Odd Girl Out by Rachael Pollan-(Jasiu Metkowski)

In our modern day society our schools are now facing many difficulties. Some of the difficulties schools frequently face include problems like poor performance, low payment and the most popular and the most difficult to control; bulling. Sometimes bullies call it a "joke", and sometimes it goes beyond limits. There are many cases where bully victims get harmed so deeply, causing them to face the temptation of committing suicide. And yet, I wonder why bulling has become such a great problem. But after reading some blogs, I ran into one by Vincent Liu where he stated some believable theories that can answer my question.

There are many reasons why I think people bully others. One reason is that they feel the need to bully others to feel good about them. People that bully others might feel that they become a superior force compared to others which make them feel good. Another reason why I think people bully others is that they want attention. By bullying, they get a lot of attention by the people around them which may cause the bully to feel good to be the center of attention. The last reason that I can think of why people bully others is that there is something wrong with their mental state.

I believe that one of Vincent’s strongest points was when he spoke about bullies trying to become the center of attention. Many times bullies use a joke on their victims, usually making the class laugh high, but making the victim sink low with shame and sadness. If the bully's joke is good enough, it frequently can cause people to view the bully as a class comedian, instead of a cruel bully. Tying to another point Vincent made about bully pride, a "classical" bully joke can provide the bully with pride and a superior felling since his/her classmate find him/her "cool". Unfortunately, many students base their lives on being "cool" and "having a life" instead of focusing on their studies. . So if we are to have safer schools in our country, we should focus on changing what determines a school's character; its students. We should encourage students to try to remain positive to one another and avoid the "why" bulling happens. If we can mange to do so, many of our bully problems can drop and even be earased.