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Smart kids are unpopular.

mrcockburn

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I was the smartest panda in the prison, though.

Good! Means you had more books to hide shivs in (as well as your Magic Rohypnol Lollies)...
 
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Glycerine

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I was considered "smart" and was kinda popular. Supposedly, I knew everyone's business and people knew who I was? I have yet to figure that mystery out.....
 

Synapse

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I was friends with smart people, truth tell most were seen in a positive light and encouraged to prosper. Myself, I was neither here nor there, I simply was being.
 

Randomnity

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I recognize that it's a stereotype and is even probably true for a lot of places, but for my whole elementary-high school it was completely false (elementary was redneck country, middle was mixed backgrounds from ghetto to well-off, and high school was a gifted school that also taught non-gifted).

Pretty much all the popular kids were smart. Maybe not geniuses, but smart enough to get As and Bs, and go on to university afterwards. I can't think of any popular kid who was actually dumber than average, even in elementary/middle school. That's not to say that being smart made you popular, unfortunately, but it definitely did not make you unpopular. In my experience the unpopular kids were poor and/or lacking in social skills and/or coming from kinda messed up homes so they didn't look "presentable" or have all the cool clothes. Being smart was irrelevant if you were one of those kids, and a postive if you happened to be confident, middle class or higher, and/or good-looking.
 

King sns

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By & large, most of the smart kids at my school were not popular. There were a few who were well-liked by most, regardless of their clique, which technically is popular, but they weren't a part of the "in-crowd" (which is what I assume most mean when they say popular).

I personally did well in school academically, but I was not popular because 1) I didn't care & so I made no effort to befriend people, and 2) I was a loner, and 3) I had an odd/cold demeanor that put people off a bit. I wasn't teased though, just mostly ignored & forgotten, which is what I think I wanted. Occasionally I saw the eyes roll or heard a snicker when I got the highest test score in the class yet again, but I took that to be resentment more than mocking.

Of course, there was the over-achiever crowd who were not nerds & were well-known, but they were still seen as a bit nerdy by the in-crowd types.

Not to pull the "jealousy" card, but to a degree, I think some kids resent the smart kids, as school comes easily to them, and so they seek to pull them down to their level by nitpicking what seems inferior about them (their appearance, their ability to socialize, etc). In a similar vein, the typical nerd may dismiss those types as dumb jocks (or whatever), seeking to devalue their strengths to make their own seem superior.

This was the crowd that I identified with the most. (They called me their "leader", because I was the loudest and had the most friends outside the group.) I found them to be too intense and hated them by the time it was all said and done. There were about 7 of us, with the occasional tag along or two. Safety in numbers.
 

Little Linguist

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Yeah, that was pretty much it. It sounds cliche, but the male athletes and the female beauties were in charge for those few years. (Things got a little better in high school. Part of the reason? Most of the preppy, snobbish kids with their crazy cliques attended the local private school rather stooping to attend public school... meaning we got rid of them. Thank goodness.)

Yeah, instead, people like me had to deal with those brats. :( Went to private school to have a shot in hell of getting somewhere, but I wasn't rich, smart, cool, coordinated, artsy, or anything of any consequence. I hardly think the flies on the wall cared about me, even....It was as though I didn't even exist, unless guys wanted to taunt me or lazy procrastinators wanted to copy my homework.

Sucks when you don't fit in anywhere...not even in the misfits. For extraverts, that really, really BLOWS.
 

Patches

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For extraverts, that really, really BLOWS.
I didn't think about that. I mean, I'm not going to pretend that having 3 bratty cheerleader girls verbally harass me for 4 years, and eventually escalate to physical violence didn't have an effect on me... But I wasn't ever bothered by the isolation so much. I would have been fine with just being ostracized/ignored, because I kept to myself anyway. But I didn't consider how that might be different for an extrovert who craves the interaction.
 

Santosha

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When I was in school it was cool to be smart, nerdy, skater, punk, hip hop, preppy, or typical as long as you were the extreme version of any of those characteristics. It seemed the worst thing you could possibly be, was completely unremarkable in every way possible. Everyone had a gimmick.

THis.
My younger brother lived with me for much of his HS experience (I'm 30) and I noticed him going through phazes of extreme. Extreme punk. Extreme metal. Emo. Hipster. I think he was even one of those fucken "juggalos" for a few months.. aren't they the ones that follow that rancid ICP group and draw carney like decor on their faces? Ya. Anyhow, we got into a discussion about "cool" and I influenced him to understand that the coolest you can be, is not defining yourself with what ever the current fad is, fo-hawks, labels, etc. I made him watch Fight Club with me, and everytime he'd come home with some new image, I say "your not your fucken khakis." Well, it eventually influenced the kid. He quit caring about any image, shaved his head so he didn't have to do his hair, wore DI jeans and plain T-shirts, and guess what?! ALL his friends followed. But they didn't follow there own set criteria, they followed HIS! So if he found a $2.00 DARE t-shirt that he'd wear to be ironic, his friends would go out and pay $30.00 to get a similar T-shirt! I'm so glad I'm done with shcool...
 

