Bully for You: Why Push Comes to Shove
Bullies and their taunting, arrogant ways are said to have been the
driving force behind the student shootings at Columbine and Santana High
Schools. Young bullies supposedly grow into sociopaths, angry drunks, wife
abusers or maybe mayors of major East Coast cities. The victims of bullying are portrayed as emotionally disfigured for
life, unable to shake the feeling that they are unlovable wimps, or that
everybody is out to get them. The news bristles with reports that bullies abound. Recently, in one of
the largest studies ever of child development, researchers at the National
Institutes of Health reported that about a quarter of all middle-school
children were either perpetrators or victims (or in some cases, both) of
serious and chronic bullying, behavior that included threats, ridicule,
name calling, punching, slapping, jeering and sneering. Another highly contentious study suggested that too much time in day
care may predispose a child to bullying: youngsters who spent more than 30
hours a week away from mommy had a 17 percent chance of ending up as
garden-variety bullies and troublemakers, compared to only 6 percent of
children who spent less than 10 hours a week in day care. Everywhere, legislators are struggling to beat each other to the punch
in demanding that schools stamp out bad behavior. In Colorado, for
example, home to Columbine High School, Gov. Bill Owens has just signed
legislation requiring all state school districts to develop anti-bullying
programs to prevent bullying. In a similar spirit, the familiar phys-ed game of dodgeball -- also
known as killerball, prison ball or bombardment -- is taking a hit lately,
as school authorities nationwide have moved to ban the game on the theory
that it fosters hyperaggression and gives the class klutzes an inferiority
complex. Yet even as quick-fix programs with names like "Taking the Bully by the
Horns" proliferate across the academic and electronic universe, experts in
aggressive behavior warn that there is no easy way to stamp out bullying
among children. Short of raising kids in isolation chambers, they say,
bullying behaviors can never be eliminated entirely from the sustained
hazing ritual otherwise known as growing up. "Can we get rid of bullying altogether? I don't think so," said Richard
J. Hazler, a professor of counselor education at Ohio University in
Athens. "We can't eliminate all growing pains, either. It's tough learning
to make your way in this world." Philip C. Rodkin, an assistant professor of educational psychology at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, pointed out that, despite
all the attention being paid to the subject, the root causes of bullying
remain a mystery. "This is not a trivial problem," he said. "Bullies have
always been with us, and we're only beginning to ask why." Some researchers say that, despite the hype and handwringing, there is
no epidemic of bullying in schools, and in fact the incidence of serious
bullying has very likely declined over the years. "It certainly was a problem when I was in boarding school, but that was
ages ago," said Richard Dawkins, a professor at Oxford University who has
studied the evolution of aggressive and selfish behavior. "I believe there
is far less bullying now, though there probably will always be a bit." As an example of how bad it used to be, Professor Dawkins cited a
passage from the British poet John Betjeman's 1960 autobiographical poem,
"Summoned by Bells." Twelve to one: What chance had Angus? They surrounded him, As Frans de Waal, a primatologist at Emory University, sees it, one of
the problems in the standard approach to bully analysis is that
researchers tend to ignore the subtle dynamics between a bully and the
object of a bully's scorn -- the scapegoat. "Some individuals may have
bully characteristics, and others may have scapegoat characteristics," he
said. "The two things need to be studied together, but because personality
research is generally done from an individual perspective, they rarely
are." Dr. de Waal has observed that bullying behavior is quite common among
most species of monkeys and apes, and that many animals at or near the top
of the hierarchy will harass, charge, snap and howl at their subordinates
for no other reason than because they can. But at least as striking as the
presence of simian bullies, Dr. de Waal said, are the resident scapegoats,
the low- ranking individuals who seem to be chosen for the role by other
members of the group. Whenever a group is under strain, or when its
hierarchy is in doubt, the higher-ranking primates start taking it out on
the scapegoat, with the result that any time the beleaguered monkey
ventures from its corner, it gets beaten up. "This is not just a way to release frustration," said Dr. de Waal. "The
scapegoat also gives the high-ranking individuals in the group a common
enemy, a unifier. By uniting against the scapegoat in moments of tension,
it creates a bond." And while primate research can never be applied directly to human
affairs, even when those humans are swinging from monkey bars, bully
experts admit that children in groups will often encourage, or at least
not discourage, a bully's nasty acts against an underling. In one study of
how peers contribute to bullying, researchers from York University studied
videotapes of 53 episodes of bullying among elementary school students on
the school playground. The researchers found that 54 percent of the time,
onlookers stood by passively as the bully picked on the victim, an
inactive form of activity that the researchers said ended up reinforcing
the bully's behavior. And 21 percent of the time, some of the onlookers
joined in on the taunting. Only in 25 percent of the cases did a child
attempt to step in and help the victim or call a teacher to help. But as researchers lately have discovered, many bullies in fact are
quite popular. "Some kids may be goaders, cheering the bully on because
they want to be accepted," said Laura Hess Olson, an assistant professor
of child development at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. "Or they
may just stand by and do nothing because they're afraid they might be
targeted next." Whatever the case, she added, "We have to realize that
everybody is a player in creating the atmosphere in which bullying
occurs." Another point worth noting, said Dr. Olson, is that the old stereotype
of the bully as an antisocial and unpopular misfit is false. In one study
of third- to fifth- graders in two East Coast schools, she and her
colleagues found that, while the students described by their peers and
teachers as friendly, outgoing and self-confident were the most popular,
the boys known to be bullies were the second-most popular group, way
beyond the perceived wimps, eggheads and teacher's pets. "There are a fair amount of kids in a classroom who think that bullies
are cool," said Dr. Rodkin, "especially when they're attractive and
athletic." ADDING to the challenge of curbing bullies is the fact that, as
researchers have learned, many students blame victims of bullying for
bringing their troubles on themselves by sulking or whimpering or walking
around with their head hanging low. A sizable number of students agree
with the premise that bullying can help "toughen" people and teach which
behaviors are laudable and which are risible to the group. In this scenario, then, bullies are neither born nor made, but instead
have bulliness thrust upon them. The group needs its whipcracking
rulemeister, just as an army boot camp needs its snarling, abusive
sergeant if the soft-bellied newcomers are ever to get into fighting trim.
Indeed, it's hard to see how bullying behavior in schools can be
eliminated when bullying behavior among adults is not only common but
often applauded -- at least if it results in wild success. J. P. Morgan,
for example, was thought by many of his colleagues and subordinates to be,
in the words of Robert M. LaFollette, the Wisconsin progressive, "a beefy,
red-faced thick- necked financial bully, drunk with wealth and power." Yet
he was also lionized in his day, described by officials at Harvard
University as a "prince among merchants," a man of "skill, wisdom and
courage." Hey, he was the richest guy in the world, wasn't he? It's perhaps a bit of delicious paradox that, at a time when the nation
is seized with concern over school bullying, the international community
views with alarm the recent moves by the United States to scuttle the
Kyoto global warming treaty and to promote the construction of a
space-based nuclear missile shield. To the rest of the world, it seems,
America is the biggest bully of them all.
OME people
are just fair game for being picked on and put down: lawyers, politicians,
journalists, mothers-in-law and, now, bullies. These days, everybody is
ganging up on bullies, blaming them for all that ails us.
Pulled off his coat and
trousers, socks and shoes
And, wretched in his shirt, they hoisted
him
Into the huge waste paper basket; then
Poured ink and treacle on
his head. With ropes
They strung the basket up among the beams
And
as he soared I only saw his eyes
Look through the slats at us who
watched below.
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