Children's Stories About Bullying
Most children love stories, as they’re entertaining. But they’re also an ideal educational resource to instill ethical values in children. Thus, you can use them to prevent bullying in a didactic and playful way. For this reason, we decided to prepare the following article on children’s stories about bullying.
Stories are a useful tool to educate children. Therefore, parents should read to their children for a few minutes every day. This helps strengthen family bonds and allows children to learn different values.
“We have an obligation to read aloud to our children. To read them things they enjoy. To read to them stories we are already tired of. And to do the voices, to make it interesting, and not to stop reading to them just because they learn to read to themselves. We have an obligation to use reading-aloud time as bonding time, as time when no phones are being checked, when the distractions of the world are put aside.”
– Neil Gaiman –
Children’s stories in education
One of the advantages of using stories as an educational tool is that they have the ability to transmit values in an entertaining way. Stories have logical plots that tie the different parts together, making them much easier to remember. Human memory stores plot lines and accesses the rest of the details of the stories.
In fact, morals are the best summaries of stories and, therefore, what people remember from them. For all these reasons, reading to children is essential, as it allows them to learn different things in a fun way.
“Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.”
– James Russell Lowell –
Children’s stories about bullying
Children’s stories about bullying have the following goals:
- Teach children values against bullying in a didactic way.
- Sensitize children to the problem of bullying.
- Prevent cases of bullying.
But when you’re choosing the story, you must take into account the child’s age and educational level, since a story for a six-year-old child will have a simpler vocabulary and a much simpler plot than a story recommended for a 12-year-old.
You can find many stories by Pedro Pablo Sacristán on the website Free Stories for Kids. These stories are classified according to the values they want to teach. Therefore, following this classification, we selected three educational stories to address bullying.
In addition, it’s important to note that, if parents or teachers read these stories at home or at school, they should be responsible for asking a series of questions about the moral of the story at the end, so they must open a debate or conversation to reflect on the story’s teaching.
Tony, the Human Wasp
This story is perfect for addressing the topic of bravery and to teach children how to cope with bullying. This short story is recommended for children ages six and up.
The main character is Tony, a sensitive and intelligent boy who’s a victim of bullying. But one day, he decides to confront his attackers. Thus, reading this story shows that, even if you’re weaker, you can defend yourself against bullies, taking advantage of the things they’re afraid of.
The Great Gifts
The Great Gifts is a story recommended for children nine and up. This story is designed to make children think about bullying.
This story tells the story of Monty, a boy with a unique personality. In fact, he was so odd that he didn’t fit in with the other kids his age and was bullied for it.
But, one day, his classmates realize that Monty is a very special boy, which is why they decide to stop bullying him and help him find his special gift. Therefore, with this story, children learn that no one should be discriminated against for being the way they are, as everyone has something positive to contribute.
The Lion’s Tail
The Lion’s Tail is a story is about a boy named Lion, who was small and lived in fear of some boys from a neighboring village who harassed and bullied him.
This story is more complex than the others. Thus, it’s recommended for children over 11 years old. Furthermore, it mainly addresses three teachings:
- Courage to deal with bullying.
- Victims of bullying can address the abuse and harassment.
- A brave attitude is the best remedy for this problem.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Molina, A. I. P., Molina, D. P. y Serra, R. S. (2013). El cuento como recurso educativo. 3c Empresa: investigación y pensamiento crítico, 2(4), 4.
- Sacristán, P. P. (2008-2019). Cuentos para dormir. Madrid: Cuentopia Educativa SL. Recuperado de: https://cuentosparadormir.com/corregir-comportamientos/cuentos-para-evitar-el-bullying