About
Barbara Coloroso is an international bestselling author and for the past 53 years an internationally recognized speaker and consultant on parenting, teaching, school discipline, positive school climate, bullying, grieving, nonviolent conflict resolution and restorative justice.
She has appeared on CBC, BBC, Oprah, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN and NPR and has been featured in the New York Times, Time, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, and other national and international publications.
Her uniquely effective parenting and teaching strategies were developed through her years of training in sociology, special education, and philosophy, as well as field-tested through her experiences as a classroom teacher, laboratory school instructor, university instructor, seminar leader, volunteer in Rwanda, mother of three grown children, and grandmother to three grandchildren.
She is the author of four international bestsellers: kids are worth it! Giving Your Child the Gift of Inner Discipline; Parenting Through Crisis—Helping Kids in Times of Loss, Grief and Change; The Bully, the Bullied, and the Not-So-Innocent Bystander—From Pre-school Through High School and Beyond, Breaking the Cycle off Violence and Creating More Deeply caring Communities; and Just Because It’s Not Wrong Doesn’t Make It Right—From Toddlers to Teens, Teaching Kids to Think and Act Ethically. Barbara’s latest book is Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide…and Why it Matters. She also has two critically acclaimed video programs Winning at Parenting...without beating your kids and Winning at Teaching...without beating your kids; an ASCD publication : Addressing and Preventing Bullying.
Featured Work
The Bully, The Bullied and The Not-So-Innocent Bystander
Far too many of our young people are not all right. Some are frightened, others emboldened, some keep their birth certificates handy, and others yell, “Go Home.” Some go to school every day filled with fear and trepidation, others feign illness to avoid being taunted or attacked on the way to school or in the school yard, hallways, and bathrooms; still others manage to make themselves sick so as to avoid harassment in the locker room. In this highly charged—and at times, toxic—climate, parents, educators, and young people need to have a serious conversation about bullying and its intended and unintended consequences. Whether they target others, are targeted, or play the role of the not-so-innocent bystanders, young people are deeply affected by offline and online meanness and cruelty.
In her updated and expanded version of her international bestseller, The Bully, The Bullied, and The Not-So-Innocent Bystander, Barbara Coloroso addresses such pressing topics as:
1. The connection between a rise in hate speech, and the potential for bullying with racial, ethnic and religious overtones in our schools, neighborhoods and communities.
2. The difference between normal, natural, and necessary conflict and the utter contempt and disaffection for “the other,” aka: bullying
3. The difference between teasing and taunting; flirting and sexual bullying.
4. What to do and what not do if a young person is targeted.
5. How young people get caught up in the “trap of complicity” with the bully, and the roles that they each play.
6. Valid reasons and lousy excuses why young people might not stand up for their targeted peers.
7. How we as adults can help young people become a potent force as active witnesses, resisters and defenders—by standing up for their peers, speaking out against cruelty and injustice, and taking responsibility for what happens among themselves.
