Bullying thrums in the background of our schools. We started this sixth-grade class with the standard question: What is bullying? The follow-up question was a typical, not-so-critical-thinking question: Have you ever been bullied? Students began to share their histories, filling up the whole class period with sad stories.

Like all teachers who have taught for any length of time, I have sat through many versions of the bullying lecture. Anyone who thinks schools are not trying to reign in their bullies remembers another time or a distant place. Schools aggressively attack bullying, so much so that kids sometimes begin to make fun of our efforts: “Ms. Q! Nathaniel’s breathing my air!” “No, Ms. Q! He took the air. I am just trying to get it back!”

But a student stopped me with an original question during this one class:

“What kind of bully was he?” he asked.

“An evil one,” the girl replied quickly. “Pure evil.”

A few class members laughed. Others nodded. Ah, that kind of bully.

Such a smart question. I am still mulling the question and answer over in my mind. What kind of bully was he? The angry bully, the impulsive bully and the jealous bully should not be lumped together. Sometimes an open discussion with a jealous girl and the target of her jealously can solve the problem of the jealous bully. Once Jenna understands that Anita hates to feel left out by Jenna because Anita thinks Jenna’s awesome, sometimes Jenna and Anita may even become friends. Angry bullies form their own category as well as subcategories. Is Marcos angry most of the time? Why is Marcos angry? Is Marcos fine except when his parents are fighting? Has physical violence been modeled for Marcos at home? Does Jeff shove people just to shove people, without thinking about their feelings? Is he angry? Hungry? Or could he simply be ADHD and looking for attention?

I think I’ll skip any discussion of “pure evil,” other than to say I believe “pure evil” to be extremely rare. But pure evil exists. Dr. Martha Stout, a clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, in her book The Sociopath Next Door, estimates that four percent of the global population may be made up of sociopaths, I’d guess many sociopaths may not qualify as evil, having no particular desire to make other kids miserable, but I have taught a few kids who had eyes so cold that I’d never be caught in the dark alone with them.

Eduhonesty: In this time when schools are teaching children to embrace diversity, that boy’s question made me wonder if we have given enough attention to the diverse sources and types of bullying.

What kind of bully is he? Or she? Any approach to bullying conflicts should begin with this question.