I've always been overweight and reasonably smart, so I suppose I was a target, but I've also been quite self-confident, so it never got really bad. Also, I live in Scandinavia, the school system of which is different from the US. In my view, there are two issues in US Schools that, if corrected, could solve many problems.
1. The Whole class. In most European schools, students are always divided into groups of 25-30 that have most (but not all) of their classes together. There is still room for considerable choice of classes, but this system creates groups that are smaller, and that makes it less possible to pick on people. If there are only two jocks in a class group, there really isn't that much they can do, and the jocks etc have less of a common identity.
2. Sports Sports, I suppose, are seen as extremely important in US schools. The problem is, that they create artificial cliques. The jocks don't *really* have any advantage over other students, they just think they do, because the PR and community spirit they create is seen as important. Once they get out of school, one in 50 or 100 of them will get sport scholarships, and one in 1000 will go on to the NFL etc. The rest will revert into normality, and the fun part of their life will be over. The artificial elite created by this sports system is counterproductive and unsound. This system is not only unsound and unfair to outcasts, but unfair to the jocks who are exalted for something that really isn't that important.
In Europe (Also known as Utopia;-)) there aren't really any sports in school. The kids that want to do sports have to become members of clubs that have nothing to do with school. These clubs can be the local hockey team, which not only has a national league hockey team, but which also trains kids to someday take place in that team. So the sports all take place outside the school system, which prevents the creation of these artificial elites in the school.
As far as I'm concerned, these two issues are the two biggest reasons why US schools have problems right now. Creating a sound community out of 300 kids, all the same age, simply can't work. Students, as all people, are not comfortable with groups that large, so they create their own groups.
Slashdot Mirror
I just wanted to present my view of the problem.
I've always been overweight and reasonably smart, so I suppose I was a target, but I've also been quite self-confident, so it never got really bad. Also, I live in Scandinavia, the school system of which is different from the US. In my view, there are two issues in US Schools that, if corrected, could solve many problems.
1. The Whole class.
In most European schools, students are always divided into groups of 25-30 that have most (but not all) of their classes together. There is still room for considerable choice of classes, but this system creates groups that are smaller, and that makes it less possible to pick on people. If there are only two jocks in a class group, there really isn't that much they can do, and the jocks etc have less of a common identity.
2. Sports
Sports, I suppose, are seen as extremely important in US schools. The problem is, that they create artificial cliques. The jocks don't *really* have any advantage over other students, they just think they do, because the PR and community spirit they create is seen as important. Once they get out of school, one in 50 or 100 of them will get sport scholarships, and one in 1000 will go on to the NFL etc. The rest will revert into normality, and the fun part of their life will be over. The artificial elite created by this sports system is counterproductive and unsound. This system is not only unsound and unfair to outcasts, but unfair to the jocks who are exalted for something that really isn't that important.
In Europe (Also known as Utopia ;-)) there aren't really any sports in school. The kids that want to do sports have to become members of clubs that have nothing to do with school. These clubs can be the local hockey team, which not only has a national league hockey team, but which also trains kids to someday take place in that team. So the sports all take place outside the school system, which prevents the creation of these artificial elites in the school.
As far as I'm concerned, these two issues are the two biggest reasons why US schools have problems right now. Creating a sound community out of 300 kids, all the same age, simply can't work. Students, as all people, are not comfortable with groups that large, so they create their own groups.
My two cents.
/frej