Dear Reader:
I have written the article below about why anti-bullying laws can't
succeed. I believe it is one of the most important pieces I have ever
written on the subject of bullying. There is an item of news about anti-bullying
programs that is so important everyone should know about it, but no
one does. Feel free to reprint the following article in other media,
as long as you notify me in advance and cite me as the author.
Why Anti-Bullying Laws Are
Doomed to Fail
The Shocking Statistics about Anti-Bullying Programs
Almost a year has passed since the publication of a scientific report
of such momentous importance that it should have caused an uproar in
the Western world and made headlines in all newspapers. Instead, the
information has fallen on deaf ears and one must play the detective
to track it down.
The fourth quarter 2004 issue of the School Psychology Review, the
research journal of the National Association of School Psychologists,
published the findings of Canadian Psychologist, J. David Smith, PhD,
of the University of Ottawa, in a paper entitled "The Effectiveness
of Whole-School Anti-Bullying Programs: A Synthesis of Evaluation Research."
He had conducted a meta analysis of all the research studies on the
effectiveness of whole-school anti-bullying programs. Guess what he
discovered. They don't work!
As Dr. Smith reports, "…86% of victimization outcomes [reports by victims
of program benefits] were negligible or negative and the remaining 14%
of reported effects were positive (albeit small). For self-reported
bullying, 100% of the reported effects were negligible or negative."
Given the tendency of research to go in the direction researchers hope
it will, the results may be even worse than what these studies indicate.
And we can only imagine the terrible things we would discover if researchers
actually set out to measure the harmful effects of anti-bullying programs,
such as promotion of a victim-mentality, pushing "bullies" to become
more anti-social, wrongful punishment, diverting precious class time
from academics, turning students against each other, and creating family
feuds.
When less damning results are found for a medication, it's immediately
pulled off the shelves and the manufacturer faces law-suits in the billions
of dollars.
In the six years since Columbine, the US has spent hundreds of millions
of dollars while wasting countless hours of class time on anti-bullying
programs that don't work and even cause harm. Meanwhile, State after
State, at the urging of mental health organizations and parent lobbying
associations, is passing anti-bullying laws making schools responsible
for stopping students from bullying each other. They will have to depend
on anti-bullying programs that don't work! Parents will become enriched
by lawsuits against their schools for failing to stop their children
from being bullied. But, amazingly, no one seems to care that these
programs don't work. Why?
Why Does No One Care?
Because we don't want to. We have all experienced the misery of being
a victim at one time or another, and our "inner-victim" wants revenge.
How nice to finally have a scientist-blessed anti-bully movement that
makes it legitimate to blame and hate others for our misery.
We adults haven't yet figured out how to protect ourselves from the
bullies in our lives, and we sure wish that someone would do it for
us. So we've decided to give our children the security we ourselves
have never known. Oh, the excitement of playing knights in shining armor
protecting virtuous victims from the evil bullies in school!
A researcher discovers that the programs don't work? They may even
make matters worse? So what! We're not about to let our beloved anti-bully
crusade (and the millions of "free" dollars) be threatened by facts.
Fighting bullies is the moral thing to do no matter how much destruction
we leave in our wake. We love our big white horses and gleaming armor,
and no one's going to take them away!
What Aristotle Could Have Told Us
In case you are curious, would you like to know why anti-bully policies
don't work? It's because they can't - never have, never will. Aristotle
figured that out 2400 years ago.
Aristotle, the most influential thinker in the history of the Western
world, advocated for good government and for providing maximum rights
to people. Yet even he knew, "The one thing that no state or government
can do, no matter how good it is, is to make its citizens morally virtuous."
(Mortimer Adler, in "Aristotle for Everybody"; McMillan Publishing Company,
1978).
But this is precisely what the anti-bully movement is trying to do
- guarantee our children a life surrounded by morally virtuous people.
In other words - saints. Strange as this may sound, if you carefully
inspect the academic definition of bullying, you'll realize that anyone
who doesn't meet the criteria of sainthood is a "bully":
In other words, whenever you treat someone in a way they don't like,
you are a bully.
Who Started It?
Prof. Dan Olweus, the Finnish psychologist who conducted research on
bullying in the 1970's, is known as the "father" of the anti-bully movement,
and all the popular programs are based on his guidelines. In his book,
"Bullying at School" (Blackwell Publishing, 1993) he calls it a "fundamental
democratic principle" that "every individual should have the right to
be spared oppression and repeated, intentional humiliation, in school
as in society at large."
By "oppression" Olweus is not talking about slavery or forced prostitution;
he is talking about any action that bothers anyone else - things all
of us do occasionally. Olweus apparently never studied government or
philosophy, or he would have understood that this is not, and cannot
be, a fundamental democratic principle. The place where no one does
anything bad to anyone else is called Heaven, and you have to live an
entire life as a good person in this world and then die in a "state
of grace" to gain entrance. Democracy, even at its best, is not Heaven
on Earth.
Why can't a government (and this includes that of a school) "make its
citizens morally virtuous", as the anti-bully policies are attempting?
A little logical thinking will provide the answer.
