[clintjm]

Originally Posted by Tsuwabuki

Four times that I remember trying to. I am not entirely sure I succeeded in all times. The first did occur while I was at my first elementary school, so that was fourth grade or lower. I think it was in third. But yeah, that was a fair amount of time ago.

I'm detecting a little BS here. 18-20 years ago and you can't remember such altercations? Your time line of school is posted on this board. Do you have blackouts every so often?

Originally Posted by Tsuwabuki

Also, I doubt very much you would remember details about fights that occurred decades before. Human memory, especially childhood memory, isn't that good. You're being provocative just to be provocative.

Apparently yours isn't.
"Decades" should be singular in this case.
No I might not remember the exact blow by blow, but I'd remember the outcome and that it existed.

Originally Posted by Tsuwabuki

*sigh* One does not need a weapon to be a major threat. Let's take one of those examples, the one that occurred in eighth grade. This individual had picked me up and dropped me on a tiled corridor floor on my chin. I was lucky, and so was he. It merely gave me a scar and chipped a bit of bone. He could have broken my neck. He could have killed me. Whether he was trying to or not, and surely, he wasn't, it doesn't matter. The next time he went for me, I broke his nose. He never attacked me again.

I would argue, as I'm sure would my lawyer, that this individual had a history of cornering me, cutting off escape routes, and engaging in assault and battery that could have lead to permanent damage or death. I was well within my rights to use force in response.

Sure in the case you described here; but that isn't the advice you originally posted: Without a previous physical altercation, with only a perceived approach of threatening manner, take the first swing to prevent an altercation. This may have not been the message you were trying to convey but it came across that way. In addition you also conveyed that this is a working model to solve problems when you are , using your words "approached in a threatening manner".

In that case you just laid out you were NOT taking the first swing as he came at you before the nose incident.

Originally Posted by Tsuwabuki

Actually, I'm inclined to believe that you are being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian. Regardless, days were already crazy in the mid and late nineties. Remember Columbine? Didn't that happen in 1997 or 1998? I grant you bring up some excellent concerns, concerns I feel must fall by the wayside when you fear for your life.

Fearing for you life is a different matter of course. Your OP on the matter was being approached in a threatening way or being touched negatively.

Originally Posted by Tsuwabuki

I am not allowed to, and I probably wouldn't consider it my place. The situation has not come up. I have not been privy to much bullying in my classes, and when I see it, I step in.

Those rules are in place for a reason. Giving such advice in an American school would get you fired; I imagine a Japanese school as well. I was pointing out the fact that you represent yourself as an educator in a position of authority in another place, such as JF, with such advice as you originally described in OP, is simply ill-advised.

Originally Posted by Tsuwabuki

Remember, my own authority figures never punished me, or not much, for acting when I did. I believe that speaks volumes for my decisions on when to fight back. I cannot even say it is something I would teach my own kids, since I do not have any.

I don't believe it does speak volumes. In my school and schools today, such violence was never tolerated, and who threw the first punch was the one that took the rap.

Originally Posted by Tsuwabuki

This, however, is a forum. Somewhere I should feel free to give my opinion. I believe you must draw a line in the sand at some point. You are free to have your own opinions, but do not disparage me for mine. You've made a few good arguments, there is no need to sprinkle personal attacks in with those points. It merely weakens your credibility. I disagree. And already said so. You and I disagree. Let's move on without character assassinations.

Yes, but when you represent yourself as an educator in this forum, and not an individual, you open a whole different can of worms. The fact that you wouldn't teach this to your own kids, but defend and push it here, is really what speaks volumes.

I simply disagreed with your advice you gave as a rule of thumb with little details in your OP on the subject. Anything personal was the fact you tried to amplify your point by adding how many noses you broke and it working out. That I call BS on.

Yes, we can agree to disagree on the matter of violence as a means of solving a problem a bully problem. Attempted murder, sure defend yourself, but I don't think this type of situation happens more than once by the time someone is in their late 20s unless they live in a very bad place in the world, or they invite the issue in some way.

I agree to disagree on my point violence solves nothing.