Roots of Empathy

Roots of Empathy is an evidence-based classroom program that has shown dramatic effect in reducing levels of aggression among school children by raising social/emotional competence and increasing empathy.

Dare to Care

Bullying is a problem in our society, and occurs wherever groups of children get together.  No school is immune from this problem.  At our assembly, the students and staff acknowledged that this is a problem, which makes us ready to deal with it!

At the workshop, students learned about bullies, victims, the silent majority, and of course, bullying.  Bullying is repeated over a period of time, and involves an imbalance of power.  Conflict between children is normal, and can be solved through learning problem solving techniques.  Bullying cannot be solved in this way.  There are many types of bullying:  physical, verbal, social alienation, intimidation, racism, sexual harassment, and cyber bullying (through technology).  All are hurtful.

 Bullies, the students learned, enjoy the power they have over their victims and their followers.  Bullies lack empathy, and can rationalize what they do – it is always the person’s fault.  The bully’s followers know that what they are doing is wrong, but don’t stand up to the bully for a variety of reasons – fear of getting picked on themselves, or fear of being kicked out of the group.  Bullies aren’t any special shape or size.  They are just kids who have usually had that kind of behaviour modeled at home.

There are several kinds of victims.  The passive victim is meek, and lacks the self-esteem and assertiveness to stand up to bullies, thus making them easy targets.  The provocative victim often seems is often mistaken for a bully, but is not.  This is the child who irritates others, is restless and impulsive, and may seem to “deserve” what he or she gets.  However, this victim lacks the social skills to handle peer relations properly, and merely needs to learn how to interact with others.

Students learned strategies for safely reacting if they are victims.  They can ask for help (“Please help me.  This person has been hurting me for a long time.”), assert themselves (“Stop it!  I said stop it!”), avoid the bully, use positive self-talk, or own it(“Thanks for noticing!”).  We continue to practice these at school.  Parents used to tell their kids to hit the bully, or to be verbally aggressive back.  These strategies are no longer safe, as the bully will become even more aggressive, and the victim could be hurt. 

The largest group at school is the “silent majority”, the 85% of students who are happy and have good relations with their peers.  These kids know that bullying is wrong, but don’t help when they see it happening.  Our goal is to mobilize this group into standing up for the victims, and telling the bully that his or her behaviour is unacceptable.  We will be working on this part of the program over the year, and ask that you help us by encouraging your child to do his or her part.  Together, we can eliminate bullying at Greentree School.