Not long after the telephone was invented, I assume, a call was placed. The caller was a p
"When you call parents, you want them to 'extract the cruelty' from their bullying children, "says Laura Kavesh, a child psychologist in Evanston, Illinois. "But many parents are blown away by the idea of their child being cruel. They won't believe it." In a recent police-department survey in Oak Harbor,Washington, 89 percent of local high school students said they had engaged in bullying behavior. Yet only 18 percent of parents thought their children would act as bullies.
In a new US PTA survey, 5 percent of parents support contacting other parents to deal with bullying. But many educators warn that those conversations can be misinterpreted(误解), causing tempers to flare. Instead, they say, parents should get objective outsiders, like principals, to mediate.
Meanwhile, if you get a call from a parent who is angry about your child's bullying, listen without getting defensive. That's what Laura McHugh of Castro Valley, California, did when a caller told her that her then 13-year-old son had spit in another boy's food. Her son had confessed, but the victim's mom "wanted to make sure my son hadn't given her son a nasty disease," says McHugh, who apologized and promised to get her son tested for AIDS and other diseases. She knew the chance of contracting any disease this way was remote, but her promise calmed the mother and showed McHugh's son that his bad behavior. was being taken seriously. McHugh, founder of Parents Coach Kids, a group that teaches parenting skills, sent the mom the test results. All were negative.
Remember: once you make a call, you might not like what you hear. If you have an itchy dialing finger, resist temptation. Put it m your pocket.
The word "bullying" (Line 2, Para. 1) probably means ______.
A.frightening and hurting
B.teasing
C.behaving like a tyrant
D.laughing at