Newsletter Volume 34 - January 16, 2003 Back to Newsletter Archives Who is the most popular kid in the world? Harry Potter, of course! But it was not always so. Remember back to the beginning of the story . . . Harry was a nerdy sort of fellow. He was small and skinny, and he wore broken glasses and clothes that didn’t fit. He was neither handsome nor athletic nor witty. His cousin Dudley Dursley bullied him constantly. Dudley and his best friend Piers had a favorite hobby: hitting Harry. During school vacations, Dudley, with the help of his gang of friends, enjoyed his “favorite sport: Harry Hunting.” They would chase Harry, and, if they caught him, beat him up. At school, Harry had no friends. "Everybody knew that Dudley’s gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley’s gang." Of course, Dudley was a bully who was easy for us to hate. He was fat, stupid, and obnoxious. How would our feelings toward him change, however, if we did an overhaul on Dudley? Let’s trim forty pounds off him and make him handsome and athletic. Let’s raise his I.Q. by forty points and make him clever and amusing. But he’s still picking on nerdy Harry. Would we still find him obnoxious? All bullies are obnoxious, even if they are: cool humorous well-dressed handsome/pretty athletic

Discussion Questions for Your Family or Classroom: 1. What is the definition of a bully? Possible answer: Someone who, either alone or with the help of others, using actions or words, hurts another person who cannot, because of physical or social reasons, defend herself or himself. 2. What can I, as an individual, do to stop the bullying in my school? Possible answers: Not laugh at jokes that make fun of other people. Go out of my way to be nice to the person being ostracized. 3. What can my classmates do as a group to stop bullying in our school? Possible answers: Declare every bully a persona non grata. Everyone wants to be popular. If kids know that teasing or ostracizing a classmate will cause their own popularity to plunge, no one would be willing to pay the social price of picking on others. A couple decades ago, the subway system in New York City was plagued by gangs of roving juvenile delinquents, who would mug anyone who rode the subway late at night. A group of kids - from the same underprivileged background as the muggers - got together and decided to protect the subway passengers. Calling themselves the “Guardian Angels,” these kids made the New York subways safe again. Next issue: Harry Potter and the Magic of Words

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