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Elizabeth Englander is sure that she was bullied at some point in her childhood. After all, it would be rare to find anyone who wasn't. But she doesn't have any specific memories of a particular incident because it was likely halted shortly after it happened. That's because she grew up in an environment in which violence and aggression was not tolerated. "It was unacceptable," she said.

That might give an inkling then, why the Bridgewater State College psychology professor has undertaken a quest as director of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center: How do you improve society so that everyone can have that expectation?

Attending school in California, Englander said she was interested in children and always saw violence as a "momentous tragedy of humankind." She wanted to find out what the problems were that led to children being violent.

After earning her doctorate from the University of Southern California, she obtained her post-doctorate from the University of New Hampshire. She joined Bridgewater State in the fall of 1993.

Several years ago she got an uptick in calls from professors looking for help and resources in dealing with the growing issue of childhood aggression. "I could not answer them," she recalled. Like everybody else, Englander said, she saw such aggression becoming more common. And the problem also resonated personally. She has three young children, ages 6, 9 and 12.

"This was a crisis that we needed to do something about," she said. "I knew what I knew; it was just a matter of implementing it."

Englander, 43, launched the Aggression Reduction Center in the fall of 2004, based on an ambitious proposal that she wrote as a presidential fellow. The center is housed in the upper floor of the college's library and boasts a coalition of experts in childhood aggression whose mission is to provide assistance at little or no cost to K-12 schools across the state.

Today, Englander's role involves planning the center's activities and conferences, including a recent forum on the bullying of gay and lesbian students.

She also supervises the students and graduates who work in the center, works on Beacon Hill to help legislators craft bills, and speaks and works with schools across the state.

"With elementary students, we train the teachers because we want to exploit that relationship," she said.

That doesn't work for adolescents. College students who are trained and work at the center talk to teenagers "because there's nothing cooler to a teenager than a college student."

The idea is to get the teenagers involved; to get them thinking about it and then putting it back on them to take action, Englander said.

"We've never gone to a school where students have said that (bullying) doesn't happen or where they said 'I don't care.'" she said. "They always talk."

Older students say they don't like the bullying and aggression, but don't know what to do about it. The approach used by the center focuses on what Englander calls "the egger," also known as the "henchman" or the "sidekick." It's the person who supports the bully, either following them around or "egging them on."

"A lot of children float in and out as an egger," she said. "We want to teach kids that the first step is to not support it."

"The goal is to give children the tools, to have a clear understanding in their head" about what constitutes bullying and other forms of aggression, Englander said.

Youngsters have a very black-and-white sense of justice; once they learn clearly what's right and wrong, they are better able to abide by those distinctions, she said. "But someone has to talk to them about it."

In contrast to the past, Englander said, "today's problem is that kids give bullies an enormous amount of social power."

Bullying has evolved. "Today's bullies are popular in school and looked up to. We need to change that."

In addition, bullying is not only becoming more common at younger ages, but "more psychologically vicious," Englander said.

"A lot of times we only hear from kids when they're being bullied, but if you see it all around you every day it has a great affect" on children's sense of security.

There are different theories as to why bullies have gained prominence and attract a following, but among them is the loss of opportunity when they are younger for unstructured, child-directed play, which is the way children learn to have friends, a community and social skills.

"That type of playing has almost vanished today," Englander said.

There is also much less emphasis in the school environment on social skills because of the amount of time that is dedicated to academic mandates. "It's not the whole reason, but it feeds on itself," she said. "There's a snowball effect.

"Kids' social skills and skills in forming relationships are really hampered without time to develop them and their own community. I think we've tied their hands behind their backs."

Add to the mix mass media, which is much more graphic and violent now, and the Internet.

"Children spend a lot of their lives online. Few adults over age 25 have a handle on that," she said.

The Internet, because of its perceived anonymity, has made it much easier to bully, and it also allows more opportunity to become a victim.

The Internet "is the most profound generational change in years," yet no one is taking in its full breadth, Englander said. She believes that Internet use, its potential and dangers, should be part of the curriculum for kindergartners through high school seniors.

"It's just as important as arithmetic and writing because that's where they're going to spend most of their lives," she said.

Despite the growth of bullying and all of its implications, Englander says there is cause for optimism.

"The size of the problem is daunting, but it's not hopeless because the solution is not difficult or expensive," she said. "The children are willing to work on it."

SUSAN LaHOUD can be reached at 508-236-0398 or at slahoud@thesunchronicle.com.