I sympathize with the victims of bullying, but I sometimes think that too often we expect the victims to suffer in silence. I taught in American public schools, and if 2 kids fought, they both were in trouble. I always thought that the student who instigated the fight should receive a harsher punishment, and wondered why a student defending him/herself would have to be punished. I used to tell my American students, if someone bullies you, fight back. If he knocks you down, get back up. If you have to find a friend and hold hands while you stand up to the bully, do that.
Teaching kids to be passive and silent will never cure bullying. Teaching them to tell teachers will not cure bullying. The teacher cannot be in the bathroom, the hallway, the alley or street as the student walks home.
It's politically incorrect, and I'm not a violent person, but the cure for most bullies is a good a$$-whipping from their victims.
Real talk. The doctrine of non-violence doesn't really stand up - where would we be if (for example) people hadn't stood up to Hitler and Gim Il-seong? It's like, your chance of being assaulted in a certain place may be a certain percentage. Yet in reality the same people - people who give off a passive vibe - actually on average get assaulted through their lives a couple of times. I have one friend back home who has a very meek and timid demeanour and he's been beaten up randomly (not as part of a mugging) a few times. Makes me furious but it proves that there are bullies out there who relish preying on people they don't think will defend themselves.
Yeah, this particular aspect of the "zero tolerance" idea has never stood well with me. There's a difference between defending yourself and being a perpetrator.
I also think Korea needs to address its suicide problem in general and how social pressures that are very ingrained here often play a part in them--and not just for students.
As far as bullying here goes, I agree it needs to be taken more seriously but--like all discipline problems in Korean public schools--part of the problem comes from a lack of real support structure for teachers, at least in my experience. American schools aren't perfect and of course bullying happens there despite cool new slogans like "zero tolerance," but I think it
does make a huge difference when you have people on staff specifically to do the job of dealing with problematic or violent kids. One reason teachers ignore fights and verbal taunts that would be addressed in the States (at least in the middle school where I worked prior to coming to SK) is simply because they don't have much of a support structure.
But, also, as we've all talked about on this site before, Korean culture has a bit of a different take on what you can and can't say to someone's face, and is still more tolerant of at least certain forms of violence in general--they still hit the kids at my school, and most fights are ignored unless someone is seriously injured. It's interesting that this article says student-on-student violence/bullying is seen as a ritual/rite of passage for kids, since this seems to be overall attitude. I've definitely had conversations with co-teachers who have expressed concern over students being bullied, though, so I don't want to assume this is something
all Koreans want swept under the rug to protect the status quo.
Personally, while I'm not a mission to radically change Korean culture, I tell students to respect each other in my class and call them out for insulting or hitting each other, even if it's not incredibly serious.
