The topic of bullying has become a hot topic in communities, schools and across the nation. This is why there has been a recent emergence of professional speakers who focus on offering inspirational lectures to parents, children, teachers and no bullying advocates. Anti bullying speakers take pride in offering programs that offer motivation and inspiration to others in the hopes of spreading awareness.
Impact of bullying
Bullying can have a huge impact on everyone involved, including the victim, the bully and those around both of them. These effects can follow everyone involved well into their adult lives. Speakers focus on how bullying can affect everyone involved. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, here are some of the effects of bullying:
Victims who have been bullied can be at risk of:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Lack of self-esteem
- Loneliness
- Poor self-competence
- Social withdrawal
- Physical health issues
- Alcohol and drug abuse
- Suicide
- Poor academic performance
Those who are the bully are likely to:
- Get into more fights
- Get injured in a fight
- Start vandalizing property
- Steal
- Drink or use drugs
- Smoke
- Skip school
- Drop out of school
- Carry a weapon
- Become a criminal
Bystanders, witnesses and assistants to the bully are likely to:
- Be threatened by the bully
- Be bullied themselves
- Feel vulnerable
- Have a sense of fear
- Lack of personal safety
- Become a bully themselves
The school can suffer because:
- There is lower attendance rates
- Lack of participation in school-sponsored events
- Vandalism
- Lack of trust in educators by students
- High rates of expelled students
- High rates of student alcohol and drug abuse
Popular bullying topics
When bullying speakers plan their lectures, they focus on a few different things. They ask themselves a few of the following questions to ensure they have the best possible lecture that will help students in attendance. Those questions are:
- What will make an impact?
- What is a current hot topic?
- What will others react to?
- What will keep it entertaining?
- What are some of the school’s concerns?
Even though the main focus of the lecture offered by an anti bully speaker is to stop bullying, these speakers also focus on promoting other areas of well-being. Popular topics offered during these lectures include:
- Bullying: This is the main focus of the lecture and many of the other components lead back to this topic.
- Emotions: The importance of feelings helps promote awareness against bullying because it shows how it can affects everyone involved, including the bully.
- Influences: Speakers express the importance of keeping good influences in our lives. If we have a strong support system we are less likely to be bullied or become the bully.
- Life: Speakers get students to think about what it is they want in life, including goals and passions.
- Lifestyle: Living a healthy lifestyle will help promote self-confidence, which may reduce how much bullying occurs. Why? Because many bullies tend to pick on those who have a low self-esteem and they also pick on those as a way of hiding their own lack of confidence.
Benefits of having an anti bullying speaker come to your school
There are many benefits to having an anti-bullying speaker come to your school. These benefits include, but are not limited to, inspiring students to stand up to bullies, inspiring students to speak up and stopping students from bullying others. These speakers help bring attention to different types of bullying and shows how someone’s actions, even if no harm is intended, could be considered bullying.
Speakers will leave the students feeling inspired and willing to take action. In the long run, having a speaker come to your school will help reduce the number of situations, making for a safe learning environment.
Sometimes after a speaker visits a school, there can be a:
- Increase in school participation
- Increase in attendance
- Fewer reports of vandalism
- Fewer reports of fights
- Boost in school spirit
Popular anti bullying speakers
Many of the bullying speakers travel across the country offer lectures at schools, to clubs and other similar platforms. Each speaker has his or her own expertise and personal knowledge of different bullying topics. Which is why it is important to research and determine which speaker will be best for your school’s needs.
Here is a list of some of the top speakers on bullying from the American Program Bureau:
- Blake Leeper
- Cynthia Lowen
- Daniel J. Kindlon
- Jonathan Mooney
- Michael Thompson
- Peter Yarrow
- Rachel Simmons
- Robin Meade
- Robyn Silverman
- Rosalind Wiseman
- Susan L. Taylor
Inspirational speeches about bullying
Over the years many, including bullying speakers, have spoken out against bullying in an attempt to help spread awareness. Even students as young as 5th grade are speaking out in the hopes of stopping bullying in their schools.
Here are some excerpts from a speech shared on Our Speeches: Share with the World. It is from a speech given by a 5th grader back in 2010:
- “A bully can be a person that is big or someone small, it just depends on what type of bullying we are talking about.”
- “Some people that have been bullied all their life decided to leave their old life because they don’t appreciate it and commit suicide. Suicide! That just shows how out-of-hand this can get, bullying is that serious.”
- “Remember everything I have told you today and you will not be a bully or not be afraid to stand up for yourself! Just be strong, keep your head up high and do your best to stop bullying once and for all! Remember, school Bullying is EVERYONE’S business! Thank you for listening and Good-Bye!”
When a speaker comes to a school to share his stories, he or she hopes to leave the lecture having inspired just one student. Though they want to inspire more than one, sometimes if they are able to get through to just one student, chances are the awareness will spread and more students will get the message in the future.