| When we were in junior high school, my | | | | John Nash so admired Norbert Wiener that |
| friend Rich and I made a map of the | | | | he adopted his habit of touching the |
| school lunch tables according to | | | | wall as he walked down a corridor. |
| popularity. This was easy to do, because | | | | As a thirteen-year-old kid, I didn\'t |
| kids only ate lunch with others of about | | | | have much more experience of the world |
| the same popularity. We graded them from | | | | than what I saw immediately around me. |
| A to E. A tables were full of football | | | | The warped little world we lived in was, |
| players and cheerleaders and so on. E | | | | I thought, the world. The world seemed |
| tables contained the kids with mild | | | | cruel and boring, and I\'m not sure |
| cases of Down\'s Syndrome, what in the | | | | which was worse. |
| language of the time we called | | | | Because I didn\'t fit into this world, I |
| \"retards.\" | | | | thought that something must be wrong |
| We sat at a D table, as low as you could | | | | with me. I didn\'t realize that the |
| get without looking physically | | | | reason we nerds didn\'t fit in was that |
| different. We were not being especially | | | | in some ways we were a step ahead. We |
| candid to grade ourselves as D. It would | | | | were already thinking about the kind of |
| have taken a deliberate lie to say | | | | things that matter in the real world, |
| otherwise. Everyone in the school knew | | | | instead of spending all our time playing |
| exactly how popular everyone else was, | | | | an exacting but mostly pointless game |
| including us. | | | | like the others. |
| My stock gradually rose during high | | | | We were a bit like an adult would be if |
| school. Puberty finally arrived; I | | | | he were thrust back into middle school. |
| became a decent soccer player; I started | | | | He wouldn\'t know the right clothes to |
| a scandalous underground newspaper. So | | | | wear, the right music to like, the right |
| I\'ve seen a good part of the popularity | | | | slang to use. He\'d seem to the kids a |
| landscape. | | | | complete alien. The thing is, he\'d know |
| I know a lot of people who were nerds in | | | | enough not to care what they thought. We |
| school, and they all tell the same | | | | had no such confidence. |
| story: there is a strong correlation | | | | A lot of people seem to think it\'s good |
| between being smart and being a nerd, | | | | for smart kids to be thrown together |
| and an even stronger inverse correlation | | | | with \"normal\" kids at this stage of |
| between being a nerd and being popular. | | | | their lives. Perhaps. But in at least |
| Being smart seems to make you unpopular. | | | | some cases the reason the nerds don\'t |
| Why? To someone in school now, that may | | | | fit in really is that everyone else is |
| seem an odd question to ask. The mere | | | | crazy. I remember sitting in the |
| fact is so overwhelming that it may seem | | | | audience at a \"pep rally\" at my high |
| strange to imagine that it could be any | | | | school, watching as the cheerleaders |
| other way. But it could. Being smart | | | | threw an effigy of an opposing player |
| doesn\'t make you an outcast in | | | | into the audience to be torn to pieces. |
| elementary school. Nor does it harm you | | | | I felt like an explorer witnessing some |
| in the real world. Nor, as far as I can | | | | bizarre tribal ritual. |
| tell, is the problem so bad in most | | | | If I could go back and give my thirteen |
| other countries. But in a typical | | | | year old self some advice, the main |
| American secondary school, being smart | | | | thing I\'d tell him would be to stick |
| is likely to make your life difficult. | | | | his head up and look around. I didn\'t |
| Why? | | | | really grasp it at the time, but the |
| The key to this mystery is to rephrase | | | | whole world we lived in was as fake as a |
| the question slightly. Why don\'t smart | | | | Twinkie. Not just school, but the entire |
| kids make themselves popular? If | | | | town. Why do people move to suburbia? To |
| they\'re so smart, why don\'t they | | | | have kids! So no wonder it seemed boring |
| figure out how popularity works and beat | | | | and sterile. The whole place was a giant |
| the system, just as they do for | | | | nursery, an artificial town created |
