Parents Outraged After School Gives Students Really Questionable Advice on Dealing With Bullies
I wrote an article entitled "The Bully Box" a long while ago showcasing this type of idiocy. Sadly, it appears to have only gotten worse. Our kids shouldn't stick up for themselves? They should depend on authority to save the day? Hogwash!
Like an out-of-control child, if not kept in check, they will continue to push, and to cross the line, and then the next, and then next. Before you know it, you're cornered. Kinda sounds familiar doesn't it?
Speaking of keeping bullies in check, Cheers to Cliven Bundy and all his supporters!!!! On to Diamond Bar Ranch!!
Just recently, 35 years later, I was thanked by an old school friend for cracking a bully in the jaw. That felt pretty good...
Um...I don't teach my kids this. I teach them to not get hurt. I teach them to use their minds to avoid being bullied. But, if backed in a corner, to defend themselves. Kids should know how to defend themselves.
Results:
1 - I got 3 weeks detentions for "fighting and violence", which after the 3rd day I was told by the babysitter, er, "detention teacher" I didn't have to show up - I was covered, just keep my head down. =~)
2 - After one feeble attempt to return to their old status quo (during, of all things, a gym class), which ended when I grabbed a convenient softball bat and took off swinging after them (with shouts behind me of "Lookit her go" and "Get'em!"), the bullies not only stopped their jacka$$ery, but avoided me altogether. They'd even turn around in the hall rather than come face to face with me. Must've been channeling some Anne Bonney or something... or maybe she was channeling Susanne. Heh heh heh...
3 - My group of "associates" - ok, some were even friends - grew exponentially. And yet some of my old pals (who were also on the "most picked on list") started avoiding me as well. Guess they liked being cast in the victim role or something... Bleah!
SO when I read that schools are STILL foisting this "blame the target, praise the attacker" psychobabble on kids to deal with a bully some almost 40 years later, it makes me furious. Mad enough to look for a softball bat again!! --lol--
It reminds me of an issue where a kid hit my 5 year old with a hula hoop. We were talking about it in the school.
"Just avoid those people who play rough."
"What if they come bother me?"
"Tell a teacher."
"What if the teachers don't come and they keep bothering me?"
"The teachers will help, but if they don't just grab a hula hoop and swing it hard with so the fastest moving part hits his face."
I'm not sure if the teachers heard me, but they may have. People need a Leviathan, in this case in the form of teachers who don't tolerate unwanted roughness.