Daddy relinquishes bully pupit to school

The Little Girl is imparting wisdom on bullying, laying out the latest pedagogy on how to handle kids who pester, push, and terrify. I listen, fascinated.

Her school is taking great pains to let children know how to deal with such situations, and I am grateful.

Of course, I realize that my personal solutions to such problems are wildly out of step. And, obviously, I didn't have to deal with on-line bullying and the particularly knotty issues that entails.

Still, at the risk of sounding like a rickety ancient, what I can say is that in my day, you met force with force, and smacked down a bully before he could gain too much power.

If I were to advise my daughter that way, of course, she'd find herself in as much trouble as the instigator. Educators call for restraint and intelligence in such matters. I marvel at the thinking.

But I can't help believing that, in the state of nature that the schoolyard can become, only the fittest survive.

Good thing, then, that I'm not in the schoolyard. And good thing that I'm withholding my own advice on bullying, and allowing the school to take the lead.

For now.