An elderly couple have turned their home into a school for bullied children. Fred Morgan, 94, and his wife Vivian, 72, decided to devote their retirement to helping the victims of bullying after reading about a young girl who’d committed suicide. The couple converted their ten-bedroom house in Warwickshire, England, and now have 20 pupils, around half of whom had tried to take their own lives as a result of bullying. Most will return to mainstream education – but they’re urged to keep in touch when they leave. “We thought even if we could help make a difference for just one child then it would be worth it,” said Mrs Morgan.
Bullying is un-civilised, and un-Epicurean. In my school they had a tradition of “boxing”, which involved putting a young lad bottom-down in a tea chest so that he was doubled up. His bare feet poked out over the top of the chest and the bullies then attacked them with rulers, glue and ink. When the boy was sufficiently hysterical they built a tower of tea chests, hauled him in the box to the top and caused it to sway at crazy angles. Can you imagine the thought process of the kid who thought this up? One of the boys who endured this treatment later committed suicide. I will not mention the name of the school, because the staff have now got the message and it is all history. But for me personally this was a radicalizing experience. We need more Mr. and Mrs Morgans, but most of all we need vigilant teachers.
I’ve always been curious about the larger context of bullying. What about the adults who administer the schools– surely they know what’s going on. Doesn’t that mean they are accountable for the psychological and physical damage?
The rotten ethical underlay that implicitly sanctions bullying–oughtn’t administrators to be made responsible for the consequences?
Bullying is imperial violence writ small, part of a continuum of Establishment-sanctioned force. The side-halls of Eton (or wherever) were akin to the police cells of Burma which George Orwell described in “The Road to Wigan Pier.” He endured lifelong remorse for his youthful service in the British police of that country.
School administrators knew of the violence yet refused to outlaw a ritual practice which they celebrated on a national level as “imperial glory.” That way the continuum of bullying in school transfers to the conqueror’s violence against Asian peasants. Common to both–overwhelming force against the helpless.