So that makes it okay? Should we decide to turn kids against each other while they're still young in class? Why don't we have them call each other names and maybe hit each other a bit. We might as well just encourage bullying since it will get kids used to living the hardened lives.

Yes, we should. It would be better for the kids. They would learn life is almost never easy. They'd get prepared for the future.

Is that supposed to justify bullying? Sure people generally survive bullying pretty well with time, but this is not a reason to completely ignore it.

If me, along with 31 other classmates of mine can go through bigger problems than insults, I think all children in the world generally could.

This might help explain it.

That speech just emphasized everything I stand for. Nice find, Palpatine.

What would you like them to do? Challange a class of 100 by themselves?

Challenge them? What kind of challenge is telling everyone "**** off, you keep trying to hard to bring me down. Just stop it, idiots". It's as simple as that.

I live in a place where similar things happen...

If the kids grow up in  a place where violence is everywhere and still get beat up by words, that's very weak. Just look around yourself. You'll see people get beaten with metal rods for the dumbest things, and you're there sobbing because you were insulted.

What sense does it make to just say that life is hard and you should deal with it?

My parents were told that, I was told that, my ex-school was told the same time and time again by our teachers, principals etc. etc.. So yes, just deal with it.

Why don't we focus on helping the person or even changing the thing that hurts people if we can.

Because you can't change the source of the hurt. Bullies will be bullies. If one bully stops, another one will hop in the scene. You can attempt to help the hurt person, but you can't eliminate the source.

If they are indeed true, the victim needs to either embrace or reject that aspect of themself.

Everything he said^. And even if a child can't accept the fact they have a flaw, then they should insult back. Eye for an eye, ear for an ear.

There's always a way for someone to defend themself. If you mean there's too many physical opponents, that just requires more discipline and more training. If you mean too many are giving verbal abuse, then the victim needs to discern if there's truth in their statements. If there is no truth behind the words, they won't hurt because the statement just shows ignorance. If they are indeed true, the victim needs to either embrace or reject that aspect of themself.

world ain't like karate kid
martial arts mean crap in the streets
their descipline becomes their weakness

Yes, we should. It would be better for the kids. They would learn life is almost never easy. They'd get prepared for the future.

Is that the future you want kids to experience? A future where everyone is mean to each other and tries to hurt each other's for fun? (This reminds me so much of a Clockwork Orange.)

In the book this boy Alex is in a gang. He loves to harm others. But then he is taken to jail where they tramatize him into feeling pain whenever he tries to hurt someone. After he gets out he is beat up by other gangs and even his old gang members. After all this happens Alex feels that in the end that is just how life is. He will grow up to have a son that will be just like him and theres nothing that he can do to change him.

Doesn't this sound crazy? You're raising the children and you can teach them math, and language, history, and science. But we can't teach them that hurting other people is bad? At least attempt to. You can still teach kids to stand up for themselves. But how can you just ignore the bullies? If a gang of people came up to you and beat you up with police watching how would you feel? I'd be pretty upset. But lets say after the gang finishes beating you up the police come up to you and say "You need to learn to defend yourself better. We would've helped you, but thats not going to stop the gang from beating you up in the future. You need to somehow find a way to stop an entire gang on your own."

Is that the future you want kids to experience?

I don't believe in giving my children anything more than I received as a child. If I've been through harassment, why should my kids suffer less? Just because they're my kids? Where I grew up, children are taught to embrace the heaviness of life. You recieved only what you deserved, and you were never rewarded anything without you offering something of yours. Our parents may have been harsh on us, but we were prepared for adulthood. We knew how to stand up for ourselves. We knew the results of hard work. We knew which kind of people to avoid. We knew everything needed for future development. Sometimes, it gets harsh, sure. But it's all worth it.

But we can't teach them that hurting other people is bad?

I never said we shouldn't tell children hurting other's is bad. Hurting others physically is bad, I know first hand what it's like to be physically abused. But if children get hurt by words? I'm speechless. I can tell you right on at least 5 words or phrases in sentences that are extremely offensive when translated into another language, but we treat it as if we said "I love you". And now jump to the U.S, or an equally well-to-live-in country, kids get severely hurt by silly names like Stupid, ugly, fat, etc.. I get called worse by my 10-year old sister on a daily basis.

