Book source

         

Title of the book	You Can’t Say You Can’t Play
Author/ Editor	Vivian Gussin
Publisher	Paley
Year of publication	1992
City of publication	Cambridge, MA.
Mode of access	Print
Edition	N/A

5 Facts from the source (Embedded)

Because kids are influential, they are much more susceptible to fall in a bad position for themselves and in the eyes of others. “At a young age, kids get a general idea of who their peers are, and feel a sense to be like them. This can influence negative behavior later on.” (Gussin, 49)

Exclusion at a young age exiles a child from social interactions later on. “James had to stay after school with the teacher so she can ask him why he wouldn’t leave the class during recess.” (Gussin, 17)

A single friend can change the course of a child’s life, by providing an outlet outside of their home socially and personally. “A child expects others their age to interact with them as they would, and when that doesn’t happen, an immediate distance emerges between the two.” (Gussin, 28)

Parents often play a huge role in the growth of a child, if they aren’t there to guide them, serious consequences can come about. “Most single parent families simply don’t have the time to connect with each other, a sort of alienation and loss of identity builds whenever a child doesn’t receive attention from their parent, which could lead to certain issues later on in life.” (Gussin, 13)

Having friends doesn’t exactly guarantee an easier life as a child, “As a child I wondered why Dennis had so many friends at school, he was always mean to them. I later found out that his dad had left his family and wasn’t around anymore, I felt bad for him after that. I don’t know how I could go on if I lost my father.” (Gussin, 63)

Who, What, Where, Why, How?

This story is a mix between analysis written in first person by the author, and multiple short stories about kids dealing with their issues. It takes place in America but it includes immigrants as well, it tells stories of isolation, rejection, beatings, and ridicule.

Credibility of source.

After receiving her degree in psychology, Vivian Gussin taught pre-school and kindergarten for about 30 or 40 years, she learned behaviors of children and wrote numerous award winning books for her insight and understanding to children.

Bias?

I feel that Gussin’s topic is pretty much one sided, it goes straight into psychology and behavior and all that. But it does take the side of the victim more often than it should sometimes, because a lot of the time I felt that the damages portrayed in the book was definitely in the individuals control and could have been avoided. Yet at times Gussin blames some event on unrelated and random circumstances.

Interview

When thinking over who to interview, I had one person on mind. My friend's younger brother, ten years old and a 5th grader in his elementary school, I've seen both bully like and victim like expressions from his actions. I asked him 11 simple questions on the issue. *quoted as said. 1)What do you think bullying is? -Vullying is hurting people and being mean to people. 2)have you ever been bullied? If you have, can you tell me how? -Sometimes these kids pick on me and my friends and they call us nasty names. 3)What should you do if you are being bullied or see someone else being bullied? -Tell the teacher. 4)Are there any bullies in your school? -Yes the girls are really mean to eachother and the boys make fun of them alot. 5)Have you ever bullied anyone? -No. 6)Do you think adults get bullied? -No.(he got a good laugh out of this) 7)Do you think it feels good to bully someone? -I would feel bad. 8)Have you ever wanted to bully anyone? -My brothers. (why?) Because my little brother is annoying and my big brother always kicks me out of his room. 9)Do you think bullying can be stopped? -Yes. (How?) if everyone knew it was really bad and it hurt peoples feelings. 10)When do you think bullying was started? -In the 90's. 11)Why do you think bullies pick on others? -They like it, I think it makes them feel good. Christopher Jedrasik 03/10/2012

SOURCE NUMBER 1

“Specific Page Title or Article Title”	BULLYING: pictures videos news
Primary Contributor to the Website (if given) (author, editor, producer, etc)	News stations, newspaper contributors, court trials and police convictions.
Title of the Entire Website (not www. )	Huffingtonpost.com
Publisher or Sponsoring Organization of the website (if given)	AOL
Date Page was Last Revised	Not Given
Date You Read It	7 February 2012
<URL address> (ALL of it)	http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/bullying

FIVE FACTS FROM THE SOURCE:

The definition of the word bully: "A person who uses strength or power to harm or intimidate those who are weaker."

