Rosalind Wiseman

Shanterra McBride and me with an Owning Up participant, April 2009.

This week I had the pleasure of conducting one of my Owning Up educator trainings in Washington, D.C., which are held several times each year. As usual, the room was filled with dedicated teachers and administrators from schools and non-profit organizations all over the country. I am always inspired by these people but this time I was especially so, and strangely enough it started with one of the teachers sharing an upsetting incident her school had recently experienced.

As she told the room what had happened–a junior high school boy had beaten up a female student in his grade on a bus while students encouraged him–people around her nodded with familiarity. You could tell that the camaraderie they felt with her was as much about the feelings she was experiencing as a teacher as it was about the situation itself. Everyone could relate to her shock and  frustration at how her students were able to turn on another child like this.

What I always appreciate about the training is watching our participants help each other. Not only do they have the opportunity to be a safe sounding board, but then they’re able to strategize and make a change.

We adapted our agenda and made space for the group to think through a plan to help this woman and her school. Something had happened in that grade that made it okay to encourage a bully even in the most extreme circumstances. They needed a strategy for the class to take appropriate responsibility for their participation, either as bystanders or perpetrators or cruelty. 

For 30 minutes we broke into small groups and brainstormed. After that all the groups presented their ideas. As I watched everyone work together, I had an incredible sense of pride. It’s so easy to feel helpless in this line of work. But right at that moment, it felt great to be surrounded by a group of educators who really wanted to make the world a safer place for every child.