You have a program, awesome.

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Personally, I wouldn't teach my child to "lower themselves to the level of the bully" in order to stop it. Adults need to be involved.

Teaching the bullied to fight back might be on morally shaky ground, but it's a more effective plan than doing nothing.

Hmmm, giving the bully further reason to bully.....it may be effective in the one case, but in the long run, things will only get worse.

It IS frustrating and I don't necessarily promote the solution that kind of handed itself to me, but because I was so depressed and unmotivated as a child academically, I was, as the teachers put it "held back" a year. Because of where my birthday fell, I was then (6th grade) like 2 years older then my peers. By the time high school came about, I was about the "size" of most seniors.
I was never violent and so never misused this "power", but it did keep me from being bullied anymore (from 6th to 12th grade).

A line from the Big Bang Theory tv show sums up how confused some teachers and parents are about the whole subject:
Leonard: "Yeah, my parents made me take cello lessons....because they didn't think I was geting beat up enough. . . "

My point exactamente.

what does that even mean? how do you stop someone from being the target of someone else's unjustifiable actions?

what you're suggesting is commonly known as victim blaming. the person being bullied is rarely, in any way, responsible for themselves being bullied. which is why it's called bullying.

Exactly my point. It isn't the victims fault. What I'm saying is that you can prevent the victims from being so easily victimizable. I.E. if a kid complains of being bullied or an official sees a kid getting bullied, Instead of just punishing the bully and telling the victim to run along, they also give the victim some self defense training or something immediate and effective like it, that doesn't make them more of a target. I went to a school where if a kid complained of bullying, they would give the kid a whistle to blow on the playground if they got bullied. That just made everyone pick on the kids with the whistles. It calls for direct action at the source, not just calling in comfort from the teachers. I understand that giving a kid special treatment if they are bullied might make them feel weak or uncool, but it's one hell of a life lesson that people have to learn some time: The weak get screwed over. Basic evolution.

Call me immoral, but it's what I believe from living through some pretty hellish bullying as the victim myself.

that's still victim blaiming. you're basically saying "if you weren't such a wimp, no one would be able to bully you in the first place", when you should be saying "why the hell does society tollerate (if not flat out encourage) bullies to begin with?"

in situations of bullying, it is not ever the fault of the person who is beeing bullied. self defense training with regards to physical bullying (punching, kicking, pushing, etc...), esepecially for school aged children, should include the "flight" portion of the "fight or flight" instinct. fighting back should always be a last resort, and should only be reserved for when you are actually in physical danger that you can't physically escape from.

it's not the bullied child's responsibility to teach the bully a lesson.

"it's not the bullied child's responsibility to teach the bully a lesson."

I agree 100%

If we don't continue to make attempts at getting adults involved with the solution, they never will think there is a need to be involved.

I see no reason not to work from both ends. Surely we can do our best to make both sides more aware of how bullying works, and that it needs to stop?

I wouldn't be surprised if bullies in many case don't even realise that they are being bullies, or how serious it is.

EXACTLY! Replying "in kind" or just doing what the bully does, only exacerbates the situation and also justifies the bully's actions. We can not teach our children to lower themselves to the bully's level.

Yeah, you can. That still won't solve the problem entirely. Here's a hypothetical:

A school has 1000 kids.

Say, 10% of kids are bullies. (100 kids) 95% of those acts of bullying are repeated offenses, where an individual bully commits multiple acts of bullying. The other 5 percent are one-time offenses, with a bully doing one act of bullying and then never again, for whatever reason.

This means that 95 of those 100 bullies are repeat offenders, the other 5 only once.

Now, say that the powers that be enact some crazy effective anti bully program that takes the school wide bully rate down to 1% of kids (10 kids) being bullies. Say this bully program is so effective that it can recognize bullying after the first case and make that bully never commit another offense.

This means that of those 10 kids, all ten only commit one act of bullying, making for ten acts of bullying over the course of whatever time period we are working in.

Even with this amazing program, you still have bullying, and when you still have bullying, albeit a very small rate, everyone is still very vocal about it and people get up in proverbial pulpits and talk about how much of a problem it is.
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From kindergarten through 5th grade i went to a brutal school where I got bullied constantly, until I finally toughened up to it, There was no support from the school staff, I just had to do it all myself, without fighting, because if I fought back I would also get in trouble. Self defense was just as bad as bullying.

Then, from 6th til senior year, I attended a charter school with about 140 kids total, with virtually no bullying, lots of counseling, strict discipline, and a general "peace and Love" atmosphere.

At the first school, bullying was everywhere, and it was taken as a given, even the parents of the victims didn't care much. I'd say we had about 100 good fights a year. No body cared, we just fought and watched the other fights.

At the second school, there was maybe 3 fights a year. The reaction to those fights was amazing. (these weren't even good fights either, just really roughhousing, barely any real punches landed). After one fight, the cops were called, three teachers were crying, the principle called a school wide meeting, everyone got yelled at, and if you did anything remotely wrong for the week or so afterward, you got in trouble. The fighting kids were suspended or expelled.

This amazing trend of about 3 fights a year went on the whole time I was there. This low amount of fights would widely be considered a great job of bullying prevention.

Nope. The general reaction to the almost non-existant bullying and fighting at this school has been one of outrage. TV cameras were installed all over the school. All phones, laptops, Ipods, or anything else you could communicate on was banned to prevent imagined cyberbullying. Kids were expelled for looking shifty. The principle retired in disgust. It's still going on after I graduated.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting there watching in wonder.

It all goes with the territory. Blanket programs simply do not work. Until they get a representative from some Anti-Bullying Department or something permanently working in every school, and one who is involved with, and respected by, the kids, it;s going to go on just how it is.

Of course it would not end all bullying forever. There is no magical solution.
Still, I believe that anything that helps reducing the problem is worth the trouble.