Just a quick thought
We've been watching the PBS series After Newtown, and something struck me.
Keep in mind I'm speaking as someone who experienced junior high bullying that frequently went over the line into assault and battery. It didn't end until a vindictive teacher/guidance counselor moved me from the college prep track to the industrial arts track, for petty reasons of his own. There, I made friends who were much nastier than the 7th grade bullies I had to contend with, and the latter disappeared.
I digress. We are spending a great deal of time looking into the heads of the bullied who go round the bend, and as much time peering at the grey matter of the bullied who merely suffer. Some pundits also contemplate the minds of the bullies and of the school authorities who enable them.
Is anyone thinking about the kids who are not bullied? The first harassing steps of the process that leads to assaultive bullying seem to be near universal among children. What resources do the not-bullied have that discourage bullies? (Aside from the obvious one of punching the bully's lights out.) Why is it that of two young people who seem to be nearly identical, one is not a satisfying target for a bully, and one is?
If we're looking at brain images, we might include these.
Keep in mind I'm speaking as someone who experienced junior high bullying that frequently went over the line into assault and battery. It didn't end until a vindictive teacher/guidance counselor moved me from the college prep track to the industrial arts track, for petty reasons of his own. There, I made friends who were much nastier than the 7th grade bullies I had to contend with, and the latter disappeared.
I digress. We are spending a great deal of time looking into the heads of the bullied who go round the bend, and as much time peering at the grey matter of the bullied who merely suffer. Some pundits also contemplate the minds of the bullies and of the school authorities who enable them.
Is anyone thinking about the kids who are not bullied? The first harassing steps of the process that leads to assaultive bullying seem to be near universal among children. What resources do the not-bullied have that discourage bullies? (Aside from the obvious one of punching the bully's lights out.) Why is it that of two young people who seem to be nearly identical, one is not a satisfying target for a bully, and one is?
If we're looking at brain images, we might include these.
Labels: bullying
posted by Uncle | 13:58
3 Comments:
Hmm, this likely will inspire a post in Harrumph. I think of my many friends and relatives who speak of regular bullying, of sexual abuse, and other power horrors. Occasionally some jerk would hassle me, but in the main, I eased through like Bambi before the forest fire.
I think a little of it was that I was glib. I sensed when some loony was looking for a fight or the beat up someone. I'd defuse that with words.
More a factor I suspect was that we moved every few years when I was a kid. I was never a fixture and did not belong to the well defined cliques and in/out groups schools invariably form. The visitor...I like to think of as Odysseus — he traveled to many lands and knew the thought. I was not stationary long enough to become a bad guy or easy victim.
Eh?
Interesting. any other less mobile comments?
You did inspire a blog on this topic http://bit.ly/XqotxH
There was also the hard-nosed mom teaching my sister and I to stand up for ourselves.
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