By Hu Wo (Cuckoo’s Song)

REALLY, bullying is no stranger in many schools here and there on the globe. It is merely a common problem occasionally seen just in some schools for a number of potential reasons. As adolescent students become older, they must apparently face their physical development due to growth hor­mones, as far as I know, for a good example, their voices get deeper, and their body structure will also be well built, while their height might be taller than average. Thus, these students mostly like to dominate their own age groups in one way or the other. However, the way they tend to do so some­times may unexpectedly or un­consciously change into school bullying for their peer groups, not school violence or school abuse at all. In the main, students who have had abnormal growth com­pared to the others are given to committing school bullying out of the blue. Even though there is more or less bullying in school, this school bullying has never been a normal case that they take their parents, teachers and oth­er guardians out of themselves. Hence, how on earth will school bullying be sorted out by us all? As I am all aware, how is below.

First of all, teachers can cre­ate an enjoyable or satisfactory learning environment at school in order to avoid student bullying. Role-play methods should be used in language teaching, quiz games in mathematical calculation, and demonstration pedagogies in sci­ence learning, as and when possi­ble, to the extent that teachers can afford. In my teaching experience, a silent classroom usually breeds boredom and passive behaviours in student learning. On the other hand, an actively living classroom often gives birth to students' in­trinsic and extrinsic motivation, as well as arousing their eager­ness to learn. Of course, any class­room must be full of interpersonal discussion, talks and arguments among students or between teach­ers and students, together with students' laughter and fun. In this way, there will be no tension in the relationship between teachers and students or between students, so as to naturally be free from school bullying.

Secondly, teachers have to offer a competitive atmosphere of education among students. As to teaching-learning language, essay or letter writing tests and impromptu talking competitions can be periodically created both during and out of class time. These tests and competitions will make students book reading tasks more than before, then the knowledge gained from those tasks should give them a proper understanding of school lessons. An educational atmosphere of competition be­tween students can change stu­dents' attitudes towards schooling and education.

In other words, the main reason why they go to school does not mean that they com­pete with each other as regards conspicuous consumption like clothing, beauty and accessories, but their better educational im­provement from one academic year after another. Such unnec­essary competition between stu­dents can increase tension in their mutual relationships, which may then lead to school bullying. Therefore, any competition for educational development is quite likely to decrease students' bul­lying spirit to a certain extent.

Thirdly, co-curricular activ­ities – singing, dancing, writing, playing musical instruments, painting, taking physical exer­cise, cooking, and sewing – have to be taught as many times as teachers can. Singing or listen­ing to music, whatever it is, en­ables students to capture their hearts and minds of relaxation, pleasure and peace. As dancing, playing musical instruments, taking exercise, cooking, and sewing are of bodily kinesthetic intelligence, students can learn by doing without paying any at­tention to external senses not directly related to school studies. Writing and painting will stimu­late the imagination and crea­tivity of students, thereby build­ing their grey matter. In fact, teachers can take advantage of co-curricular activities, which will lessen students' boredom with school studies for the sim­ple reason that doing the same thing day by day seems to keep the students fed up with those studies to death. Many co-cur­ricular activities well done at school will definitely make a pleasant diversion for students. Only thanks to co-curricular ac­tivities, students should have fun in school, also studying school subjects; they can earn a decent living based on these activities after school; and the activities will chiefly minimize their de­structive spirit, for instance, bullying.

After all, in order that stu­dents can eschew school bul­lying, we elders should never allow them to see harsh movies, especially those in which do­mestic abuse or violence takes place. And extra-curricular ac­tivities such as playing football and sepak takraw will exercise students' cooperative spirit and collective action, which give rise to the unity and amity between the students. What is more, we need to have as many dis­cussions about sympathy and empathy with our students as possible. Also, we parents or guardians ought to go and see the headteachers in school to­gether with our students in case of school bullying. Really and truly, student bullying is not only a school problem but also the community's one. Quite frankly, we are all responsible for school bullying, indeed.