This is a great, albeit long essay about high school society and the quirks of the educational system. It was a joy to read and I found it to be very true, so I'm sharing it with you. Feel free to share your thoughts after reading, here.
If you post, conform to the rules of civilized discourse.
Ironically enough, it has a nerd length and a nerd accuracy of the description..
Why is it ironical? The author counts himself to the smart kids.
@Gargron because it's a nerd trying to explain why nerds are unpopular (or boring as most people believe) by long text which will bore "popular"/unsmart people after first 3 paragraphs. Which is a nice example of how a nerd can be unpopular. Don't get me wrong though. I've read the text through and he makes some points where I agree. Just a joke, which I hoped you could understand.
Yo homie G, I just wrote a very long essay on this for my English final. I was going to read this article but I didn't see it fitting in my paper so I skipped it. It was a fun essay because I discussed how nerdy things are becoming more mainstream while nerds themselves are uncool. It was a huge essay and I doubt it was any good.
This is kind of off-topic.
It really isn't.
Being a nerd doesn't automatically put you at the bottom of the popularity chain. I'm a nerd, but I'm really popular. It's just how you portray yourself and your attitude that matters in the school I go to. Know what you're good at and flaunt it. I happen to be good at many things so social boundaries don't apply to me, and I fit in with any group, be it the jocks or the other nerds.
Popularity is nice and all, but it's not the most important thing in the world. Somehow, my classmates and I know this. Sure we have our own little cliques, but we still mingle with different groups. Don't get me wrong though; we don't intermingle like that because we like other groups, but because we like to use each other. How useful a person is to the rest of the class is helpful with making that person popular. Even the most useless person can be popular when their skills are needed.
My class doesn't bully people like others would, so I guess that makes us a bit weird. It's not like we care though. We like the system we have. We all work together for one goal: to graduate. That's all that matters to any of us really, and it shows especially during testing time. The more intelligent in the room get flocked by the rest and we help them. Same goes for physical activity. The more physical students become our weapons and shields in a game, and they accept it. No, they more likely love it. It's not about popularity, but what you can do in a situation that counts.
So really, for my class, the situation we're in determines how popular a person is. And situations are always changing.
This is only relevant if you care about popularity.
Compared to everything else going on in the world, this is a topic I simply couldn't care less about.
The (nerd, jock, etc) popularity cliché is about as accurate as an early musket, misfires and all. But, I don't deny that there is a social ladder.
We got people at the bottom who are just fucking weird. I mean a 3 foot scale model of the Millennium Falcon is cool and all but, would you spend your free time with the guy who never shuts up about it's exact measurements?
Then, we've got those people who are obsessed with concept of popularity cause they saw it on TV but won't hang out with anyone they deem "popular" cause they're ridiculously shallow. Also seem to believe their hipsters.
At the top, we've got other normal people enjoying their life, having fun. And they're pretty much the popular crew.
In other words, the fuck you high school clichés.
In my Middle School days, this was exactly how things were. I bussed out to a school on the other side of town to take "Challenge" courses, ones a step higher than the Advanced classes. Compare them to the relationship between AP and Honors classes in HS. Within that school, the kids in regular classes hated us, most of them being of the skater/surfer crews. We didn't have the tans, the Hollister clothes, or the sun-bleached hair that they had. For those of us that bussed in from a poorer area, it was even more of an issue. We didn't have the rich families they had, meaning we didn't have the newest clothes, phones, and other things they had. Hell, most of us were lucky to have a parent with a cell phone!
Moving into High School, it changed a bit. I was going to school in my area again, the poor side of town. There was a sort of camaraderie between the students, all having grown up in the area. Even so, you'd still see those that played sports, went to the beach, did drugs, and had tons of sex disliking those that preferred to keep to themselves and their studies. There were exceptions, certainly. Even I, being a bit of an introvert at the time, gained a bit of notoriety within the school, and couldn't walk down the hall between classes without throwing up a few high-fives.
Even so, if you don't care about the popularity, it can still bite you in the ass. Friends with a popular person that doesn't want their friends to see them around you? You're fucked. Want to not be picked last for gym, even though you're great at the sport? You're fucked.Want to be invited out to large group gatherings, not personal hangouts at a friend's place? You're fucked.
It is what it is, and you learn to deal with it. Hopefully you gain valuable experience for dealing with such people later on in life.
Overemphasis on a few points but enlightening overall.
Also applies more to Americans. Students from Taiwan tend to emphasize intelligence over athletic ability.
I believe it depends on the school, because I go to a high school where most people are poor or low/middle class. Most people there are really smart or really stupid. The really smart people hang out together, and the really stupid people hang out together. And then there's those few little groups that have a mix. Everyone gets along fine. Occasionally there's a fight, but never smart vs. stupid. People tend to hang out in their little circles, and there's no one actually popular. Sure, there's people that almost everyone knows because of performances or infamy or whatever, but I've never heard anyone go "OMG, I wish I was popular", because that's not really a thing. Everything's just... chill. No one really gives a shit.
I mean, I've been shunned and made fun of before, but mostly because I was acting incredibly awkward and mental. People got over it in like a week. No one really steps out of their comfort zone much anyways. I pretty much keep to my friends, like how everyone keeps to theirs, and no one gives a shit who's popular or not.
Also, the stereotype of stupid athletes or how athleticism is less important than intelligence doesn't apply here. Most athletes are in the IB program or in all honours classes, and I've found that mostly everyone, even many of the less intelligent, value the smart over the athletic. People have constantly come up to me and pretend to be nice to me so I can help them with their work, or teach them how to do a problem. I am rarely ever persecuted, and if I am, I probably deserved it.
Definitely not applicable to where I went to school, but points made about the system of education could be altered to fit.
Nerds aren't unpopular they're forever alone together bringing mutual popularity! :D
o - o.. I don't consider myself popular.. / / sobs sobs / / It's true! Q A Q
Well, I don't think being a nerd is the problem. The trouble is being a bit different than the others. I know two nerds who are very popular, and they are because they are not "original", I mean, they always get high marks, and they study a lot, but besides that, they see the same tv programs that the others see, and they have the same opinions the others have, and exactly the same hobbies. The problem, is when your personality doesn't fit with what the other's expect yours to be, and you are not the way they expect you to be. And it's a shame, because nobody has the right to discriminate you because of the way you are. So, if you are a nerd ( and even if you are not) and you are being discriminated by those morons who dare to judge you, remember that you are original, you are being yourself and no other person of their stupid herd. Well, that's my opinion.
Nah, Nerds are cool. It's just that the rest of the world has it backwards. We nerds brainwashed them into thinking we were uncool. hee hee ;D
where i live it's the exact opposite, nerd is the new sexy thing. For example, people mostly buy the stereotyped nerdy look such as dorky glasses, or nerd slogan clothing/bags ect. And if you are a nerd, you were viewed as a role model and seen as a popular person.