New School Year: Character-developing Education

Thinking Forward is preparing to enter another year of providing character-developing education that is arts-based and promotes inward leadership, outward leadership and forward leadership all with the goal of helping decrease the frequency of bullying in schools across the city of Toronto.

We also want to use this space to help students, parents, and anyone who supports that anti-bullying goal. We’ve made it a practice to share quality resources, and this month we’d like to point you in the direction of the Kids Help Phone website. The national counselling phone line has been helping youth for over a generation, and their website also provides helpful and thoughtful insight aimed at students.

Follow https://kidshelpphone.ca/search?keys=Bullying and a series of captioned photos appear that link to themed articles. While all of them are quality, two of them are noteworthy for topics that don’t always get as much attention; ‘How to help a friend who’s experiencing bullying’ gives a practical and meaningful list to youth who need assistance and is written in a style that is accessible, while ‘Bystander: what to do if you witness bullying’ includes great rationale in its call for youth to be active in stopping bullying as well as a to-do list.

If you know of other resources, please share them as well. Please also consider how you might become involved in the important work that Thinking Forward is doing in schools across the city: you can donate, or if you’re an educator, please drop us a line and see how your school might partner with Thinking Forward and benefit from our work. Thank you!

By Ken Lickers