruise the magazine racks for the occasional adult reading material so easily in their reach and so easily accessible.  Same holds true today.  But… that is not what I want to reflect on here.   Instead I would like to write about Sean’s comments around the ubiquity of the tools that may or may not be blocked in his district. The fact is that we all have a goal in our technology implementations that Sean describes so well.  He states:

Soon after access is all around you, it doesn’t even feel like “technology,” it just feels like the way things are done.  This is a good thing, for when technology becomes invisible, we can finally focus on the value added from new uses of these tools.  The world is moving quickly toward wireless access in all corners.

In my schools, we are now operating on a new wireless network and finding that it has freed us up in so many new ways.  Truthfully, the power of this tool alone is worth the price of educational admission at most schools, where roaming bands of learners find that access is found in any corner of the campus. We worked to ensure that the access is fully realized in the fields, cafeterias, student lounges and playgrounds with the realization that we need to have access where the students are located and stop worrying so much about locating the students in a lab or classroom.  By developing that freedom of space, you also free up the time of your community to learn and grow in any space and at any time.

Ultimately though it does come down to getting the machines in the hands of the students.  Sean writes:

If your school isn’t at a 1:1 ratio of students to laptop computers… and the students don’t take them home with them night by night, all year long… then you don’t yet have an ideal learning environment for 2009 in my opinion.

If you are a regular reader of my blog then you know how I feel.  Frankly speaking, I believe I have staked a lot of my career on the belief that a learner needs the tools of thought, voice, action and deed.  For a construction worker a shovel may be the tool of his trade, or another it may be a ruler, level or even his voice. For a learner, the tool of information access, information creation and information processing is currently a laptop computer. I cannot even imagine getting my work done without it.  I also have to ask how a student can get through school without the tool that virtually every adult uses day in and day out. Computers, whether on a desk or in a bag, are here to stay and getting more and more accessible each and every day.

In our CBL workshops we spend some time talking about the effects that the computers in each student’s hands will have on the working relationship that teachers and students develop over time.  The fact is that by giving students access like a laptop will certain democratize and “flatten” the social structure of a classroom. All of a sudden the teacher is not the ONLY resource to student for knowledge and in fact, the knowledge held in the head of an instructor may be “dated” or even wrong.  This, of course, moves all conversations to classroom management.  Frankly speaking I have been struggling finding resources for teachers on classroom management that will make them feel empowered and more comfortable.  Some of the more sage instructors will tell me (and their colleagues) that “good classroom management is good classroom management, laptops or not”. 
While I want to believe that is mostly true, I do think there will be some “figuring out” how to make it all work.  Thanks to my friend Blair Peterson, I was sent to the Friday Institute for Educational Innovations which is coordinating a study of 1:1 classrooms in North Carolina.  I found some great resources there and a great NING that is growing up and taking shape.  Take a look!

Laptop Friendly photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/81374383@N00/521630871
Technorati Tags: FIEI, Friday Institute of Educational Innovations, 1:1, Unfiltered Access, Ubiquitious Access

Tags: Classroom management, Education, Educators, K through 12, Sean Nash, Technology

I’ve been saving this bookmark in my computer for quite a while.  Sean Nash from the blog “Nashworld” wrote July about the “Four Pillars of Technology Integration.” and has created a very nice graphic to go along with the post (noting there that he spent too much time on the graphic).  I on the other hand will use it here (to the left) with FULL attribution!  Thanks Sean! Please check out the post!

What I want to write about today though is his initial insights into technological transformation. We worked through some training with our teachers over the past two weeks focusing on what we tried to represent as Challenge Based Learning to our teaching community.  The idea, sprouting from input from Apple Distinguished Educators who are part of our teaching staff, grew into a two day experience for all teachers in the classrooms which will be part of our 1:1 laptop implementation this year.  All in all, the workshops are going well, and have show to have teachers experience what I expected.   Some teachers to be struggled with technology. Some teachers found initial, early and dynamic success. Some teachers rebelled against the idea of the computers taking over their classrooms (and thus their lives). Other embraced the ideas shared and discussed and will be successful right away.  I also continue to believe that success will find us in our classrooms around this program due to our classroom teacher’s drive to use all the tools that are in their reach and the students love of the digital environment that they live in right now.  I believe our school has made some strong, agressive and noteworthy steps to get from what Mr. Nash states as “behind the curve” of technological transformation and instead get out in front of the crowd to distinguish our program from those that have come before us.

