Because children are at the mercy of the families they are born into; because people have children without knowing what a huge job it is to care for and love them; because not all (hardworking) parents have the time or patience to devote to their children; because everyone has a unique way of perceiving the world and a unique manner of communicating; there ought to be a mandatory curriculum in all schools, starting in the earliest grades, that would focus on teaching children: How to communicate with all different sorts of people; That it is okay to have feelings, whatever they are; How to disagree with others in a civil manner; That everyone is of value; and What is involved in having and caring for children (so that students are more prepared when it comes time to decide about having their own).

 A good way to teach children effective ways to communicate would be to have the youngest students act out an incident they experienced (perhaps a time when they were bullied, or called names, or ridiculed, or when they felt lonely and needed to know how to express that hurt). And in the higher grades, a student could debate a controversial topic with another student. These reenactments and debates would be videotaped. Then a teacher who is specially trained (probably a psychologist) would lead the class as they watch the playback of the video, with everyone participating in pointing out where the communication was effective and where it was ineffective. Following the class discussion, effective communication strategies could be taught. If children were taught in school how to effectively communicate, a lot of the alienation that unfortunately leads to violence would be prevented. All children would have the chance to feel valued. Children would learn that deep down we are all the same, and that no one should be made fun of or worse. It would take a long time, but after a few decades the very children who were exposed to these classes would become the adults running society.  They would be more enlightened than most of the adults running the world now, and they would make better choices in media, politics and the other spheres besides school and home that affect the way children are socialized. I think we’re overdue for adding a communications course to the K-12 curriculum in all schools. Communication skills are at least as important as all the other subjects our schools teach!  Especially when you think about how many problems are caused by failures in communication, from neglected children, to divorces, to disputes in the workplace, to road rage, to school violence, to drug and alcohol abuse, to crime in general (because children who are ignored or abused can become criminals), to wars. I’ve had this idea for a long time. It’s very important to me, and I believe it can have a huge impact on preventing violence in our schools and our culture at large. I hope you will tell your friends and elected officials about my idea. The more people we can get discussing it, the sooner we can make it happen!

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Judy Pokras is a long-time journalist. She has written for many publications, including The New York Times. She is the author of The Little Book of Raw Vegan Holiday Recipes (also available as an e-book), and of the novel Artist Girl’s Cambridge Daze. She is also the writer, producer and director of a mock-Seinfeld video, Anomalies.

The Humanity Project's Gabriela Pinto talks with Plantation Elementary kids before our program

They applauded it, clapped to our music and laughed at our jokes. More importantly, we’re sure they will remember our valuable lessons. We’ll soon have the pre-post test scores back, results that in the past have proven that young kids indeed do learn from our program. If your South Florida school would like the Humanity Project’s free program to visit in the fall, please contact us. (It’s free thanks to support from our partners, including Broward Sheriff’s Office, State Farm, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, Children’s Services Council of Broward County and others.) We’re already lining up schools for the next term. If you’re located outside South Florida, we still can help provide our original anti-bullying books and music and videos as part of your school’s anti-bullying efforts. Just look for the “Contact” page above, click on that link, then email us. We’ll look forward to hearing from you!

Megan Landry performs her song, "Stronger"

This is the link to that video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRVlxBe35sY&feature=channel Megan’s song wasn’t written specifically to combat bullying but, as you will see, it offers great encouragement and support to anyone dealing with bullying problems. The Humanity Project highly recommends it for students who are being bullied because the song urges those kids to look beyond the immediate misery — and to rise above it. We’re very impressed with Megan’s talents and even more so with her commitment to improving society through the arts. As you know, that’s also part of what the Humanity Project works to do with programs such as our acclaimed (and highly effective) Anti-bullying Through The Arts. Megan’s video also will appear on a brand new website that the Humanity Project is designing right now, one that’s just for kids. We’ll be telling you much more about that in the months to come. For the moment, please check out Megan’s music video and pass along the link to your friends and family. Megan’s song is one we all need to hear.

