According to reports coming out of Japan, teasing is often associated with poor performance, and may be instigated by teachers in many cases. America, it should be noted, tens to have an anti-intellectualism streak in its politics and nature, while Japan tends towards the opposite. It seems possible that the fact that Woodsa and Wolkeb discovered that less intelligent, lower class, and rural children were significantly more likely to be bullied represents an overarching social trend which puts down lower academic achievement in favor of higher achievement, and that teachers themselves are subtly giving children cues as to who they should bully. This point deserves to be more extensively explored, perhaps with comparative studies in America or other countries. Additionally, the school climate towards bullying may be a far more relevant issue than this research lets on.

The concept of victimization is also particularly important to this research. Woodsa and...
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