How We Treat One Another in School

Research shows that social isolation and bullying can profoundly affect students' sense of affiliation with school and thus hamper their ability to learn. In a survey of middle-grades students in three diverse schools, the authors found variations among the schools with regard to the extent to which students felt safe in school, the locations where bullying most often took place, the types of bullying that occurred, and the primary reasons students became targets of bullying. In all three schools, however, students felt that adults were not aware of the extent of bullying, and they wanted adults to take a more active role in intervening and keeping them safe. The article recommends strategies for implementing a schoolwide social-emotional learning curriculum that will not only mitigate bullying, but also improve school climate in general. (Contains 2 endnotes.)