Brooks Gibbs
Brooks Gibbs
Brooks Gibbs is a social skills educator, author, and public speaker. He specializes in emotional resilience education.
Early Life & Education
Brooks Gibbs tells his story about resilience when he was a child
Brooks Gibbs was born in Topeka, Kansas on July 30, 1980. He grew up in San Antonio, Texas and graduated in 1999 from Samuel Clemens High School.
As a child, he grew up smaller than his peers and was constantly bullied.
This would cause him to either break down into tears or get an asthma attack.
He recalls wanting to be a police officer growing up so that he could lock up his bullies for doing bad things.
During his high school years he co-hosted a radio talk show called Generation X-Treme on KSLR AM630.
Through the success of his radio program he was invited to produce a national teen radio talk show distributed by Focus On The Family called “Life On The Edge LIVE!” This opportunity moved him to Littleton, Colorado where the Columbine High School shooting occurred.
As a youth communicator, Gibbs was called upon to travel with survivors from the shooting to discuss peer victimization and school violence.
Through his work in the education field, he was an early contributor of anti-bullying education curriculum and became an articulate voice in the emerging anti-bulling movement.
He attended San Diego City College, Horizon Univeristy, and Atlantic International University where he earned a degree in sociology.
Career
Public Speaking
Gibbs began writing and speaking on the subject of bullying in the aftermath of the Columbine shooting that took place in Littleton, Colorado.
As a public speaker, Brooks Gibbs has spoken to over 2 million students.
His online social skills training videos have been translated into 20 languages and have amassed more than 250 million views.
In an effort to stop bullying at school, he teaches students emotional resilience through interactive role-play.
He has been hired to present more than 2,500 school assemblies.
"The Golden Rule Game"
Demonstration of Brooks Gibbs' "Golden Rule Game" for how to stop bullies
One of Gibbs' main highlights in his talks is demonstrating how to play "The Golden Rule Game."
A technique inspired by school psychologist Izzy Kalman,
Gibbs always plays the role of someone who is getting bullied and a volunteer from the audience plays the bully.
In both instances, he tries to stop the bully from being mean to him:
In the first scenario, he approaches the bully by reciprocating everything the bully does.
He always loses the game and indicates that being mean to someone who is being mean to you does not work.
In the second scenario, he approaches the bully by treating the person like a friend and showing affection.
Gibbs always wins this round and shows that bullies would typically have nothing bad to say if one responds in a calm and compassionate way.
By providing a demonstration of how "The Golden Rule" works, Brook Gibbs teaches victims self-worth, self-confidence, and self-esteem by being resilient to what bullies say to them.
Emotional Resilience
Brooks Gibbs shares a story about how ducks are resilient when you dunk them in the water.
The second thing he teaches students is how to be emotionally resilient.
Combined with "The Golden Rule," having emotional resilience teaches people not to get upset when someone makes fun of them.
He believes that, if people want to be happy in life, they need to be self-confident in believing that they are not going to allow hatred to affect them and let it roll off.
Love Is Greater Than Hate (Book)
Love Is Greater Than Hate ** (by Brooks Gibbs)
In 2010, Brooks Gibbs published his first book, Love Is Greater Than Hate. In it, he provides a 7-step strategy to start a movement of kindness and compassion on one's school campus.
The book is based on the belief that the end of bullying begins with you and that the person has the power to decide whether someone making fun of them has the power to control your emotions.
In the Media
Gibbs was the content producer for several television projects, including Teen Trouble * on LIFETIME and Bully Diaries on Comcast On-Demand.
He was endorsed by the band One Direction and sponsored by the Office Depot Foundation to present school assemblies nationwide.
He has been featured in Teen People Magazine , The Washington Post , Fox News, New York Times, and interviewed on CBS.
Personal Life
Brooks Gibbs is married to Jill Gibbs.
They have two children together.