School

Zoogoer2000 I can understand you, I personally think going to teacher has no real effect though, maybe you should try indirect retaliation,

Do you have any new age talents? Dancing? Martial Arts? Maybe the school just needs to view that you are an extremly great guy, with lots of talent? I'll try looking in to this issue for you on the net,

I'm just trying to help so if I'm doing this wrong tell me,
 
This seems to fly in the face of the advice given so far (see - told you I'd be back) but I'd say to not bother 'trying' anything. If you have a core of good friends then that's all you need. Sure the majority might not get on with you or make an effort and there'll be kids who are just straight out jerks but, digging out the old cliche book, just be who you are. I went through school being bullied and had one or two other issues which dwarfed that btu I had 4 friends who are still, 17 years on, my best buds. You don't need to change for people - if they don't like you then to hell with them. ^_^
 
right, since i'm 17 and next year i will be going to be in my final school year before university (year 13) I think i'll just throw a little advice into the ring.

Thonoir is correct in what he says. As long as you have a good core of friends then you'll be fine. Jerks will be jerks and are encountered in every walk of life unfortunately, however once you reach 16 the ratio of decent people to jerks changes drastically and there are far less jerks about (people maturing usually).

As for zoo related stuff at school, in my opinion, it is better to keep an interest of this nature to yourself, this board or when at the zoo. At school, try to keep to more mainstream interests (in my case, music and football) as this will mean the bullies will struggle to target you for what is (in their eyes) a geeky subject.

Another important tip is to be confident (although not over-confident). Bullies will rarely pick on people who are happy and being confident makes it hard for people to put you down. Being in a close-knit group of friends will really help in this case.
 
I'd definately disagree with CZJimmy's comments relating to zoo interests. If that's what interests you, then why hide it? Likewise if you're not overly interested in the more widely accepted pursuits, why focus on them? If you have a passion or an interest in something, don't let how you express this be defined by the perceptions of others. Of course, if you like zoos AND sports (for example), be happy and proud in pursuing both. I'll take myself as case in point - in my early teens, I played rugby and football but still got bullied and befriended a bunch of guys who, like me, loved art, film, comics... we were (still are) pretty much total geeks. Strangely, one of the biggest (popular) jerks around asked to be in one of our films (yeah, we recorded tons of fun little films - martial arts, Star Trek spins, animations, that kind of thing) but we declined.

To quote Janis Joplin, "Don't compromise yourself - you are all you've got."
 
Thonoir, fair enough with disagreeing with me. I've just found that not deliberately mentioning it has worked for me. I guess every school (and it's pupil population) are different.

If i'm asked about animals, I'll answer with some knowledge, but I don't go around school discussing zoos and animals. Basically, I leave it up to my friends to bring up the animal subject, not the other way around.

Edit: Just realised, despite saying that, i have included animals and zoos in my coursework when it was possible! Oh the hypocrisy!;)
 
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I also suggest just being who you are. No need to make a big deal about it unless that is your personality - but no need to hide it either.

I didn't really suffer from bullying all that much - but I did have size on my side ... despite being the youngest in my classes (thanks to skipping straight from 2nd year to 4th year in primary school), I was still amongst the tallest (and largest :rolleyes: ) - which I'm sure helped.

I did well in school academically, but didn't have a lot of friends until I reached university - there I found that almost everybody was trying to forge a unique identity too, and my uniqueness actually became much more normal (if you understand that slightly twisted logic).

I am still great friends with many of the people I went to uni with - even though I now live in another city on the other side of the country.
 
I'm sorry you're having such a crap time with people at your school - they sound like real neanthderthals and it makes me very cross that your teachers are not able/willing to help you and that you're having to bottle so much up. Kids can be very cruel and I think, so can some teachers.

I work a lot with several bullied students at school and we use the 'no-blame' approach to sorting out bullies and it really seems to work. We also have lots of social skills building groups, support groups and lots of clubs where like-minded people can meet e.g. warhammer, Dr Who club etc and these really help studetns who don't fit in with the so-called 'cool' kids. Do you ahve anything like this? Do any of your local animal centres have clubs e.g. farms, zoos,

Is there someone you can talk to on a regular basis? School counsellor? It's good that you can talk about what's happening to you on this site and people are giving some really good ideas and advice, but face-to-face talking can be really useful too. Do you have an anti-bullying forum and policy at your school? Most schools in the UK have this and it is a good place to start tackling some of the issues. Do you have friends who can support you and lookout for you?

It's late and I'm waffling on. I'll see if can find out about some strategies you can use to tackle the bullies. We have a couple of boys who street dance (in a club made up nearly entirely of girls!) and get called 'gay' - they've said things like 'please don't say those things to me as I get bullied a lot about that'. it sounds lame but it has worked and shamed people into shutting up. We don't have 'dance offs' but kids do fight from time to time and use a lot of verbal taunts, internet chat room abuse (MSN & BEBO) as well as pushing people around. I hope things start to improve for you. You are not alone and I think your school is not stepping up to help you - they should. It's a whole school issue and they're pretending not to notice.

Clothcat
 
...I also meant to say that you sound really talented with your dancing and that they're probably jealous! It doesn't help you right now but if you go to university, there will be like-minded people, your uniqueness will be far better appreciated and you will meet new and hopefully more accepting people.
:)
 
Thonoir thanks for your advice, perhaps its best to flaunt your inetrests, everyone else does (almost everyone)

But Jimmy, your are most right in a way sometimes its best to hide your full self from your classmates, you can so a little foresight into animals but perhaps not as much as you entirely want,

oh by the way there is a year 13 over there? if so, is that because of you guys don't have prep?
 
Thank you, all for your advice,

Patinece is probably the best assuring tool for me at the moment, I guess, future holds a lot for people on this forum, so intelligent,
Hopefully the so called definition of cool kids will become nothing but really awesome cool fast food workers?;)

Oh buddah I sound so evil,
 
dragon(ele)nerd said:
Hopefully the so called definition of cool kids will become nothing but really awesome cool fast food workers?;)
Click to expand...

Who defines 'cool' anyways? Not me.... though I am awesome. :D

(TOTALLY tongue-in-cheek!)
 
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