I’ve been out of High School for a while now and the other night I read an article about how many educators fealt that mediators and mentoring programs could reduce school violence.
I have a question here from a layman. Do any of these conflict resolution programs work with bullies or other beligerants? What I saw in School would lead me to believe that such programs wouldn’t work since most bullies seemed to only understand a broken nose.
Mediation is sucessful generally under two circumstances.
Both parties generally want to reach some type of agreement.
One or both parties have reason to fear sanctions being taken against them if they fail to reach an agreement. Obviously, the sanctions must be of sufficient value to force them to reach an agreement.
I believe the mediation you are talking about is not really in seen as a solution to bullying but more between two individuals or groups who have a issue to settle and school officials would like to help settle it non-violently rather than let it fall to eventual violence.
It wouldn’t work for bullies because neither 1 or 2 above hold any weight. The bully has no interest in reaching an agreement (scratch #1). The bully clearly has no fear of any punishments or they wouldn’t be bullying in the first place which is typically already against the rules (scratch #2).
I do think that mediation can be of help in resolving some of the petty disbutes in high schools that lead to fights and death. It is staggering to think what some killings are over.
Thanks Glitch that is kind of what I figured.
I’ve seen mediation work in grades 2,3, 4, and 5 with peer mediators - it was great, but Glitche’s:
"Mediation is sucessful generally under two circumstances.
Both parties generally want to reach some type of agreement.
One or both parties have reason to fear sanctions being taken against them if they
fail to reach an agreement. Obviously, the sanctions must be of sufficient value to
force them to reach an agreement."
seems right on target for the little kids, too. Fear–the great motivater!
Are you driving with your eyes open or are you using The Force? - A. Foley
The issue of being unable to deal with High School bullies is one reason that a movement started about ten years ago to begin intercepting potential bullies in the lower grades. (It still hasn’t caught on in far too many school districts.)
Further bolstering the idea of intervening to prevent kids from becoming bullies are several psychological profiles that directly link being bullies as children to being criminals as adults. (It may be a correlation, not a cause, but the correlation is very high.)
Tom~
Hmph. “Mediating” in every form I’ve seen has always meant some authority figure telling me to work it out myself. I’d sure like to see someone actually help a kid who asks for once.
I would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids!