Last week Betsy and I attended a seminar titled Mean Girls: What Educators Can do to Address and Prevent Female Bullying, Cyberbullying and Relational Aggression(RA). I will reflect on this seminar with highlights that ask questions and provide information, as well as videos that are thought provoking and provide excellent discussion platforms.
The presenter, Steph Jensen, LPC, asked, "Have kids changed?" Through conversation and analysis of kids today, we realize that "kids haven't changed, but the tools and messages have changed." She pointed out that Nellie in Little House on the Prairie and Blaire from Facts of Life were characters with RA, but no one wanted to be like them. When Hannah Montana came on TV she was the hero, but she also used manipulation to promote herself and much of her behavior on the show illustrating RA was reinforced just like more recent TV shows today such as the Khardasians and Gossip Girls.
As a Library Media Specialist, the part of this seminar focusing on The Impact of Social Networking & Technology on RA in terms of cyberbully and recognizing that the "tools and messages" impact students today. Steph Jensen reminds us that:
-Human contact is necessary for human development.
-Verbal affirmation is necessary; Online likes, retweets, friends, and other trends are negative.
-There is a direct correlation between screen time and depression and anxiety.
-What people post is what they want us to see. It isn't the reality of lives where good, bad, frustration, conflict occur.
-The internet creates a false sense of belonging.
How has the social construct of gender changed since 1963? It hasn't, but this video, Always #LikeAGirl, provides a different perspective.
If you haven't see the video, Can We Auto-Correct Humanity? by Rapper Prince Ea, I encourage you to view it and then use as a discussion platform with your students.
After watching this spoken word poem titled Why I Bully You consider the stages the girls go through such as: name calling, bullying gives me power, bullying is no big deal, I'm scared, I am wrestling with some big issues.
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