Hope and Optimism on Conquering Bullying?

[Eric the Green]

(12-31-2019, 09:38 AM)gabrielle Wrote:

(08-14-2019, 08:18 AM)Hintergrund Wrote: Also, there was this idiotic idea (coming from Silents and Boomers) that a) it's the perpetrators who need help, not the victims, and b) bullies just suffer from the fact that they feel low self-worth. Today, we've finally seen that the opposite is the case: Bullies have an inflated self-worth, that's why they think they were allowed to do anything. It was like trying to extinguish a fire with gasoline.

Furthermore: The Nomads learned that you had to be cool and jaded if someone calls you an asshole or worse. But if the same Nomads used bad words at home, they'd make their parents unhappy. But as long as what the bully does to them is worse than what their parents are doing... yes, the old people created an environment where the bullies have more influence on kids than their parents!

It was the perfect storm.

This resonates with me and my experience as a child in the late 70s/early 80s.  Sensitive children were more likely to be punished than the bullies.  When I was bullied during class my teachers (mostly Silent and Boomer aged) never said a word, but I was routinely punished for things like daydreaming or drawing, forgetting to do homework (I struggled a bit with that in the first year it was introduced), often in such a way as to be ritually humiliated in front of class, during the worst year.  I honestly felt like I was hated by my teachers that year, and couldn't understand why they would hate a child.

At home, I would hide my experiences from my parents as best I could, being ashamed and not wanting to upset them.

School bullying is a more recent concern. Adults didn't care much about Gen Xers anyway, so not much attention was paid to youth behavior in the 2T. Everything was permitted, it seems. Some adults learned to be more caring though, thanks to the self-esteem movement. In some places bullying of boomers by fellow boomers, which had been prevalent in the 1T, declined among young adult boomers themselves in the love-in culture. In the 1T when I grew up, bullying of kids by fellow children, parents and teachers was routine, and not much concern was paid to it, although parenting was becoming more nurturing and permissive, and bullying by parents, although still prevalent, was declining.

Concern over bullies has been a benefit for the millennials. Adult boomer teachers, parents and others were concerned about youth self-esteem and bullying, even while supervision of children was becoming more strict and over-bearing. Concern over gun violence seems to have increased the concern over bullying of late millennials and Gen Zers now during the 4T. School bullying may have increased again in recent years. Our education system still needs more reform. Given the cultural trends instilled within humans for millennia, children grow up as bullies and victims. School needs to teach respect for self and others and self control as well as reading, riting and rithmetic.