Having a daughter can be one of the most rewarding experiences of anyone's life. However, it's an unfortunate fact of today's society that the vast majority of the school aged girls experience sexual harassment by the age of 12. Many reports show girls as young as 7 being harassed. This can be appalling for the child and the parents. To counter this, there is a select group of professors, and other professionals, that are working on ways to minimize sexual harassment against these young and unfortunate victims.
Penn State University in State College, PA is a prime example of the current problems facing the country today. Sexual harassment seems to been going on actively, right in front of the students and staff. When the news of this first came out, it had detrimental effects to its enrollment numbers. These are the end results of not being taught better early on in their education.
Some of the offenders that are guilty of harassment may think they are only being the class clowns. Their uncalled for comments may even get a laugh from the students or group, but that doesn't mean it's not sexual harassment. The victims will often feel sickened by the incident. On top of this emotional response, the victim often feels a reluctance to even return to classes, no matter the age. This can have severe short-term and long-term effects on a person.
Child development experts from all over the country argue that it doesn't have to be this way. Professors working out of the University of Arizona have been working on programs that can improve the interactions between young boys and young girls. The class programming that is being developed can have a huge impact on the harassment rates among the young. That can save victims in the future.
These programs have been named the Sanford Harmony Program. It’s being created very carefully to improve the growing relationships between girls and boys. The first opportunity to prove its worth comes from Kyrene. Two schools in the Kyrene area have decided to adopt the program. The schools that have accepted the new program boast the idea that it's a one-of-a-kind chance to improve relationships between these two groups. The improvements main goal is to cut all types of harassment, including sexual harassment.
The program will work to show students different ways of interaction, giving them more information and options on how to properly communicate. The professors creating this program at Arizona University hope to learn several things from this session. They want to understand all the factors that create the bad influences, which lead to harassment. A side effect of this class is expected to be improving the overall learning conditioning of all the students involved.
Harassment, or bullying, can be emotionally scarring to the victims. The offenders may not care at the time, which is even more remarkable. Many of the offending students may also be replicating what they see outside school. The options of knowing there are multiple ways to communicate, that doesn't include harassment of any kind, is possible and easy.
source: http://www.wranglernews.com