Clinton - bullying

One of the signs that we have that things are not going as well as we need them to go for our children is the amount of bullying that we’re seeing in society. And unfortunately we’re seeing it in children as young as four and five where there are racial slurs, where little ones are excluded from playing; we don’t want you to play with us, you’re not coming to my party, so relational aggression as well as physical aggression.  

But when we’re talking about bullying, we’re talking about the possibility of children of four and five and six years of age to be using a power differential, it happens that early, hierarchies in the social network start very, very, very, very young. Where do we see the bullying happening most and that’s in the absence of an adult culture that says everybody gets to play.  When you don’t have an adult culture that says at the heart we are a civic community whether in a group of five or a group of 55.  

So bullying in the context of say child care is very much, in my experience, a reflection of what are the adults up to?  What are they attending to?  And if they’re attending to following curricular expectations instead of attending to the social and emotional development of all the children, then you’re going to get different outcomes. If it’s alright, they think it’s just a rite of passage that kids have these racial slurs or these exclusionary and you know, that’s what kids do, then they’re going to allow it and it multiplies.  So it has to be addressed really as a group of adults and have dialogue, dialogue, dialogue with the kids about it.  As well, lots of great books that kids can then have conversations about, about bullying and what it feels like.