A Fun, Powerful Technique for Teaching Children How to Stop Being Bullied

By Doris Greenberg, MD and Israel Kalman, MS | January 3, 2013

Today’s paradigm is to criminalize bullying by making antibullying laws—but it’s not working. The bullying prevention program is very popular but not very effective because bullying is an inevitable part of life; moreover, no one thinks they’re a bully.

Doris Greenberg, MD, Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician at the Mercer University School of Medicine and Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Backus Children’s Hospital Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia, and Israel (Izzie) Kalman, MS, nationally recognized School Psychologist and creator of the Golden Rule System, discuss a much simpler system that focuses on the children who are being bullied (the victims) rather than on the bullies. Using this technique, children are taught how not to be victims. Many free resources about this technique are available at: bullies2buddies.com. For manual downloads and resources, please click here.

by sharon A | December 23, 2012 11:50 AM EST

Ditto [tech.?].

Also, with the limited amount one can discern from here, this is assuming the "victim" is coming from enough of a supportive environment to be able to inhabit these self defensive/protective strategies. Otherwise it just becomes another blame the victim and pull yourself up by the bootstrap strategy to reinforce.

by Melanie McGovern | December 21, 2012 12:58 PM EST

Please show us this technique!
Melanie McGovern

by Robert Small | December 21, 2012 12:21 PM EST

The best way to stop a bully, always has been and always will be, is to stand up to him or her. Not only is teaching self-defense practical, it raises self esteem. It may take one or more children standing up to them to change a bully's mind, but eventually both the bully and his victims will benefit.

A child who doesn't learn how to stand up to an aggressor -- with his fists if necessary -- in the relatively secure environment of an elementary schoolyard will never learn how to stand up for him or her self as an adult and will be reduced to lobbying for "anti-this or that laws"and depending on government authorities to protect them. Look where Ghandi's passivism (the genesis of this western anti-bullying mindset) led -- to an India that now has to live in the shadow of a neighboring bully with nuclear weapons. Look where teaching children "moral disarmament" in schools after WWI led in Europe -- to the near annihilation of England and France by children who grew into adults like Chamberlin, Lebrun, and Petain. This is exactly where we are heading in this country, because there are whole nations led by bullies out there. We used to call them "enemies," but our country's "thinkers" don't like to use that term anymore because it amounts to bullying in the minds of these wishful thinkers.

And by the way -- the other commenters are right, the technique is not discussed.

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A Fun, Powerful Technique for Teaching Children How to Stop Being Bullied

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