Digital Smarts - Is It Time to Get Rid of the Term “Bullying?”

“Let’s retire the word “bullying,” says educator Jim Dillon, because the word, especially in schools is getting in the way of productive discussions on how to help students. There are so many shades to the acts of bullying and hence the overuse of the term. This means, Dillion points out, that “our well-intentioned efforts to prevent and reduce bullying has inadvertently created confusion and misdirection for educators; too much time and energy has been devoted to defining students' words and actions after they have done something wrong and less on actually helping students navigate their social world.”

Dillon goes on to support his case with a variety of well reasoned arguments including that using a one standard fits all approach to bullying adds an element of fear to the school environment that tends to make people more self-centered. Students who get accused of bullying are more likely to deny it to avoid punishment or being labeled. Parents will be more likely to defend their child for the same reasons and teachers can be more reluctant to intervene in possible bullying incidents because they are viewed as high stakes discipline problems. Dillon proposes that conversations about bullying should start with the question “How should we treat each other at school?”