What initally connected to me in his post has nothing to do with the specifics of the Four Pillars of Technology integration, but instead it was his statement about the filters one applies as we consider as we retool schools along the lines of technological transformation.  Sean states:

If there is no way to see any of the individual trees in a forest, you are likely going to be forced to start your mission with a whole-forest view to begin with.  This is not a bad thing.

He then outlines two important thoughts:

1) You don’t need a flashlight.  It’s not that dark in there anymore.  Trust that there are others who have proceeded down this path before you, and they have learned many important lessons.  Collaborate.  Learn from their successes and failures.  Do not go it alone.  Resist the temptation to slap a digital device in the hands of each student and call it success.  Have a plan.

2) Rarely do we get to make decisions with the clarity that a little distance provides.  Take your time (but hurry).  Ask yourself: what can we do with these new tools available today that we couldn’t do before?  If we could remake our curriculum any way we wanted, how would we do it?  Think transformation of the way teaching and learning is done in your district, as opposed to integration into it as it exists.

This is just the message I wanted to have the teachers EXPERIENCE in the workshops we have been providing. That’s right… EXPERIENCE.  If we spend time taling at the issue (which we also did a very, very small amount of in the two days together), we miss our own point.  Frankly, I am a strong believer in the common sense approach that says that you can tell people things like this over and over, but as I learned in “Influencer” if you show and demonstrate, rather than tell will garner fuller more expansive results in our efforts.

Thus our results show (after reviewing the progress and the exit survey results) that we did a decent job of addressing the following goals:

1. To provide teachers with the opportunity to become more aware of the power of the laptop computers the students will have full access to through this program.
2. To provide teachers an opportunity to engage in a collaborative and collegial learning experience in the same way the students may engage in our classrooms.
3. To provide the teachers in the 1:1 classrooms time to examine the challenges of classroom management in a technology rich environment and develop thoughtful strategies on how to address these concerns.
4. To provide teachers an understanding of the logistical processes involved in getting technical help, additional resources and integration support at Shanghai American School.

Did we feel like we needed to give out teachers a flashlight like Sean mentions?  No, we did not.  Some, admittedly stumbled around in the dark a bit, but for the most part we met the needs of the groups (which were large and diverse).  We encouraged teachers to “Collaborate.” Some– no most– “Learn(ed) from their successes and failures. Teachers in our school learned that they “Do not (have to)go it alone”. No, we did not “slap a digital device in the hands of each student and call it success.”

Thanks Sean for the inspirational post that helped my reflections. I will reflect more on the remaining part of the post later.

Tags: Apple, Classroom management, Education, Educators, K through 12, Shanghai American School, Teacher, Technology

Image via Wikipedia

Ok… I am on a roll here, and I as type this in the car on the way back to my home campus here in Shanghai, I am watching a news podcast that is highlighting the response to the United States President’s plan to speak to students in schools about “goal setting and hard work”.  Apparently there are some – labeled “indoctrinators”- who believe that this should not happen as this is just another way for the left wing folks in the US to indoctrinate the children into the “cult of Obama”.  Sadly the discourse is more of the same, with little intellectual conversation, but instead, a more guttaral response to someone they do not like.  What next… a Joe McCarthy-like panel?  Perhaps a front runner candidate for the presidentency from the John Birch Society?  Where is this type of leadership leading us to in the long run. Is there some strategic thought here?  If so, I would like to see the long term goals here!

So… I go back to Wikipedia’s definition of bullying:

“the act of intentionally causing harm to others, through verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion such as manipulation. Bullying can be defined in many different ways. Although the UK currently has no legal definition of bullying,^[2] some US states have laws against it. Bullying is usually done to coerce others by fear or threat.”

It makes all to much common sense that this sort of behavior by a small faction in our world can inhibit free speech by spouting the extreme retoric, it certainly does have the effects of 1) drowning out the less compelling and more cerebral conversations and 2) pushing the more thoughtful, reasonable and intellectual people to the point of being unwilling to speak for fear of being portrayed as ignominious and shameful members of our society. I call this bullying.  The are using verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion such as manipulation and it is WRONG!

Even the Telegraph out of the UK notes the trend in the recent article “50 Things that are being killed by the Internet”. Their #1 thing being killed-  The Art of polite disagreement.  Author Matthew Moore states:

While the inane spats of YouTube commencers may not be representative, the internet has certainly sharpened the tone of debate. The most raucous sections of the blogworld seem incapable of accepting sincerely held differences of opinion; all opponents must have “agendas”.

