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You think school bullying is human nature? It might transcend culture, but I think it's a direct consequence of school as an institution. I mean, a school's pro

You think school bullying is human nature? It might transcend culture, but I think it's a direct consequence of school as an institution. I mean, a school's proposition to students is basically this: "You as a student have to spend most of your time with these strangers that we chose arbitrarily. If a conflict arises, you gotta figure it out on your own. Your parents won't be there to help you. Your friends may or may not be there to help you depending on how we choose (arbitrarily) to split you all up. If someone attacks you and you defend yourself, you'll be punished the same as them. If you refuse to participate in this arrangement, you're a criminal" If I had to design an environment that was optimized to encourage and allow bullying to happen, it would look a lot like a school. Writing the phenomenon off as human nature seems super naive to me.

berniedurfee 4y ago
Part of the purpose is to prepare you for the real world, which is far more brutal. Though bullying tends to be more subtle. Grownups have their lunch money taken all the time.
tayo42 4y ago
Bullying isn't exclusive to schools though.
- caditinpiscinam 4y ago
  That's true. I think the other places where it happens often have similar dynamics to schools. For example, in a workplace you might not get to choose who you work with, or be able to leave easily. That's less true of other cases like bullying in teams or clubs though. I just know that, personally, most of the times I experienced bullying in school happened when I was separated from my friends. I think that the natural tendency people have to look out for each other is stronger than any tendency towards bullying, but that schools disrupt the balance.
  - Jensson 4y ago
    People seem to pile in once someone starts, that is how bullying works. If nobody starts then nobody piles in, but at scale with social media lots of people will start, so then the masses pile in a lot.
brabel 4y ago
Did you ever have "friends" as a child? Bullying was brutal in and outside school, and I was part of both ends (trying to show strength by bullying others to try to stop being bullied).
- ZeroGravitas 4y ago
  Of relevance to the topic, the people who study bullying see it as a group dynamic. Apparently this is true across cultures but some cultures prefer to think of it as an individual "bully", rather than a social process that everyone participates in by allowing it to happen.
dazc 4y ago
My only experience of school bullying is purely anecdotal, from parents of kids suffering from it. The problem seems to be that a kid gets bullied, tells parent/teachers and the school then does everything it can to pretend it isn't happening. The reputation of a school trumps anything else, it would seem?
Llamamoe 4y ago
Your comment makes me wonder if bullying isn't like the alpha wolf thing in nature- seen only in captivity and a consequence of the need for a sense of control in an environment you can't otherwise control.

berniedurfee 4y ago

Part of the purpose is to prepare you for the real world, which is far more brutal. Though bullying tends to be more subtle. Grownups have their lunch money taken all the time.

tayo42 4y ago

Bullying isn't exclusive to schools though.

caditinpiscinam 4y ago
That's true. I think the other places where it happens often have similar dynamics to schools. For example, in a workplace you might not get to choose who you work with, or be able to leave easily. That's less true of other cases like bullying in teams or clubs though. I just know that, personally, most of the times I experienced bullying in school happened when I was separated from my friends. I think that the natural tendency people have to look out for each other is stronger than any tendency towards bullying, but that schools disrupt the balance.
- Jensson 4y ago
  People seem to pile in once someone starts, that is how bullying works. If nobody starts then nobody piles in, but at scale with social media lots of people will start, so then the masses pile in a lot.

brabel 4y ago

Did you ever have "friends" as a child? Bullying was brutal in and outside school, and I was part of both ends (trying to show strength by bullying others to try to stop being bullied).

ZeroGravitas 4y ago
Of relevance to the topic, the people who study bullying see it as a group dynamic. Apparently this is true across cultures but some cultures prefer to think of it as an individual "bully", rather than a social process that everyone participates in by allowing it to happen.

dazc 4y ago

My only experience of school bullying is purely anecdotal, from parents of kids suffering from it. The problem seems to be that a kid gets bullied, tells parent/teachers and the school then does everything it can to pretend it isn't happening. The reputation of a school trumps anything else, it would seem?

Llamamoe 4y ago

Your comment makes me wonder if bullying isn't like the alpha wolf thing in nature- seen only in captivity and a consequence of the need for a sense of control in an environment you can't otherwise control.