Education Special Section ‘You’re Not Like Me’ Educators Seek Ways To Help Students Deal With Bias, Bullying by Carolyn Cosmos According to Rosalind Wiseman, the founder of programs to prevent violence and promote diversity in U.S. schools, there are many ways people use power over each other. “One of the ways is to tell others, ‘You’re not like me; you’re not my people’ or, ‘You’re not from this country and you don’t have the right to be here,’” she said. In a school setting, such toxic power plays can take the form of children bullying each other based on bias or mistreatment meted out by adults. Other incidents can be the byproduct of ignorance or miscommunication. But all create hurt, and if severe enough, prolonged and left unaddressed, especially with a vulnerable child, they can cause serious damage. So what can schools and parents do to head all this off and help children deal with it if it does occur? The following prevention solutions and coping tips are recommended by Wiseman and other diversity experts. They won’t solve all of the problems—but they’re a good place to start. And although the focus here is on the classroom, they offer techniques that can be used elsewhere. Battling Bias Basics First, schools need to have policies and programs in place to prevent bias and bullying and to deal with them if they occur. Next, elementary and high schools should promote diversity of all kinds through student enrollments and teacher hiring, as well as multicultural studies for students and diversity training for staff. In addition, these educator initiatives need home-based support. Parents can foster a family culture that respects people who are different. They can teach tolerance, emphasize the advantages of a multicultural environment, and talk about its challenges, presenting it as a way to expand skills and strengthen resiliency, for example. And finally, parents can—and should, experts advise—prepare their children to cope with bias and bullying in advance, then provide support if it occurs, and intervene promptly if it reaches even modest levels. “Don’t be passive. Be proactive,” advised D.C.-based national diversity expert and school consultant Randolph Carter, who runs annual diversity leadership conferences that are attended by public and private school students from Washington and elsewhere. Programs That Help Experienced educators say that school programs to foster diversity, prevent bias, and cope with bullying aren’t new. However, more attention is being paid to bias and bullying in schools in the wake of mass shootings such as the murder-suicides at Colorado’s Columbine High School in 1999 and the more recent massacre at Virginia Tech, a state university where 32 teachers and students were killed in April. Analysis of the suicidal school shooters suggests that social isolation, being ostracized, taunted or bullied may have played some part in triggering these tragedies, possibly affecting students already in a disturbed or fragile state. Violence-prevention and anti-bias programs such as Wiseman’s “Owning Up” curriculum are increasingly popular, as are zero-tolerance school bullying policies that are supplanting the previously widespread “kids-will-be-kids” attitudes and other laissez-faire policies. Wiseman, who grew up in Washington, D.C., recalled the anger she felt when she heard that a teacher “in one of the best public school systems in the country” had openly derided a foreign student as “F.O.B.,” or “fresh off the boat”—and she decided to do something about it. Discovering her calling, Wiseman developed a curriculum for schools based on the belief that each person has a responsibility to treat themselves and others with dignity. “Owning Up” has been adopted by schools nationwide. In addition, Wiseman has provided hands-on diversity and tolerance training to thousands of teachers and students across the country, promoted tolerance programs through fundraisers, and written two best-selling books about school cliques. In fact, the popular teen movie “Mean Girls” was based on her book “Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence.” She also recently addressed parents dealing with their own adult clique attacks in a new book, “Queen Bee Moms & Kingpin Dads.” In addition to Wiseman, other experts include Randolph Carter, a diversity services consultant with the DEAK (Dedicated to Education and Kids) Group of Ohio and a senior associate with D.C.’s Eastern Educational Resource Collaborative, who offers professional development training to teachers and helps schools develop anti-bias strategies. His annual Student Diversity Leadership Conference, held at Landon School in Bethesda, Md., last March, drew 500 students and 75 teachers from 30 schools. A similar conference for middle school students was held in Alexandria, Va., in February. Educators and parents can also turn to Little Friends for Peace, a nonprofit based in Takoma Park, Md., that trains children ages 4 to 11 and their caregivers, including teachers, in non-violence skills and conflict resolution through day camps (called “Peace Camps”), workshops, play groups and leadership training sessions. Run by Mary Joan and Jerry Park, the nonprofit works with schools, churches, social service agencies and ad hoc groups of families—focusing on fun, creativity and the use games, art activities, music and original exercises. Diversity Benefits “It’s an advantage to a child to have different experiences with different people and to become a cultivated and sophisticated citizen of the world,” Wiseman said. “They can learn to navigate in a wider range of situations, develop empathy for outsiders from being the ‘odd person out’ from time to time, and develop social competencies that others lack.” Recent research backs up Wiseman and other advocates of diversity. Students in ethnically diverse classrooms were less frequently bullied compared to students in more homogenous classes, according to a study published last year in Psychological Science, which found that middle school students in a diverse classroom were less lonely and more apt to say they felt safe. But why would diversity have these effects? The University of California researchers behind the study speculate that a “balance of power” among ethnic groups may lead to less bullying, less harassment, increased social opportunities and more cross-cultural friendships. University of Maryland researchers found other benefits: Children in a diverse school setting were less likely to use racial and ethnic stereotypes when judging other children, reported Melanie Killen and Heidi McGlothlin in the September 2006 issue of the journal Child Development. Their research asked fourth-graders to interpret pictures of children from different races playing and studying together. White children in predominantly white schools were more likely to say negative things about minority children in the pictures than children at diverse schools. Conversely, at the diverse schools, neither white nor minority children displayed racial bias when interpreting the activities shown on the cards. Why? The researchers think that children who interact with kids from different ethnic backgrounds develop—in spite of frictions and ethnic cliques that can occur—“the ability to challenge the stereotypes they get in the culture,” according to Killen. Preventing Problems Early How can you instill such an abstract concept as “tolerance” in the very young or protect them when they are away from home and the dominant culture is different? Experts tell us it’s important to give young children a positive sense of their own identity, provide them with appropriate social skills, make sure their classroom is welcoming, and educate others if needed. Young children primarily experience their cultural identity as family identity, explained Peter Pizzolongo, director of training and professional development for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), which deals with early childhood education, defined as birth through the third grade. Teaching tolerance to young children is, therefore, foremost a family affair, according to Pizzolongo, who said it is up to the parents or guardians to set examples and establish guidelines for how to treat other people. “The early years are the time to begin helping children form strong, positive self images and grow up to respect and get along with people who are different from themselves,” NAEYC literature says. “We know from research that children between 2 and 5 start becoming aware of gender, race, ethnicity and disabilities. They also begin to absorb both the positive attitudes and negative biases attached to these aspects of identity by family members and other significant adults in their lives.” The other piece of the puzzle is the school. Pizzolongo noted that the more a child feels welcome in school, the better he or she is able to learn. “To create a welcoming environment, a school needs to support a child’s family and community ties,” he said. Definitions of family vary, so welcoming might mean highlighting one parent with one child, or recognizing five generations and countless cousins. Pictures posted at the school should reflect that, Pizzolongo said, and classroom materials should send the message that families come in different shapes and sizes. Pizzolongo also noted that classrooms for young children should embrace the child’s culture, but vague national abstractions don’t work as well as, for example, pinning up personal snapshots of a child’s home country. In addition, images and stories at school and at home should include people of diverse backgrounds, and parents should evaluate them for stereotypes. “A children’s picture book can look like the U.N. and still promote bias,” Pizzolongo said. Are only white people heroes? Are women and people of color shown in a variety of roles, including positions of leadership? Next Page

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