EACH time bullying makes the headlines in Malaysia, the familiar suggestion arises: add anti- bullying lessons to the syllabus. But bullying is not born in textbooks, and it cannot be solved by a single subject. The reality is that schools, often unintentionally, teach bullying through the way competition, authority, and silence are structured.
When grades matter more than kindness, when student voices are drowned out, and when recess becomes a battleground, children absorb hidden lessons about power and exclusion. Bullying, then, is not only a social issue but a curriculum that exists between the lines.
