No Laughing Matter

Folk singer and activist Peter Yarrow talks about how music can change the world—one classroom at a time.

Just the Facts More than 3 million students are victims of bullying each year, according to the American Medical Association. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered (GLBT) students are at greater risk—83 percent of GLBT students have been verbally harassed because of their sexual orientation, while more than 40 percent have been physically harassed, according to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. Bullying leaves long-term effects. Both bullies and victims are more likely to drop out of school and engage in criminal activity later in life, according to the National Association of School Psychologists.

It's the slice of school life that disheartens: Between 15 and 30 percent of students have either bullied a classmate or been bullied. And roughly 160,000 children stay home from school each day because they fear what a classmate might do to them.

Legendary folk musician Peter Yarrow finds such statistics simply unacceptable. In 2000 Yarrow, a member of the acclaimed music trio Peter, Paul & Mary, founded the nonprofit organization Operation Respect to equip educators with the tools and skills they need to transform their schools into compassionate, safe, and respectful places. Through the use of music, video, and interactive classroom activities, Operation Respect's "Don't Laugh At Me" program strives to sensitize children to the painful effects caused by ridicule, disrespect, and other forms of bullying and transform classrooms into "Ridicule-Free Zones." NEA Today's Kristen Loschert spoke with Yarrow about the mission behind "Don't Laugh At Me" and how his work with Operation Respect builds on his years of social activism.

Why did you start Operation Respect?

YARROW:  It was simply an extension of the work that I've been doing throughout the years with Peter, Paul & Mary. Everything comes back to the absence or presence of respect. The civil rights movement was about racism, which is a very virulent form of disrespect. The women's movement and the gender equality movement are certainly about the absence or presence of respect. The environmental movement is about respect for the environment and for the next generation. War is about the kind of antipathy, animosity that proceeds from disrespect. 

Photo by Operation Respect

And so the dilemma with working on all those issues for the adult population is that you don't change the hearts of adults. You may change the civil rights law, you may change some societal norms, but it's merely two steps forward, one step back—unless you get to the hearts of children who can be reached prior to re-perpetuating that terrible cycle of disrespect, hatred, and prejudice that are just so prevalent in the world. The only way to really break that cycle is through the children. "Don't Laugh At Me" and Operation Respect focus on doing precisely that. I'm talking about creating an environment in which the next generation will grow up to act differently and look at each other differently.

Music plays a central role in your program. Why is music an effective way to connect with children and to change people's attitudes generally?

YARROW: The reality is that you remember songs, from when you dated, when you marched—they seep into your soul. Music allows people to receive messages that they might otherwise discard. They touch the heart. 

The songs on the "Don't Laugh At Me" video produce very strong responses in the kids, and it provides a platform for a discussion of the issues, while the classroom exercises give them a sense that they are controlling their own environment. It's all about empowerment. The kids are our partners. If they are given a task of creating a ridicule-free environment in their classrooms, they will leap to the opportunity.

Now, that having been said, we are, of course, paddling upstream here because the majority of messages we're getting from the media are ones that seem to celebrate disrespect. You get famous for getting on Jenny Jones or Jerry Springer and humiliating somebody else or allowing yourself to be humiliated. I mean, it is a horrible cycle in the United States of people seeing this kind of behavior on television. The adults are amused and kids are troubled by it, yet they incorporate those role models into their own behavior patterns and hurt each other terribly.

How much did your mother's work as a teacher influence your sense of activism and decision to start the "Don't Laugh At Me" program?  Were her philosophies at the back of your mind at all?

YARROW: That was in the front of my mind. My mother was a member of the teachers union, which could have lost her her job then. That's why I went into this field, this folk music. It was always teaching to me. The only way you achieve peace is through education. The only hope we have to turn back from this road is to interrupt the cycle of disrespect and hatred and prejudice on a racial, religious, national, tribal level, and the only way we can do that is through our ability to reach the children. And therein lies the reason for my saying this is the most important work I've ever done, which it is.

Get Involved Has bullying become a problem in your school? Do you want to do something about it? Then join NEA's National Bullying Awareness Campaign. Through the campaign, NEA local affiliates partner with their school districts to develop a comprehensive bullying and sexual harassment prevention/intervention program. But they don't do it alone. Members of NEA's national cadre of trainers will work with local educators and staff to identify their school's individual problems and develop a program to address them. Want more information? Contact your state Association or visit www.nea.org/schoolsafety/ bullying.html. Teachers' guides on bullying and sexual harassment also are available from the NEA Professional Library at http://home.nea .org/books, while parent resources are available from the NEA Health Information Network at www.neahin.org/canwetalk/.

What are your future plans for "Don't Laugh At Me"?

YARROW:  The program is just one piece of the puzzle. There's no pretense that this is a be-all and end-all program. This is just a tool. But it's a tool that has unique elements in it. It has the music, it has the appeal of the idealism of the songs. It's a program that has different concepts, like the ridicule-free zone, that are unique. And it has the support of magic dragons.

But the other part of us is to create the awareness of the problem and the solution. And bring it to the legislative arenas and bring it to the parents and bring it to the business community. Our role is to inform, to generate excitement, to generate energy, to mobilize, and also to provide one tool that can be an effective part of either launching people, launching classrooms, in this work or enriching similar work already in progress.

Our hope is that we will create this on a community-wide basis in a more integrated way, and more comprehensively, and reach the tipping point in the next year or two, whereby parents prefer to send their kids to schools that look most intensely at the culture of the school and the way it nurtures their kids before they look at the academics.

But shouldn't students' academic success be the priority?

YARROW:  If the culture of the school is positive and loving, you can be sure that the academics will be equally successful. They do not function independently of each other. A school that is troubled will not be able to function in terms of allowing the kids to reach their academic potential. A school that is focused on the emotional development of the kids, the humanity of the language, the way in which they interact with each other and the teachers, and the way in which the teachers are allowed to teach will ultimately produce the best academic results as well.

To learn more about the "Don't Laugh At Me" program or to download a free copy of the curriculum, visit www.dontlaugh.org/. Educators can reproduce the program materials free of charge or purchase bulk quantities for a nominal fee.