"The Bully, The Bullied, and The Bystander" by Barbara Coloroso

While this book may not be the fastest thing you’ve ever read or even the happiest, it’s definitely the most important. Bullying has been going on for far too long and it shouldn’t have taken a few suicides in 2010 for change to happen. That change should have happened a long time ago. “The Bully, The Bullied, and The Bystander” was written in 2003 and updated somewhere after 2008 to include a chapter on cyber-bullying. In the beginning of this disturbing piece of nonfiction, Barbara Coloroso sites several pages full of examples of how bullying destroyed the lives of students all across the world. Suicides, murder sprees, assaults, expulsions, prison sentences, the first few pages has examples of all of these things. And then you have an entire book to get through of the psychology behind bullying which is even more disturbing than shortly written case studies. What Barbara Coloroso tries to emphasize throughout the book is that the reason bullies do what they do is because they lack empathy for others. It’s not enough to send them to detention, suspend them, spank them or anything like that. If punishment is all the system has to offer, then the bully is just going to keep doing what he’s doing, but in a more covert way. Without empathy, the phrase, “Treat others the way you want to be treated” means nothing. Also without empathy, people get the message that bullying is a rite of passage for children going to school. No, it isn’t. There’s nothing normal about it. It’s demoralizing, humiliating, and even traumatizing. I’ve had my own battle with bullying during my freshman year of high school. I would have loved to believe that war was the answer and that all I needed to do was punch and kick my way between classes. Without educating students and teachers about the importance of empathy and getting along with one another, the cycle’s going to continue for many generations to come. Yes, we’ve got all these anti-bullying programs going around ever since those suicide statistics in 2010. Those programs do no good if nobody is willing to open their ears for just a few moments. You know what I say? I say make this book I’m talking about required reading for schools all around the world. Put it in the same bookshelf as “Catcher in the Rye” and “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Stick it somewhere between “The Outsiders” and “The Crucible”. The psychology behind it is disturbing as hell, but it’s also a necessary wakeup call for those walking around like traumatized zombies.

　

***MOVIE DIALOGUE OF THE DAY***

TEDDY: You call my dad a loony one more time…and I’ll kill you.
MILO: Loony, loony, loony.
TEDDY: Ah!! I’ll rip your head off and shit down your neck!

-Stand By Me-