Beating Bullies at Their Own Game

I was very happy to know that November 18 - 24, 2007 has been designated as "Bully Awareness Week." In fact, this particular week even has a theme: "Stand Up! (to bullying)."

Our kids have enough to deal with without having to put up with some wanna-be tough guy who spent one-to-many hours blowing up tanks on his Game Boy. Summertime is over and our children have returned for another year of classroom education and melodrama that probably rivals anything seen on TV. Sure, the kids are back in school, but for more than a few boys and girls, dealing with the classroom bully may not be a subject they planned on participating in.

I'm not ashamed to say that as a small boy growing up, I had my share of being bullied. There were times I was able to overcome my fears and beat the bully at his own game (I took my Dad's advice to heat: an unannounced sharp blow to the solar plexus will drop even the toughest tough guy to his knees) but there were plenty of other times when I knew that I was outweighed, outnumbered and out of luck, and it was far more sensible to deal with the aggravation of being pushed around.

Life was a lot simpler then. I do not recommend hitting - although in my heart-of-hearts -- I'm convinced most bullies will back off once they realize they can get hurt. Of course back in the day, educators didn't realize the effect bullying can have on a youngster's fragile ego. Bullying.org points out that bullying seems to be more and more popular in schools and neighborhoods and it's a dilemma that parents and educators are having a hard time coming to grips with. According to statistics published in a recent article on CNN On-Line, 160,000 students miss one day of school each year because of bullying. Those numbers seem a little low to me, but then I'm not the one in school.

Yet some teachers feel that dealing with the classroom bully is not impossible. The site Bullybusters.com spells out a pretty direct method for dealing with the classroom tough guy:

- Ignore the bully.

- Count to 10.

- Politely ask them to leave you alone.

- Firmly ask them to leave you alone.

- Threaten to tell someone.

- Tell your teacher.