"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

[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.