Illustration from the Internationally Acclaimed, Award Winning Book Why Is Everybody Always Picking On Us? Understanding the Roots of Prejudice
"Webster-Doyle's insight is that by recognizing, understanding, and accepting our violent tendencies, we can avoid acting them out. These new books … are good for teachers and parents of elementary school children who need appropriate language and activities to help children deal with their feelings and the violence-provoking parts of the environment. To this reviewer, they are realistic and practical." - Young Children (Magazine of teh National Association for the Education of Young Children)
Empowerment
In order to accomplish the intent of alleviating the root causes of conflict in conditioned thinking as it manifests in the bully/victim cycle young people and the adults who live or work with them need to feel empowered to do so within society. To this end the next step is the process of advocating the need for Human Rights. When one feels this empowerment one can act with what is rightfully theirs in a free and democratic society.
Proclamation
We, the children of Liberia and the world, ask the adults — our parents, teachers, school administrators, and political leaders — to guarantee us the right to feel safe from being bullied at home, at school and in our communities. We feel afraid of what has happened in our country with people killing each other. We understand that this was caused by bullying created by prejudice. We ask you, the people of our country and of the world, to seriously consider the dangers of bullying and to provide us with programs that teach us how to understand and resolve this problem peacefully. If you can help us now, then we will be able to become adults, without becoming bullies and without hurting each other even more. It is also our responsibility to not bully others in order to end this bully/victim cycle so it does not continue on with the next generation.
My Rights and Responsibilities |
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I have the right to not be bullied or physically hurt and the responsibility to learn ways of resolving conflict peacefully. |
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I have the right to not be called hurtful names and the responsibility to understand what would make me want to call others hurtful names. |
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I have the right to not be picked on because I do not belong to a certain group and the responsibility to understand what it means to belong to a “group.” |
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I have the right to not be made fun of because I am “different” and the responsibility not to pick on others for what I have been taught to think are differences. |
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I have the right to not be bullied because of race, gender or culture and the responsibility to educate myself about why this happens. |
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I have the right to not be bullied because of my physical appearance and the responsibility to not pick on myself for what I think others may think of me. |
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I have a right to not be teased because I am not as smart as other people and the responsibility to educate myself to be as intelligent as I can be. |
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I have a right to not be bullied because I am not as athletic as others and the responsibility to find other endeavors that give me a sense of well being. |
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I have the right not to be bullied me because I am smaller or weaker and the responsibility to find ways that will strengthen me. |
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I have the right to learn the skills to understand and handle bullies without hurting or being hurt and the responsibility to teach others these skills so they will not get bullied. |
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I have the right to protect myself from harm and the responsibility to use these skills humanely. |
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Every child everywhere has a basic right to be treated with respect and the responsibility in turn to respect all others. |
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We ask you to support this Children’s Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for A Bully-Free Society and encourage all those who live or work with children to help them live in a safe world that is free of bullying, which is caused by prejudicial conditioned thinking.
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