Quick! Bully him, he's smart!

[AgDr_ODST]

kids need little to no reason to bully each other. When 1 kid is seen as being or actually is smarter than the others he's just as likely to be bullied cause that same kid likes pop music while the other group(which is not to say everyone) likes country

 

[Tommeh Brownleh]

and it is for all the reasons mentioned above that I will never even speak to somebody IRL if I don't specifically tell them I wish to speak to them.

 

[AbstractStream]

Actually I was a bully in grade school, but it didn't matter to me if you were smart or not. I was just acting out. Though if and when I bullied the "smart" kids, it was technically because they let themselves...also I had the upper hand being part of the opposite sex >>

 

[Mercurio128]

It's pretty simple to google/wikipedia what you're asking here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_bullying

Individuals that choose to be a bully are not typically born with the characteristic. It is a result from the treatment they receive from authority figures, including parents. Bullies often come from families that use physical forms of discipline. This somewhat turns the tables on the bully, making them the victim. Unfortunately, this leads to a strategy of bully or be bullied."

TL;DR a feeling of inadequancy and repressed negative emotions imposed by authority figures are the two driving factors for bullies.

There's a good point here, that bullies tend to have been raised in an environment with violence or with physical forms of punishment. I have a little anecdotal evidence for this one:
We had an English teacher (actually a media studies grad, but our English dept was down 2 proper teachers) that tried to make us debate the ethics of hitting or smacking a child to punish them for bad behaviour. She came down very clearly on the side that it was definitely OK to smack kids if they were out of line, her evidence being that her parents did it to her and she turned out OK. After getting nowhere for about an hour she asked the class which of us had parents who would smack them as children, WITHOUT EXCEPTION the people who did were the biggest bullies and general violent dicks in the class.

I think the base of the problem isn't that it does the bullies any lasting harm, but that it conditions them to be OK with a little violence now and again, something that the other kids won't have, and who consequently don't know how to handle themselves when suddenly faced with it in a classroom/ playground.

Speaking for myself (but I imagine also a fair few people out there) I often tried to diffuse a difficult situation with words or didn't react because I was genuinely afraid of the consequences of any violence (i.e. suspension/ expulsion - things most bullies don't seem to care about, not the actual violence itself) when in reality, the 'best' option would have been to instantly rise to their challenge, not back down. It's just that I couldn't not think ahead. (if that makes any sense)

 

[DannyHale09]

It's not that they bully the smart people. They bulling the unpopular.
Smart kids are almost always the nerds in early school and nerds are not 'cool' so they get bullied. Simple but they get their own back later in life
..or not.

 

[KiKiweaky]

Was never one of the smart ones in class, average at best but I never saw anyone in my school being bullied for good results at all.

The school I was in was pretty strict about who they would let into what class though, I was in the good one and the people in those classes had done better in their entrance exams than the rest. So I guess most of the idiots and believe me we did have quite a few in my year just werent in the same classes as the really smart people.

 

[6037084]

Well smart people are often socially awkward and thus the easiest targets. In my old class I used being really smart as an advantage and helped everyone that wasn't a dick to me with homework during tests etc and suddenly everyone was my friend

 

[Aprilgold]

The weird thing is I was a quiet child, yet they still picked on me without any reason, pointing out, QUIET child. I can't say this enough, the sooner kids stop thinking their invincible because of their age or gender, the better.

Also, to add since I might as well, its more or less because you weren't in the inn group while they were babies talking about sex [no, seriously, I have heard preschoolers talk about sex] Its just about how un-cool you are, and that turns you into a villain, while anyone that is popular is a good guy, and these people don't get any of their torment later in life, unless they die in a accident. I just despise kids that think they can get away with anything, and I hate parents that won't sternly tell their kid to nock it off, it would be nice if it was brushed into their minds popularity doesn't matter, and if your being a dick, your getting a stern warning from your parent and more school work. Just, ah, well, fuck it, who am I going to convince typing this, I could go on and on, but no one would care. Thats my school history summed up, no one would care, teachers wouldn't stop this kid from emotionally wrecking me, the parent wouldn't intervene, the child wouldn't stop or care if I were about to die the next morning, and mainly, the teacher didn't care because of funding reasons [they let the kids bully me to keep funding for the next year, yeah, thanks.]

Rest is replies.

Spoiler

So my dear escapists...

Here I was, casually surfing the web when a thought struck my mind. I can't remember what it was, but it pulled up the memory of school ( one I dislike ). A lot of you may have experience this too, where the other children will pick on the "smart" kids, for...well? Being smart. I got it most in science, because Physics came to me much faster than any others in my group. This got me thinking, why do they pick on the "smart" kids? Just because we understand what we were being taught and picked it up is grounds to bully us? Maybe it was them thinking we were weird or just different. I'm not sure.

