[Tobra]

Bully is an interesting psych deal

When my grandson was 6-8 years old he took karate lessons. Actually, a little before 6, they liked how quickly he picked up on the yes sir, no sir stuff, as if that was the first time he had heard it. They taught them martial arts stuff, naturally. Also a lot of situational awareness, ways to avoid bad situations or get out of them. That was the best part of it. They would split them into small groups give them ways to defuse or distract when someone is getting bullied, run scenarios, take turns being the victim and the hero.

When he was in third grade, I pick him up after school and ask him about his day. He tells me this 5th grader bully got kicked out of school. Apparently they were picking on one of the the "little 1st graders" so the grandson and a group of his friends tell the older kid to stop, to which he took offense, and they commence to tussling, ending with the grandson getting drug on the ground by one leg. They had a move they practiced for that sort of situation, involving a kick, I ask why he did not do that. "I just wanted to make him leave that kid alone, I did not want to hurt him. I felt sorry for him. He did not have any friends" Bully was gone. I don't know what they did about him, but they did it at a different school. There was one kid in his class who was a lot bigger than the grandson and was a bit of a bully, but that ended when he became friends with the grandson. That was a single mother drunk father situation, kid was big and awkward, took it out on smaller kids until he got into sports, which gave him direction and kept him out of trouble.

Some of the cyber bullying stuff I have heard about is fairly brutal, especially the girls.

Oh yeah, absolutely yes, the bully gets something out of it, and I don't mean the other kid's lunch money.