Bullying isn’t limited to just public or private schools. Elementary, junior high, high school, college, even kindergarten can be a breeding ground for bullying! I myself have experience in a few of these areas of education, even home-schooling! Yes, home schooling can be just as painful for someone as those in what people outside of home schooling call, “regular school”.

In elementary I was picked on for preferring to read, write, or draw. Or, oddly enough, being a huge lover of Spider-Man (which I still remain to this day!). A friend and I used to prefer to sit in during P.E. in order to work on a comic book we created together. He did the artwork and I wrote the stories. The taunts from a few people hurt our feelings, true enough. But there was even a time in my life, fourth grade to be exact, that I was even bullied by a teacher on a regular basis because I couldn’t see the board in the front of the class or I didn’t understand something in math class.

Then came private school. I was still voraciously writing and reading, but the taunts soon followed. This time not only for what I was reading and writing, but for things such as movies and comic books. I left half-way through the semester, deciding to home school for the remainder of high school.

This new educational endeavor started out decently. But then I discovered that a group of other teens who were also home schooled gathered and took a few classes together. I did make new friends with a few of my fellow home - schooled students. However, I soon realized that social cliques wasn’t something that only appeared in public or private schools. Soon, the harmful words began to rear their ugly heads again. I struggled with their condemnation for quite some time. But finally, I realized I needed to have the courage to love myself, have faith in myself.

That kind of courage does take time to build within yourself. We have to know that those that are bullying us are usually being bullied themselves. I finally realized that what was being said to me should not weigh my spirit down. I was homes-schooled till the day I graduated high school in June of 2012. I refused to let any bully defeat me.

Bullying may never stop. But there are several of us out there that will do anything we can to help this problem, this disease. As long as we have courage inside of us, we will not be defeated any form of bullying, any person who tries to bring us down.

Whether you’re in public school, private school, or being home-schooled, we all have to band together and do whatever we can to stop bullying, to help those that have been, or are being, bullied.

We must stop it. We must not be beaten.