Many people may be bullies and not even know it. This program challenges students to think about their own behavior with a series of seven questions about physical, verbal, and exclusionary bullying. Questions include: Have you ever punched, shoved, or hit another boy or girl? Do you ever make fun of or tease other students or call them mean names? Do you often make fun of others because they are "different" from you or your friends? Have you purposely not invited someone to hang out with you and your friends? Do you gossip about other people or spread rumors via text messages or through social network sites? After each question students describe their own experiences as victims and perpetrators of bullying. Their stories and comments by Joel Haber, a leading bullying expert, show how bullying hurts both the person being bullied and the bullies themselves.
Includes:
video, plus teacher’s resource book, student handouts and pre/post tests in digital format
DVD includes Spanish subtitles
Awards
2013 ALSC Children's Notable Video list
Bronze Telly Award
Reviews
In this video, hosted by a young woman and a young man, different kinds of bullying, including physical, verbal, and cyber bullying are described. Seven questions about bullying are posed to viewers and they are asked to think about their own behavior. A psychologist explains that bullying is about power—taking it away from the victim and enhancing the bully’s power. Viewers learn that bullying differs from teasing because it always includes the intent to hurt the target, either physically, emotionally, or psychologically. In addition, girls and boys discuss their experiences as perpetrators and victims of bullying. The excellent teaching materials include pre- and post-tests, role-playing activities, fact sheets, and more. This complete program would be a useful resource for health classes, church youth groups, and scouts.
- Ann Weber, Bellarmine College Prep., San Jose, CA
School Library Journal
The two programs, Pushed to the Brink and Are You a Bully? Test, work together to help address bullying among middle school students. They may be used separately by teachers or guidance counselors to educate students about what counts as bullying, the feelings associated with bullying and being bullied, as well as frank discussions of adolescents’ vulnerability to the exclusionary tactics and power plays that form the core of bullying behavior.
The screen time is shared between victims of bullying, reformed teen bullies, parents and the psychologist and bullying expert Dr. Joel Haber. Discussions between Dr. Haber and bullying victims may also be useful as a model for adults initiating discussions with young people about bullying. Feelings are the main focus of the conversations as well as insights into the motivations and tactics of a bully and the resulting feelings and increasing isolation of the victims.
Solutions are offered for students who witness bullying, those who are victims and for those who recognize their own behavior as bullying. In Pushed to the Brink, suicide is specifically discussed as a consequence of bullying, and computer social networks, such as Facebook, are shown to be powerful tools for bullies. Parents of two young people who committed suicide due to bullying talk about both their own and their children’s experiences and reach out with advice to students who may be victims of bullying.
These two films would be useful for an academic college collection that supports a counseling or education curriculum as well as a junior high or high school media center as a resource for parents, teachers and administrators tackling the problem of bullying in schools. Overall, the mix of adolescent’s first-hand experience mixed with pro-active advice and a professional psychologists explanation of bullying and being bullied offers a point of entry for many audiences
Ciara Healy, Librarian for Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University
Educational Media Reviews Online (EMRO)