PING!
I had a boss who was a bully. I worked for him for a total of two months.
So undoubtedly the solution to this age-old problem is to pass a slew of feel-good laws that will severely restrict freedoms, cost millions of dollars, and fail to affect the problem in any way.
How about returning to a moral society, say one in which some rule like “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is taught? That might have a more lasting effect than massive government involvement.
Be a whining loser forever! You got bullied. Better go on some psych drugs. And hide in your room. You got bullied!! Stop the presses.
Jeez. Get over it you pansies.
I have two questions...one serious, and one semi-serious:
1) With all of the anti-bullying efforts happening, all of the protection and shielding that we're giving children ... how will they ever learn to cope with difficult people at a later stage in life? I forese, in the near future, adults needing mediators to see who gets the last parking spot at the mall, to adjudicate against those who cut in line at a movie theater, and so on.
2) Does all this intolerance of bullies, amount to bullying in itself? Bullies have a right to their own individualism, too.
In fact, I think the argument could be made that many (most) of the people on an anti-bullying crusade would simultaneously think *nothing* of crucifying me for making an off-color joke, or a remark that could potentially be misconstrued as "racist", "sexist", or "homophobic".
Truly, the inmates are taking over the asylum.
I was bullied in High School by a large fellow that took pot shots at me when I was not looking. He’s dead now. I’m not.
Any traumatic event in a young person’s life will stay with them forever. But, that does not translate into it being something dreadful for their later lifetime.
Some events are part of the maturation process, including the schoolyard bullies, cliques, etc. Sometimes I think we make more of these things than is necessary. Of course, I am speaking from a youth that took place in more civilized times for children.
I lost my Dad when I turned 11 years of age. It was a sudden natural death from a heart attack. It was traumatic, and I still carry some emotional scars from that event. When I lost my Mom, who lived to be 94 years of age, I was prepared and did not suffer much separation anxiety at all, as I knew she was where she wanted to be. Still, when I think of my Dad’s death, I cry a little inside of me for the pain of it.
I learned in the 4th grade that the best solution to a bully was a 2x4 up the side of the head.
The bully moves on to easier meat, after that.
I was bullied in the first grade.
My politically incorrect parents insisted that I confront the bully and punch him in the nose.
I eventually did. The bullying stopped.
No debilitating life-long effects so far as I can tell.
I was picked on “bullied” by a couple of bigger kids when I was in 8th grade( small). By the time I was a senior beat the hell out of all of them.(grew)
Wow. NPR reported on this? There’s a shocker. The home of emasculated hipsters and Garrison Keeler.
I was bullied. Everyone was bullied. One I cracked in the face with a tennis racket. The other got arrested and kicked out of school when he was busted for drugs. A few others who knows. I doubt they amounted to much.
Which is why you must take the earliest opportunity to pop the bully in the nose.
Yes, I’m advocating violence against violent bullies.
It’s what they understand.
They told you not to be a tattletale, yet would punish you for standing up for yourself.
My oldest daughter has Asperger’s. When she was in school, a black kid sitting behind her was sticking her with pin stuck in a eraser. I mention the race for a reason which will become apparent.
Anyway, she told us, and we told the teachers. They interviewed her, and said that she said she “loved” him. That's because, as Christians we had taught her to “love her enemies”.
The thing is, she always wanted to say what people wanted to hear, and what the teachers wanted to hear was that there wasn’t a real problem. A teacher who was a friend of the family told us that they didn't want to have to discipline the kid because of his ethnicity.
I don't doubt that they believed there wasn't a problem, because they didn't want there to be a problem. But a problem there was.
It wasn't until the class room teacher actually caught the boy in the act that something was done about it with the kid being removed form the classroom and assigned to another school.
Years later, a kid with the same name was murdered in some kind of gang fight. I don't know that it was the same person, though.
My point, though, is that the educators don't want anything to disturb their idyllic existence. It's too much trouble to separate the sheep from the goats for them. If a fight breaks out, expel them both, no trying to find the aggressor.
what a country.