What is it about?
Bullying continues to be a serious public health issue in Canada. The objective of this paper is to bring to light the insidiousness of antisocial behaviour despite efforts to quell its persistence in schools. Programmes currently in place across North America may reduce or even mitigate bullying behaviour, but they do little or nothing to prevent it. This paper highlights the damaging, sometimes fatal, effects of bullying, the urgent need for a greater understanding of its root causes and the moral obligation of parents, teachers, schools and governments to take action.
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Why is it important?
Bullying behaviour is not going away despite efforts to eliminate it. Increased poverty and inequality across the nation, the trauma and resentment which ensues, the anonymity of the internet, the proliferation of social networks, blind eye discipline in homes and at school, absent parents and lack of political will are all major factors.
Perspectives
Aside from the profound emotional costs of bullying behaviour, often overlooked are the educational and social costs. There can be no learning in schools and little cooperation in communities where there is unhappiness, fear, resentment and aggression. There also exists the potentially enormous fiscal cost to society since there is compelling evidence that adolescent bullying is an important independent risk factor for both adult criminality and serious mental health problems.
Irene Gregory Wilkinson
Institute of Biomedical Sciences
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Bullying in Canada in the 21st Century: The Moral Obligations of Parents, Teachers, Schools and Governments, The International Journal of Children s Rights, June 2017, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/15718182-02501010.
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