Preach it Bro! I tell my son the same thing - Don't ever back down, give up, or quit.

Karate lessons are the way to go! They gave my peace-loving guys a lot of confidence, and they had to use their skills only once or twice.

Amen Tony!

Excellent advice Tony!
99 44/100% of the time it's all bullies and tyrants understand. Being a Christian isn't about appeasement. We need to raise future Churchills not Chamberlains!
Some valuable quotes:

No people in history have ever survived who thought they could protect their freedom by making themselves inoffensive to their enemies. - Dean Acheson

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. - Winston Churchill

No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness. There can be no reasoning with an incendiary bomb. - Franklin D Roosevelt

Appeasers believe that if you keep on throwing steaks to a tiger, the tiger will become a vegetarian. - Heywood Broun

As the father of a 1st grade boy I say GO BOY! My son came home last month bloodied and with a note from the teacher. As I investigated I found that a boy started it, he finished it politely and quickly. It was enough to bring me to tears.

Mom, and the school, were less forgiving. On his day of suspension for fighting we went to the zoo, saw some real tiger fighting, and did the man thing. I think that is the best bonding we have ever done.

I remember asking my father for permission to get in a fight when I was a freshman in highschool. I had had all I could take from one guy in particular who was being a "bottom" (if you get my drift). Anyway, the first answer I got from my dad was "Only if you win!" The second answer I got was, "Have you prayed about this?" Later that night, my dad (a pastor) was in an elders meeting and he called me in. He had asked the elders what they thought, and it was split down the middle as to whether I should face this guy down physically. However, they were all agreed that I should pray that the situation would stop, and they prayed for me before I left. The Lord is good, and I was never bothered by that guy again. But if I had been... my mind was made up! It was time to fight.

Raise your son to be a man!

I shall come out from my Google Reader and mess with the commenting system to say that this is truth!

If he pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way. - Jimmy Malone to Eliot Ness in The Untouchables

Ok, maybe your instructions on just punching the bully several times is more appropriate counsel for a young boy, but the concept is the same.

Very good work in your editing of that pacifist handboock masquerading as an instructional essay.

Bring the smack, and PWN the bully. God has knocked me on my ass enough times to know that it's a teaching tool. Now I take martial arts so I know how to do it right.

Bullies, you can has PWNS only from teh prettie folwr of Ceiling Cat.

Bullies like to be confronted? In what universe? Who comes up with this crap?

I like that verse. Jeremiah 29:11 because it deals with tough times and war crimes. If a bully bullies all his/her henchmen away then a mutiny occurs so the first one who doesn't turn the cheek is the traitor who starts the mutiny. Machiavelli would say and that traitor gets crowned King for being the most feared backstabber on the playground. That's good advice for a child. I never heard my Dad question the Bible or make me wonder if my interpretation of a word was wrong. I figure that you keep turning the other cheek until the other person begins treating you like less than a human being in that case- Kill the dumb machine!

There's an episode of "Happy Days" where Richie Cunningham asks the Fonz how he got his reputation for being so tough---because Richie has never seen him throw a punch. Fonzie explains that sometimes one punch is enough. And that every man usually ends up having to throw a punch some day. The episode was better than my description, but you get the idea.