As a child, you were taught to treat others the way you want to be treated. But, still, some kids seem to believe that it is okay to be so cruel to one another due to their own insecurities.
Bullying isn’t as common in elementary school, but it has increased in the past eight years. One out of four students in the elementary school have suffered from bullying according to pacer.org. Middle school is filled with all kinds of drama and for so many different reasons. According to today.com kids are believed to be facing intense peer pressure that has a huge effect on bullying. Middle school has the highest amount of bullying reporting in the school systems. The reasoning behind it is because that is an “awkward” state in kids’ lives and they’re trying to figure out the type of person they are going to be and that can be a very hard time for kids. Students that are victims of bullying in middle school have a bigger tendency to blame themselves for being bullied. Middle schoolers already have a higher risk of getting depression, anxiety, stress, self-esteem issues, and even suicidal.
High school suffers less bullying because, usually by freshman year, students have settled into cliques and clubs where they have met people and have created friends. Bullying in high school is more common in bigger schools because there are more people. Usually in smaller schools, you grow up with all of your classmates and that reduces the bullying rate.
According to ditchthelable.org most reasoning behind bullying is that the person doing the harm is not happy with themselves and feel like they have to take it out on someone. They point out the things that they actually feel insecure about to try and make themselves feel better. Another thing that can cause bullying is life at home. Some people may think it’s okay to treat others so meanly because that’s how they are treated at home. You never know what someone is going through behind closed doors.
Learning how to be kind to others starts at an early age and with guidance from a guardian. Showing younger kids how to treat others at an early age will follow them through their lives and will pass down from generation to generation because that’s how they will raise them.
Needless to say, it doesn’t hurt you to treat others with kindness. If anything, it should make you feel better about yourself knowing that you’re a good person. It does hurt you to not choose to be nice because that has to be mentally draining and you probably are not happy with yourself.