Transcripts

Ron Clark:
We are losing so many kids in America because they're being bullied, they're being picked on; they don't want to go to school. The school environment is not a positive place for a lot of kids.

Teacher Ron Clark, author of the book The Excellent Eleven and Disney's Teacher of The Year in 2001...

We have to make the school like a family. We have to teach these kids to respect each other, to show appreciation for each other, to lift each other up. And on the first day of school, the very first thing I say is this: "This year we're going to be a family, we're going to lift each other up and we're going to work together and no matter what, we will not bully each other, we're not going to call names - it's not going to happen in this classroom. And I spend a great deal of time talking with kids, counseling them, because I don't want my kids to be miserable. And there are so many kids that are all across America. You would never know it, sometimes even if you're the parent.

Ron says bullying continues to get worse and worse and he has a theory as to why.

In most homes you have two parents working. When the kids come home, the first thing they do is they go to the Internet or they're watching TV or they're playing video games. They don't have that attention from their parents. Their parent's are so busy that kids aren't getting that attention at home. So in turn when they go to school they're going to try and find ways to get that attention. And one way to get attention is to pick on other kids and to lift yourself up by making others feel bad. It's because they're not getting the attention and the love that they should be getting in the home environment.

At somethingyoushouldknow.net - I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.