Lady_X

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aww that is so sad and disturbing...there was definitely some cliquish stuff at my school but i would never have any part of it. i found that there were all kinds of really cool intelligent people...some were considered nerds...others hoods (the term for long haired metal heads) others were into sports or arts....some were book smart but oh so lacking in common sense...i was smart and my best friend was smart but maybe we were just regular smart..schoolwork was easier and i never did more than i had to...i don't know where i'm going with this. anyway sorry to those of you who had negative experiences in school because you were smart...that is so ridiculous to me.
 

esidebill

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I had a hard time dealing with the cliques. Trust me, I wanted to just fit in as well as anyone else. My grades and personality put me into that cursed nerd category that has become such a pop culture type of phenomenon. In the past a scholar was perhaps the victim of jealousy, but not the victim of a stupid title that is seen as a BAD thing.
 

Little Linguist

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I had a hard time dealing with the cliques. Trust me, I wanted to just fit in as well as anyone else. My grades and personality put me into that cursed nerd category that has become such a pop culture type of phenomenon. In the past a scholar was perhaps the victim of jealousy, but not the victim of a stupid title that is seen as a BAD thing.

Yeah, that really blows. But now imagine getting rejected by nerds because you aren't good enough. Now that *really* sucks.
 

Saslou

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In primary school (7-11 yr olds) i never considered/paid attention to the smart/nerdy people .. We were just friends and we all got our heads down and got on with our work.

I noticed the dynamics change significantly in secondary school (12+). Bearing in mind i went to a really rough school with a 1000 kids. After the first year of being bullied and moving class, i was aware that to be smart/nerdy was frowned upon and made you a target. So for me it was easy to adapt, i was the class clown in some lessons, got my head down in other subject (Geography and History :wubbie:). Noone said anything because i'd of hit them.

I do remember 2 lads in my form who were incredibly nerdy. They spoke the queens English beautifully, never misbehaved and although their social skills were lacking slightly, we all went and spoke/incorporated them during team exercises. Actually they were rather adorable in their uniqueness.
 

esidebill

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Yeah, that really blows. But now imagine getting rejected by nerds because you aren't good enough. Now that *really* sucks.

I sympathize there as well. I fell into somewhat of a lesser nerd stage when school became less important than my own knowledge. Thus, my GPA wouldn't allow me to have any discussion with the so called "genius" crowd. Sometimes my ideas were too outlandish for them and they hated being challenged on anything so it was impossible.
 

The_Liquid_Laser

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I must have grown up in the Twilight Zone. I was harassed and picked on all through elementary school. It happened some in middle school, but a lot less. And by the time I reached high school I never had any problems. Actually in high school I probably harassed the popular kids more than the other way around. (I hung out with a group of ENTP's, and we would make sarcastic comments or quick retorts about almost anything that happened.)
 

Southern Kross

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At my high school 80-90% of the top classes for any given subject were made up of the popular or moderately popular kids. The rest were mostly made up of the freakishly intelligent, nerdy types. I didn't really fit into either group so I tried to hide in the corner and pretend I didn't exist. Fortunately the smart, popular kids were much nicer to me than the those of average to low intelligence (regardless of their level of popularity)
 

KDude

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I was semi-nerdy and invisible in elementary, but flipped out in around middle school. In highschool, I was kind of popular in an infamous sort of way. I didn't stay long.. Literally too cool for school. :whistling: I would have been better off invisible.
 

ICUP

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I was deemed gifted and put in "special" classes in jr. high. Then, all AP all the way thru..... But I did ok socially, since I was a girl who liked to dress up. I had a few great friends and a large circle I was a part of (some of them of average intelligence, but our circle accepted almost anyone), and was generally well-accepted. Dated and whatnot, no problems getting little sociopath boyfriends.
I think it's more about trying a bit to be included, which a lot of really smart people just don't do.
 

esidebill

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I was deemed gifted and put in "special" classes in jr. high. Then, all AP all the way thru..... But I did ok socially, since I was a girl who liked to dress up. I had a few great friends and a large circle I was a part of (some of them of average intelligence, but our circle accepted almost anyone), and was generally well-accepted. Dated and whatnot, no problems getting little sociopath boyfriends.
I think it's more about trying a bit to be included, which a lot of really smart people just don't do.

See, that makes me think that it might be the appearance of a smart person, rather than being smart. I know there are some problems with just putting a label on someone, but when a kid comes dressed up in lame jeans, a t-shirt referencing some video game or Dungeons and Dragons and a haircut similar to the Beatles, you can't help but think that they might be singled out as that "Smart kid who gets picked on" rather than someone who appears to be well groomed, looking like they belong with the in crowd.

So I think I've reached my standpoint that the appearance is more important to the visually adept teenagers, rather than the grades themselves.
 

ColonelGadaafi

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Wow you guys have had rough times. I have never really understood the very "typical" American social hiearchies(and anywhere in general). I can't say that i have had the same experiences regarding bullying, during my time in integrating into the social life of the western school system the more prominent problem that i faced was segregation and colliding identities. It was group versus group dynamic, rather then invidual interaction between popular members and less popular ones. The bullying mentality and social hierarchy were absent, and group members always protected each other and they were largely egaliterian in mutual concern(whatever you want to call it "brotherhoods"), and outsiders deviants, or people with less social standing did not enjoy the same level of interaction were treated casually, but never with abuse. Without saying the most obvious, i think there needs to be some heavily embedded prejudices and what they call "psychological( god damn it, forgot the term for it) cultural bias", which is that certain set of values and perception of the identity of the social sphere is constructed by community, and conformity is enforced by negative sanctions, like bullying and social exclusion. That system versus a range of segregrated groups who all have differing identities.
 
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