In some ways
I actually agree with windypig...

Luckily i was part of the middle group in school - neither bully nor bullier. Saying that I never stopped the bullying, so i was as bad as I suppose.

Anyway, my point being, alot of the time the victims didnt do themselves any favours. In fact, I think sometimes they enjoyed the attention this brought. ( I know 'enjoy' is a stupid word, but understand the psycological aspect... helsinki syndrome etc) It was quite perverse I suppose. Adding that to the times where the vitims would sometimes cry wolf, would put the teachers into some tricky situations as to truth.

Also - when talking about teachers, Personally I didnt have any issues, bar one.. but I dont think that was down to me, more a general lack of attention towards our class. However some pupils had issues with the teachers - with genuine reason, because they were difficult with the teacher, lack of finished homework.. answering back.. late to lessons.. lots of other reasons... which in the overal perspective pushed them down the pecking order below the bullies... leaving them open to being skitted at.

To be clear - bullying is horrible, but in some cases the victims dont help themselves.
(Dan dan dan They tik urh jerbs!!!, Tue 7 Aug 2012, 12:38, 3 replies)

You'd think it was obvious, but it isn't really.
Lots of kids are dickheads, that's pretty normal. But there's no clean dividing line between kids that are dickheads, and kids that are bullied.

A kid who is a dickhead doesn't really deserve to have their life made a misery any more than the quiet one who nobody takes any notice of. In my opinion, anyway.

I'm not sure the 'bring it on themselves' argument works. Bullies don't bully according to their victims personality, they bully solely based on the reaction they get.

If the reaction is tears and fear, they carry on. If it's a kick in the bollocks, they'll move on.
(username failed moderation, Tue 7 Aug 2012, 12:51, closed)

True
But unfortunatley, at that age, very few children make the connection between kicking in the bollocks... and preventive measures.

Instead they fuel the fire by doing what kids are meant to do when they are scared... cry.
(Dan dan dan They tik urh jerbs!!!, Tue 7 Aug 2012, 13:44, closed)

To be clear - bullying is horrible, but in some cases the victims dont help themselves.
Looking back I'd gladly concede the point, if I knew then what I know now, most certainly I'd have handled things differently. For starters I'd not have been the lazy git I was in the last year of primary school and taken my teachers advice and done the 11+.

I wouldn't simply try to do my best impression of a hole in the air when coming up against the bullies or really any form of adversity. Avoidance simply doesn't work. I would have told my parents what was going on every time something happened... The list could go on for quite a while hehe.

But that comes with the benefit of eagle eye hindsight under the heading of "if only".
(the_leander, Tue 7 Aug 2012, 22:56, closed)

Wrong
I find it amazing how some people are completely devoid of compassion and the blatant obvious facts staring them in the face. Children are children; impressionable, gullible, stupid and thick. They need to be taught knowledge and more importantly learn social skills. That's one of the reasons why they are at school.

To say that some children encourage bullying is completely ignorant of the child’s up-bringing, psyche, predicament and environment. Anyone who says this must know that they are unaware of how the child operates on a conscious level, so simply cannot judge the child. No-one would encourage bullying and to say that some enjoyed it may even expose the person saying this as having a supressed or dormant perversion toward bullying.

And by the way I wasn't bullied but I did see it happen. Fortunately at my comp we had an excellent headmaster who looked like Vincent Price and any bullies got fucked off quickly. Also most of the kids came from estates and had lots of big friends from all corners (including me) so the bullying wouldn't continue long because people would start getting stabbed outside the school.

I just hope for a future when teachers are re-instated as almighty totalitarian giants of society and can give teenagers a clout and lock them in a cupboard.
(Master of Toss has piles, Wed 8 Aug 2012, 15:06, closed)