Today's blog comes to us from the amazing David Mitchell. David is one of Mobile Ed's most cherished performers, and the creator of several of our shows. He has had a long and successful career working with children as a ventriloquist, magician, and all around entertainer.
Are anti bullying school shows worth it?
"I am sure there are those who would ask this question and expect an answer that would justify their decision either to have or not have a program on this subject. After all what can possibly be accomplished in a 45 minute school assembly that could have lasting effects on their students. To be honest I might have asked that same question a couple of years ago. It seems like there are some students who are quite happy belittling others and making life miserable for those who are the recipients of their taunting. On the other hand there seems to be some students who naturally attract the ridicule of the bully. The questions that these statements create and even more, the answers are for other articles. What I want to address here is how I am now convinced that a well produced and delivered anti bullying assembly program does indeed impact the students who see it.
I have written and performed a wide variety of school assembly programs from subjects about math, reading, substance abuse and even historical characters like Ben Franklin. After being encouraged to create one on anti bullying I began to research everything I could about the subject. I found an over abundance of information and even conflicting philosophies on how to deal with this very old but still very real problem. Many are saying that it is a rapidly growing problem boarding on epidemic proportions. After being in hundreds of schools and discussing the problem with educators in numerous states I concur that it is a very serious problem now affecting thousands across our nation and in societies all over the world.
The challenge for me was to address the situation in a single performance with less than an hour and give real helps and techniques that would assist students in responding to abusive behavior from their peers. This information needed to be presented in an entertaining format to capture the attention of elementary aged students yet be educational to both students and faculty. But I felt it needed to go beyond those two goals.
I wanted to reach the hearts of the students. Maybe touch the heart of any bully that may be attending. To make a change in behavior one must go deeper than “head knowledge” and touch an emotional heart string that gives them incentive to make a change. At least that was my philosophy. The program, ”Stronger Than A Bully” was the result of months of research, discussions with friends and educators, and drawing on my personal performance skills of ventriloquism, magic, drama and storytelling. It required creating routines for the puppet characters, writing original stories, and building special props that could enhance the specific points I needed to present. After all that was done I still needed the closer that would touch the heart as I had wanted to do.
The thought that kept coming to me was what the victim would say to the bully that might change the way the bully felt about him. These thoughts were written in a poem entitled, “Who Would You Be If You Were Me?” Then I followed it with a personal account of my own experiences of being bullied as a child.
After my first performance I could tell the closer was exactly what I wanted. The expressions on the faces of the students and the dead silence they held as the program concluded with this poem let me know I was really getting through. Many times I see a tear here and there on the faces of the students and even from the faculty. Dozens of requests for copies of the poem to be posted in classrooms let me know the teachers felt it could continue to touch the students.
I am not naïve enough to believe the program changes every bully who sees it but I know it reaches some. I also think it may keep students from being a bully themselves who might have been inclined to behave negatively.
What principals and teachers do not see is the faces of the students from my vantage point. I KNOW I am getting through and the message is making a difference. Positive reports from schools and also students have encouraged me to be very enthusiastic about this program.
Schools wanted to rebook the program the following year but I knew the effectiveness would be minimized because the surprise factor of the routines, humor, and stories would still be fresh in the minds of the students.
Building on the strengths of Stronger Than A Bully, I began to create Stronger Than A Bully II: You’ve Got A Friend. Using the same successful format, the new program uses humor, mystery, storytelling, and a strong closer as before. This program presents students with proven friendship building skills to help even “loner” oriented students to establish a strong friendship base. Realizing bullies tend to target the weaker, less social, and “different” student a child who can build a circle of friends is less likely to be the victim of bullying.
The sequel to Stronger Than A Bully not only presents them with these skills but does so in a way that encourages them to respond to those goals. The program gives them reinforcing stories and visuals that help them remember the strategies presented through the ventriloquist puppets and magic tricks. Once again a poem, this time about the strong friendship of two baseball legends that changed the sport forever, closes the program with proof of how friends stand with friends against bullying and the positive results that follow.
I am so grateful to see the same enthusiastic response to this new assembly program that we experienced with its predecessor. I have every confidence that I can say YES these assembly programs DO make a difference. And with continued efforts from students, parents, and teachers we can hope to see the headlines of students effected by bullying diminish. Many thanks to the principals, teachers, PTA and PTO leaders who had faith in our programs and a heartfelt concern for their children. We will continue working together to see a real decline in bullying among our students across America."