Children are not cruel. Children are mirrors. They believe what we believe. They say what we say. And we have taught them that gay people are not okay. That overweight people are not okay. That Muslim people are not okay.

Children bully in the hallways and the cafeterias while we bully from behind government’s laws, legislative benches and in one-liners on sitcoms.

The most common forms of biased language among elementary school students are the use of the word "gay" as in "that's so gay”. This sort of discrimination affects kids younger and younger as time goes on. I myself didn’t know what gay meant until around 7th grade.

Over the past few years, there has been an increase in research on bullying in schools.

Summary of Source (Three-Four Sentences of the Who, What, Where, Why, and How in your own words. NO OPINION):
This website is a bundle of posts of everything from talk shows, to lawsuits that groups victims of anti gay-lesbian violence, elementry school bullying, online bullying, victim suicice, bullying in the army, sports teams and every other kind you've heard of. It gives shocking insight as people are free to comment on each post and therefore share their own related experinces with whoever is reading.

Credibility of Source:
Author or Site: Who is the author? What training have they had? If there is no author, examine the site. What is the purpose of the site? Who funds the site?

This site is legitimate because there is involvment with news sources and court systems. Stories comply with many online databases such as major news sites. It is also the worls largest online newspaper (Huffington Post) and therefore implies its own legitimacy.

Does the author or site have anything to gain from writing this, or is it simply informative? For example, is it a cigarette business posting an article about the benefit of cigarettes, or is it a scientific community unaffiliated with the cigarette business? 

It is simply to inform.

Bias: Do you detect a bias (a favoring of either side) in the author's writing?
Not at all.

References: Does the author cite references in the writing? If so, do these add or take away from the credibility?
Yes, there is a link to its respective news network website or court database.

Use of Source: How will you use this source in your project?
I will call apoun some stories as examples of what its like to be bullied, and ill hope to find insight on both sides so i can actually put together a 2 sided aurgument.

rationale for choice

This topic appeals to me because i grew up in a city where there was a definate line between social classes at my old middle school, where i saw a great ammount of harassment and mistreatment between students. This issue is a problem all over the world and I belive its not addressed widley enough.

As far as this topic goes, bullying can be done in more than a few ways, cyber bullying, bullying in school hallways, adults being bullied, verbal abuse, physical harassment, and more. Victims of most of these unfourtunate events usually tend to stay silent about their situation.

About this subject, i hope to learn about the psychological damage done by extensive bullying. I know already a broad idea but im sure that theres some deeper effects, probably long term, that affects the victim in terms of how they function daily. From production in work to the lack of self esteem to get through everyday social tasks.

The thing that most interests me about this topic is the actually bullies themselves. Because i belive they were victims once themselves, and now use their time by projecting their pain and insecurities onto others. The mental build up of a bully is pretty interesting, from waking up in the morning to falling asleep at night they must constantly deal with the resentment others feel for them, but i can only guess that it gives them a certain satisfaction that they cant find elsewhere.

The only challenges i can see is finding someone that will admit to either being a victim or being an actually bully at some point in time. However the stereotypical bully is hard to find nowdays, most are online and hide behind computer screens as they prey on those they dont like, and finding someone to talk about that may be a bit of a challenge.

"I believe"
-Bullies have been victims themselves at one point.

-Bullies ruin lives short term as well as long term.

-Bullies are often insecure and project their problems onto others.

-Bullying is most common in elementary school but it can be found in all ages.

-Victims don't often admit that they are being bullied, they feel isolated yet the look happy.



Bullying is a serious problem all over the world, everyone has faced it along one point in their lives. A bully is simply one who harasses another, usually smaller individuals who may seem weaker than them, what the bully doesn't take Into account is that his short term satisfaction is another persons lifetime scar. Because the affects of bullying can last forever and leave deep impressions in a persons life from childhood to adulthood, it doesn't take alot of effort to spot out a child or even an adult that is/has been severley bullied at some point in their lives. A low self esteem, a hesitant stride, a bitter personality is common depending on the victim. To put it short, bullying is wrong, period, it should cease to exist from the face if the earth.