| standardized tests? | | | | explicitly for the purpose of breeding |
| One argument says that this would be | | | | children. |
| impossible, that the smart kids are | | | | Where I grew up, it felt as if there was |
| unpopular because the other kids envy | | | | nowhere to go, and nothing to do. This |
| them for being smart, and nothing they | | | | was no accident. Suburbs are |
| could do could make them popular. I | | | | deliberately designed to exclude the |
| wish. If the other kids in junior high | | | | outside world, because it contains |
| school envied me, they did a great job | | | | things that could endanger children. |
| of concealing it. And in any case, if | | | | And as for the schools, they were just |
| being smart were really an enviable | | | | holding pens within this fake world. |
| quality, the girls would have broken | | | | Officially the purpose of schools is to |
| ranks. The guys that guys envy, girls | | | | teach kids. In fact their primary |
| like. | | | | purpose is to keep kids locked up in one |
| In the schools I went to, being smart | | | | place for a big chunk of the day so |
| just didn\'t matter much. Kids didn\'t | | | | adults can get things done. And I have |
| admire it or despise it. All other | | | | no problem with this: in a specialized |
| things being equal, they would have | | | | industrial society, it would be a |
| preferred to be on the smart side of | | | | disaster to have kids running around |
| average rather than the dumb side, but | | | | loose. |
| intelligence counted far less than, say, | | | | What bothers me is not that the kids are |
| physical appearance, charisma, or | | | | kept in prisons, but that (a) they |
| athletic ability. | | | | aren\'t told about it, and (b) the |
| So if intelligence in itself is not a | | | | prisons are run mostly by the inmates. |
| factor in popularity, why are smart kids | | | | Kids are sent off to spend six years |
| so consistently unpopular? The answer, I | | | | memorizing meaningless facts in a world |
| think, is that they don\'t really want | | | | ruled by a caste of giants who run after |
| to be popular. | | | | an oblong brown ball, as if this were |
| If someone had told me that at the time, | | | | the most natural thing in the world. And |
| I would have laughed at him. Being | | | | if they balk at this surreal cocktail, |
| unpopular in school makes kids | | | | they\'re called misfits. |
| miserable, some of them so miserable | | | | Life in this twisted world is stressful |
| that they commit suicide. Telling me | | | | for the kids. And not just for the |
| that I didn\'t want to be popular would | | | | nerds. Like any war, it\'s damaging even |
| have seemed like telling someone dying | | | | to the winners. |
| of thirst in a desert that he didn\'t | | | | Adults can\'t avoid seeing that teenage |
| want a glass of water. Of course I | | | | kids are tormented. So why don\'t they |
| wanted to be popular. | | | | do something about it? Because they |
| But in fact I didn\'t, not enough. There | | | | blame it on puberty. The reason kids are |
| was something else I wanted more: to be | | | | so unhappy, adults tell themselves, is |
| smart. Not simply to do well in school, | | | | that monstrous new chemicals, hormones, |
| though that counted for something, but | | | | are now coursing through their |
| to design beautiful rockets, or to write | | | | bloodstream and messing up everything. |
| well, or to understand how to program | | | | There\'s nothing wrong with the system; |
| computers. In general, to make great | | | | it\'s just inevitable that kids will be |
| things. | | | | miserable at that age. |
| At the time I never tried to separate my | | | | This idea is so pervasive that even the |
| wants and weigh them against one | | | | kids believe it, which probably doesn\'t |
| another. If I had, I would have seen | | | | help. Someone who thinks his feet |
| that being smart was more important. If | | | | naturally hurt is not going to stop to |
| someone had offered me the chance to be | | | | consider the possibility that he is |
| the most popular kid in school, but only | | | | wearing the wrong size shoes. |
| at the price of being of average | | | | I\'m suspicious of this theory that |
| intelligence (humor me here), I | | | | thirteen-year-old kids are intrinsically |
| wouldn\'t have taken it. | | | | messed up. If it\'s physiological, it |
