Assignment task:
How would I provide an overview of the issue, anti-bullying prevention and describe the main points of the argument Peer's paper below?
Peer's Paper: An argument to be addressed in my persuasive essay is that it is not the school's responsibility to provide more anti-bullying prevention instead it is the parents' responsibility within the home environment to provide bullying education and prevention. I am pursuing a degree in Psychology, the topic of parenting and the effects it has on a child's social and emotional development aligns with my degree major. I am able to see two sides to this argument, one being peer influence and the other being accountable for the choices you make.
A specific challenge I can have when addressing a specific targeted audience, specifically parenting issues is that self-reflection is hard. Especially when you don't see anything wrong with what you are doing or allowing it to be done. I believe that ethically and morally we should hold ourselves responsible for what we say and do especially when we are parents or caregivers shaping a young child's perspective on what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.
A goal I have set for myself with this essay is to provide enough information to allow people to see a different point of view on the responsibility of the school system when it comes to bullying and what steps we can take to make the school environment a welcoming and safe place for all students regardless of their ethnicity, gender, sexual preference, or socioeconomic status. I will try my best to reach my goal by providing facts and statistics from credible sources. I will attempt to write the paper in a way that makes the audience feel empowered for change rather than make the audience feel like blame is being placed on them.
The key points I will use in this essay will be the long-term effects that bullying has on children, the need for schools to establish procedures and procedures against bullying, and schools to adapt a whole-school approach of anti-bullying and a school culture that goes along with it.
One resource I will use in my essay that supports my argument will be Zirkel, Perry A. "Liability for Student Suicide: An Updated Empirical Analysis of the Case Law." This source supports that schools should be responsible for providing more anti-bullying interventions. This article published by the National Association of School Psychologists discusses how the court identifies bullying as a contributing factor to student suicide in 55% of the 43 cases they studied. It suggests systematic changes and the focus on ascertaining and adopting evidence-based practices of successful schools. Another source will be Menken, Miriam S et al. "Peer victimization (bullying) on mental health, behavioral problems, cognition, and academic performance in preadolescent children in the ABCD Study." This study shows how the effects children who are bullied have more internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems than those children who are not bullied. It also takes about the different effects on children based on their sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status and how the child's mental health can sometimes be underestimated based on their response.
I plan to use the writing style of logos, ethos, and pathos to appeal to the audience's character, emotions, morals, and values. We have all gone to school at some point in our lives or have children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or cousins that go to or still are in school that can relate to the topic of bullying. I hope that by using facts and emotions I can write an essay that the reader can relate to