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On the one hand, children will eventually learn that it's a mean world out there, that everybody's not always going to like them, and that everybody's not always going to be nice, no matter how nice or likeable they themselves are. It was a good exercise in assertiveness when I was small and my mother told me that the best way to irritate a bully was to agree with him/her. When told, "You're a moron!" I replied, "You know? You're right. I am a moron." And I walked away, leaving a befuddled bully behind scratching her head.
BUT, on the other hand, if a child is genuinely fearful at school and it's distracting from his learning, then by all means, the situation must be addressed. If there's any threat of physical involvement, if there's more than just the occasional name-calling (i.e. if the child is being followed around, tormented constantly, etc.), or if the child's academic performance or health is suffering, a parent should probably intervene. This gets tough, because the child will often not want his parent to say anything for fear of sounding like a tattletale.
This would be a good one for parents to weigh in on. Have you ever intervened in a situation where your child was being bullied? What happened?
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History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.
Mark Twain
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