October is National Bullying Prevention Month. The Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation offers many resources that you can use with your kids to help prevent bullying, including blog posts on how to use our bullying prevention resources. One of these resources is the Uncommon Athlete:
When we (along with our friends at Rachel's Challenge) developed Uncommon Athlete, it was not specifically aimed at preventing bullying, but the elements of PRICE can be applied to all types of challenges in life, on and off the field. Here are some ways you might encourage your kids to be positive leaders who prevent bullying, using the PRICE model:
- Develop Uncommon Perseverance – It may feel like an uphill battle, but remain steady and purposeful as you look for opportunities to be inclusive, to model respect, and to speak up when others engage in bullying behaviors, no matter how uncomfortable it gets.
- Build Uncommon Relationships – Bring out the best in others by looking for the best in others. Maybe it’s reaching out to a peer whom others treat as an outsider and looking for what you have in common. This could also take the form of reminding peers who are bullying others that they are capable of being kind and being positive leaders.
- Practice Uncommon Integrity – Act the best way you know how regardless of how other people around you are behaving. If you are someone who respects others regardless of differences, then treat everyone with respect. If you don’t believe it’s okay to use the r-word, then don’t pretend that you are okay with it regardless of who is saying it.
- Choose Uncommon Courage – Speak up when you see or hear bullying behavior. Choosing courage doesn’t always require direct confrontation. You can also choose not to laugh at a mean joke, walk away, or even just pull the target of the bullying away from the situation. Reporting a bullying situation to a trusted adult is another way to choose courage and to get help for the person being bullied.
- Lead with Uncommon Empathy – Empathy means taking the time to identify with someone else’s emotions—both the target and the person bullying—and to act with respect for those feelings. We’ve all felt the sting of being left out or having someone say or do hurtful things to us. On the other side, even though we might not like admitting it, we have all also bullied others. Maybe it’s because we wanted to be liked by a certain group, or because we didn’t want to become the target ourselves, or any number of reasons. If we want to prevent bullying, we also need to pay attention to the reasons behind it. Maybe the person bullying just needs to know that they don’t have to put other people down in order to have friends and not end up a target themselves.
These are just a few ideas, but we’d love to hear ways that you are using PRICE or any other ways you empower your kids to prevent bullying!