This is a very interesting article on popularity, nerds, and the subculture of Jr. High and High school.
Uncategorized
Geek. Gamer. Reader. Non-Compliant.
Geek. Gamer. Reader. Non-Compliant.
This is a very interesting article on popularity, nerds, and the subculture of Jr. High and High school.
How odd…
This subject came up a few nights ago with my daughter, AGAIN. It starts earlier now, especially in the more fru-fru suburbs of SF (we live in what is possibly the only non fru-fru street on the border of this very fru-fru suburb). It starts in 4th grade now, if you can believe it.
Cassie and her friends were actively ostracizing another girl, and I confronted Cassie directly. I said, “You are picking on her to make yourselves feel better. You’re also picking on her so you guys can feel like more of a group. I expect better from you, and if I find out you’ve been cruel to this girl any more, you’re losing allowance.”
Which, in the end, won’t work. But as the persecuted git that I was all through 4th through 8th grade, I have spoken with Cassie over and over again about the terrors of the popularity contest, and the artificial world that our schools are.
Cassie is one of the bright, creative ones. She’s an all “A” student, and tends to dreaminess, which she gets in trouble for. Not only is she dealing with the new pressures of being “popular”, she’s bored witless. So, last weekend, she begged to be home-schooled again next year (we did it last year).
You know, I am fully tempted to do so. Not just to help her become more educated than she would be by the factory (public school), but also to help her avoid the extreme silliness that is the classification of people in Junior High. Some might say she should be tossed into the mix and let her develop a hard shell. But the stories I could tell about what I went through still make my mother ill – she didn’t want to hear it when it was happening. And it didn’t make me a different person, EXCEPT that I am a more hateful person now, with a huge supply of sharp, stinging words, and a tendency to unconsciously flinch around trendy people.
So anyhow, sorry for this long reply.. but the article was DEAD ON.