| Adapt your names-finding class discussions
to the differences in group mentality at age levels! Individual pupils in school carry all kinds of reaction potentials. That’s why the first phases of SCm are individual talks. But when you tackle them as groups, discussing methods of treatment of bullying, you see that traits characterising ages will appear. One of these traits is the pupils’ reactions to the authority of the adults. Children in pre-puberty years are, as a group, rather well inclined to accept the status of the adult. As a contrast to that, teenage groups are guarding themselves against the influence of the adults. This is a "commission decided by the mother nature". We know that teenagers are leaving childhood and trying the tasks of adulthood. We need to deal with the fact that the prerequisite for all development of civilizations is that new generations need to discover their own ways. Teenagers expect that we will protect them against bullying but they do not want us to direct them too much. The conclusion for the adults’ "selling" the idea of SCm to teenagers is that they have to indicate, indirectly, that their input concerns a limited area of life. The adolescents are invited to continue themselves with democratic solutions. Here is one of the reasons of the popularity of SCm in teenagers: the way out is composed of elements the parties themselves supply. The decisive thing for the younger children’s esteem of SCm has a different quality: that the adult is known for them as a likable person who speaks with conviction about a serious matter. He or she presents the paper slips on which to write the names of "those who need help" and the names are easily provided. Furthermore, form teachers at pre-adolescent ages have reported that during weeks after they have carried out such class inventories, children come to them and spontaneously tell about classmates who "need help". |