The Humanity Project Anti-bullying Through The Arts program makes a real difference

Think about that — only four years ago. In my conversation with the two smart women who ran the Broward County Anti-bullying Task Force, I said, “The Humanity Project program will be intended to help students understand one basic idea: bullying is not cool! Right now, kids see bullies as the cool people, the students to admire because they’re so tough or cruel. Bullying won’t stop until that changes. The Humanity Project anti-bullying program will connect with elementary school kids and help create an environment where bystanders will see that bullying isn’t cool … and will help to stop it.” They invited the Humanity Project to join that task force, which we did, working as a team to create a powerful anti-bullying policy that became a statewide model. Now in 2012, this idea is catching on, here in Florida and around the United States. The Humanity Project’s acclaimed Anti-bullying Through The Arts program has years of statistical data to show that kids do change their view of bullying as a result of our program. They recognize that bullying is a problem for everyone … that bullying really is uncool. It’s gratifying to see that a huge new movie called ”Bully” is coming out with very much this same message. Just yesterday, I received an email to the Humanity Project, sent by a teen in the Houston, Texas area. Here’s what it said in part: ”My name is Kaitlyn K, I’m 15 yrs old and a student of Cyranch High school. Bullying is something I’ve experienced first hand and witnessed throughout my school years and it’s a major issue which seems to be spiraling out of control! Both parents and other adults have been trying to intercept and do something to stop the bullying ‘trend’ but bully’s continue to get away with it, mostly because us, their peers often turn a blind eye and let them! Today at my school we’re coming together to do the opposite and say to EVERYONE who picks on others or make people feel small – Who Do You Think You Are? Bullying is NOT cool!” Wow. It’s inspiring for the Humanity Project to watch this clear, simple message catch on. Bullying, at long last, is not cool. And it’s about time.

South Plantation High School students work with us to create "I Care!"

So we were very pleased to see that our ”I Care!” teen driver safety program already has attracted news coverage — months before the program is actually launched. That’s because our approach to teen driver safety is so unorthodox, drawing on teen-to-teen friendships and positive peer pressure rather than the usual ineffective scare tactics. You can read more about “I Care!” in two languages. The Spanish language El Sentinel, sister newspaper to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, ran a recent story on our program. Here’s a link to that well-done piece, en Espanol: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/elsentinel/fl-es-com0317manejo-20120315,0,6835264.story. If you’re looking for coverage in English, you can find a good story from the Plantation Forum newspaper: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/plantation/fl-pf-text-0222-20120302,0,1165776.story?track=rss. Either article will give you a bit more detail on what we’re doing. We anticipate many more media stories about “I Care!” as the program nears completion and then goes to teen drivers. Thanks, El Sentinel and Plantation Forum for this early reporting on our work. And thanks to State Farm for making the program possible through a generous grant as well as to our friends at South Plantation High School in Plantation, Florida. Students from the school newspaper are helping us to create this program from the ground up, with assistance and support from their terrific teacher Sarah Lerner. We all believe that “I Care!” is going to be something very special.

Talk about persistence! The Humanity Project’s Anti-bullying Through The Arts program is now four years old. More than 9,000 young children have been part of this program to date. We have watched school bullying change from a social issue that was on the sidelines into a topic that’s very much the center of attention. We’re gratified to see this shift in attitudes. And we are proud that our program has been proven over time, as have some other fine anti-bullying programs of longstanding merit. The Humanity Project has years of empirical data to back up our claims — and the praise of many teachers and guidance counselors as well.

The Humanity Project led the nation's first mass anti-bullying march on November 16, 2008

The Humanity Project also organized and led the first mass children’s march against bullying in the United States, our November 2008 “Thousand Youth March for Humanity.” That was long before the horrific bullying incidents that created such a media stir. (If you missed it, make sure to watch the inspiring YouTube video of that march. You can find it on this website’s “Videos/Music” page.) In addition, the Humanity Project helped to write the anti-bullying policies here in the nation’s sixth largest school district, in Broward County, Florida … and then built our own program to really connect with young bystanders in school. Research shows bystanders are the key to stopping bullying. So as we create new programs that go beyond bullying, the Humanity Project just wanted to let you know we’re sticking with the task at hand too. Our acclaimed Anti-bullying Through The Arts program works! And we’re going to get it to as many kids as we can in the months and years ahead. You can depend on that.

Our good neighbors at the local State Farm offices understand how much we do to combat bullying and to bring some important information to the Internet with our professionally produced podcasts. Of course, the national State Farm headquarters also is providing significant financial support for the Humanity Project in the form of a grant to create our new “I Care!” teen driver safety program. We are deeply grateful for that. But today, just a few words to thank our longtime local State Farm friends, including Eugene Dixon, Craig Holloway and John Gentry.  We appreciate the support, guys!