[Ichneumon]

A few years ago I saw a "Dateline" type program showing how these bullies act on hidden camera. They are down right mean for being so small. Evil little kids.

As one of the school "weirdos" who prefered reading to sports, and who blew the grading curve for the less scholastically able students, I got to see a lot of the bullies' behavior up close and personal.

And contrary to a lot of people's dismissive attitudes of "aw isn't that cute" or "boys will be boys", I know for a fact that most of the chronic bullies weren't just kids horsing around, they were young sadistic sociopaths on their way towards bigger and better crimes when they got older.

I've often wondered what percentage of crime could be prevented if society would take it more seriously and bring the disciplinary hammer down hard on young bullies, before years of looking the other way or "letting the kids work it out between themselves" (i.e. letting the bullies get away with it while the other kids learn how to most safely capitulate) sets the flawed personalities in stone.

[TruthConquers]

Your post remeinds me of something that I read about the history of public schools. Orginally in the 1850's when public schooling got its start in Massachusetts, one of the main selling lines was that it was a way to end crime. As usual, they were vastly mistaken.

[Tax-chick]

You could almost believe the whole point is to condition the young for prison life. I'm sure y'all can fill in the details ... I'm FReeping with the baby and it's hard to type!