| Much as they suffer from their | | | | should be universal. Are Mongol nomads |
| unpopularity, I don\'t think many nerds | | | | all nihilists at thirteen? I\'ve read a |
| would. To them the thought of average | | | | lot of history, and I have not seen a |
| intelligence is unbearable. But most | | | | single reference to this supposedly |
| kids would take that deal. For half of | | | | universal fact before the twentieth |
| them, it would be a step up. Even for | | | | century. Teenage apprentices in the |
| someone in the eightieth percentile | | | | Renaissance seem to have been cheerful |
| (assuming, as everyone seemed to then, | | | | and eager. They got in fights and played |
| that intelligence is a scalar), who | | | | tricks on one another of course |
| wouldn\'t drop thirty points in exchange | | | | (Michelangelo had his nose broken by a |
| for being loved and admired by everyone? | | | | bully), but they weren\'t crazy. |
| And that, I think, is the root of the | | | | As far as I can tell, the concept of the |
| problem. Nerds serve two masters. They | | | | hormone-crazed teenager is coeval with |
| want to be popular, certainly, but they | | | | suburbia. I don\'t think this is a |
| want even more to be smart. And | | | | coincidence. I think teenagers are |
| popularity is not something you can do | | | | driven crazy by the life they\'re made |
| in your spare time, not in the fiercely | | | | to lead. Teenage apprentices in the |
| competitive environment of an American | | | | Renaissance were working dogs. Teenagers |
| secondary school. | | | | now are neurotic lapdogs. Their |
| Alberti, arguably the archetype of the | | | | craziness is the craziness of the idle |
| Renaissance Man, writes that \"no art, | | | | everywhere. |
| however minor, demands less than total | | | | When I was in school, suicide was a |
| dedication if you want to excel in it.\" | | | | constant topic among the smarter kids. |
| I wonder if anyone in the world works | | | | No one I knew did it, but several |
| harder at anything than American school | | | | planned to, and some may have tried. |
| kids work at popularity. Navy SEALs and | | | | Mostly this was just a pose. Like other |
| neurosurgery residents seem slackers by | | | | teenagers, we loved the dramatic, and |
| comparison. They occasionally take | | | | suicide seemed very dramatic. But partly |
| vacations; some even have hobbies. An | | | | it was because our lives were at times |
| American teenager may work at being | | | | genuinely miserable. |
| popular every waking hour, 365 days a | | | | Bullying was only part of the problem. |
| year. | | | | Another problem, and possibly an even |
| I don\'t mean to suggest they do this | | | | worse one, was that we never had |
| consciously. Some of them truly are | | | | anything real to work on. Humans like to |
| little Machiavellis, but what I really | | | | work; in most of the world, your work is |
| mean here is that teenagers are always | | | | your identity. And all the work we did |
| on duty as conformists. | | | | was pointless, or seemed so at the time. |
| For example, teenage kids pay a great | | | | At best it was practice for real work we |
| deal of attention to clothes. They | | | | might do far in the future, so far that |
| don\'t consciously dress to be popular. | | | | we didn\'t even know at the time what we |
| They dress to look good. But to who? To | | | | were practicing for. More often it was |
| the other kids. Other kids\' opinions | | | | just an arbitrary series of hoops to |
| become their definition of right, not | | | | jump through, words without content |
| just for clothes, but for almost | | | | designed mainly for testability. (The |
| everything they do, right down to the | | | | three main causes of the Civil War |
| way they walk. And so every effort they | | | | were.... Test: List the three main |
| make to do things \"right\" is also, | | | | causes of the Civil War.) |
| consciously or not, an effort to be more | | | | And there was no way to opt out. The |
| popular. | | | | adults had agreed among themselves that |
| Nerds don\'t realize this. They don\'t | | | | this was to be the route to college. The |
| realize that it takes work to be | | | | only way to escape this empty life was |
| popular. In general, people outside some | | | | to submit to it. |
| very demanding field don\'t realize the | | | | Teenage kids used to have a more active |
