h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...I get a lot of hassle from other people because I get good grades and so on. Actual violence is quite common, but only the *Push-shove* kind of thing, its becoming a lot more verbal these days, but the people who do it are the most thick, so that's a bit reassuring...

Exactly. Take it from me and my experience - when you're the one with all the money, go up to the thick bully in his rubbish job, and really rub it in. Tell him where you're going on holiday this year.

Yay!

At my school, there is this very, very thick basketball player. He was kicked off the team for using excessive violence (and I think his suspension for possesion of marijuana had something to do with it too . . . ). Anyway, one day he tackled a guy and began beating on him for no reason. They started rolling down the bleachers, bruising each other. It was nearly funny. What wasn't funny was that afterwards, both of them were suspended. Even the guy who was just trying to defend himself from a crazed, 200-pound maniac. I found this unsettling.

Wow. Stuff like that dosen't normally happen here, but that does sound terrible.

Don't denigrate him too much. Remember: It'll be but a fond memory when he is working in Sainsburys. For life!

and urinating into the mince because of his advanced sense of humour.

Intellectual bullying can be more harmful to the less intellectually able than physical bullying is to the weak.

Yes, that old adage 'sticks & stones .....etc' is not always valid. Mental abuse can be superficially invisible but have a much deeper or longer lasting effect than physical hurt.
It's so sad that even among primary school children we have to be aware to the possibilities of self-abuse as a result of psychological probems.

i was bullied from the age of 6 til i left school at 18. it started off with physical bullying but quickly moved to psychological bullying (primarily exclusion - it's amazing how much it can hurt when none of your peers acknowledges your existence for weeks at a time; and when they do, it's by name calling or throwing things across the class at you). over 10 years on, and i'm still in the process of unlearning the coping mechanisms i developed (ie total withdrawal, non-communication and not showing any emotions - because the last thing i was going to do was give the bullies the satisfaction of seeing that they'd hurt me). i've improved hugely, but i suspect it's always going to mark me.

one of the worst parts of it all was the fact that the teachers at the school where the bullying started refused to admit that there was a problem. "there's no such thing as bullying in our school, she must be making it up" was the head teacher's considered opinion. some teachers need to be shot. my parents moved me to another school, where the teachers were much more understanding; unfortunately, by that stage i only knew how to be a "victim". and thus it continued.

the problem with psychological bullying is that you can't show people the bruises on your psyche.

Very true - I tried hiding my emotions and it caused hell for my wife for 10 years, until I saw a good psychologist. I tried to make myself too hard to bully.

You are special - never doubt that you are lovable, for each of us is the mirror that reflects what someone else needs. Trust yourself - and you'll learn to trust others.

Yes.
It took 12 years before a teacher finally noticed the majority of the class kicking me down the stairs one day. Her response was to threaten them all with suspension. That stopped the physical bullying for the few weeks left before the O Levels and after that most of the thugs left and things should have improved dramatically.
Instead, one of my so-called 'friends' (A girl I'd helped for years) became jealous when she failed Physics and I got an A (we used to work together at school and her brilliant adult brother used to help with her homework so everyone thought she was the best...). We had arranged to meet the day after the results came but when I arrived at her house her mother told me she didn't want to see me, and by the time we got back to school she had used the phone (we didn't have one and everyone else lived miles away) to convince everyone that I had become so stuck up that I was even pretending to be white and looking down on her because she was so much darker.
The result was that EVERYONE actively ignored me and went around with their arms round her, whispering and casting nasty looks in my direction, refusing to work with me in the chemistry lab, little things like that, till it reached the stage where I couldn't force myself to go into the chemistry lessons, or, eventually, even through the school gates.
People aren't able to acknowledge psychological bullying. They always assume that the majority are right and the minority must be just weird, or doing something to bring it on themselves (and of course it doesn't help when you ARE weird )

Seems there are an awful lot of bruised people about. Certainly puts what I put up with into perspective. But hey - they all say education was so much more effective in those days ?

Most of my suffering took place out of school - I was the kid in the grammer school uniform coming back to the pit village on the bus. I may as well have had a neon sign saying target - fortunately I was 6 foot tall, and I perfected a snarl.

Still there's no need for Chris Evans to start making Ginger an insult again, just 'cause I'm going grey now.

Oh boy yes! And if you didn't wear your silly straw boater or ghastly velour hat all the way home some nasty adult would be sure to notice and report you to the head.

I'm sure they sit down and deliberately make the uniforms as hideous and embarrassing as possible.

Yes. Embarrasing uniforms. That's called child abuse, but because teachers have to be qualified, they never get "dun".

Why is it alright to be Fascist with children? I've never understood that.

"...submerge any personal expression... Don't question authority. Do as you're told. Don't think, just do as I say. Oh, and have a good and productive life as an active, well-adjusted participant in our thriving democracy!" -Micheal Moore, Stupid White Men (Ch 5: "Idiot Nation").

---Simpsons: On Independent Thought---
[LIGHT FLASHES ON WALL IN SKINNERS OFFICE WITH SIGN UNDERNEATH SAYING: 'INDEPENDENT THOUGHT']
Principal Skinner: Two independent thought alarms in one day!? The students are over stimulated. Willie, remove the coloured chalk from the classrooms...
Willie: I warned ya! Didn't I warn ya?! That coloured chalk was forged by Lucifer himself!

---Simpsons: On Open Dialogue---
Skinner: Good morning class. A certain...agitator...for privacy's sake let's call her...Lisa S. No, that's too obvious...uuuh, let's say L. Simpson -- [Lisa slaps her forehead in a slient D'oh!] has raised questions about certain school policies. So, in the interest in creating an open dialogue, sit silently and watch this film.

---Simpsons: On Uniforms---
Skinner: Ah, these uniforms are godsend. Horseplay is down 40%, youthful exuberance has been cut in half, high spirits are at an all-time low.

Chalmers: Well, I've got to hand it to you, Seymour - these drab student coverings have created the perfect distraction-free environment, thus preparing the children for permanent positions in tomorrow's mills and processing facilities.