The moment you walk into a middle school, you see hundreds of posters about bullying. The first two weeks of sixth grade are filled with suffocating lectures about the ultimate middle school cliché. Every year we hear the same words; don’t bully, ignore the bully,tell a teacher, so on and so forth. The average intelligent human being would ask: if schools give these boring speeches every year, why does bullying still continue? The ironic part is that the answer is so clear and so in your face, yet the teachers fail to bring it out in their colorful fliers and posters. For years, bullying has been highly exaggerated by schools in order to eliminate it, yet they fail. If one just analyzes the people who are bullied, and the people who are the bullies, they can reach this very blunt conclusion. Bullying is a myth.
One major part of the awesome conspiracy of bullying is that it just magically happens. However there is a very simple scientific theory that explains the phenomenon. Two boys are walking past a popular group of boys. One of the two boys has perfect posture. He struts down the hallway with supreme confidence. When you read his face, it says: What are you looking at? I have a life, I have places to go, and I couldn’t care less that I am walking past you right now. The other boy is slouching. He walks awkwardly down the hallway. His face reads: I am a loser. I don’t have much of a social life, I am afraid to speak in front of a lot of people, and I am very insecure. If the first boy were to do something spontaneously hilarious, the popular boys would accept him. If the second boy were to attempt to be humorous, the popular boys would make fun of him because they know that this boy does not have the guts to stand up for himself. Group of confident people + apprehensive buffoon + weird actions = bullying.
To make the children feel better, teachers say that bullies are unhappy with their lives so they bug you to make themselves feel better. This is only one of the cases. Most bullying episodes expressed by the equation above are just for the entertainment of the bullies. Bullies enjoy antagonizing people. The truth is that you determine if you are going to be picked on. The way you dress, the way you act, the way you hold yourself, and the things you do all determine your fate. Normal kids find it amusing when insignificant people act in unusual ways. If you go to school every day, you probably can figure out the ways of the accepted ones. Why on earth would you act in an unusual way if you do not have the guts to defend yourself? If you make yourself appear “cool”, chances are you won’t be made fun of.
The most confusing part about bullying is that most people do act normal, yet they are still made fun of for whatever the reason may be. A victim would ask himself, ‘if I act exactly like the popular boys, why aren’t I accepted? What am I missing?’ This leads me to the biggest reason of why bullying is a myth. Bullying can be stopped by one simple attribute: assertiveness. The people who are bullied are not confident. They don’t know how to stand up to others. They believe whatever the bullies tell them because they don’t believe in themselves. Just be assertive! No one in the entire world has the right to push you around. They only do it because they can. You must be assertive and not take any crap from anyone. You are your own boss. No other person affects you. Walk down the hallway with confidence. Give people dirty looks. You are the best. If someone throws a nasty comment at you, tell them to bounce and then go on minding you own business. If the bully sees that they have not affected you at all by talking down on you, they will back off. Feel free to growl at people, but don’t scare off people you like. A good balance between assertiveness and politeness will bring you many places in life. You don’t have to be funny. You don’t have to be that good looking. You just have to have confidence. People respect people who have fortitude. These qualities make up a good leader.
Bottom line: bullying is a myth because you control how people treat you. Don’t ever let anyone push you around. Tomorrow at school, if Big Paulie calls you a fatty, sock him in the face with self assurance. Once the world of middle school students takes control of their inner self, bullying will be put in the books of ancient American legends, and the world will be a much better place. = ]