Daniel Hutchinson From The Hutch

It's back to school for everybody this week, so take your ear buds out and listen up!

Bullying has been on everyone's lips and is not something we should be gingerly stepping around or hiding under the bedsheets pretending it isn't happening.

Nope, it's time to bang down the door, tackle it front-on, rub its face in the dirt and generally get rid of it.

At this stage I'd like to apologise to everyone to whom I have referred to as a ‘muppet' or who has been on the receiving end of an acerbic ‘oh, fer fook's sake'.

There was also the time when I had too much of that West Coast moonshine and started throwing darts dangerously close to my friends and then took exception to being taken exception too.

I might just pause there and generally apologise to everyone for anything that may or may not have happened.

Scallywags

Right, now that I've got that off my chest, let's move along and focus on other people's shortcomings.

When it comes to bullying, I have very limited personal experience either as a bully or a bullied person. Weirdly, I was teased by a couple of boys at high school for using proper grammar in my sentences.

They accused me of being English, which I most certainly am not. The cheek of it!

To combat this kind of harassment I developed a quizzical look, combined with a raised eyebrow that was meant to indicate to the other person that they are, in fact, a lowly intellectual specimen.

This is a form of bullying too if it's not used judiciously so I don't wield that superpower very often. An eyeroll is usually sufficient.

I pretty much flew under the radar at high school, although someone did honour me with a nickname at one stage – Casper – because I was friendly and pale. That sort of nickname doesn't strike fear into other people and what sort of monster would bully Casper?

Nevertheless, you do remember those early events in your life, and I can only imagine how it would have felt to be physically and verbally bullied over a long period of time.

Oat the goat

So, to make up for my lack of knowledge on the subject I am going to reference the definitive text on bullying, which is of course the children's story ‘Oat the Goat', which you can find on bullyingfree.nz

The thrust of the story is that it's 'not cool to be rude”. The hero of the story is Oat, who is a goat, and who challenges the bullies which, in this case are sheep and glow worms.

Basically, Oat just stops and asks the victims of the bullying if they are okay.

As it turns out the sheep and the glow worms see the error of their ways and become quite constructive, helping their victims and Oat reach the top of the mountain, which is both physical and metaphorical.

It's compelling reading and, for those who can't read, it comes in audio form as well, complete with eye-catching illustrations.

Fear of the different

Humans by their very nature tend to gravitate towards normal, and fear those who are different.

In an article on xenophobia, ‘Psychology Today' points out that people in general are quick to judge, fear or even hate the unknown. It is born out of more primitive times, as a survival instinct and we are all guilty of it to some extent.

People do learn a lot about themselves from their mistakes, so it wouldn't be wise to write someone off for decisions they made before they became a fully formed adult.

For some, this maturity comes at an early age but for many it can take well into their 20s or even 30s before they figure out who they want to be and how to get there.

We have very high standards for our politicians, teachers and others in positions of power and a system of democracy that pretty much relies on bullying to weed out, ridicule and reject the undesirables.

Ironic really.

daniel@thesun.co.nz