Just teasing or intentional bullying?

Goldie Nanwani is the well-known writer of Indian origins (“Thoughts translated”) who on the 11th May 2017 gave this interesting talk about bullying for students from 1st batxillerat. She also works as a youth coach and collaborates regularly with the Departament d´Ensenyament de la Generalitat de Catalunya.

She started her talk asking our students directly if they had ever been bullied. We are sure it was the friendly environment she created from the very beginning which inspired and gave some of them the courage to stand up and say: “Yes, I have been bulllied”.She presented some worrying statistics: in 2014 there were 328 cases of bullying reported in Spain and in 2015 this figure went up by 75% to 573. These numbers alone ring alarm bells and awaken us to the harsh reality.

Goldie talked about personality traits that bullies usually have: they are aggressive, they are not able to control their inhibitions, they are usually older and stronger than their peers and they have little closeness and unity with their families. It was interesting when she mentioned that sometimes the same child may be a victim at home and a bully at school.

Our students were also given different examples of bullying which they had to classify into three categories: verbal, physical or social. And of course they also discussed about cyber bullying. It was clear for all of us that bullying can have some severe side effects which include anxiety, anger, depression and frustration. At best these symptoms can be cured after long hours of therapy but leave nightmare memories in the victim and in some real cases, they have led to suicide.

Goldie finished her talk with a challenge, the “be your new friend challenge”: first, they make a new friend ( someone at school who is just a classmate )they take a selfie together, upload it and then add the hashtag #BRnewfriendchallenge .

She finished up by encouraging all the students to take action  Don´t stand BY, stand UP! Because as Albert Einstein said :”Those who have the privilege to know, have the duty to act”.

Marta Mercadé