Bullying and harrasment - it's all about power and fear. There's a lot of well-meaning resources out there, but some are....well, they don't get how horridly complex, confusing and long-term some issues can be. We've found some alternative stuff that's worth a look at.Anyone who has attended an all girls school can attest to the simmering battles of popularity and background of viscious backstabbing, lazer-death glares and the most painful....social exclusion. Boys just seem to float along in life whilst girls take the whole social positioning game deadly seriously. Sometimes literally.The finger is often pointed at the 'raging hormones' of puberty. But interestingly, there may be other culprits. Prof. McFarland of Stanford recently discovered that large schools that promoted an openness to choice also indirectly encouraged cliques and social-status hierarchies. Whereas students at schools which offered little choice of where to sit and had an emphasis on academic ability, were less likely to form friendships based on social attitudes, developing instead from shared school activities and similar intellectual interests. So strangely, a more rigid school setting promotes open-mindedness in making friends, a valuable quality in adulthood.
