White House to hold anti-bullying conference

How about instead of trying to stop bullies we teach kids how to be confident in themselves and how to protect themselves via basic self defense? I am tired of this everyone has to like and respect you and no one should ever hurt your feelings crap. The loss of life to bullying is tragic but whats more tragic is, instead of making kids stronger to enable them to deal with it we teach them to rely on a system that wont always be there. The real world doesn't hold back and people don't have to be nice, trying to bubble wrap these kids does them no favors.

 

I think we need both measures - empathy-building courses and anti-bullying programs for elementary students with added confidence-building classes and self defense for middle and high school students.

And I think it's less of an issue with stopping bullies as it is with teachers bothering to intervene at all. If an obviously gay kid is living in an area where being gay is wrong, some teachers are as likely to bully (or ignore) that kid as the other kids are.

We could probably use some more empathy courses for our teachers too.

Not everyone has to like you, and people might disagree with you, but nobody has the right to be disrespectful of you for no reason, or hurt you, verbally abuse you, or threaten you. People who are the victims of abuse are not responsible for their abuse, and I think it's important to teach kids at a young age that while nobody is obligated to spare their feelings, it's counterproductive to go around being a bully/total asshole because adults who do this are abusive to people around them. We don't want our kids to grow up to be those people.

I understand what you're saying though, I agree that I wish the victims of bullying were tougher, but they're not. If they were, they wouldn't be the victims of bullying in the first place. Bullies really only pick on people they perceive to be weaker than themselves. So people who are obviously weak in some way (being perceived as being gay is awesome bait because it's a social stigma) tend to draw attack.

I think the problem most victims have with bullying is that a) they're usually outnumbered or disadvantaged in some way by the nature of the conflict, and b) they are non-confrontational. They never wanted to fight in the first place. So they're already taking the weaker position in the conflict from the start - I don't want to fight you, please leave me alone. It's a retreat. The bully starts out with an advantage every time.

 

Maverick you probably have the best approach as I tend to be a little cold. I was bullied badly up untill high school where I stopped taking it. I became rather insensitive and Darwinistic towards things as a result. Though no one would dare bully me any more most people say I am a callous. I just don't like seeing people allow a bully to win. No matter what anyone tells me yes people allow it to continue. They allow themselves to be victims and it gets me spun up to watch talented people take things like that from mindless thugs whose sole contribution to this world is probably going to be buying the stuff those they bullied create.
I guess my main issue with things like this is the fact that they never seem to want to teach the kids to fend for themselves if they have to. Yes bullying is wrong but it happens and no matter what we do, we cant stamp it out. There will always be those willing to be cruel for pleasure or profit and I want to see people able to handle those situations because they have been given the skills to. Learning on the fly isnt fun. I have the scars to prove that one inside and out.