Originally Posted by
Elin
You hold up bullying as being an accurate reflection of the harshness of reality and a baptism by fire as it were for what kids will have to endure as adults, but I think in all but the most tragic lives, being physically and verbally abused over several years with no way out is no more a reflection of the real world than the overly sunny, cheerful picture than some coddling parents and administrators paint for kids. As someone who was bullied savagely as a child, I can safely say that what I endured as a child was far, far worse than anything I've encountered as an adult. As an adult, I can barely recall ever being subjected to name calling, much less real emotional abuse and physical violence, and I know that if I ever did encounter such things, there would be people there to help me. In school? That sort of stuff was essentially my life for a good three years, the administrators turned a blind eye to it, and there basically was no escape.
Don't get me wrong, I certainly agree that coddling kids and creating an environment where we bring the hammer down on harmless banter and make it impossible for them to challenge their peers can be harmful. But bullying - real bullying - is both behaviour that won't be a feature of most kids' adult lives and behaviour that can carry a jail sentence if and when we do run across it as adults. Bullying didn't prepare me for the harshness of reality, as you seem to suggest. All it did was rob me of three years of my adult life by instilling in me completely irrational fears in me about what the adult world was like. If other kids can be spared that, even if it means wrapping them in a tad too much cotton wool, I'm all for it.