Bullying: Young age comes as no surprise

My ‘No Bully’ mugshot

In a piece for the Wall Street Journal (summarized by A Mighty Girl), Laura Barbour observes that children as young as 2 1/2 engage in relational aggression.

That is, they deliberately shun or withhold friendship in order to punish another child.

This revelation came as zero-surprise to me, as I was a school-wide outcast. I remember my first day of kindergarten at Calistoga Elementary; I felt completely awkward and alone, like an absolute alien — a visitor marooned on an unfamiliar planet with no guidelines to relate to its inhabitants.

This feeling of separation continued through my time at Calistoga Junior-Senior High. If friendship was offered to me, I had difficulty recognizing it; I have too-vivid memories of playground taunts, of being shoved in hallways, and of being told by one classmate that she would only be my friend in-secret, when no one else was around.

I could only react with suspicion when classmates showed interest in me — for example, inviting me to talk about a subject I cared about. I was convinced they were only doing it, so they could laugh about it behind my back.

With its summary of Laura Barbour’s article, A Mighty Girl recommends several excellent books about bullying; some (by Tracy Ludwig) were already familiar to me, but I look forward to reading some of the others through my crusade to speak out against bullying.