Aristotle explains that moral behavior is a choice; it can't be forced
on people. It sure would be terrific if a government could simply decree
its citizens to be saints. If this were possible, world peace would
have been achieved long ago.
But, as Aristotle knew, it is not human nature to be saints. Making
it a crime to do anything that someone else doesn't like would lead
to a totalitarian police state, with the government controlling every
minute interaction between its citizens. Let's say we work together
and for whatever reasons you can't stand my personality. You don't want
to include me in your lunch group, so I get you arrested for "relational
aggression." You think I rolled my eyes when you spoke at a meeting,
so this time you get me arrested for "hostile gestures". You disagree
with me at a meeting, and it really upsets me when people challenge
my opinions in public, so I get you arrested again.
A moral society, by definition, cannot be achieved through legislation.
Instead of creating Heaven on Earth, anti-bullying laws would turn society
into a Living Hell.
Expecting the Absurd
Let's look at the practical application of anti-bully policies in school.
We're students and you pick on me. I tell the teacher. S/he says to
you, "Bullying will not be tolerated. You have to be nice to people.
Bully Izzy again and you'll be sent to the counselor. And if that doesn't
help, you're going to be punished, even expelled." That's supposed to
make you respect me and want to be nice? It will make you want to beat
me up after school, or to look for an opportunity to get me in trouble
with the teacher.
Or let's say that the program has taught student bystanders to stand
up for victims. A kid sees you insulting me and says, "Hey, bullying
isn't cool! You leave Izzy alone!" Are you going to say to me, "Gee
whizz, I didn't realize I wasn't cool. Izzy, won't you please forgive
me and be my friend?"
Only a fool would expect kids to react in this way, yet this is precisely
what our mental health professionals and educators are hoping, and even
expecting, will happen!
Do as I Say, Not as I Do
Anti-bully programs are based on the idea that bullying is a learned
behavior. Just as kids have learned to be bullies, they now need to
be taught how to be saints. Who, exactly, is going to teach our kids
to be saints? You and I? Who do you think they could have learned bullying
from in the first place?! Can we honestly tell our kids: "Learn from
us how to treat people. Have you noticed how respectful we are to our
spouses, and that we never get divorced? And of course we are never
mean to our children. We would never say a bad word about our parents,
siblings, in-laws, colleagues and bosses - not even behind their backs!
We all attend the Non-Discriminatory Church of Universal Acceptance
and live in peaceful, integrated neighborhoods."
Let's look at what my own research has been revealing about us. About
one thousand mental health professionals and educators have filled out
my Bullying Survey. 47% of them answered Yes to this item: "There
is at least one person in my life that gets angry with me fairly regularly."
This means that almost half of these professionals are currently bullying
someone. (People don't get angry when you are treating them the way
they want to be treated, i.e., respectfully, kindly.)
To the item, "There is at least one person in my life that I get
angry with fairly regularly," 57% answered Yes. This means that
more than half of mental health professionals and educators are currently
feeling victimized and they don't know how to make the bullying stop.
Furthermore, the academic bullying experts define anger as an act of
bullying. So by getting angry, these same 57% are simultaneously being
bullies. That's because when you get angry, you feel like a victim,
but you look like a bully!
6% of respondents answered affirmatively to, "I have a child who
gets hit by other kids in school at least once a day."
21% answered Yes to, "My children hit each other at least once a
day."
This means that children of mental health professionals and educators
are three-and-a-half times more likely to be hit by a sibling at home
than by a kid in school. If experts at human relations do such a lousy
job of protecting a couple of their own kids from each other at home,
how in the world can they expect one teacher to protect thirty kids
from each other in school? The answer is that they shouldn't expect
it, but they do anyway.
The Only One Who Can Solve the Bullying Problem
As Aristotle understood so well, there are things a government can
do for you and things it can't. Government can only give you things
that money can buy. It can pay for teachers, but it can't make you learn.
It can pay for health care, but it can't make you healthy. It can pay
for police to protect you from crime, but it can't guarantee that you'll
never be a victim of it.
And one thing it absolutely cannot do is provide you with a world of
saints. It can, at best, punish people for not being nice to you. But
then, one of the nastiest things you can do to a person is to get them
punished by the authorities. So how can the government guarantee you
a world of nice people when you're allowed to be so mean?
If we are to have any chance of achieving a meaningful reduction in
bullying, there is one fact we all need to recognize: There is only
one person in the world who can get people to treat you well. And that
person is you.
Movie Recommendation: Turtles Can Fly
I recently watched this particularly touching and painful film, and
I feel I must recommend it to everyone (not children, though). Turtles
Can Fly is a Kurdish film by director/writer Bahman Ghobadi, and is
proof that some of the best movies are not made by Hollywood. The modern
world is so concerned about the "horrible crimes" like name-calling
and "relational aggression" that our children have to endure.
Watch this film and you will see the true meaning of resilience. Most
of the actors in this film are children, some of them severely handicapped.
Their performance is amazing. See it. You won't be disappointed.
Best Wishes,
Izzy Kalman
email: izzy@bullies2buddies.com
voice: (718) 983-1333
web: http://www.bullies2buddies.com
