My free online manual, How to Stop Being Teased and Bullied Without Really Trying, is written for kids, but many adults have benefitted from it, too. Here are a couple of emails I recently received from adults. So you may want to refer adults to the manual, too.

In the October Newsletter, I recommended the movie, "Bully." I am currently recommending a movie by the same director: "Kids" (1995, Directed by Larry Clark). Like "Bully," "Kids" is not easy to get out of your mind. It has been popping up in my thoughts repeatedly since I watched it. This is not a feel-good, uplifting film. It is painful to watch and is likely to leave you depressed. If you have kids of your own, it may make you feel like keeping them under lock and chain.

Cognitive Dissonance and Hypocrisy

These days we're teaching kids that the "sticks and stones slogan is a lie." They are being taught instead that "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words hurt my feelings, and that is even worse." Unfortunately, this nonsense has pervaded government policy as well, with horrific results.

Just about everyone in the western world is familiar with is the Hans Christian Andersen tale, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” I had never given the story much thought, but I recall learning that the message of the story was that a naïve, innocent child was willing to say what the adults did not have the guts to admit, that the emperor was naked.

I wrote a long piece several months ago on the Insanity of Workplace Anti-Bullying Laws. I got some outraged responses from people who love the idea that employers should be sued when employees don't know how to get along with each other. I wrote it in reaction to a $1.5 million judgment against an employer who couldn't stop an employee from being bullied. I could just have easily written the article about school anti-bullying laws.

With increasing frequency, the mental health organizations are urging us to use “research based” interventions, encouraging us to believe that researchers are the ultimate arbiters of truth. However, if you studied research and statistics, you know how easy it is for research studies to be biased.