Bullying the Outsider

Today we had another assembly on bullying. The Utah governor actually said that every school needed to watch this assembly. The speaker was Nick Vujicic, a man born with no arms and no legs. It was a very powerful assembly.




For the rest of the day I talked to my students about the effect this assembly had on them. At first when I would ask them what they thought about it, I would get only a few reluctant hands and weak responses.

So I decided to relate it to what we are doing in class.

We just finished reading The Outsiders. My students have fallen in love with the characters, especially Ponyboy and Johnny. I asked them, "Now that we have finished the book, who would like to be Ponyboy's friend?" All hands went up. I then related to them how we see Ponyboy as he really is: his likes and dislikes, his personality, his relationships with his friends and brothers, his hopes and fears, and his failures as well as his successes. We love him with all of it. But if we saw him on the street, what would we think? To be honest, we would probably look at his greased back, long hard and his tough-looking friends and think, "No way. I wouldn't be friends with him. We are nothing alike." How many times do we do that at school and not give people a chance just because of their appearance.

I told them how the assembly and the book and their insider/outsider project all go together to help them apply what they have learned.When you have acted the part of the outsider, some of you did experience teasing or name calling. Since you knew it wasn't real and it was only for a project, it might not have affected you very much. But I want you to think of people who experience that every day.

It breaks my heart, but I have had some students who have come up to me and said, "Ms. Mayans, do I have to do a made-up outsider project? Because I already feel that." They tell me about having to sit alone on the bus because no one likes to talk to them. Or about how people say they smell and stay away from them because they live in a home with people who smoke. Do we notice the outsiders in our classes, our hallways, and our communities?

To be honest I actually cried.

They seemed to be much more attentive after all that.

I feel so blessed to have gotten to know each of these kids. Some are shy, some are crazy outgoing, some goofy, some are surrounded by friends, some stay by themselves. No matter how they act, I personally know of their worth, and it hurts me to see other kids belittle them because of the things that make them unique. Hopefully the books we have read this year will inspire a little more acceptance and love in each of them.

I love my students.