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Comment by adam-a | Hacker News Reader

I'm from the UK and I have the same reaction to most of these stories. Can it really be that bad? Is the American school system so dramatically different?

I went to a high school which was not split by grade. I was called a "geek" or "boffin" (basically the regional equivalent of nerd) because I was often top of the class, or made fun of because I have mild scoliosis. I managed to keep a good group of friends though and I mostly just told the bullies to fuck themselves and got on with my life.

I think there were people who were unable to deal with bullying, and that mostly comes down to a lack of social skills, rather than any extra persecution that they suffered because of their intelligence or appearance.

I would guess it's selection bias.

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One of the big differences is just the size of the schools. I was in Ireland for 8th and 9th grade. The school I went to consisted of grades 6th-12th with a total of around 300 students, with 48 kids in my grade. My graduation class from high school back in the US was around 600. My high school consisted of 10th-12th grade with around 1800 students total. This difference in size makes a huge impact in the different cultures that have evolved in the different school systems.

My secondary/high school had 300-400 kids per year, about 1500 over the 4 years it covered. Though my previous two schools to that were much smaller, I think it's generally common here for junior schools to be smaller than senior schools. And I think you're right, smaller schools probably have less of a chance of large distinct social groups forming.

Perhaps there is a tipping point though, where these groups form, I certainly didn't experience such well defined and distinct groups as these kinds of stories portray. The other difference I suppose was school uniform, though I feel like that's unlikely to have made a significant difference.

There where only about 50 people in my age at the school, there is not as much diversety possible. You cant just hang out with 'the goths' or whatever, chances are there arn't enought to form a distinct social group. You get to know almost everybody, that means there is less jugment purly on visual marks.

I went to a high school of >2500 in New Zealand and I found that with so many other people it was easy to find others that were like-minded. I'm sure some people were bullied but to me it barely registered - nothing at all like it's depicted in American TV shows or movies.

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