Introduction
Bullying. Why is
this topic so important? We hear this term a lot in schools, communities,
colleges and society. This term has
become very important since the Rutgers incident about two years ago. Now in
the state of New Jersey teachers have to be trained in bullying, (harassment, intimidation,
and bullying HIB) and cyber bullying. Bullying can be defined as, “a
blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgers and
intimidates smaller or weaker people.” (Dictionary.com)Teachers and adults need
to know the signs of when a child is being bullied or picked on. This has
become very prominent in the schools and the teachers who witness this have to
take action to stop it.
Bullying can shape a child’s life for the good and the
bad. Either a child learns to overcome it or deal with it or a child will let
the bullying bother them through adulthood. We as a society have seen/ read
about bullying affecting children. There have been many studies and articles
done about childhood bullying. But have we ever read / discovered how adults
who were bullied as children are doing today/ dealing with it or overcame
bullying? That is why this study needs to be done! We as a society need to
explore this situation to better familiar ourselves with adults who have been
bullied and how they are doing today.
In a study done by Timo Terasahjo and Christine
Salmivalli, they explore children being bullied today and seeing how they are coping
with being bullied today. I will challenge the way of how we should view adults
who have been bullied and focus more of their story instead of just reading
another article of how children are dealing with this.
I recently sat down with a young adult who shared her
thoughts and views about how she was bullied as a child. I have gotten her
feedback about how she dealt with this as a child and how she learned to
overcome this part in her life now as an adult. The three codes that will be
explored are language, emotional connection and sentence structure.
Literature
Review
This literature review is called “She is not
actually bullied. The discourse of harassment in student groups.” By Timo
Terasahjo and Christine Salmivalli. These two people interviewed and observed
students in elementary school. They got the students input about how they feel
about being bullied. This study is a good idea to read if you only focus on
children. I am more focused about how adults are dealing with bullying.
Terasahjo and Salmivaii say, “anti-bullying attitudes were stronger than
pro-bullying attitudes.” This might be true, but then how come we as a society
always hear of a bullying case every day. We only hear the bad and never the
good. I want to know more the positive outcomes of how adults dealt and
overcame bullying. In the study the children identified bullying as, “…described
indirect (e.g. spreading nasty rumors and social isolation) as well as direct (hitting,
name calling) aggressive behavior.” This
is all typical behavior of elementary students. Now the big question will be
how those students are going to handle these situations. They need to be able
to learn from these situations in order to grow and become strong adults. If
the students let the other students bother them then the outcomes might be
severe if they never learn to overcome being bullied.
“Bullying
as justified, including the interpretative repertoires of “odd student” and “deserving”
which construct the victim as a negatively deviant student who also deserves to
be treated with hostility, are described.”
These are all things
that need to be addressed as a young child. Children need to learn how to
identify this behavior as negative and report this to an adult or a teacher.
This type of behavior needs to stop in order for the children to grow up in a
positive way.
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