Thursday, 17 November 2016

Bullying: inequality hurts

Email to sons, brothers, sister and wife... 16.11.2016

More Inequality, more bullying
So said Professor Dieter Wolke in BBC R4 discussion on PM news today.  Looked him up and paged down to this:
'...In some societies it has been found that bullying increases when the resources get scarce and even more interesting is the comparison between different levels of socio-economic status: the greater the discrepancy....
'The same mechanism works in schools, where for example classrooms that have a clearer developed social hierarchy, bullying rates are higher....'
(A reformed bully who took part in PM discussion said 'if your own life's a mess, you mess up other people's'. Bullies too needed caring for, she stressed.)

To younger brother Martin who may have been bullied by me:

The Wolke piece also notes that causes of bullying go back a long way and effects are long-lasting, though more so for bullied than bullies. Now I wonder if the bullied may not also be bullies, who give as good as they get to others downstream or roundabout. This sort of take-and-give is welcome when it's kindness, not cruelty that's passed around. Better a favour passed on than a favour repaid?
Perhaps I passed on my difficulties at school to you. I remember Mum saying her elder brother was hardened by his treatment at public school, blaming her long hard labours on on him pulling out a chair from under her.
Was I like that?
I dont remember being bullied at school, just isolated – tense and on my guard, keeping my end up, trying to make some mark on people and events around. One night I leaned out of bed, put one hand flat on the floor, picked up a shoe and hit the outstetched fingers with the hard heel.
Didn't Buzzard II pull out tufts of his own fair hair? And what, if anything, had that to do with his father becoming an admiral and knight of realm? At our school, all the male teachers were Sir, though I dont remember any titles for female staff. For Miss Dunkley (who taught us music, arts and crafts, nature, gardening and French0 we only had her name. She probably deserved a title for teaching us to make things, grow things, sing in tune. Instead we laughed at her heavy cord skirts, clipped manner and hair wound round her head.
Greg

And this from youngest bro:

Nice to know link between bullying and inequality got an airing on PM.  Glad to be able to say that we were the first to show this link and also the one between reduced social mobility and inequality - both have now been demonstrated by other people on larger and quite separate data sets than the ones we used.

Richard Wilkinson

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