Why I'm Against Anti-Bullying Curriculum

So passing through life when the odd comment was made to me about how homeschooling was great, but they do lose things like anti-bullying curriculum. 

Wait...WHAT???

I really shook my head at that one because really, if my children enter into the adult work force and a co-worker pushes them to the ground, well they can have that co-worker arrested. If a co-worker is verbally abusive and knocks their lunch tray out of their hands, there are HR policies that will back them. Not to mention, I don't know many people going around complaining of co-workers acting in this matter. My children will have far greater legal recourse and HR policies in their favor dealing with a bully as a adult, then ever as a child at school.

But that isn't the soap box I wanted to get on.....

The soap box I want to get on is why I don't think Anti-Bullying programs work!

 My children were in the overpriced Catholic school that went full force with Anti-Bullying curriculum. As a parent this is how the program was presented to me as a parent:

Generous donor has made it possible for us to enrich our anti-bullying program. We are sending home t-shirts to all students, please have them wear on give day.

The note went on to say the other parts of the program where posters being displayed, lots of talking about including and being a bucket filler, and several speakers coming into the classroom.

Here is the deal - I'm a parent but I'm also a educator so I've spent A LOT of time with children both inside and outside the classroom. I will tell you, my kids who were bullies all had the same things in common.

1. They came from unstable homes
2. Their parents were uninterested or spent very little time with them
3. They were exposed to media material that was far beyond their age or reason

The kids who were victims where always the same kids:

1. Came from stable homes
2. Had involved parents
3. Child had a strong sense of justice, right, and wrong.

No amount of work coming from the classroom was going to change a child acting out to seek attention and fulfillment. A child need for love and safety has to come from the home. A child's need for attention and confidence has to come from loving parents who see their children as priority!

While there has always been bullies, they seem to be coming out in a great numbers now. Why? Simply put our families are in complete turmoil! Many put material items above their children, so you see both parents working outside the home. You see divorced or single parents, who can't or chose not invest in their children. Its our children paying the price and its this brokenness that they will carry with them into adulthood.

What we need is not anti-bullying programs but pro-family programs. We need parents to understand that every minute invested in their child in not lost! That i-phones will be a passing fad but you only have one chance to mold this child. Rising a child in a two parent marriage will offer more benefit than anyone is willing to admit right now. As a society admit what we already know, children need their parents because the lack of parents, leaves them lost. Leaves a child bitter and mean. Leaves a child looking for empowerment and attention in all the wrong places.