| extent to which success depends on | | | | role in society. In pre-industrial |
| constant (though often unconscious) | | | | times, they were all apprentices of one |
| effort. For example, most people seem to | | | | sort or another, whether in shops or on |
| consider the ability to draw as some | | | | farms or even on warships. They weren\'t |
| kind of innate quality, like being tall. | | | | left to create their own societies. They |
| In fact, most people who \"can draw\" | | | | were junior members of adult societies. |
| like drawing, and have spent many hours | | | | Teenagers seem to have respected adults |
| doing it; that\'s why they\'re good at | | | | more then, because the adults were the |
| it. Likewise, popular isn\'t just | | | | visible experts in the skills they were |
| something you are or you aren\'t, but | | | | trying to learn. Now most kids have |
| something you make yourself. | | | | little idea what their parents do in |
| The main reason nerds are unpopular is | | | | their distant offices, and see no |
| that they have other things to think | | | | connection (indeed, there is precious |
| about. Their attention is drawn to books | | | | little) between schoolwork and the work |
| or the natural world, not fashions and | | | | they\'ll do as adults. |
| parties. They\'re like someone trying to | | | | And if teenagers respected adults more, |
| play soccer while balancing a glass of | | | | adults also had more use for teenagers. |
| water on his head. Other players who can | | | | After a couple years\' training, an |
| focus their whole attention on the game | | | | apprentice could be a real help. Even |
| beat them effortlessly, and wonder why | | | | the newest apprentice could be made to |
| they seem so incapable. | | | | carry messages or sweep the workshop. |
| Even if nerds cared as much as other | | | | Now adults have no immediate use for |
| kids about popularity, being popular | | | | teenagers. They would be in the way in |
| would be more work for them. The popular | | | | an office. So they drop them off at |
| kids learned to be popular, and to want | | | | school on their way to work, much as |
| to be popular, the same way the nerds | | | | they might drop the dog off at a kennel |
| learned to be smart, and to want to be | | | | if they were going away for the weekend. |
| smart: from their parents. While the | | | | What happened? We\'re up against a hard |
| nerds were being trained to get the | | | | one here. The cause of this problem is |
| right answers, the popular kids were | | | | the same as the cause of so many present |
| being trained to please. | | | | ills: specialization. As jobs become |
| So far I\'ve been finessing the | | | | more specialized, we have to train |
| relationship between smart and nerd, | | | | longer for them. Kids in pre-industrial |
| using them as if they were | | | | times started working at about 14 at the |
| interchangeable. In fact it\'s only the | | | | latest; kids on farms, where most people |
| context that makes them so. A nerd is | | | | lived, began far earlier. Now kids who |
| someone who isn\'t socially adept | | | | go to college don\'t start working |
| enough. But \"enough\" depends on where | | | | full-time till 21 or 22. With some |
| you are. In a typical American school, | | | | degrees, like MDs and PhDs, you may not |
| standards for coolness are so high (or | | | | finish your training till 30. |
| at least, so specific) that you don\'t | | | | Teenagers now are useless, except as |
| have to be especially awkward to look | | | | cheap labor in industries like fast |
| awkward by comparison. | | | | food, which evolved to exploit precisely |
| Few smart kids can spare the attention | | | | this fact. In almost any other kind of |
| that popularity requires. Unless they | | | | work, they\'d be a net loss. But |
| also happen to be good-looking, natural | | | | they\'re also too young to be left |
| athletes, or siblings of popular kids, | | | | unsupervised. Someone has to watch over |
| they\'ll tend to become nerds. And | | | | them, and the most efficient way to do |
| that\'s why smart people\'s lives are | | | | this is to collect them together in one |
| worst between, say, the ages of eleven | | | | place. Then a few adults can watch all |
| and seventeen. Life at that age revolves | | | | of them. |
| far more around popularity than before | | | | If you stop there, what you\'re |
