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This
teacher lectures from the 'bully' pulpit Published in the Asbury Park Press
12/05/03 By BRIAN
PRINCE MANAHAWKIN BUREAU EAGLESWOOD -- Bullying isn't just
about one child beating up another. It can be as simple as cutting
in line, or hurting others with words instead of fists. This is
the message that Merrill McCubbin brought to Eagleswood Elementary
School yesterday in a presentation, "Bully You, Bully Me, Let's
Learn to be Bully Free." For the past eight years, McCubbin,
whose company -- MerMan Productions -- is based in Norfolk, Va., has
been visiting schools around the country doing as many as 15 shows a
week. His goal is to get people to understand not only what bullying
is, but what they can do to counteract it. A bully is someone
who does mean things to people who look like they are weaker, he
said. There are two types of bullies: the major bully, who is
violent, and the more common minor bully, who makes fun of others.
"A lot of us are minor bullies," McCubbin said. When it
comes to thwarting bullies, there are several options, McCubbin
said. One is for people to know and believe in themselves, he said.
Appearances, he stressed, are only skin deep. "Some of us are
short; some of us are tall," McCubbin said. "Some of us have light
skin; some of us have dark skin. (But) on the inside, we're all very
much the same." He urged pupils -- even the bullies who want
help in stopping their behavior -- not to be afraid to approach an
adult for help. There is a difference, he said, between tattling
and telling. Tattling is what a person does to get someone else in
trouble; telling is what a person does to get someone out of
trouble, he explained. School Superintendent Deborah Snyder said
she was glad the program touched on that. "One of the toughest
things I think for kids, is what to do when they're a witness," she
said. The presentation provided one example of what not to do as
a witness. In a skit called "A Day in the Park," one pupil is
sitting in a park when he is attacked by a bully who steals his
candy. When a third youngster sees the bully approaching another
child, he runs in the opposite direction and does not return or call
for help. Trying to talk things out seldom hurts, McCubbin told
the pupils. But his solution to the worst-case bullying scenario was
a bit more dramatic. Dashing off stage, he screamed, "Help!" at
the top of his lungs. "There is one thing adults hate more than
doing their taxes -- the sound of children screaming," McCubbin
said. Adam Sharkey, 11, said he enjoyed the show because
McCubbin combined humor with a positive message. The 11-year-old
said that he, like many pupils, can relate to the presentation.
"I've been the victim of minor bullying," he said. "Some kids in
my class have called me names." Snyder said, "People technically
think of just the really mean kids who beat them up (as a bully),
but there are other forms of bullying that are more subtle."
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