I sympathize for you TC. Are your children male or female? If their female I cannot comment on the situation. I hear girls are particularly cliquey, but I honestly didn’t pay much attention to that when I was in school. But if they’re boys, this is my take on the whole “bullying” situation. I don’t intend for this to sound like it lacks compassion, it doesn’t, trust me, it’s just my thoughts as a former high school student and current college student. If you get offended, I understand.
So that said, I’d really like to know the extent of bullying that is going on. When my parents were in school, people got in fights and beat up on a regular basis. That was considered bullying. Most males were raised like men back then and found ways to deal with it, either by fighting back (questionable in most situations, but not inherently wrong when in the right situation) or by simply remaining strong, and toughing out the ordeal (the non-violent, often preferential option).
When I was in high school (just a few years ago), I never once saw a fight. I never saw a fight in my entire life even still. But if somebody called somebody else a “mean name”, that was (ridiculously) called bullying. The current generation of men, thanks to feminism, has been raised to be incredibly effeminate (which is sinful mind you), and to put it bluntly, like wimps. Growing up in this culture, I was a pretty soft young man, and if my feelings got hurt I felt like crying, and often did cry. I actually cried in high school on more than one occasional, not exactly the best image for a high school football player. Finding my faith made me more of a man, and now I can deal with my problems like a man.
If there is physical violence going on in your school, that is absolutely terrible and should be dealt with not just by the school but possibly by law enforcement. But if the extent of bullying is name calling or mocking, I suggest you sit down with your kids and talk to them about dealing with it in a mature manner that doesn’t cower in the face of adversity, or succumb to ill feelings.
There used to be the saying, “sticks and stones.” All of that has been thrown out the window and now the saying is, “words matter.” If men are raised to think that they should be offended when some schmuck makes fun of them, then guess what, they will indeed be very offended when that inevitable schmuck says something that they don’t want to hear. There will always be mean people and there will always people who break the rules. Telling them that words matter only makes it more satisfying for them when they utter harsh words. Men need to be taught to deal with it, rather than being told that they are defenseless when adversity shows itself.
If you want to get rid of suicides resulting from bullying, get rid of feminism, tell fathers that they have a part in raising children too, and raise men like men and women like women.
