This is quite surprising.  Maybe we're so used to it - we don't notice it that much.  There was a lot of bitchiness at school in my day, but not bullying and my kids didn't experience any bullying either, thank goodness.  It would be terrible to go to school every day and know that you were going to be tormented, hit and pushed around.

We're almost on a par with Kuwait.  Says a lot for the people of this country.


A survey of schools in 36 countries has found that bullying in Australian primary schools is in the worst category in the world.

More than 25 per cent of Australian year four students said they had suffered bullying, according to the Trends In International Mathematics And Science Study.

The survey shows Australian primary school students suffer bullying at a rate of almost 50 per cent above the international average, putting Australia in the worst category for bullying.

Of the 36 countries sampled in the survey of year four students, only Kuwait, Qatar, Taiwan and New Zealand fared worse than Australia.

Almost 460 Australian schools took part in the study, which was produced by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement.

NSW Education Minister Verity Firth said she had strengthened principals' powers to deal with bullying, increasing suspension periods to 20 days.

"New South Wales schools are safe places and bullying and stealing are not tolerated," a spokesman for the Minister said.

However, Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations of NSW president, Dianne Giblin, called for strengthening of anti-bullying policies, saying the figures are of huge concern

Something tells me this is more to do with awareness than actual bullying. Kids today get taught what bullying is and to identify it. Whereas in the past, and in other countries, kids probably wouldn't have even labelled the same behaviour as bullying.

I'm surprised that bullying ranked highest in primary schools. I thought bullying was at its highest in high schools.

Keep in mind though that there's a lot more than only 36 countries in the world. A flawed study at best.


I wonder what caused New Zealand's bullying rates to go so highly?

http://www.ourreallybigadventure.com/australia_nz/pictures/rotorua/7maori_warrior2.jpg

Whatever could it be? We could be thinking about this forever. Sooo difficult to analyse given the complex nature of the minds of young people and the overall peaceful nature of New Zealand culture.

http://img.rian.ru/images/5238/18/52381885.jpg

In the seventies, I was bullied at primary school.

I put it down to the Vietnam thing, and living in a police state. Not to mention all the BLF shenanigans going on on the wharves, and in areas populated by them.

Which police state was that Point? Russia?

Quote:

In the seventies, I was bullied at primary school. I put it down to the Vietnam thing, and living in a police state. Not to mention all the BLF shenanigans going on on the wharves, and in areas populated by them

I thought you were generation X Dextrous.  You must have just missed out on being a BB by a fraction.

Wasn't the Vietnam thing in the late 60's - early 70's?  You must not live in NSW because according to the government - we don't have bullying in this state.

Although from memory - I think Grendel who is a New South Welshman once said he was stabbed at school.   :o

PointDextrous wrote on Dec 16^th, 2008 at 4:00pm:

In the seventies, I was bullied at primary school. I put it down to the Vietnam thing, and living in a police state. Not to mention all the BLF shenanigans going on on the wharves, and in areas populated by them.

PointDextrous wrote on Dec 16^th, 2008 at 3:57pm:

I want to deviate a moment on this debate since my last post on last page. It makes a difference to certain debates knowing who is whom. I wonder how many defenders of the State shooting are BabyBoomers; furthermore, I challenge those to own up. I am GenX. Anybody else?????

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X

Generation X is a term now used to describe a cohort of people born from roughly 1965 to 1980.