Bullying and Growing Up

“Is bullying in schools a serious problem or merely a part of growing up?”, was the question at the core of my research paper. Bullying continues to be a significant problem within school districts, and that has prompted schools to try and understand the best solutions to ensuring kid safety. One such solution the NEA's Bully Free campaign. There are two arguments regarding bullying: one that states that bullying is a part of life and something that all children must contend with as a result of growing up and the other being that bullying is detrimental to the emotional, mental and physical wellbeing of children and should be reduced and stopped. The latter rationale, being that teasing and bullying is a childhood issue that most people have experienced and that it is detrimental for the current generation of children who are not prepared to deal with bullying and its consequences, was the focus of my research. 

In researching the topic, substantial information was found regarding reasons why school districts should pay more attention to the effects of bullying on children and direct their attention toward stopping it. Much of the sources collected substantiated my thesis that the prevalence of bullying has risen over the last 20 years and that the basis for school districts not necessarily ignoring the problem of bullying, but likening it to childhood experience, has much to do with a lack of educational emphasis on its detrimental effects. The focus of my research primarily dealt with the need for parents to educate their children on the problem of bullying, and efforts by school districts to enforce and reinforce the punishments associated with bullying using different methods. Sources were obtained of a psychological and sociological nature to prove and confirm the extent of long term problems that victims of bullying have.

Based on the research that was collected on this topic, it was concluded that bullying indeed is a serious issue that society at large needs to devote more attention to. It is more than an exercise in growing up that all children are wrought with. It is an issue that can be curtailed by a shift in policies associated with schools, which leads to stricter rules and safer environments. The assumptions that resonated at the beginning of my research have evolved more so than changed. The sources illuminated the problem even more so than what my current reasoning on the subject had been at the beginning of the research.