Bullies – the scourge of our schooling system… or the growth of a flaw within. Bullying has been a part of schooling since at least the birth of my father. He tells me stories sometimes pertaining to the fact that fights after school were a normal occurrence in his day. Now, these obviously were performed outside of school or else a hoard of lawyers would find their business in courts filled with school officials. There were no rules outlining that fighting of any kind around the school would result in punishment of both the instigator and the defender, so it is understandable that the plight of the victims or the valiant was found immediately outside the school campus. With the lack of the rules we have today kids could take care of their own business. The notion that fights or bullies are to be dealt with by an adult would have directly attacked the rugged individualism that lingered during my father’s schooling years. With this in mind, kids could take matters into their own hands. Bullies could be stopped with the repetitive punches of their victim rather than the lectures of a school official about the negative effects of their behavior on society. Kids need to be taught to take control of the situation themselves in order to stop this epidemic. Central planning is too idealistic and ignores the fact that bullies will not stop until they are hurt by the very thing they are dealing.

My experience can attest to this apparent lack of power in our kids. In eighth grade I was pestered constantly by a bully who would never leave me alone. At times he got physical but not at the point where he was hurting me, merely just annoying me. I thought for the longest time that the only way to end this was to take matters into my own hand, however, the dogma of my years of schooling kept me from it. The fact was that if a school official looked at the report that I punched another kid, that official would blame me for the incident and not my bully. I remember the aphorism “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” and think to myself how hypocritical it would be for that to be a defining theme of Elementary school yet for it to be the defining punishment for any reported bully. Unless bullies are not human, then those words will mean little else than nothing to them. Therefore, the key to the end of bullying starts with the revival of kids taking the initiative, not fading into the background. With the end of letting someone else take away their problem and the rising of victims to the challenge, not admitting defeat when the battle has just started. Real life does not give free passes, so neither should schools.