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Act on CO2
Unisurvival - Beat the bullies
Andrew Dubber invited me to be one of a team of academics writing for UniSurvival which delivers common-sense advice to students about everything from time management to drugs to how to drop out. Worth a read as well is Tim Wall’s piece on why how you think is more important than what you think.
I’m well-chuffed to be writing for it and I’ll avoid cross posting in future but this is my first piece which was about bullying:
The daughter of a friend of mine had a bad time at her school. She was misunderstood by the teachers and bullied by a small group of fellow students. The former she dealt with by producing excellent work and getting good results - an ‘I’ll show ‘em’ attitude - the latter proved a bit more complex to deal with and left her upset and withdrawn.
The solution was to move away from the problem, to another school. Now, a couple of years down the line she’s moving on again, to start her Uni life. But all she can think of is what if it happens again? What if the Uni bully finds me out and puts me through three years of hell?
Bullying isn’t just something that happens to kids of course. Adults in the workplace can be as vicitimised as schoolchildren in the playground. So what about the university campus? My immediate reaction on talking to my friend’s daughter was to reassure her that Uni life is simply a world away from school.