(no subject)

[andrewducker]

I'm fairly speechless. This is a fantastic essay on the terrible effect schools have. It pretty much perfectly describes my childhood and the pointlessness of the unhappiness I suffered through.

It's long, but well worth reading.

Comments

[dapperscavenger.livejournal.com]

Ack, right about the long part.

There were a few separate points it touched on that I found myself agreeing with
- not having to know your subject, only your teacher, to pass
- not hanging out with an unpopular guy (I did that, even though I liked him)
- not knowing whether you hate something because of what it is or because of school

*l* But as I've said before, I took the easy way out.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

There is much that is true in this piece. I experienced much that was described in that article and understand exactly what the author was talking about. However, I did have a couple of significant disagreements:

1) IME, improved school funding is the best way to improve actual education, but does nothing to decrease intolerance of nerds. I went to an excellent and well-funded school in an incredibly wealthy suburb and I learned as much in my last 2 years of high school as I did in my first year of (an excellent) college. However, nerds were still bullied in my schools. Junior high was hellish and while physical abuse largely ended in high school life did not particularly improve.

2) I see one (rather selfish) use for the current system. Before I explain, I will admit that I'm a serious elitist and realize this fact. IME, with very few exceptions the only people I've met who are worth knowing were bullied nerds in junior high and high school. In addition to the fact that such people are unusually intelligent and I have no interest in knowing anyone who isn't, experiencing this sort of bullying tends to make people at least mild non-conformists for life. People who don't experience this sort of pressure (even if they are quite intelligent) continu to play conformity and popularity games later in life. As the author mentions, the intensity of such status games significantly decreases after high school, in large part because there is both more do do and more social room to do it in. However, the teenage years seem to be where many people learn to be social beings and I far prefer the sort of socialization that is produced in bullied nerds.

[dragonscholar.livejournal.com]

I've rarely found myself nodding throughout an article as much as this.

College was a weird experience for me. I went from being a nerd to being very outgoing, my entire social life doing a 180 in six months. I had never quite figured it out - I assumed I'd just gone to a school of idiots. I'd made it through to get to the Promised Land, college, and enjoyed the hell out of it when I got there.

This puts High School, which was basically something I just "had to get through," in a lot of context.

[kpollock.livejournal.com]

Great article.

I would add:

The reason 'nerds' don't work out the rules and play them is at least partly becuse the masses then change the rules, or deny that those are the rules (even when it's blindingly obvious). This happened to me. It's not something you are 'supposed' to analyse intellectually - somehow it's obvious when you have (how? don't ask me, I'm nerd through and through).

I already worked most of what's in the article out at the time. After abortive attempts to enlighten both kids and adults (ouch!) I just settled into waiting for Uni/real life which I reasoned would be better (also I would be away from my family, out of their control and fending for myself, which was a big issue at the time with me).

I did learn useful stuff in school and few of our teachers seemed to be just 'going through the motions' and we were a shit school.