For close to two decades, schools have been working hard to become “bully-free zones.” Every state in America, as well as most countries, have anti-bullying laws that require schools to protect children from “bullying”. Numerous highly-intensive whole school anti-bullying programs are being implemented in thousands of schools.
Of course, some schools have succeeded in achieving a substantial reduction in aggression. Unfortunately, the overall success of anti-bullying efforts has, for the most part, been less than stellar. Child aggression is often called an epidemic, despite years of anti-bully campaigning. Suicides and shootings are on the rise. Research has shown that the most highly revered bullying prevention programs rarely produce more than a minor reduction in aggression and often result in an increase. A major study from the University of Texas in Arlington found that students in schools with anti-bullying programs are more likely to experience aggression than students in schools without such programs. Another Canadian study found that anti-bullying laws, at their best, reduce aggression by 20%. In fact, researchers have come to see a 20% reduction in bullying to be a sign of great success, a goal to be strived for. This means that schools consider an 80% failure rate to be a highly desirable outcome. Therefore, if we are to rely on popular approaches to aggression, the great majority of students will continue to experience aggression.
There is a good chance that your school, too, has been expending a great deal of time and effort combating aggression, with limited results.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that the popular approach to child aggression isn’t working. Despite this, researchers and anti-bullying organizations insist that we need to intensify implementation of strategies that have been failing.
It is time to accept the fact that additional intensification of an approach that isn’t working is not likely to make it work. A more reasonable conclusion is that we need to abandon the failing approach and look for a totally different one. And that is where our “SQUABBLES: Your Game Plan For Aggression” steps in. Our program is based on a dramatically different paradigm of aggression, a paradigm that has been resisted by a dying breed of anti-bullying activists and organizations because it challenges their basic beliefs.
Nevertheless, we expect that you will quickly discover the simplicity and effectiveness of this approach. We also want you to take comfort in the fact that this approach to aggression is not based on new-fangled ideas. On the contrary, as you will discover, it is based not only on solid psychology, but on ancient universal wisdom.
Children continue to suffer, and they deserve help. We welcome you on this journey to discover a different way of understanding and solving the problem of aggression in general. We expect that you will get better results with less effort. Your students will be happier, your job will be easier and more satisfying, parents will be thrilled with your efforts, and you will be able to take satisfaction in the fact that you are equipping students not only for dealing with their social problems during their school career, but for a lifetime.
CREATING A SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM & SCALING MENTAL HEALTH WORLDWIDE
Our aim in creating this program is to provide content, materials, and step-by-step instructions that will help teachers, school counselors, administrators, program directors, and home educators deliver this program with minimal stress and additional resources. Following the lead of successful programs endorsed by educational and psychological scholars and professional practitioners, this program is:
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Based on prevailing theoretical (psychological and social) frameworks and evidence from behavioral sciences on human relationships and conflict management.
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Applied to more than just school aggression; its core principles are relevant for all relationships, both positive and negative.
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Based on effective teaching and learning strategies that reinforce understanding through practice and application of simple core program principles.
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Targeted to the appropriate level for intervention – e.g., chronic victimization, occasional aggression, etc.
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Adaptable to fit appropriate developmental, cultural, linguistic, social, or physical differences, etc.
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Scalable for use with individuals, small groups, classrooms, and large audiences.
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Customizable for any desired timeframe and intervention level.
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Equally adaptable to community, home, and school - parents, siblings, teachers, administrators, students, community leaders can benefit from it.
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Simple – to understand, learn, and execute.
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Quick – produces positive results almost immediately.
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Efficient - requires a relatively small investment of budget and personnel resources.
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Sustainable through an easy train-the-trainer model.
We at SQUABBLES, like so many other organizations and individual practitioners, researchers, and theorists, believe the answer to reducing aggression and its often-tragic effects lies in building resilience and social and emotional competence in kids (Cornell & Limber, 2015). By putting kids at the center of the solution and fostering their internal fortitude to overcome bullying on their own, schools will be in a much better position to reduce the potential for legal conflict, while at the same time increasing prosocial behavior among students and staff members, thus creating a more open, inclusive, and collaborative environment.
