We need to empower kids to not fear bullies

The reality is, however, that there are times when adults are not there, or their interventions are not effective.

As such it is an educational imperative to strengthen the inner resources of potential victims.

Of course, the strategies I've described don't come easy to children who have grown up with the mistaken belief that other people's opinions of them are more important to them than their own opinion of themselves.

A crucial part of any psychosocial self-defence education program will need to focus on helping children find ways to value their opinions of themselves more than the bully's opinion of them in particular and others' opinions in general.

Children are more likely to do this when they see the significant adults in their lives model this. Adults, please remember this.

As Albert Einstein once said, "Arrows of hate have been shot at me too, but they never hit me, because somehow they belonged to another world with which I have no connection whatsoever."