DEPT. OF EDUCATION
DONT LAUGH
Issue of 2005-07-04
Posted 2005-06-27
The problem of antisocial behavior among the young has become so prevalent in Britain that a Blair official recently proposed forcing miscreants to wear bright-orange jumpsuits. New York City, on the other hand, seems to prefer, in these post-Giuliani years, to be an avatar of positive reinforcement: the esteem-affirming Athens to Londons hard-nosed Sparta. Over the course of the next year, the Department of Education will introduce into all of its elementary and middle schools Operation Respect: Dont Laugh at Me, an intensive curriculum in character development. The program, which is the brainchild and hearts desire of Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul & Mary, aims to combat bullying by emphasizing the moral lessons of folk music.
Dont Laugh at Me (or dlam) was born when Yarrowa veteran of the civil-rights, gender-equality, nucleardisarmament, peace, and Amtrak-subsidization movementsheard a country ballad of that name at the Kerrville Folk Festival, in the summer of 1999. Moved to tears by its swelling harmonies and first-person testaments to the effects of ridiculeIm a little boy with glasses, the one they call a geek / A little girl who never smiles cause Ive got braces on my teethhe decided to incorporate the tune into Peter, Paul & Marys repertoire. At a gig with the National Association of Elementary School Principals, the group played the song. The principals gave a tremendous response to it, and said, We need this in our schools, Chic Dambach, Operation Respects president and C.E.O., said the other day. And Peter, being the activist and the organizer that he is, said, You wont just have a song but a whole program. dlam is now used in at least twelve thousand American schools and camps.
A couple of Tuesdays ago, at a fusty Department of Education building in Brooklyn, Lynne Hurdle-Price and Mark Weiss, conflict-resolution experts, led a dlam training session for about two dozen middle-school teachers, whom they divided into five groups. I want you all to share a time in your career as an educator where someone did or said something that made you feel like you were not cared for or respected,...
