This year, I am a tutor of 6 students. This year, three of them are being bullied/made fun of/poked fun at in school; that's 50%. This year, Im tackling a whole new issue, something I personally have never encountered.

And yet.

I read an article in the papers a few weeks back. It was about how important the transition to secondary school is for a child. Read: Social Bully. And surely, the role of the parents in that. Like asking instead of 'any homework today, sweetie?', why not try, 'made any new friends today?' It's their social circle that's paramount, actually.

Taking things totally truly neutral. I cant blame the parents for being to cooped up with work, oblivious to the matter or more hard up on academic results & seemingly not paying a hoot about their child's misgivings. Dont expect me to go up to the Grown Up and shake their bloody heads and scream, LOOK, YOUR CHILD NEEDS YOU N-O-W, OK, now can i?

Even if I could, I wonder if I would.

To me, although it may seem superficial, I like to look at the matter as though the child was a fictional character in Sims. Should they be given that enough 'Encourage Neatness', 'Encourage Friendliness', 'Encourage Positiveness' -ok, I dont really remember them phrases- they would actually mature neatly, friendly, positively. So the question beckons. Parents to be blamed?

Or it could be because they're just different? They possibly look different? Or act different? Or talk different? Dang. What the hell is so wrong about being different, beats the daylight out of me. Paradoxical, because the others would soon snap out of that phase and actually want to be different circa-16yearold. Then they'll begin to don Punk outfits. And have the guts to talk differently. Talk about individualism. Talk about bloody identity. Talk about my ass.

I swear. Part of me am thankful. For being thrown into such situations. I mean to say. Apart from being their Academic Coach, I realise I could well be their Life Coach, you know? I might not be the best Grown Up around. but hey, at least I AM (around). No?

With all my heart, I adopt that NettytheCounsellor voice. And with that, I encourage them to talk more. Be more vocal. Be more friendly. Have more friends. I highly doubt that they are trying to fit in to any typology of a Clique. Gawd, if they came with a mouse and buttons to click on, I would soooooooo keep clicking on them. But they dont. They're as real as it gets. Bullying is as real as it gets. And trust me, Consequences are as real as it gets.

Until THAT happen, I'll just keep adopting that voice. And of course, that ear.