Yesterday, I had the honor of participating in the Rice Creek Elementary School field day by presenting a workshop on bullying. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am truly passionate about helping kids deal with this serious issue.
I presented to approximately 400 children that were from the 3rd through 5th grades. This was a good group of kids. Rice Creek has a very strong anti-bully policy and it was great being able to show the kids techniques that had nothing to do with kicking and punching, yet could help them deal with a bully.
As always, my first question was to show a count by hand, how many children had been bullied once during the year. It is only an estimate, but I would say approximately 70% of the children raised their hand. So far, my personal experience has been that the percentage of children bullied is much higher than the 25% that is currently estimated by the experts.
I then asked the children to raise their hands if they had bullied someone during the year and I would say 40%-50% raised their hands. This is a trend I see at every school I have done workshops this year.
Somehow, we as parents and teachers need to let the kids know that bullying is NOT COOL and notifying an adult IS!
During the presentation, I show examples of strong, weak and what I call my "gangster" body langauge. Then I talk about using your eyes to help avoid bullies and how to use the power of your voice to stop the bully in his or her tracks.
The last part of my discussion is focused on insuring good communication between the child getting bullied and their parents, their teachers, their guidance counselor or principal. Oh, and let's not forget our resource officers, who are amazing people and want desparetely to provide a safe learning environment for your child.
If you would like more information, or are interested in my presenting a bully workshop for your school, please feel free to call me at 803-462-9425 or you can email me at samuraikarate@bellsouth.net.
The kids did a really good job participating and answering questions. Now that school is almost over and summer is around the corner, it is my hope that these children will practice what they learned and start walking confidently and defeating the bully every time they encounter one!
Sensei Chris Feldt
Samurai Karate Studio
2000 Clemson Road
Suite # 9
Columbia, SC 29229
803-462-9425
samuraikarate@bellsouth.net
www.samuraikaratestudio.net
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