What do you think escapists?

* I am by no means calling myself smart ( Before you think I'm arrogant ), hell Science was one of the only subjects I was good at...

EDIT: This is from a UK based school - I understand some of the response are aimed towards the US schools, so to add further discussion, how do US schools differ from UK based schools in terms of bullying and behaviour towards other students?

It's not intelligence they pick on you for, it's the fact that you act like a geeky tosser (presumably). I was quite sharp in middle and high school, but due to the company I kept and the way I acted I got no flak for it.

If you play the role of a weak stereotype, people will go after you. It seems to be instinct, not conscious resentment.

Wait, so your your assuming that it was his attitude, I have seen kids from goth to mr. sunshine respectful man get bullied, so THEY'RE acting like stereotypes as well? Isn't it about the fake popularity bar that goes around, and if you aren't on it, you will be killed off? My schools were hell, praticually because, again, every kid that wasn't these 5 people were emotional wrecks by the end of each year, and when we confront teachers, they do nothing, just SIT there. So your saying that those 5 kids were indivuals that were more complex then the rest? And that the 20 odd kids and me were all stereotypes cloned to be picked off, what?
And what made you think he was a geeky tosser in the first place? I'm more or less asking for answers to WHY you said those things, since from the way you said it, was kinda dickish sounding, could you please, elaborate for me?

 

[FuktLogik]

So my dear escapists...

Here I was, casually surfing the web when a thought struck my mind. I can't remember what it was, but it pulled up the memory of school ( one I dislike ). A lot of you may have experience this too, where the other children will pick on the "smart" kids, for...well? Being smart. I got it most in science, because Physics came to me much faster than any others in my group. This got me thinking, why do they pick on the "smart" kids? Just because we understand what we were being taught and picked it up is grounds to bully us? Maybe it was them thinking we were weird or just different. I'm not sure.

What do you think escapists?

* I am by no means calling myself smart ( Before you think I'm arrogant ), hell Science was one of the only subjects I was good at...

EDIT: This is from a UK based school - I understand some of the response are aimed towards the US schools, so to add further discussion, how do US schools differ from UK based schools in terms of bullying and behaviour towards other students?

It's not intelligence they pick on you for, it's the fact that you act like a geeky tosser (presumably). I was quite sharp in middle and high school, but due to the company I kept and the way I acted I got no flak for it.

If you play the role of a weak stereotype, people will go after you. It seems to be instinct, not conscious resentment.

 

[zehydra]

Because kids will bully other kids for absolutely any reason they can find. Because they're malicious bastards.

Kids? You mean people?

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

During elementary this can be pretty minimal and not too significant but still enough to be an issue. Around Middle School, kids tend to get a bit more vicious, don't give a fuck about anything, just want to be irritating. Now High school is truly the game changer. People are maturing, forgetting about past prejudices because they have their own shit to worry about. You have to go out of your way to truly get people to mess with you. If you have a past in any of these scenarios, than that will determine how people react.

This is so true; about the only thing I'd change is that kids can be vicious in elementary school, too; in middle school, they're downright inhuman.

Speaking for myself (but I imagine also a fair few people out there) I often tried to diffuse a difficult situation with words or didn't react because I was genuinely afraid of the consequences of any violence (i.e. suspension/ expulsion - things most bullies don't seem to care about, not the actual violence itself) when in reality, the 'best' option would have been to instantly rise to their challenge, not back down. It's just that I couldn't not think ahead. (if that makes any sense)

This was my problem too. At the middle school I went to (and that's where the physical bullying happened, so it's relevant) the administrators seemed to revel in making examples out of kids they caught fighting. It didn't matter who started it or whether it was in self defense, if you got caught fighting someone, you got in serious trouble. To make it worse, a kid could easily be able to point fingers to who was doing the bullying, but since the bullies were smart enough not to leave any witnesses (or, at the very least, to make sure all witnesses were their cronies) the school did very little to curb the real problem, which was not fist fights. What's worse, in American middle schools, they have 12 year old kids in the same school, riding the same buses, as 16 year old idiots who are just passing the time until they can finally drop out. I don't care how much you try, there's no fighting back against that. High school was wonderful, because by then almost all of the bullies had dropped out of school, and the few that didn't wound up being social pariahs, since nobody wanted to put up with their crap anymore -- but middle school was hell.

As for the OP's question, it's a combination of difference and poor social skills. If a kid is in some way different from the rest of the herd, they're a target. If a child has poor social skills, ditto. The problem is, constant bullying leads to terrible social skills, since the bully-ee never really gets a chance to exercise his or her social skills, and if you don't use 'em, you lose 'em (or never develop them in the first place.) Basically, getting bullied begets getting bullied worse.

