NickyJ
Retired Narrator
I don't really see what that has to do with whether bullying can be stopped or not, but that it a great song.
Is it possible to stop bullying?
- Thread starter Skwink
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IdiotsOpposite
Boom, headshot.
No, bullying cannot be stopped. In any sufficiently large system of people, there will always be a few who react aggressively in social situations and take advantage of an unbalance of power - i.e. bullies. There have been numerous attempts to stop this, but none have worked, because you cannot change personality.
However, we can greatly reduce bullying by refusing to support the bullies, and punishing them when they act out - NOT the victims.
However, we can greatly reduce bullying by refusing to support the bullies, and punishing them when they act out - NOT the victims.
Reading this thread, as always when OT examines education, I am struck both by how screwed up the American public education system sounds, and by how responses to the question at hand appear to explain precisely why the American public education system is so screwed up. The dominant themes always seem to be that there's something wrong with the kids themselves (otherwise known as the Tyranny of Low Expectations) and that the problems are inherently insoluble (even in the face of evidence to the contrary).
How is it that a nation renowned for its can-do spirit has come to be so defeatist about something as fundamental as the education of its children?
How is it that a nation renowned for its can-do spirit has come to be so defeatist about something as fundamental as the education of its children?
bathsheba666
Fast 'n Bulbous
If you acquire a sufficient quantity of strong enough seat belts, and mandate their use, you can probably restrain a bully, although only temporarily.
Plays havoc with the constitution, though, not to mention individual rights.
Plays havoc with the constitution, though, not to mention individual rights.
kochman
Deity
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You can't stop it, but you can lower the frequency and intensity.
Bottom line, some meatheads, etc will always be a-holes.
Monsterzuma
the sly one
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the question is ambiguous. instances of bullying can be stopped, but the phenomenon as a whole in the aggregate can not.
madviking
north american scum
No, cuz there's me.
CELTICEMPIRE
Zulu Conqueror
I love that song.
anyway, I really don't think it is possible to stop bullying, and I used to be a target of it.
Disgustipated
Deity
Don't other mammals in the animal kingdom bully as well? I think it's something hard wired to mammals (and maybe even birds) to weed out the weak. It's cruel, but nature can be that way.
I do think bullies can be stopped on school grounds. Outside of school, there isn't much you can do. But there is no excuse for teachers to look the other way when they know bullying is going on.
I do think bullies can be stopped on school grounds. Outside of school, there isn't much you can do. But there is no excuse for teachers to look the other way when they know bullying is going on.
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
It will always happen one way or another, but there is certainly a hell of a lot more that the school staff and parents could do about it. Most of the time they don't do anything.
Angst
Rambling and inconsistent
I work in a youth institution and children have inbred evil that has to be purged.
More seriously, bullying can be encroached by proper socializing, but we have to actively work for it - we will never be free of bad human nature.
Lord of the Flies.
More seriously, bullying can be encroached by proper socializing, but we have to actively work for it - we will never be free of bad human nature.
Lord of the Flies.
RobAnybody
Emperor
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Like what? "do something" is a little vague.
heh
But how do you know when it's happening? It's not like the bullies do their bullying in front of adults.
CivCube
Spicy.
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They often do, which is where stuff needs to start happening. If you don't, then that gives a pass for abuse that happens out of sight. In both cases, teachers and staff need to make it clear that they're on the side of any student who is targeted.
OTOH, not every contact between adolescents is bullying. I had a crazy... staff member... at my middle school who forbid physical contact at all and always yelled at people she saw violating that rule. Bleeping ridiculous and made everyone lose respect for the anti-bullying program she was trying to promote.
I was waiting for this.
Narz
keeping it real
Lord of the Flies is fiction & even if biographical hardly represents a "natural" interaction among peers. IIRC, these kids were from a highly regimented boarding school within a hierarchical society & then were let loose in a strange & unfamiliar situation with life & death on the line where it was debatable whether all could afford to harmoniously survive. Citing that as proof that bullying is a universal inevitability is like citing the movie-series Roots as proof that slavery is inevitable.
CavLancer
This aint fertilizer
I was bullied by a bigger kid in grade school. One year he forgot to grow. I caught him soon after coming back from summer recess in a short cut across a dell that he took on the way home from school. I doubt the stored up beating he received was worth the bullying he gave.
So, if a kid reports bullying he should receive growth hormones.
So, if a kid reports bullying he should receive growth hormones.
Patroklos
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Whenever I go to highschool reunions I get all the revenge I need on any bullies from that period. Though in truth I personalluy don't consider them bullies as the nanny state would consider them now, just unpleasent people who needed to be dealt with.
I never has to deal with physical violence to any degree, just exclusion and the general insult hurled here and there.
I never has to deal with physical violence to any degree, just exclusion and the general insult hurled here and there.
Neonanocyborgasm
Deity
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Have punishments. Right now, bullying has no consequences. Even if bullying is witnessed by teachers, the worst that will happen is a brief suspension. That will not deter anyone. What should happen is far worse. I propose that if bullying is found 3 times, the student is expelled. This will remove the bully from the school, preventing the disruption, but will also give some power to the victims. The threat of reporting a bully to the school authorities will always loom over bullies, and they may fear expulsion, so will not bother trying anything. Expulsion is severe enough to get the attention of parents of bullies, who will punish them worse than anything they imagine the school will do.
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