And sensitive people are essential for a civilised society
School bullying is always with us. The kids who get bullied are usually highly sensitive, representing 20% of the population. The bullies are usually egotistical competitors, more likely to end up serving time in jail.
The Russian neurophysiologist Ivan Pavlov was writing about sensitive nervous systems as early as 1928. He was doing his initial research on dogs, but his results translated easily to human beings. In our century, Dr Elaine Aron and her collaborators are among those researching sensitive people. See her website https://hsperson.com and her first book “The Highly Sensitive Person”.
Bullies like to pick on sensitive children, because they think it’s funny to watch an innocent sensitive child breaking down emotionally. It may be fun for them, but for the victims, going to school can be so traumatic they may never get over the experience.
It is sad to think that that an intelligent sensitive child who may become a composer, a writer, a movie-maker, has to tolerate daily humiliation just to entertain a gang of immature thugs.
Hard to believe, but psychiatrists seem not to know about the children that grandma referred to as “highly strung”. The best that psychiatry is able to come up with is “over-anxious disorder of childhood”. But the victims of bullying are not the disordered ones. Research has shown school bullies are more likely to serve time in prison later in life. Perhaps the bullies should be given a label, rather than the victims. Perhaps they’re the ones in need of treatment.
Some teachers foolishly think a sensitive child’s avoidance of threats and violence by taking refuge in the library during lunch hour indicates the child is “anti-social”. The sensitive kid may then be denied their place of safety, encouraged to go out and play in a mindlessly hostile environment.
Wouldn’t it be a nice change if we lived in a community where each of us would treat others with the kindness and respect we would like for ourselves?
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