Bullying

[Jennifer Boggess Ramon]

Huzzah!  I'm down to six days behind on the main list!  I might even 
be down to the correct day before school starts and I get behind 
again!  ;)

This seems to have popped up a couple of times on the main list, 
especially with respect to Neville:


At 4:16 AM +0000 7/21/02, darrin_burnett wrote:
>
>The tried-and-true way of dealing with a bully is to slap the bully
>back. Perhaps it's not 100 percent effective, but the majority of the
>time, it works.


This is certainly a common theme in fiction (it shows up in lots of 
teensploitation films, for example, especially those starring Michael 
J. Fox), and may be the case for Neville, within the framework of the 
books.  However, the author of this post seems to be advocating it in 
the Real World as well, and as a teacher who has had to deal with the 
question of bullying on both a personal and professional level, I 
feel obligated to (pedantically, I'm afraid) point out that this is 
not at all true in the real world.  At best, it encourages the bully 
in question to pick another victim, but it's often unsuccessful; at 
worst, it marks the current victim for far worse treatment.  There is 
*no* research indicating that it cures the bully - quite often, it 
reinforces their violent worldview.  It's also the first step in the 
classic progression of the victim who becomes a bully himself (or, 
more rarely, herself).

For a fairly comprehensive look at the problem of bullying in the US 
school system, SuEllen and Paula Fried's book _Bullies and Victims_ 
is a solid overview and only slightly out of date.

-- 
  - Boggles, aka J. C. B. Ramon			boggles at earthlink.net
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