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Comment by AngriestLettuce | Hacker News Reader

This is not surprising, but not for the reasons the authors imagine.

Of course going back to jail after being free would make any kid who values his own autonomy depressed. School in its current form is awful, because it's far too authoritarian and preachy, not because "bullying".

You wouldn't have issues with bullying if you didn't force kids who don't like each other to interact without oversight in the first place. Oversight is key, when you know kids don't like each other, don't put them together again until you know they're cool again. It's hard being a little person.

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I thought the same. Schools are very, very much like prison and the schedule is so intense. I have so many issues with it. Many children seem to say they enjoy school, but I bet they aren't the ones at risk of suicide. Bullying is a symptom/consequence of the unhealthy prison-like environment.

I think bullies usually “learn” it somewhere - like being bullied themselves or outright abuse. Or they’re just budding psychopaths. (Which occur at 1/100 rate of the population-and I really wish this was considered more seriously.)

Statistically most schools have at least one psychopath.

Combine that with the primitive undeveloped child brains and human group behavior...

More like about one in three classes have at least one psychopath with class sizes around 30 students. Granted the other characteristics of these children as you say add a lot of other problems.

I enjoyed high school (because I wasn't bullied, had friends and was doing well).

I was bullied in primary school and hated it. I still did well grades-wise.

If you weren't bullied seriously you probably can't understand how big of a deal it is for small kids. Like psychological-issues-30-years-later serious.

Agree. I was bullied horrifically through the 10th year of public school. I even attempted to fight back against the bullies and was punished for that by the school. The effects linger to this day 20+ years later.

I understand how serious it can be. I think in a healthy environment you would more often be able to escape and avoid interactions with bullies. It is unnatural to the extreme to be pushed and forced into randomly chosen social groups and forced to interact according to an extremely fixed schedule, in fixed locations, etc.

It leads to damaging abusive interactions with others who take advantage of that situation. Bullies know that you can't get away. I had a situation where I was literally forced to sit next to someone I hated for months - I can't think of anywhere that could happen except prison and school

> If you weren't bullied seriously you probably can't understand how big of a deal it is for small kids. Like psychological-issues-30-years-later serious.

Assuming the depiction of serious bullying in TV series is more or less acurate wrt seriousness, I was barely mildly bullied. That still has had implications on my life, still to this day, more than 30 years later.

Same here (30 years later). It has absolutely impacted my social development and the way I interpret how others interacts with me. I have not been in therapy, but I think I also have some type of PTSD

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