Interesting perspectives here.
For frame of reference I’m in my early 40s. I was picked on a lot in school. I moved from a small rural school where I went to school with kids whose parents went to school with my parents. Families went back several generations in that area minimum. In middle school I moved to a different state. More suburban environment. Turned me into a very introverted kid, I read a lot and spent a lot of time in the woods by myself or with one or 2 of my very few friends. I was in the gifted program and spent a fair bit of time in classes with upper classmen. The “bullying” wasn’t physical. That’s easily handled enough. Say what you want, but cruelty from your peers and the opposite sex even when only in the form of mockery and teasing when your a kid is a tough thing to deal with. I wish it were as simple as someone trying to fight me. Wasn’t until my sophomore year I started working on a ranch out in MT that I finally said fugk it. I don’t care about school or the shidthole state I was in. I was trying to hold myself to impossible standards that no one else seemed to care about.
I had good teachers along the way for SURE! But I also had a lot of bad ones who cared more about the athletes or pretty people and not only was their scholarly instruction sorely lacking, the leadership they should have provided was totally absent.
Yes, I grabbed a guy by the throat and slammed the back of his head against a locker sir saying unkind things about my sister when I was a senior. Big deal. That was a very simple (and extremely gratifying) situation.
As a Dad (the highest calling ANY man can have) I told my kids I have their back in any situation, and not to tolerate any cruelty from classmates. Rise above it, but if it comes to blows don’t stop until someone pulls you off. But being picked on and made to feel like crap is not an easy situation to fix unless you homeschool.
