The Panda Bear on Elemantary School Bullying Continued

Previous discussion of bulling at on the June 9 post of the Panda Bear Blog.

The Panda Bear over the past week has searched the internet on bullying. She finds it interesting that most material written about bullying deals with teenagers. However, she and her friends remember their most intense experience with bulling occurred from around 8-13 years old. In part the Panda Bear believes that bullying declined in high school is because she and her friends went from small elementary school to a large high school were it was easier to avoid the bullies
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Interestingly enough the Panda Bear found this article on Time.com, that also confirms that bulling is more common in the younger years than it is in the teen years. However, most anti-bullying efforts are directed at teenagers. Even in the nineteen seventies, the Panda Bear remembers adults telling the high school students to resist peer pressure and be critical of the high school social hierarchy. She found these adult insights into teen behavior helpful for when she was a teenager.

However that Panda Bear and her friends remember little or not help be given to them by the adult world when they were bullied as children. They remember that teachers, parents and counselors telling them what they needed to was "fit in". The Panda Bear’s mother told the Panda Bear that the teachers recommended that the Panda Bear’s mother pick up her from school because boys were hitting her. What the Panda Bear finds interesting that the school did not see it as their responsibility to stop the hitting. The Panda Bear never remembers hearing the school bullies at the time being called the school bullies by those in authority and neither do any of her friends.

The Panda Bear thinks the reason that bullying does not get much paid attention to at this age is that adults find it hard to believe how cruel children can be to each other and that when children fight with each other at that age that damage can last years. The Panda Bear find its interesting that one book that tries to deal with the preteen mean girls, The English Roses by Madonna ends up with everyone becoming friends.

The Panda Bear thinks Madonna may be looking at the world through rose colored glasses(pun intended).
The good news for the Panda Bear and her friends who were bullied is that we turned out to be nice people who have their frends in adult life. The Panda Bear no longer has problems with bullying. Some of us who were bullied ended up being of higher "status" in adult life that the bullies.

The Panda Bear invites her readers to share their experiences with elementary school bullying. Were you bullied or were you a bully? How do you remember your experiences?