Teaching An Old Dog Some New Tricks

I chose to teach my dad, age 49, about cyber bullying: I taught him what it is (any harrassment that occurs through a technological medium) and what he can do to help his kids (my siblings) if they are ever faced with this issue. Specifically, I gave him a formula to teach kids what to do: STOP: stop responding to the messages; BLOCK: block the person from the game or networking page; and TELL: kids should tell a responsible adult about the interaction (this formula comes from the Frontline documentary about Internet safety). I also sent him a link to this website which gives lots of helpful tips to parents for how to help kids avoid and deal with cyber bullying.
It was a little difficult to engage in this teaching experiencing because I was talking to my dad about something he didn't really know about; I was in a position of intellectual authority so it was a weird role reversal in our relationship. This gave me a little bit of a heads up for what it might be like when I, as a young, new teacher, might need to educate older, more experienced teachers or parents about a topic that they aren't really familiar with. It's a little uncomfortable, but in the end it is critical to our students' safety and well being for everyone to be familiar with this issue.