I have a love/hate relationship with Anti-bullying Day. First, because anything that’s ‘anti-‘ or ‘not’ the brain skips the adverb, and latches onto the verb- so they’ll see ‘bullying day’ as revealed in this poem. I’d much rather the day promoted positive action than decrying negative action. Say what you want to see. Put those words out there: Be kind day! Smile at a new kid day! Bite your tongue before you speak day! etc.
Further to this, you might enjoy last year’s Pink shirt poem, which features Shane Koyzcan’s infamous “To This Day” poem/ youtube video
In the wake of pink shirt day, I have been noticing every day behaviours that people seem to find perfectly all right, without giving any thought to the ramifications of their actions.
They’ll wear their ‘Stand up to bullying’ pink shirts on the day, and then they’ll go home and send a “People of Walmart” slide show to three hundred of their closest friends on Facebook.
Or they’ll cheer for humiliating treatment of prisoners by an Arizona warden and share that post around the internet.
Someone told me the other day that fat brides don’t deserve nice weddings. Excuse me?
These people don’t seem to see their own hypocrisy.
How about promoting good nutrition in our schools with healthy free school lunches and home ec programs? How about social justice rather than incarceration?
How about helping people instead of mocking them? How about respecting people instead of insulting them? Who made you better than the everyone else?
Keep your pink shirt on. We’ve got a long way to go.
This is Pink Shirt Day, and it’s a day to talk openly about bullying. In schools all over Canada, teachers and students put on pink shirts and take a stand against bullying.
It’s a day to confront victimization, and a day to talk about personal ethics amid hypocrisy.
When I ask a class full of teens whether they’ve ever been bullied, every hand goes up. Every kid knows what it feels like to be looked down on, pushed around, and belittled.
Then I ask them, how many of them have ever bullied someone else, and the hands rise again. Not usually all the hands this time, but awfully close. 95 per cent, say. Let’s be honest, who hasn’t snapped at his sibling, made a rude remark about the kid who wasn’t cool, just so you’d feel a little better about your own status?
“Look! I belong because you don’t.”
So wearing a pink shirt is fine, and I’ll be wearing mine. But I’ll be asking the hard questions. Not just “Did you feel bad when you were bullied?” but “Why did you do it to someone else?” “Why do you gain your personal power on the back of someone’s self-esteem? ”
Kids don’t get shaken down for lunch money any more. I’ve never seen a kid shoved into a locker who didn’t request his friends help him get in.
Kids learn to bully.
We have role models after all, of what civilized behavior looks like. We watch our political leaders shout obnoxious comments back and forth in the House of Commons and in our provincial Legislatures.
We watch talk show hosts encourage guests to jump on one another, as we gleefully anticipate the moment when all hell breaks loose.
We scream obscenities at rival sports teams.
We insult other cultures and religions. Red, brown, black, yellow, white. Everybody seems to have a colour that isn’t quite right.
We send soldiers to settle issues by fighting.
Why wouldn’t kids bully each other, when that’s what they see modeled every day?
So wear your pink shirt, but don’t think it’s going to stop anything, until the leaders quit using violence, obscenity and insult to get their way.
Don’t allow yourself to be bullied.
Take a stand and celebrate your unique place in the world.
Demand the respect you deserve.
Be proud you’re you.
.
.
Rather than feeling sorry for yourself, stand up proudly.
Don’t allow yourself to be bullied.
Take a stand and celebrate your unique place in the world.
All around my school are posters advertising February 29th as the day students are to wear Pink Shirts as a way to take a stand against bullying.
We teach our kids that they need to stand up for themselves and for their friends when they are under attack. We teach our kids that it is wrong to try to force ideas and opinions without reasoned discourse. We teach our kids to show respect to those who are different from themselves, whether they agree with them or not. We teach our kids how to negotiate a fair solution when they have a disagreement with their peers.
In light of this week’s anti-bullying message, watching the BC Provinicial government’s bullying tactics toward teachers is rather ironic. This week they are trying to force teachers to accept an imposed contract, refusing to either negotiate or to have neutral mediator negotiate on their behalf.
It’s a lesson in irony.
Teachers believe in equity. We stand up to bullies. We have to, in order to be role models for our students. When we stand with our friends against bullying behavior, bullies back down. Right?
My pink shirt this Wednesday, February 29th is going to have several layers of meaning, as I do what I can to stand up for those who are bullying me and my colleagues.
In 2009 an Oprah Show audience member stood up after the taping and related the story of being bullied because he was undeniably gay, even as a little boy. The kids called him sissy. He said, “Here’s how gay I was, I carried a pink Cinderella lunch box in grade four!” Listen to his story to get the details of how that lunch box delivered his emancipation from bullying. Click the link to Oprah’s site: http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Audience-Member-Tommys-Lesson-on-Bullying-Video/topic/oprahshow
As I watched, it occured to me that he had amazing parents. How many fathers would tolerate having their little boys go to school carting pink Cinderella lunch boxes? I think it is quite wonderful how they allowed him to have the lunch box he wanted. They had to know that he was going to get teased for having it, but they allowed him to have it.
There’s an example of positive parenting- letting your kid be who he is, and letting him make his own decisions!
Okay, dad’s comment that he should fight his battle was rather harsh (see the video) but obviously it worked to give Tommy some self-respect. There is some poetic justice in that pink lunchbox being the weapon of choice.
Consider the symbolism of Cinderella. She is transformed from her dreary life to the magical world she longs for. So it was for Tommy. Cinderella helped him transform his world.
Shawn L. Bird 
bullies in every day life… March 2, 2013
Tags: bullying, hypocrisy, people of walmart, pink shirt
In the wake of pink shirt day, I have been noticing every day behaviours that people seem to find perfectly all right, without giving any thought to the ramifications of their actions.
They’ll wear their ‘Stand up to bullying’ pink shirts on the day, and then they’ll go home and send a “People of Walmart” slide show to three hundred of their closest friends on Facebook.
Or they’ll cheer for humiliating treatment of prisoners by an Arizona warden and share that post around the internet.
Someone told me the other day that fat brides don’t deserve nice weddings. Excuse me?
These people don’t seem to see their own hypocrisy.
How about promoting good nutrition in our schools with healthy free school lunches and home ec programs? How about social justice rather than incarceration?
How about helping people instead of mocking them? How about respecting people instead of insulting them? Who made you better than the everyone else?
Keep your pink shirt on. We’ve got a long way to go.
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