The Eight Punch Rule

When I was a child, I was susceptible to bullying.  Well.  I was very intelligent and a little younger than everyone, and still let my grandmother dress me, and didn't have the social grace to know that a) becoming the favourite of a teacher was automatically a stigma, whether you intended it or not, and b) keeping your head down and ignoring people because they said mean things was not, despite every parent's advice, the best way to get them to stop.    It encourages them.  Because they'll keep going until they get a response.

No.  Didn't work that way.  It's the same reason you never react to someone approaching you on the street by bowing your head and scurrying off as if you hadn't heard them.  Children are little bastards.  Those guys on the street are malicious little fucks that never grew up.

( Here. Have a somewhat disturbing tale of schoolyard bullying with a WTF moral. )