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Bullying is in the news every day. It’s starting in preschool now, as young as age 3. Cyber-bullying has become pervasive, and the youth suicide rate has increased dramatically. All 50 states now have legislation in place directing school districts to adopt anti-bullying policies. Many anti-bullying programs have been developed to meet this need. Too many are reactive and current research shows that these reactive measures are not working. Are we just putting band-aids on our bullying crisis?
When asked why we have a bullying epidemic, studies have shown that most Americans believe we have a rudeness epidemic. A bullying cycle has been identified. The cycle begins with rudeness or incivility, which can lead to bullying, and then can escalate into violence. The challenge is breaking the cycle at the beginning, the rudeness or incivility, which is the easiest to address. Our children want to feel safe, comfortable, confident, and accepted. Experts suggest comprehensive social skills programs for kids that stress kindness and empathy.
Cool Kind Kid® provides a proactive solution that helps kids learn the skills needed to reject bullying; increasing their self-esteem, their confidence levels, and their ability to build healthy relationships with peers. Cool Kind Kid addresses bullying proactively by offering social skills activities and programs. Children are engaged and having fun as they participate in these bullying prevention activities. As Cool Kind Kid redefines “COOL” for kids, we see changed behavior as they learn, “The KIND kid is the COOL kid, not the bully.”TM
Cool Kind Kid’s® main character is a boy named Tanner. He is a real person, the creator’s grandson. Tanner and his friends are bothered by the way that kids treat one another. Throughout the content, they ask the question, “Why can’t kids be both kind and cool?” Tanner is kind, caring, respectful, accepting, and encouraging. He is a kid everyone wants to be around. In the first song on the Cool Kind Kid CD, Cool Kind Kid, Tanner, and other kids introduce this concept.
Francie is a friend to all kids because she is kind and accepting of everyone. She has a lot of friends because she doesn’t tease, pick-on, or exclude anyone. She goes out of her way to befriend a shy, weak, or bullied child. She stands up to kids who bully and doesn’t participate in gossip. The song, The Best Friend I Can Be shows Francie’s good qualities and helps kids learn how to be a good friend, so they can have many friends.
Radically Rude Rudalot is always rude. He thinks being rude is cool. He doesn’t have many friends. However, he isn’t aware that the way he behaves is impacting his friendships in a negative way. He is one of the few Cool Kind Kid characters that are negative, but he is needed to show kids how not to behave. He eventually learns that “the Kind kid is the COOL kid, not the bully.”TM Rude Rudy is one of the favorite songs on the CD.
