Bullying: An Age Old Problem
In an article published November 22nd, which I have just read online in the Malta Times, the age-old problem of children being bullied on the way to and from school out of sight of the teachers, has once more raised its ugly head.
In an age where corporal punishment in schools has been done away with and people fear retribution if they intercede to protect a child from being bullied in case they are branded at best as an interfering busy body, or worse, to be targeted, often violently, by the parents of the bully in question as a potential paedophile, what can the average ‘caring’ individual do?
Bullying sadly is a sign of the times we live in. Daily I read reports in the newspapers of the elderly and the very young being subjected to muggings and verbal abuse, usually followed by some form of physical attack.
Our police departments are facing massive losses of serving police officers in an effort to cut back the cost of policing in the country. Indeed the government minister in charge of the police here in the UK, made a facile comment declaring that there was no correlation between the number of police currently pounding the beat and the fall in crime across the UK. With out-of-touch fools in charge, what hope have we of living in a law-abiding safe society?
If the number of policemen and women patrolling our streets is cut, the crime figures will rise.
I place bullying in the category of crime.
Most parents these days do not accompany their child to and from school because of financial reasons, namely, both parents need to be bringing home a wage to support their families.
Children, whether travelling by bus, train, or simply walking to and from school need to be and feel safe. But when a lowlife bully is waiting for them to cross his or her path, what chance do they have?
Bullying must end! And people witnessing such attacks on our streets, buses and trains, must intervene, or at the very least report the incident to the police.
Naming and shaming the bullies, making them social pariahs in their communities needs to be achieved.
Now read on…
“School run bullying in the UK goes unreported – research
Raf Sanchez, PA
Nearly half of all 11 to 16-year-olds see bullying on the way to or from school, according to new research.
Around 43 percent of those surveyed said they saw bullying on the school run but only half of those reported it, a study by the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA) found.
The research found that 47 percent of those who witnessed bullying did not report it, with 50 percent of 13 to 16-year-olds failing to do so.
Of the young people who did not report bullying incidents, 44 percent said it was none of their business and 10 percent said they did not know who to tell.
ABA chairman Ross Hendry said: “This research shows us that a significant number of children and young people in England are suffering from bullying on their school journey.
“Whether they travel by bus, car, public transport of if they walk to school we need to make sure they are protected. It’s of great concern that nearly half of young people who see others being bullied do not report it and that such a large proportion don’t think it’s any of their business to do so.
The report was released as Beatbullying, a separate anti-bullying charity, prepared to launch a “digital demonstration” in support of children’s rights.
More than 750,000 people, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Popstar Alesha Dixon, and singing group JLS, have created virtual avatars that were to “march” across around 60 partner websites against bullying.
Katherine Rake, chief executive officer of the Family and Parenting Institute, said that greater interaction between parents and teachers could help protect children from bullying, but added that this was less common at secondary schools than primaries.
In 2008, 51 percent of parents said they felt very involved in their child’s school life, compared to just 29 percent in 2001.”
That’s right. And after we’ve conquered and dispelled bullying, let’s make sure that pocket calculators are soft, round and smooth in case they cause a bruise. After we’ve done that we can think up new and better ways to ensure that our children grow up to be ineffectual, weak and malleable. If we protect people to such an extent that they no longer need to learn how to fend for themselves, then as a society, we’re just asking for it. Bullying, schoolyard violence and all the other despicable behaviour that comes so naturally to children is a necessary part of growing up: it teaches us to stand on our own two feet as adults. Just because adults know better than to participate in such behaviour, this doesn’t mean that such mores should be applied to the way children behave around each other.
I was bullied in kindergarten, in elementary school, in junior high school and in high school – and I learned a lot this way: 1. if you see a guy that’s twice your size walking up menacingly your way, run. 2. If they threaten to do you violence, they might just do it. These two invaluable lessons saved my life a number of times after I grew up and left school. I also learned – as a direct result of bullying – to defend myself. A few times the bully was my size, he swung to hit me – so I hit him back, oddly this didn’t make him run away, on the contrary, in an attempt to protect his own rep he kept on trying to hit me, many of his attempts actually landed on my face, some of his kicks on my groin. The school authorities – as usual were nowhere to be found – which is a good thing, because after he hit me a couple of times on my face and kicked me in the balls, I became incredibly enraged and fought as though my life depended on it, which possibly it did. Eventually the gathered spectator students broke us up. He had a torn shirt and I had a bloody nose and black eye, he was better at fighting than I was. Next day in school he nodded to me. From that day on, he never bothered me. Hmmmm. I wonder why? In the real world, the government and the authorities aren’t always around to help you. You need to learn early in life how to defend yourself against the bozos who would push you around. If you don’t learn this lesson, the bullies will simply corner you one day after school when there is no one to punish them and they will be wearing masks. If they know you will fight back, they might hesitate and pick on someone else, but if they know your only security is the school authorities, then you’re as good as dead.
There is a concentrated effort to create a society of non-violent people in our world. Now let me see how this works out… we eliminate all violence and all bullying in school, but we teach a cadre of uniformed police officers and soldiers how to be lethal, that way when they grow up we can easily control all of them. People who have never been exposed to bullying have no idea how to handle a threat. It doesn’t take much to scare them. To give you an example: in the current politically correct ultra-sensitive modern workplace no one dares to raise their voice at you or to put you down, everything is handled with kid gloves… so when your bosses want to order you around the bosses raise their voice just a little bit, not enough to call attention but enough for you to react that they are angry or dissatisfied with you, its a subtle thing. It is a form of restrained bullying a control function to manipulate the masses. It is the most amusing thing to watch when I react to them by being completely oblivious – I grew up in Eastern Europe, everyone is rude all the time, so you’d have to be screaming at me for me to notice you are angry with me, otherwise I don’t notice subtle bullying, better get a baseball bat, otherwise I might just ignore you. The result of having lived through bullying in school allows me to ignore the stupid security guard tactics at public events. A guy the same size as mine graced by his employer wearing a security guard uniform attempts to intimidate me physically when I don’t clear the area after a concert fast enough. It’s enough to make me laugh, because I do duck so I don’t get hit, but because I have been hit and kicked and in a fight when I was a kid, I don’t run away if I can reasonably take the guy – or put up a good fight to make him pay for trying to intimidate me.