| or after. | | | | describing is literally a prison, albeit |
| Before that, kids\' lives are dominated | | | | a part-time one. The problem is, many |
| by their parents, not by other kids. | | | | schools practically do stop there. The |
| Kids do care what their peers think in | | | | stated purpose of schools is to educate |
| elementary school, but this isn\'t their | | | | the kids. But there is no external |
| whole life, as it later becomes. | | | | pressure to do this well. And so most |
| Around the age of eleven, though, kids | | | | schools do such a bad job of teaching |
| seem to start treating their family as a | | | | that the kids don\'t really take it |
| day job. They create a new world among | | | | seriously-- not even the smart kids. |
| themselves, and standing in this world | | | | Much of the time we were all, students |
| is what matters, not standing in their | | | | and teachers both, just going through |
| family. Indeed, being in trouble in | | | | the motions. |
| their family can win them points in the | | | | In my high school French class we were |
| world they care about. | | | | supposed to read Hugo\'s Les Miserables. |
| The problem is, the world these kids | | | | I don\'t think any of us knew French |
| create for themselves is at first a very | | | | well enough to make our way through this |
| crude one. If you leave a bunch of | | | | enormous book. Like the rest of the |
| eleven-year-olds to their own devices, | | | | class, I just skimmed the Cliff\'s |
| what you get is Lord of the Flies. Like | | | | Notes. When we were given a test on the |
| a lot of American kids, I read this book | | | | book, I noticed that the questions |
| in school. Presumably it was not a | | | | sounded odd. They were full of long |
| coincidence. Presumably someone wanted | | | | words that our teacher wouldn\'t have |
| to point out to us that we were savages, | | | | used. Where had these questions come |
| and that we had made ourselves a cruel | | | | from? From the Cliff\'s Notes, it turned |
| and stupid world. This was too subtle | | | | out. The teacher was using them too. We |
| for me. While the book seemed entirely | | | | were all just pretending. |
| believable, I didn\'t get the additional | | | | There are certainly great public school |
| message. I wish they had just told us | | | | teachers. The energy and imagination of |
| outright that we were savages and our | | | | my fourth grade teacher, Mr. Mihalko, |
| world was stupid. | | | | made that year something his students |
| Nerds would find their unpopularity more | | | | still talk about, thirty years later. |
| bearable if it merely caused them to be | | | | But teachers like him were individuals |
| ignored. Unfortunately, to be unpopular | | | | swimming upstream. They couldn\'t fix |
| in school is to be actively persecuted. | | | | the system. |
| Why? Once again, anyone currently in | | | | In almost any group of people you\'ll |
| school might think this a strange | | | | find hierarchy. When groups of adults |
| question to ask. How could things be any | | | | form in the real world, it\'s generally |
| other way? But they could be. Adults | | | | for some common purpose, and the leaders |
| don\'t normally persecute nerds. Why do | | | | end up being those who are best at it. |
| teenage kids do it? | | | | The problem with most schools is, they |
| Partly because teenagers are still half | | | | have no purpose. But hierarchy there |
| children, and many children are just | | | | must be. And so the kids make one out of |
| intrinsically cruel. Some torture nerds | | | | nothing. |
| for the same reason they pull the legs | | | | We have a phrase to describe what |
| off spiders. Before you develop a | | | | happens when rankings have to be created |
| conscience, torture is amusing. | | | | without any meaningful criteria. We say |
| Another reason kids persecute nerds is | | | | that the situation degenerates into a |
| to make themselves feel better. When you | | | | popularity contest. And that\'s exactly |
| tread water, you lift yourself up by | | | | what happens in most American schools. |
| pushing water down. Likewise, in any | | | | Instead of depending on some real test, |
| social hierarchy, people unsure of their | | | | one\'s rank depends mostly on one\'s |
| own position will try to emphasize it by | | | | ability to increase one\'s rank. It\'s |
