Fighting Bulling With Babies David Bornstein Summary

In the essay “Fighting Bulling with Babies,” David Bornstein’s goal is to “present the world through a ‘solution frame,’ rather than a ‘problem frame’” (Bornstein 204). He shows us that children from as young as eight years old can be taught to care for one another rather than bully one another. By writing this essay Bornstein hopes he can inspire schools to try this new approach to prevent bullying. David Bornstein argues that we need to teach our children how to care for one another and reward them, instead of punishing them for doing something wrong. Bornstein has three minor points to solve this problem, through the biological bases for human compassion, developing more empathy through the Roots program, and changing kid’s perspective. This essay is very effective because the strong main point and minor points as well as his use of pathos; however, the counter argument is not strongly presented and should be explained in more detail. The first point Bornstein brings up is that “humans are hardwired to be aggressive and selfish…, but there is also a biological basis for human compassion” (qtd in Bornstein 204). This quote is taken from a New York times article that was written in 2009. Bornstein could have found the original research which would make

He states that “[t]he typical institutional response to bullying is to get tough” (Bornstein 204). He acquires this information for a New York times article; when he could have found a research document that explains why people act this way. Even though the article was recent and relevant it was not strong enough for a counter argument. Also, he did not expand on the counter argument, it only had a short paragraph with a couple of sentences, making the counter argument not effective. To be more effective, Bornstein could have found research that proves punishment is effective at stopping or preventing