My online collaborator Brian commented on my last post asking what is there to do? He said:

I’m seeing this professional digital bully trend happening quite a bit. I sense there is a new form of bullying happening between many of the early adopters and the establishment. The power of these tools is tremendous. It’s placing some who are a niched minority in educational institutions, into a quasi blogging stardom of the world. Some in the establishment may find this a threat and in effect the bullying starts.

My answers:
1.  Recognize and LABEL bullying.  The labeling of such behaviors make all of us take notice of exactly what it is and how we, in our effort to ignore it marginalizes it to acceptable parts of our world.

2.  After recognizing it, ignore it.

3. If they continue, then apply discipline when possible.  If in school, suspend or expel priviliedges of either school activities, school attendance.  If in the “real world”, press charges, apply legal recourse or notify authorities.

4.  Protect the innocent.

5.  Apply a SPAM blocker and tell your friends to do the same.  After a while even the nice people at Google and Yahoo! will take notice.  If nothing else, you don’t have to read the garbage in your own email box.

6.  If they have a web page that is getting lots of traffic, explode a Google bomb on them and do searches on alternative sights that have a more reasonable approach.  I’ve seen this work in the past pushing the more obscene and obnoxious to the less famous 2nd page of searches where the less famous web publishers are pushed to forever!

Technorati Tags: Online Bullying, Polite disagreement, intelligent debate

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Wikipedia descibes bullying as….

“the act of intentionally causing harm to others, through verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion such as manipulation. Bullying can be defined in many different ways. Although the UK currently has no legal definition of bullying,^[2] some US states have laws against it. Bullying is usually done to coerce others by fear or threat.”

Recently, I have observed the extension of this sort of behavior into what most of us would consider realms that would not be consider appropriate for this behavior before (not that even a back alley way or drug den would embrace such behavior either!).  As an American expat, I have been appalled by the behavior of the opponents of health care reform in the US.  They have come out of the wood work using tactics like “verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion such as manipulation.”  Over and over the people on the news keep asking each other if they have seen this kind of behavior before and over and over, they express their shock, dismay and awe at the tactics of these people. Today, I watched on one show a woman in a wheelchair publically outlining her medical issues to a congressman while members of the audience (many who were standing in the backrow) were yelling and screaming at her.

Sadly, I have to say I have seen similar tactics in schools over the 23 years I have worked with children and their families.  In the past, I would see these issues as one-off, disruptive, often unbalanced individuals.  Some of these people had long term mental health issues. Others were labeled alcoholics, druggies and criminals.  As of late, I have begun to see this behavior being perpetrated not by these sorts of people, but by “respected” members of the community in schools in the US and in some international schools.

My colleagues are reporting similar complaints at small international schools, colleges, and even in the larger international schools.  My school, so far, as been immune to the public displays of such behavior and thankfully, our discourse remains polite, respectful and constructive (on the surface anyway!).

The members of many of these communities under stress are unwilling, or perhaps unable to have a civil conversation, or even polite disagreements.  All conflicts are perceived as win/lose, good/bad, pure/evil for those who come to school with a concern.  The digital environment has made this more underhanded and mean.  In just a few minutes, I can create an anonymous email account and send 10-15 emails making allegations, threats, lies or insults and nobody is the wiser.  This is adults committing cyber-bulling!  Yes folks, that’s right. We have full grown adults (with children!) going out and doing google searches in order to find people to insult,harass, assault, coerce and manipulate.

According toe How to Stop Cyber Bullying.org cyber-bullies have a different profile than the off-line counterparts.  While I understand that to be true, I see the goal to be the same for both.  It is through insult,harassment, assault, coercion and manipulation, that the bully somehow gains power.

My response to this behavior (face to face and digital bullying) is always silence.  I will, at all cost ignore the ignorance right up until it hurts a child or one of those people of which I supervise. Then I will step in. Behavior like this bring up more questions than answers, but My question is one I ask myself often:

“If my children were watching, would I want them to do the same thing to their teachers or principals?”

Or….. as Thumper says:

“If can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

Top graphic from http://www.flickr.com/photos/47753500@N00/3525111678
Bullying article referred to from wikipedia is found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullying
Thumper from http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:TxO8z789CaJEQM:http://disney-clipart.com/bambi/jpg/Thumper-1-lg.jpg

Tags: Bullying, Emotional Health and Wellbeing, Kids and Teens, Violence and Abuse