[Quirky Quokka]

Scrounge, Robb, Kingcat and myself were also (obviously) readers - that never made you popular, the word 'Nerd' did not exist then, and the Nerd 'type'; was definitely not celebrated as it is now. 
Cheer!   

The sit-com 'Big Bang Theory' made comic book readers and ComicCon attenders cool again And if people don't think we're cool now, they don't know what they're missing. I wasn't really bullied at school, but I was the 'goody two-shoes' who got good grades, so that didn't make me most popular kid.

[Quirky Quokka]

Scrounge, Robb, Kingcat and myself were also (obviously) readers - that never made you popular, the word 'Nerd' did not exist then, and the Nerd 'type'; was definitely not celebrated as it is now. 
Cheer!   

No, but in my time, they called you a "teacher's pet" if you got good academic grades, or if you were a tattler, or chummy with the teachers.  I got good grades, but I was also good enough at sports, and neither a tattler nor teacher's pet.  But that meant zilch to kids from homes that were taught to hate others because they are "different", or bear the sins of their long gone forefathers.  In any case, I know that, at least, during the late 1940s through the 1960s, in USA, The UK, Canada, and Australia, being bullied is just one of the things a LOT of the young boys must go through.  Even if they have no problem in their own class and grade level, insecure older boys will pick on younger boys, because the can. I found that the "prove yourself" fighting was more extensive and common in USA than in Canada.  But in The Netherlands, Belgium, Scandinavia and Germany (at least since WWII), it was quite a bit less violent for schoolboys than I witnessed in Canada and USA.  I guess the level depends upon the academic level of the school, strictness of the parents in one's neighbourhood, and economic level of the families in the neighbourhood or of the schoolboys. Fights in my schools in Canada were much, much more common than they were in The Netherlands, and those in my cousins schools in USA were even more common than in Canada.  My friends in Scandinavia and Germany told me that fights were almost unknown in elementary (basis) school when they attended (from the end of the 1940s through to the early 1960s.

Thanks for sharing about the cultural differences. That's interesting. I just read a memoir recently about an Australian man whose whole life had been affected by the bullying he received over five years at boarding school in the 1960s/1970s. He's still dealing with the trauma. Very sad what a lot of people have gone through. Here in Australia, they have a lot of anti-bullying programs in schools now, though it still happens of course, especially with social media.

[The Australian Panther]

I wasn't really bullied at school, but I was the 'goody two-shoes' who got good grades, so that didn't make me most popular kid.

As you would well know, that makes you a 'tall poppy' in Australian jargon and Tall Poppies get cut down.
I was never a swot, not interested in good grades, always did well tho and never went out of my way to study.
I found my own reading and learning much moire stimulating, for which reason I was constantly getting into trouble for not paying attention! I was always ahead of the teacher. Except of course, for Maths. Which is a whole other story! And of course, late in life, I end up a Maths teacher, don't I?!
I haven't spent a life traumatized by having been bullied, but I have come to realize, after my 3 score and 10 years, that bullying has affected everything I have ever done in life, but in ways that were not obvious to me. 
Cheers!

[Robb_K]

I was never a swot, not interested in good grades, always did well tho and never went out of my way to study.
I found my own reading and learning much moire stimulating, for which reason I was constantly getting into trouble for not paying attention! I was always ahead of the teacher. Except of course, for Maths. Which is a whole other story! And of course, late in life, I end up a Maths teacher, don't I?!
I haven't spent a life traumatized by having been bullied, but I have come to realize, after my 3 score and 10 years, that bullying has affected everything I have ever done in life, but in ways that were not obvious to me. 
Cheers! 

Yet another similarity in our backgrounds!  I found getting good grades without trying very hard easy, as well.  And I wasn't paying much attention, because I was doing my homework (for my other classes) in class so I could play hockey (cold half of the year) or baseball or basketball (warm half) after school, and read comics in the evening.  I almost never did homework at home.  My parents didn't bother me about that, because I always got good grades.  I also read well ahead of the teacher, and, like you, of course        I enjoyed and learned much more from my outside reading. 

I wasn't a schoolteacher for very long, but I WAS an on-call, emergency/substitute teacher in elementary schools for a few years, and also taught art in after school programmes for several years, and got a sense for what the full-time professional school teachers deal with in terms of relating to the kids.  I also teach storyboarding seminars in my local and regional libraries (government-sponsored cultural programmes) - so I've gotten to know the difference in dealing with the older children and late teens. 

And yes, the the traumatisation of being cruelly picked on can make a person have more empathy and sympathy for the downtrodden, or just his or her fellow human being, and THAT is a really useful tool for a teacher (especially a new one) in being open to gaining a good rapport with his or her students.  It helped make me abhor violence and make me a "peacemaker" as a pre-teen and teenager (and on into my adulthood), and try hard to be chummy with the kids, while still keeping their respect in the student-teacher relationship.  My "sneaking in" drawing activities related to story writing assignments left by the regular teachers (such as cartoon storyboarding in their pre-writing preparation, or just drawing lessons when there was room in the curriculum when no lesson plan was left, made me popular with the students (and that gave me a great feeling).  I found the Dutch and Danish students much more well behaved, and willing to learn than the students I taught in USA.  But that was because the students I taught in Los Angeles were inner-city kids from low-income broken homes, from traumatic households living in violent gang-dominated neighbourhoods.  And in such schools, having empathy and willingness to aim for understanding without pressing things is an important quality to have.

[K1ngcat]

Well, thanks a millions, guys and gal, we've certainly gone off at some very interesting tangents with this one, it's shocking (and yet somehow not surprising) to discover how many of us have suffered childhood bullying. Thanks for coming forward with your admissions unprompted.

And thanks for so many fascinating and varied analyses of the two comics I posted. I hope you've all found something to enjoy, your time and effort is always appreciated

Looking forward to see what the Panther's got up his sleeve for tomorrow's choice.
All the best
K1ngcat