I was. I was a meek sort of kid, and my father was the public school principal. And a bully himself. My older sister and I might as well have had targets painted on our foreheads.
Bullying is a miserable experience for the child on the receiving end of it. It’s a miserable problem for teachers or parents to have to deal with, supposing that they even try, or get any support when they do try.
And what of the bullies themselves? Are they working off their own anger, fear, or learned behaviour? Where did they learn their behaviour? Their parents and extended family, presumably.
Intolerance seems to be at the root of a lot of bullying – if a child is perceived as being in any way different from the school’s, or society’s, norm, she or he is a natural target for bullies.
People here: were you bullied? What did you – or the adults around you – do about it?
Parents and teachers here: what happens when you see bullying? Have you ever found an effective way to approach and resolve it?
It’s a tough problem, long overdue for exposure and remedy.
