Celebrate No Name-Calling Week
January 15, 2010 – This year, No Name-Calling Week will take place the week of January 25-29, 2010. The week aims to focus national attention on the problem of name-calling within schools, and to provide students and educators with the tools and inspiration to launch an on-going dialogue about ways to eliminate name-calling in their communities.
No Name-Calling Week was inspired by a young adult novel called “The Misfits,” by author James Howe. The book tells the story of a group of friends trying to survive the seventh grade in the face of all too frequent taunts based on their weight, height, intelligence, and sexual orientation/gender expression. Motivated by the inequities they see around them, the “Gang of Five” (as they are known) creates a new political party during student council elections and run on a platform aimed at eliminating name-calling of all kinds. Although they lose the election, they win the support of the school’s principal for their cause and their idea to have a “No Name-Calling Day” at school.
Motivated by the idea contained in the book, the No Name-Calling Coalition, created by GLESN and Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, and consisting of over 40 national partner organizations, organized a No Name-Calling Week in schools across the nation.
Although the project is targeted at grades five through eight – years when name-calling is particularly serious – the concept can be easily adapted by students and educators at other grade levels.
To help celebrate, the No Name-Calling Week website offers free materials such as planning documents; elementary, middle, and high school lesson plans; art lessons; promotional items; and anti-bullying resources from coalition partners. In addition, a Resource Kit is available for purchase that includes: an educational video; a comprehensive resource guide with program information, 11 lesson plans, resource lists, suggested strategies for eliminating name-calling, and other curricula material; a copy of “The Misfits”; two No Name-Calling Week posters; and two packs of No Name-Calling Week stickers. The kit is $129.95 and can be ordered by filling out a form available on the website. The video can be purchased separately for $99.95 and it is also available in DVD format for the same price.
Furthermore, the website allows you to sign up to receive anti-bullying resources during the year, shows ways to involve students, educators and families, as well as plan an event for No Name-Calling Week.
Source: No-Name Calling website.