The ABC of bullies. How to prevent aggressive behaviour at school.

Zanetti M.A.(a cura di)

Erikson

Italian

English

Prevention – aggressive relationship – adolescents – moral values – intervention

Book

Teachers.

Over 100 pages

The text is divided into three parts: the first is theorical and serves as introduction, the second deals with the strategies of intervention and the last part focuses on the questions that raised after the implementation of these strategies. The book makes a list of precautionary strategies against bullying to be applied both in schools and in in social contexts which are based on the principles of the social cognitive theory stated by Bandura and on the theory of the moral development issued by Kohelberg. Actually it is a program of “moral alphabetization”; each class becomes a discussion group focused on ethic models, that is on specific situations which are difficult to be solved because they imply the contrast between social rules and the desire to satisfy the own needs. Under the influence of a supervisor, the class is divided into small groups that have the task to discuss a specific question, e.g. is it right to stay out with friends till late or to respect the parents’ imposition to come back home earlier? what would you do if your mate cheated and tried to copy an important test? What would you do if you caught your mate while stealing? By discussing these situations, students are more keen on changing the own reasoning methods because they are forced to share ideas with the group of peers and consequently to judge situations considering moral values and no longer the personal needs and non-intervention strategies. Thanks to the development of the moral reasoning strategy, this book is useful to prevent and face those aggressive behaviours that occur e.g. at school where bullying is the most frequent and negative phenomenon of all.

Since the last decades bullying has been considered an international phenomenon, and today researches underline that bullying is present from Europe to Canada, from the USA to Japan showing the same features and the same aggressive attitudes.In Italy we have been talking about bullying for a few years and the attention is focused particularly on aggressiveness at school. In this context this book provides a list of effective prevention strategies that can teach students how to improve their social behaviour. The book collects the results of these reflections and gives teaching staff, non-teaching staff and educationalists a valid instrument to prevent this phenomenon. The writer actually considers bullying no longer as a phenomenon related to a specific children’s behaviour or a too risky trick played by adolescents as it was believed in the past. Children must learn to cope with peers and adults properly, to get on well with them and they must become aware of the fact that bullying has longlasting consequences both for bullies and for their victims. More recent studies disapproved the fact that bullies are most of the times males, because females can be potential bullies that act out aggressive behaviour.Mr M. L. Zanetti says that it is crucial to face an aggressive behaviour for people who are responsible for the education of future generations, because if aggressiveness isn’t controlled, bullies will go on behaving irresponsabily in the future.

Don Milani