Due to incidents of bullying, the principal recently inaugurated a special pledge to be said by the students after the pledge of allegiance. How many students have memorized the pledge after a week or two? How many pay attention or care about what they are saying? It's a bureaucrat's solution and an autocrat's solution -- something to put on a piece of paper to show that administrative action was taken to address the problem, in addition to normal quotidian enforcement of discipline. But will the pledge really accomplish anything? I doubt it.
How did communities handle this in the good ol' days? Let the boys fight it out? (Yes, there is bullying by girls too -- what used to be done through other means - ostracization and backbiting - has now morphed into direct violence, and I suspect that psychological differences between boys and girls entail different solutions.)
I don't think education, as we members of the modern liberal nation-state understand it, is a good that is owed to children. The moral formation of citizens (and potential citizens) is the responsibility of the community (and the government), but I wouldn't trust our public schools to handle this task. If the schools were aimed primarily at the moral development of children, then maybe bullying could be better resolved. But is there a place for the old solution, at least when boys are concerned? Having adults intervene doesn't seem to be the best way to deal with it, if what a boy needs to do is stand up for himself, even if he is initially unsuccessful.
When you discard what is traditional, in the name of "scientific" reason or modern psychology), you can't compare the ideology you've absorbed with other possible answers.
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