 

[Tennou486]

My bullying experience was pretty much only limited to P.E. when I was in high school. By that time most of my misery came with not wanting to do any of the damn homework.

In middle school and grade school though, I was picked on constantly. For just about every reason they could think of. It varied depending on the class. If I wasn't skilled in one class: picked on. Too skilled in another: picked on. Not athletic or fit enough: picked on. Too athletic (I could do martial arts): picked on. So yeah, I've seen it all in terms of bullying. I even have a scar above my right eye from when one kid came at me with scissors for one of the aforementioned reasons.

But back to the question: people will pick o anyone for any reason. Because it makes them feel better about themselves.

 

[TurboPanda]

It doesn't help that teenage culture is based around doing the opposite of what society wants you to do. Despite being bombarded by leaflets, programmes, outside speakers etc about the dangers of smoking, alcohol, underage/unprotected sex, drugs and even eating too much junk food teenagers still do all of these things regardless of the consequences. Smart kids on average are well behaved and are less likely to rebel so they're looked down on by everyone else for being boring. (when actually they're just using common sense).

 

[Rin Little]

I never personally got bullied and by the time I got to middle school I was the one who was always defending friends against bullies and other idiots. Mostly from what I saw, the people who picked on others were the ones who had no self-esteem and needed something to feel good about so they picked on those who were easy targets and unfortunately a lot of those people were the smarter kids who were a bit more reclusive like myself. Main difference was that people started being afraid of me cuz I never took crap from anyone.

 

[Acier]

The universe's way of balancing IRL. The intelligent were OP, so God Nerfed us.

Um, Athiests are smart and get picked on too? Dunno why god needs to be a part of this but whatever.

I can't believe someone even made this comment.


as for the OP, smarts have nothing to do with it. The biggest drawback to being smart if that some jerks want to take advantage of you academically. Because of this I was incredibly shy about my academic performance. I've been bullied extensively, and I can assure you. The bullies are different than the people who just want to copy you.It's just some that kids are socially inept/advanced, and they are the targets of bullying.

 

[justnotcricket]

In my experience it boils down to one of two things:

1) The 'smart' kid is:

a) utterly obnoxious about his/her abilities,
b) a goody-two-shoes/nark/blatant teachers' pet
c) some toxic combination of the above

and the less academically able kids respond by trying to 'take them down a peg'.

2) The 'smart' kid is just trying to live their life, and other kids are being kids, and therefore having a go at anyone who is 'different' for any reason.

I was a 'smart' kid at school. I survived quite well by trying to be a nice person, and using my abilities to help other people. It helps that I love teaching/tutoring. I was also fortunate that I was part of a cohort of kids moving through the local school system who were, by and large, a pretty decent bunch. Other 'years' suffered much more than ours. I had my share of discrimination, but it was mostly of the quiet, shunning kind, rather than the fisticuffs kind.

There was a boy in our year who did get bullied mercilessly though. He fitted squarely into the first category I mentioned. Literally, he could not get out of his own road. I'm not saying the bullies should have behaved as they did, but damn, if he didn't provoke them!

 

[Ironsouled]

Hmm...
I'm an American, nerdy enough to deeply relish Lovecraft and Tabletops, was in choir, and I've never had a problem with bullying. I was quicker than some, sure, but that just meant I helped them if they were stuck.

I've noticed that the people most often picked on weren't necessarily smart, they were just people who liked to use what brains they had to belittle their classmates with recondite verbage and pedantic mannerisms. Granted, is this always true? Probably not, but I haven't seen someone bullied for no other reason than being of above average intellect.

 

[ShakyFt Slasher]

One word: Insecurity. Bullies bully because they know the smart kids are more useful than them. They want to lower them by physical or emotional domination.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I guess it's the stereotype that the kids with the smarts won't fight back, and it's someone people dislike because they may be jealous.

Gah, that hurt my mind to think. Don't ask me again or I'll beat you up and take your lunch money.

 

[Xanadu84]

British imperialism.

No, seriously!

Check out "American Nerd: The Story of my People" by Benjamin Nugent. It details how basically, in order to keep a rapidly expanding empire, the Brits started the idea of, "Muscular Christianity", a religious infused sense of spirituality and athleticism, in order to breed strong soldiers willing to fight for God and country. It got imported over to the Americas by an admiring and "robust" Teddy Roosevelt, who introduced sports heavily into the school curriculum for character building, strong soldiers, and religious values. In time, strong arms were less important to warfare then able minds, but the need for athleticism never completely dissipated, and the tradition had caught on. The jocks were the most accepted and appreciated social group, and the sudden need for the nerdy skills ended up breeding resentment. And so, the backlash against the smart kid.

Seriously, it's a really fascinating book, detailing quite an extensive history of geekdom. And it's written by an actual geek, so it doesn't feel awkward and embarrassing to read.