If a gang of people came up to you and beat you up with police watching how would you feel?

Then you have clearly never been in such a situation. Cops here are worse than the gangs that beat up people for the most ridiculous reasons. My friend had 100g of Hashish confiscated by the police, and then I saw them smoke it in the car. The police oftentimes joins in beating innocent people up. I felt neutral. That's just the atmosphere around here.

"You need to learn to defend yourself better. We would've helped you, but thats not going to stop the gang from beating you up in the future. You need to somehow find a way to stop an entire gang on your own."

That's pretty much what every teacher would tell you if you complained about a bully. "Oh **** off kid, we have papers to grade. Learn to stand up for yourself, stop relying on others' for support."

You're raising the children and you can teach them math, and language, history, and science.

There will always be ignorance in those as well.

But we can't teach them that hurting other people is bad? At least attempt to.

No different than telling someone not to like ice cream. You can't force someone to have empathy.

If a gang of people came up to you and beat you up with police watching how would you feel?

It could be worse: the police could be beating me up.

"You need to learn to defend yourself better. We would've helped you, but thats not going to stop the gang from beating you up in the future. You need to somehow find a way to stop an entire gang on your own."

Concealed carry is legal in my state.

i gen bullyed too...it's sucks!

Then you have clearly never been in such a situation. Cops here are worse than the gangs that beat up people for the most ridiculous reasons. My friend had 100g of Hashish confiscated by the police, and then I saw them smoke it in the car. The police oftentimes joins in beating innocent people up. I felt neutral. That's just the atmosphere around here.

What I can't understand is why you want that atmosphere. That is not the way it has to be because you can see how other places are different. You raise your children into that enviornment and then tell them that they have no other choice but to continue the cycle of pain. I just don't understnad why.

No different than telling someone not to like ice cream. You can't force someone to have empathy.

I just though empathy was natural. But I can see plenty of reasons why this would not be the case.

What I can't understand is why you want that atmosphere...

It's not that I want it, but if my children grow up in a place with a certain atmosphere, they have to learn to adapt. No matter where they may grow up, it's my duty as a parent to make sure they mature as fast as possible. Being mature and fun is possible. Maybe all the physical threats shouldn't be experienced by them, considering how awful some injuries can be. But, if they get the right idea about the said injuries, they can react in the best way possible. I would be considered a failure to my father if my children were hurt by words. Words do not hurt. They can't hurt.  They're not something that can be touched.

My brother has a Tumblr, and he has this girl on it that is depressed because she's not skinny enough. Dude, seriously? She cuts herself because, instead of weighing 30 kg, she weighs 35kg. This is pathetic, to say the least. It's my duty as a father to assure that my children will be able to take care of themselves, no matter what happens to them.

My brother has a Tumblr, and he has this girl on it that is depressed because she's not skinny enough. Dude, seriously? She cuts herself because, instead of weighing 30 kg, she weighs 35kg.

Yes I agree it is a problem. And I also think she needs help, and that it would be a huge improvment to society if we found the cause of this and fix it as much as we can. There has to be a reason her and so many other people think they need to be skinny when they really don't. We find this problem or part of the problem, lets say for example it's the media, you can make a counter by having health classes in school teach kids about the subject and this may stop them from believing they're fat. I think they should at least attempt a counter for things that hurt people in society, instead of just turning away from victims. Avoiding the problem means that it can never get better. What happens in your neighboorhood can get better. But it will never get better if no one wants it to. If everyone accepts that as their life there is no way to change it.

vinex2002: That is off topic and can be considered spam.

Any way, I think bullying is unpreventable. I think it is wrong, but still an un-stoppable thing. I think you should shelter your children when they are young but slowly let them figure things out on their own, that is how you grow up from experience, not someone telling you what to do and how to act in every situation. I also think that there is a time to get into the matter even if your child is older (late teens early twenties). Despite what most people think, it takes longer to reach a true state of "adult hood" where a person could fend for themselves and actually start and take care of a family. The age where a person can actually take care of themselves on their own is late twenties to early thirties. even at 20 a person still is not fully grown into their skin and can be considered an adult, but can not actually handle all of the adult world (there are rare cases where it can be early twenties, but those are not common and do not happen in the US as much). That is just my opinion though.