Response to NYT Op-Ed “There’s Only One Way to Stop a Bully”

| By: Committee for Children

This week's blog post is Committee for Children's response to the New York Times Op-Ed “There’s Only One Way to Stop a Bully.”

In their op-ed about preventing bullying in schools, Susan Engel and Marlene Sandstrom successfully make the important point that schools need to take a comprehensive approach to bullying prevention and student safety. Such an approach includes teaching students the skills they need to get along, resolve conflicts, and create positive peer cultures.

The authors are correct that both staff and students need to learn how to identify and respond appropriately to bullying. For staff, this includes recognizing that bullying inherently involves a power imbalance, which means that approaches developed for peer conflicts, such as mediation, are inappropriate for handling bullying. Instead, students who are bullied should be counseled and supported, and those who bully should be warned, then given consequences if bullying continues.

The authors also correctly point out the complexity of children’s social interactions, including bullying. Bullying is often a way to gain social status and can be encouraged by peers, even unwittingly. Students need to understand the power they have as bystanders to bullying and what they can do to help stop it.

Legislation can help move schools to take action to protect their students against the ravages of bullying and victimization. But what actions should they take? The article recommends a “much deeper rethinking of what schools should do for their students,” and expresses concern that schools will seek superficial compliance with new laws through purchasing anti-bullying curricula. However, effectively teaching students new skills and attitudes requires more than a teacher’s kindness and good will.

Research has shown that implementing high-quality social-emotional learning (SEL) curricula effectively builds important skills and reduces school violence and aggression. In addition, although the authors are rightly concerned that pressure to increase scores on standardized tests may reduce schools’ focus on healthy child development, new research has shown that SEL curricula not only improve social skills and peer relations, they can also significantly increase scores on standardized tests.

Today’s educational climate is marked by a new level of attention to data and accountability. However, the U.S. Department of Education is helping to expand the definition of what gets measured to include school safety, bullying, and student engagement, through new funding targeted at creating Safe and Successful Schools. To see change in these areas, schools will need to implement strategies that have been shown to be effective across a wide range of schools.

Some of the most effective interventions available to schools to improve student skills, decrease bullying, and improve student engagement are carefully designed curricula. Healthy development of our children should not be left to chance any more than successful academic learning.