| maltreating those they think rank below. | | | | like the court of Louis XIV. There is no |
| I\'ve read that this is why poor whites | | | | external opponent, so the kids become |
| in the United States are the group most | | | | one another\'s opponents. |
| hostile to blacks. | | | | When there is some real external test of |
| But I think the main reason other kids | | | | skill, it isn\'t painful to be at the |
| persecute nerds is that it\'s part of | | | | bottom of the hierarchy. A rookie on a |
| the mechanism of popularity. Popularity | | | | football team doesn\'t resent the skill |
| is only partially about individual | | | | of the veteran; he hopes to be like him |
| attractiveness. It\'s much more about | | | | one day and is happy to have the chance |
| alliances. To become more popular, you | | | | to learn from him. The veteran may in |
| need to be constantly doing things that | | | | turn feel a sense of noblesse oblige. |
| bring you close to other popular people, | | | | And most importantly, their status |
| and nothing brings people closer than a | | | | depends on how well they do against |
| common enemy. | | | | opponents, not on whether they can push |
| Like a politician who wants to distract | | | | the other down. |
| voters from bad times at home, you can | | | | Court hierarchies are another thing |
| create an enemy if there isn\'t a real | | | | entirely. This type of society debases |
| one. By singling out and persecuting a | | | | anyone who enters it. There is neither |
| nerd, a group of kids from higher in the | | | | admiration at the bottom, nor noblesse |
| hierarchy create bonds between | | | | oblige at the top. It\'s kill or be |
| themselves. Attacking an outsider makes | | | | killed. |
| them all insiders. This is why the worst | | | | This is the sort of society that gets |
| cases of bullying happen with groups. | | | | created in American secondary schools. |
| Ask any nerd: you get much worse | | | | And it happens because these schools |
| treatment from a group of kids than from | | | | have no real purpose beyond keeping the |
| any individual bully, however sadistic. | | | | kids all in one place for a certain |
| If it\'s any consolation to the nerds, | | | | number of hours each day. What I didn\'t |
| it\'s nothing personal. The group of | | | | realize at the time, and in fact didn\'t |
| kids who band together to pick on you | | | | realize till very recently, is that the |
| are doing the same thing, and for the | | | | twin horrors of school life, the cruelty |
| same reason, as a bunch of guys who get | | | | and the boredom, both have the same |
| together to go hunting. They don\'t | | | | cause. |
| actually hate you. They just need | | | | The mediocrity of American public |
| something to chase. | | | | schools has worse consequences than just |
| Because they\'re at the bottom of the | | | | making kids unhappy for six years. It |
| scale, nerds are a safe target for the | | | | breeds a rebelliousness that actively |
| entire school. If I remember correctly, | | | | drives kids away from the things |
| the most popular kids don\'t persecute | | | | they\'re supposed to be learning. |
| nerds; they don\'t need to stoop to such | | | | Like many nerds, probably, it was years |
| things. Most of the persecution comes | | | | after high school before I could bring |
| from kids lower down, the nervous middle | | | | myself to read anything we\'d been |
| classes. | | | | assigned then. And I lost more than |
| The trouble is, there are a lot of them. | | | | books. I mistrusted words like |
| The distribution of popularity is not a | | | | \"character\" and \"integrity\" because |
| pyramid, but tapers at the bottom like a | | | | they had been so debased by adults. As |
| pear. The least popular group is quite | | | | they were used then, these words all |
| small. (I believe we were the only D | | | | seemed to mean the same thing: |
| table in our cafeteria map.) So there | | | | obedience. The kids who got praised for |
| are more people who want to pick on | | | | these qualities tended to be at best |
| nerds than there are nerds. | | | | dull-witted prize bulls, and at worst |
| As well as gaining points by distancing | | | | facile schmoozers. If that was what |
| oneself from unpopular kids, one loses | | | | character and integrity were, I wanted |
| points by being close to them. A woman I | | | | no part of them. |
