I came across an insightful, albeit somewhat long, essay, about the popularity of nerds in middle and high school. I'm interested in this today since I'm interested in improving our education system. I'm also interested since I qualified as some sort of nerd in high school.
Now, I went to a private high school where 100% went on to college, many to Ivy League schools. So being a nerd wasn't so bad. Lots of kids there were smart, and I was one of the smartest and hung with the smartest. I was on the chess team, for instance, and won a pile of trophies and even a small scholarship. I also got girls to watch me play, and even play themselves, however. Maybe I was a super nerd or something.
One of the insightful things about the linked essay is that he understands the point that nerds choose to be smart rather than popular. I liked what I liked, and wanted to read about it, talk about it, and it wasn't stuff about the weekend party or football. The nerds, freaks, and geeks were intrinsically more interesting than those perceived as the popular kids. I won't say I never envied the popular crowd, their dating, their parties, but damn, they could be pretty boring. I overlapped with some of them in art classes, and I liked them better. Some were very interesting from that perspective. An area like art can transcend popularity and smartness.
When I was five or six, I remember thinking about what separated man from other animals. It wasn't our physical prowess, our longevity, or our teamwork. It was our intellects. Therefore, I concluded, the most human of humans were the smartest. Smart people -- nerds -- are the most distinguished of us. The most human.
I still like that notion.
Posted by Mike at February 28, 2005 1:12 AM