"I blame the parents"

[denny]

Interesting angle. The main thing that got me through being terminally uncool at school was knowing that I was the brightest one in my year - but then I can't see my parents having discouraged me from being as smart as possible, even by subtle omission.

http://education.independent.co.uk/schools/article1630281.ece

Comments

[indusbitch.livejournal.com]

hmm, an interesting article but the conclusion is rather weak & flawed I feel. I was in much the same situation, outcast at school & held on to my intelligence as the thing that got me through. Even now I get very easily angered by anyone implying that I am stupid as it was so ingrained in me at an early age that my brain was all I had going for me.

I don't have any idea what the solution is to this so called "dumb-ass culture" but I don't see it as being solely in the hands of the parents. I'm not even sure that there is a solution at all, it's not exactly a new phenomena that the clever kids are outcast by the social elite at school, though it may become more pervasive over the years.

I feel like I've kind of left this hanging, after getting started on the topic I offer nothing new to it, guess I'm just in a pondering mood today...

[bluecassandra.livejournal.com]

I'd have been terminally uncool whatever happened, but being female and intelligent in st helens definately isnt allowed, and somehow i picked up on this and toned it down alot till I got to high school. Mind you, even then most of my reports say "quiet and conscientious". Oh, and "shy". Sounds like me, right?

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Well... one out of three ain't bad.

[bluecassandra.livejournal.com]

Don't think you'd pass any exams by getting 33%!

[belaroo.livejournal.com]

There are theories that suggest that the school system we know and look back at bemused and confused was born out of the industrial revolution and has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with preparing us to work, obey, consume and get on. Excellence isn't a quality that fits that if your future is to qualify as a hairdresser/solicitor/programmer/argos worker etc.
Nothing at state school (Christ's Hosptial might) prepares you to work like a bastard to start your own dream, make the world better or form a rock band. I only worked this out by doing a mad American course in Amsterdam which opened my eyes to how trapped and restricted me and most of my friends were. I immediatley stopped hanging out with dope and coke heads and decided stop making excuses and to follow some dreams.
I hope I can bring my kids up to follow their crazy dreams and be fearless enough to be bright young things.

[hythloday.livejournal.com]

Excellence isn't a quality that fits that if your future is to qualify as a hairdresser/solicitor/programmer/argos worker etc.

Not sure I understand this. Are you saying it's impossible to excel at any of these jobs?

[belaroo.livejournal.com]

Definately not! I just don't think the state school system prepares us to be brilliant at anything - that might risk alienating people less talented. It is enough that you are able to find work.
I really admire people who take pride in doing the best job they can. I just don't believe that 'the system' is really interested in that. I don't think school really prepares people to put their heart and soul into what they do, just so long as they can find a job. I suppose it's 'passion' I mean. I know at least one hairdresser who is passionate about hair and very talented. I don't think he learnt that at school though.
There's an interesting thing here I've just seen - it's something to do with confidence and self belief which must be almost impossible in the context of state schools to teach - and parents either have it or don't.
If you have it, you are more likely to go for it and admire others who do to. People like this used to really scare me - a better class of individual. Now I'm a bit more centred and able to like myself, I can happily complement others and take acknowledgement. This wasn't something my parents or school were able to teach me. When I meet teenagers who already like themselves and have pride in themselves, I well up with a mixture of jelousy and relief for them!

[snoof.livejournal.com]

Intriguing. It makes a fair point, and one I've seen in action but couldn't quite place.

[sevenhelz.livejournal.com]

cute kitty!

[snoof.livejournal.com]

Thanks. His name is Ninja. Unfortunately I had to leave him at my ex's, since he's got massive behavioural problems related to abuse he suffered when he was a kitten and moving would've really done his head in :(

[sevenhelz.livejournal.com]

i think it's nice to look back and appreciate our parents this way - i do know a few people who got through school smart and uncool without family support, but only one or two. even in winstanley, supposedly one of the top colleges in england (or something posh like that) there was a "cool" attitude to homework and striving and things. when you asked, you found the people who couldn't be bothered were mostly being supported by their parents financially - sent to winstanley because of the reputation, given a new car at eighteen, huge allowance. those who wanted to work had parents (mostly) with degrees, who, if they didn't exactly push, certainly didn't hold back their children. there's just this huge difference between letting your kids do what they want, and letting them find out how much they can do if they really put their minds to it.

that's a nice icon, by the way.
xx

[djlongfella.livejournal.com]

" Do you think if Bill Gates had got laid in High School there would be a Microsoft today "
Quote from LazyBoy ~ Underpants go on the inside

[hedgemage.livejournal.com]

As a victim of what passes for "education" in the U.S., I can't comment on culture on your side of the pond, but here's what I see on mine:

• The strange idea that in order to be equal, all kids must be the same: smart kids are deliberately slowed down deliberately to put them on par with average or sometimes even disabled kids. For example, I can remember being reprimanded or punished in school countless times for reading more quickly than the other students.


• The even stranger idea that in order to be functional, one must conform unquestioningly: nonconformity is usually seen as selfish, lazy, and elitist.


• The belief that mental exercise of any kind is a burden that children must be prepared for over many years, and never saddled with too early. Of course, by the time one runs into a mental challenge, one has been made too dumb to cope with it.


• There's also this idea that only rote learning is valuable until one reaches a certain age. For example, I got into local politics while still in middle school. In high school, many people thought I knew nothing of government because I hadn't read the books that other kids had... I cannot begin to say how wrong they were. (Schoolbooks bored me, as they were written for dumb people and people acting dumb to get by.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I can remember being reprimanded or punished in school countless times for reading more quickly than the other students.

...I need a 'speechless' icon. Oh hang on, I have the WTF? icon, that'll do nicely.

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, I remember being told off once because I'd apparently started my work before all the other kids - actually I just wrote bloody fast. Another girl on my table, who had started before me, got given a well done sticker for writing so fast.

*headdesk*

[sevenhelz.livejournal.com]

oh yeah that was me

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Totally bizarre.

I used to get sat at the back when we played 'Simon says' in French at junior school, but that was only so that everyone couldn't copy me, not any kind of reprimand for getting things right too often.

[hythloday.livejournal.com]

Possibly only tangentially related: Paul Graham's Why Nerds Are Unpopular (http://paulgraham.com/nerds.html).

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

S'good, ta.