Schoolyard scourge
Authors Emily Bazelon and R.J. Palacio on Monday joined Richard Weissbourd, director of the Human Development and Psychology Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), at Longfellow Hall to trade ideas about ending bullying at U.S. schools. Most children aren’t bullies, and the incidents of bullying are fairly infrequent, the speakers agreed. Still, the problem is on the rise, and increasingly tied to short- and long-term emotional consequences. “I think that we do have a real problem if we define it properly,” said Bazelon, a senior editor for Slate and author of “Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy.” “To me the definition of bullying that makes the most sense is to think of it as verbal or physical harassment that repeats over time and involves a power imbalance.” That harassment has gained disturbing traction with the growth of the Internet. The...