I know from experience that rejection starts as early as kindergarten and first grade. I attended a small Catholic school and faced nasty cliques and mean classmates every day for six years. After the Columbine massacre, I hope school officials have learned that harassment and cruelty between students should not be tolerated. A You can begin by laying your own miserable memories to rest. If you dwell too much on the past you might alarm your daughter and make her feel that she is destined to become a victim,too.
Children pick up cues so quickly.
You also shouldn't expect or demand perfection at school. While boys challenge each other with games and sports, girls network and negotiate with words, words, words. Somehow what began as a dear little band of friends can turn into a backbiting little clique, often becoming quite virulent in the second semester of the second or the fifth grades and especially in junior high. This is bad enough, but if the clique spawns a bully, the effect can be devastating and no one knows that better than you. Cliques turned your school into a prison and made the sentence seem interminable.