Lyle Cogen, an artist-educator from Merrick, New York, has launched a tour of her musical, “Sticks & Stones,” to help children understand and identify bullying.
Cogen explains, “I’ve been working in schools for many years, witnessing things around me, listening to teachers speak about kids and the challenges that children were feeling. I started thinking about it so much,that I began developing a character study on bullies.”
The musical helps students learn about bullying behaviors and how to react to them, ending with a session that lets the audience discuss the performance. Cogen’s album “Bully, Bystander, Bullied: Which One are you?” also focuses on similar topics to raise awareness about bullying. It’s important that bullying, which can have lasting consequences, isn’t ignored.
In 2011, the National Center for Education Statistics and Bureau of Justice Statistics found that as many as 28% of students in the sixth through twelfth grades were affected by bullying.
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