Educational Media Reviews Online

Bullying behavior is a prevalent social issue continuing to plague many K–12 schools. It is of particular concern as there have been many recent news stories of how bullying has led to fatal consequences. The proliferation of technology, like texting and social media, has contributed to its complexity. This film is part of a curriculum for children in grades 3–6 designed to provide students with strategies to proactively combat bullying. Overall, the film serves as a good introductory primer on bullying, albeit a bit shallow.

Because this film is part of a curriculum, it is broken down into four segments that average 10–13 minutes in length. The film begins with a segment titled “Are You a Bully?” which explores the basics of bullying behavior and how to identify it. The other segments scaffold upon this concept by addressing topics including the dangers of being a bystander, strategies for stopping a bully, and how to change one’s own bullying behavior. The segments are broken down into sub-topics, which make the content easy to understand. There are also transitions that may serve as a good point to pause the film to engage in some of the activities included with the curriculum kit.

The film attempts to address diversity by utilizing child actors from different racial backgrounds. This is important, as children better connect to material when they see themselves represented. However, the settings of the bullying scenarios only represent middle-class economic realities, which is evidenced by showcasing children having easy access to high-end technology and attending suburban schools. While this does not make the film’s lesson obsolete, the film may not have as much impact for students who live in lower socioeconomic situations.

This particular version of The Bully Proof Kit is updated from its 2011 version. This revised DVD is more relevant to children by featuring better graphics, slightly better acting, and scenarios that incorporate cyber bullying. While this provides a contemporary context for bullying, it would have been nice if the curriculum addressed harassment over social media networks more extensively. In this regard, the film downplays controversy in its approach to the effect bullying has on students. The acting in the film also diminishes the seriousness of bullying as the inexperience of the child actors make some of the scenarios seem cheesy rather than serious.

The film is part of a packaged curriculum kit that includes a variety of posters, worksheets, and role-play activities that teachers can use to engage students in thinking about the film’s content. The print materials that come with the kit are also available for download in PDF format from the DVD. Overall, this film and curriculum kit may not be revolutionary, but it will provide teachers with lessons that relay important messages to their students without being overly controversial.