Closing the Gossip Pipeline

Article Author name(s): Laura Sofen
Title of article: Closing the Gossip Pipeline
Title of journal: Teaching Tolerance
Date of publication: January 31, 2011
Volume of the journal: Spring 2011
Issue number of the journal: Thirty nine

Topic: Student gossip and quashing it
Introduction: Gossip is the exchange of all sorts of misinformation, lies, rumors and occasional truths. In schools, gossip spreads like wildfire in a matter of minutes, often getting more and more distorted with time and travel.
Intended audience: Fellow teachers as well as students needing to address the issue of gossip.
Key Points: Share all the information about yourself that you want, but crossing the line into sharing information about others is gossip, which can get vicious and out of control very quickly. Teach students to question the source and the type of “information” being relayed to determine is accuracy. And finally, students acknowledge that teachers gossip too, so we must lead by example by 1) not gossiping ourselves, and 2) how to confront such a rumor mill in school and stop further spreading of rumors.
Relevance: This issue is more and more relevant with the issue of bullying and how prevalent it is now within school walls. Gossip can be a form of bullying and often leads to intentional humiliation on the part of one student against another. To allow gossip to breed and spread among students is to passively allow bullying to take place right under our noses and give the impression that creating an uncomfortable learning environment is acceptable.

http://www.tolerance.org/blog/closing-gossip-pipeline