Beating the Bully - A Childhood Memory
The steemiteducation homework was to think of the whackiest classroom tale and my mind honed into this one incident, which was not whacky to me, but at the time everyone in the class thought it was.
It was geography class, in the building across the road from the main school. For some reason or another, we did not have a teacher that session. The Witch (that particular geography teacher's nickname) had been called away and there were no spare teachers.
The classroom was bored. So for the sake of entertainment, the boy sitting next to me, George, decided to start shouting abuse at me, pulling my hair. The whole classroom laughed.
Then he discovered the back of the plastic chair was loose and started to hit me with that. Not too hard as I put my arms up defend myself.
So after half an hour of that, it was lunchtime. I left the classroom in tears. One classmate, out of about 20, stopped to ask if I was okay.
I tried to find someone to tell. But teachers deserted the school at lunch times.
After lunch, I went back to the classroom, there was no teacher again.
They found something else to amuse themselves with that session, but I vividly remember eyeing up the back of that chair and wanting to smash it around the back of George's head. I obviously didn't, but that's what I honestly felt like. Maybe he felt that intensity.
Those who know me, know that's not my nature at all.
I feel like such a wuss writing this, as I know all too many have or are going through this kind of ridicule, hurt and humiliation every day and this was a one-off (more or less) for me.
I was ignored mainly, for most of the time, and I switched off to the daily jibes on the school bus. The only other 'major' incident I can recall is having my trousers set on fire with deodorant and a lighter, easily put outable.
Perhaps there were more, I know I have the capability to put things out my mind or 'forget' then.
It's had its effects, but I cope with them (mainly).
As for the geography bully, I told my mother about it and she just said bullying is just part of school.
No, it's not!
Being a Mum now I cannot comprehend how she could even feel that way.
But anyway, I told my best friend about it, who told her big sister, who know some people who told George to leave me alone. It worked.
He was also in my drama class on Fridays, and the last thing he ever said to me was "can't you get a joke".
I was and still am one of those people who just wanted to be different from the crowd.
I am my own person and sod everyone else (apart from my father, I might care about his opinion too much still).
Not always been an easy choice, but overall I am glad to be who I am now.
He said, "Can't you take a joke"? Bullying is not a joke. I was bullied a little bit in school. Once I decided to fight back. After that, no more bullying. I don't know if that would always work, but it sure worked for me.
I have heard a lot of people say this is the way. I suspect in all honesty that it is one of the most effective ways of dealing with a bully when there is only one.
We think that life as a kid is worry free, but then situations like this remind us that sometimes growing up can be really tough on kids. Bringing attention to bullying is the first step in stopping it, the fact that you still remember that situation all these years later, shows just how much of an impact bullying can have. Thanks for sharing your story
Hi there Jason. Yes, they have just had anti-bullying week at school here too, so it brought it to the front of my mind and I thought it might be helpful to share it. I can still picture what he looks like too. I think it was my mothers reaction also that made it stick.
What the hell? This is meant for that sick guy who thought of hitting you as a joke. Bullying is not a joke at all and when someone starts to physically abuse you, it crosses the boundary of bullying even and becomes a serious issue. This is not acceptable at all and you are so brave for going through all of that. I do believe you need to stand up to your bullies but yes it is difficult when there is more than one of them. But self-defense is really important. I want to train my son kick boxing and other means of self-defense so he can kick some ass if he has to.
Yes will have to teach my two how to kick butt. Uma Thurman style in Kill Bill, should do the trick. Hazel taking up kickboxing when she is 7, she is a few belts into karate. My youngest I will need to work on, she can't ballet herself out of a situation. But they know to go for eyes and nuts, if they feel threatened.
https://steemit.com/my/@baveva/my-tracks
These kind of things happened pretty often to me all through elementary, middle, and high school, it's one of the reasons I graduated a year early.
It's also one of the motivations for homeschooling our kids now. Perhaps like others, I did not conform to peer pressure and do what others expected me to do, which made me a target.