| know says that in high school she liked | | | | The word I most misunderstood was |
| nerds, but was afraid to be seen talking | | | | \"tact.\" As used by adults, it seemed |
| to them because the other girls would | | | | to mean keeping your mouth shut. I |
| make fun of her. Unpopularity is a | | | | assumed it was derived from the same |
| communicable disease; kids too nice to | | | | root as \"tacit\" and \"taciturn,\" and |
| pick on nerds will still ostracize them | | | | that it literally meant being quiet. I |
| in self-defense. | | | | vowed that I would never be tactful; |
| It\'s no wonder, then, that smart kids | | | | they were never going to shut me up. In |
| tend to be unhappy in middle school and | | | | fact, it\'s derived from the same root |
| high school. Their other interests leave | | | | as \"tactile,\" and what it means is to |
| them little attention to spare for | | | | have a deft touch. Tactful is the |
| popularity, and since popularity | | | | opposite of clumsy. I don\'t think I |
| resembles a zero-sum game, this in turn | | | | learned this until college. |
| makes them targets for the whole school. | | | | Nerds aren\'t the only losers in the |
| And the strange thing is, this nightmare | | | | popularity rat race. Nerds are unpopular |
| scenario happens without any conscious | | | | because they\'re distracted. There are |
| malice, merely because of the shape of | | | | other kids who deliberately opt out |
| the situation. | | | | because they\'re so disgusted with the |
| For me the worst stretch was junior | | | | whole process. |
| high, when kid culture was new and | | | | Teenage kids, even rebels, don\'t like |
| harsh, and the specialization that would | | | | to be alone, so when kids opt out of the |
| later gradually separate the smarter | | | | system, they tend to do it as a group. |
| kids had barely begun. Nearly everyone | | | | At the schools I went to, the focus of |
| I\'ve talked to agrees: the nadir is | | | | rebellion was drug use, specifically |
| somewhere between eleven and fourteen. | | | | marijuana. The kids in this tribe wore |
| In our school it was eighth grade, which | | | | black concert t-shirts and were called |
| was ages twelve and thirteen for me. | | | | \"freaks.\" |
| There was a brief sensation that year | | | | Freaks and nerds were allies, and there |
| when one of our teachers overheard a | | | | was a good deal of overlap between them. |
| group of girls waiting for the school | | | | Freaks were on the whole smarter than |
| bus, and was so shocked that the next | | | | other kids, though never studying (or at |
| day she devoted the whole class to an | | | | least never appearing to) was an |
| eloquent plea not to be so cruel to one | | | | important tribal value. I was more in |
| another. | | | | the nerd camp, but I was friends with a |
| It didn\'t have any noticeable effect. | | | | lot of freaks. |
| What struck me at the time was that she | | | | They used drugs, at least at first, for |
| was surprised. You mean she doesn\'t | | | | the social bonds they created. It was |
| know the kind of things they say to one | | | | something to do together, and because |
| another? You mean this isn\'t normal? | | | | the drugs were illegal, it was a shared |
| It\'s important to realize that, no, the | | | | badge of rebellion. |
| adults don\'t know what the kids are | | | | I\'m not claiming that bad schools are |
| doing to one another. They know, in the | | | | the whole reason kids get into trouble |
| abstract, that kids are monstrously | | | | with drugs. After a while, drugs have |
| cruel to one another, just as we know in | | | | their own momentum. No doubt some of the |
| the abstract that people get tortured in | | | | freaks ultimately used drugs to escape |
| poorer countries. But, like us, they | | | | from other problems-- trouble at home, |
| don\'t like to dwell on this depressing | | | | for example. But, in my school at least, |
| fact, and they don\'t see evidence of | | | | the reason most kids started using drugs |
| specific abuses unless they go looking | | | | was rebellion. Fourteen-year-olds |
| for it. | | | | didn\'t start smoking pot because |
| Public school teachers are in much the | | | | they\'d heard it would help them forget |
| same position as prison wardens. | | | | their problems. They started because |
