System flips bullying on its head
Published: 04 May. 2012, 19:22
Third-grade students at Hansol Elementary School in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, re-enact a scene of school bullying under the guidance of their homeroom teacher Seo Yeong-ja (center), on April 24. By Kim Seong-tae
On the morning of April 24 in a third-grade classroom of Hansol Elementary School in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, a boy threw a pencil case at a girl. Silence fell over the room. The classmates suddenly shouted, “One, two, three, stop!” But the boy refused to apologize, denying any wrongdoing.
Seo Yeong-ja, the 39-year-old homeroom teacher in charge of the class, intervened after she was informed of the bullying incident among her students.
Seo resolved the problem by having the two students re-enact the incident in front of the whole class, but with the roles reversed: The girl, the original victim, threw a pencil case at the boy this time, and irritation immediately washed over the boy’s face.
The boy then made a sincere apology by extending his arm for a handshake, saying, “I am sorry for what I did to you before. It was my fault.”
It was a triumphant moment for the whole class to resolve a bullying problem with cooperation from the entire class.
Seo proudly explained, “The first step to prevent bullying is that all the students in class shout, ‘One, two, three, stop!’ to the bullying student. Secondly, through a reversed role-play in front of the whole class, the bullying student can come to the realization that his actions were wrong.”
Ji Seong-hun, a 10-year-old student from the class, said, “I feel as if I have to automatically say ‘Stop’ if I hear the numbers ‘One, two, three.’ It has been two months since this bullying prevention program has come into effect, and I think it really changed the dynamics of the classroom.”
A new book, previously reported by the JoongAng Ilbo on Jan. 1, was published introducing the “Stop” program designed as a systematic school-based bullying intervention program.
This book introduces a famous school-based bullying prevention program first introduced in 1982 in Norway which teaches students to say “Stop” as soon as they are bullied or witness any bullying actions in class.
The book published under the title of “Stop! School Violence” was written by Moon Jae-hyun, the head of a local research institute dealing with school violence, and 12 other researchers at the institute. Moon and the researchers have tested the prevention program at numerous schools since 2010.
Moon said, “After the story of our program was reported in the JoongAng Ilbo, we decided to publish the guidance book since many school teachers called us to inquire about the program. More than 1,500 books were sold within a month after its first publication.”
This 320-page book runs stories from the program’s initial implementation at schools to common problems that teachers may face with specific examples, including persuading parents and teaching a new student about the program.
This program is first initiated during a homeroom class meeting in the first semester by making rules such as “We do not bully our friends” and “We help our friends who get bullied.”
After the initial class meeting, students are repeatedly taught to shout out “Stop” once they witness any bullying actions. Once the bullying incident is reported, a class assembly is held to share the pain of the victim by re-enacting a role-play.
Every semester, the teacher gives out questionnaires to his or her students to collect information about the “class-caste system,” which helps the teacher understand the hierarchy among students and enables the teacher to better counsel the students in the future.
Kim Mi-ja, a 41-year-old teacher at Dong-ju Elementary School in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, said, “This system is more effective than the bullying intervention program of Norway in the sense that the Norwegian program only assigns outside experts to distribute the program to schools. The Korean program elicits active participation from students in class because the students are involved in making rules and resolving the bullying problems by themselves.”
“The surveys on school violence conducted by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology falsely portray the reality of bullying actions perpetrated at schools while failing to produce any feasible solutions,” Moon pointed out.
“Instead, we need to focus on the real voices of students contained from the surveys and must come up with realistic, preventive measures for school violence.”
By Shin Jin-ho, Lee Han-gil [enational@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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