I live in New Jersey and work in an after-school enrichment program. As an educator, the subject of bullying is crucial not only as a means of preventing it, but also understanding what it arises from. I learned through the education of Aesthetic Realism, founded by poet and scholar Eli Siegel, that the central cause of bullying is contempt. All children everywhere can change what is deeply hurtful in themselves into kind, compassionate individuals through studying this principle of Aesthetic Realism: The greatest danger for a person is to have contempt for the world and what is in it...Contempt can be defined as a lessening of what is different from oneself as a means of self-increase as one sees it.