| Wardens\' main concern is to keep the | | | | they wanted to join a different tribe. |
| prisoners on the premises. They also | | | | Misrule breeds rebellion; this is not a |
| need to keep them fed, and as far as | | | | new idea. And yet the authorities still |
| possible prevent them from killing one | | | | for the most part act as if drugs were |
| another. Beyond that, they want to have | | | | themselves the cause of the problem. |
| as little to do with the prisoners as | | | | The real problem is the emptiness of |
| possible, so they leave them to create | | | | school life. We won\'t see solutions |
| whatever social organization they want. | | | | till adults realize that. The adults who |
| From what I\'ve read, the society that | | | | may realize it first are the ones who |
| the prisoners create is warped, savage, | | | | were themselves nerds in school. Do you |
| and pervasive, and it is no fun to be at | | | | want your kids to be as unhappy in |
| the bottom of it. | | | | eighth grade as you were? I wouldn\'t. |
| In outline, it was the same at the | | | | Well, then, is there anything we can do |
| schools I went to. The most important | | | | to fix things? Almost certainly. There |
| thing was to stay on the premises. While | | | | is nothing inevitable about the current |
| there, the authorities fed you, | | | | system. It has come about mostly by |
| prevented overt violence, and made some | | | | default. |
| effort to teach you something. But | | | | Adults, though, are busy. Showing up for |
| beyond that they didn\'t want to have | | | | school plays is one thing. Taking on the |
| too much to do with the kids. Like | | | | educational bureaucracy is another. |
| prison wardens, the teachers mostly left | | | | Perhaps a few will have the energy to |
| us to ourselves. And, like prisoners, | | | | try to change things. I suspect the |
| the culture we created was barbaric. | | | | hardest part is realizing that you can. |
| Why is the real world more hospitable to | | | | Nerds still in school should not hold |
| nerds? It might seem that the answer is | | | | their breath. Maybe one day a heavily |
| simply that it\'s populated by adults, | | | | armed force of adults will show up in |
| who are too mature to pick on one | | | | helicopters to rescue you, but they |
| another. But I don\'t think this is | | | | probably won\'t be coming this month. |
| true. Adults in prison certainly pick on | | | | Any immediate improvement in nerds\' |
| one another. And so, apparently, do | | | | lives is probably going to have to come |
| society wives; in some parts of | | | | from the nerds themselves. |
| Manhattan, life for women sounds like a | | | | Merely understanding the situation |
| continuation of high school, with all | | | | they\'re in should make it less painful. |
| the same petty intrigues. | | | | Nerds aren\'t losers. They\'re just |
| I think the important thing about the | | | | playing a different game, and a game |
| real world is not that it\'s populated | | | | much closer to the one played in the |
| by adults, but that it\'s very large, | | | | real world. Adults know this. It\'s hard |
| and the things you do have real effects. | | | | to find successful adults now who don\'t |
| That\'s what school, prison, and | | | | claim to have been nerds in high school. |
| ladies-who-lunch all lack. The | | | | It\'s important for nerds to realize, |
| inhabitants of all those worlds are | | | | too, that school is not life. School is |
| trapped in little bubbles where nothing | | | | a strange, artificial thing, half |
| they do can have more than a local | | | | sterile and half feral. It\'s |
| effect. Naturally these societies | | | | all-encompassing, like life, but it |
| degenerate into savagery. They have no | | | | isn\'t the real thing. It\'s only |
| function for their form to follow. | | | | temporary, and if you look, you can see |
| When the things you do have real | | | | beyond it even while you\'re still in |
| effects, it\'s no longer enough just to | | | | it. |
| be pleasing. It starts to be important | | | | If life seems awful to kids, it\'s |
| to get the right answers, and that\'s | | | | neither because hormones are turning you |
| where nerds show to advantage. Bill | | | | all into monsters (as your parents |
| Gates will of course come to mind. | | | | believe), nor because life actually is |
| Though notoriously lacking in social | | | | awful (as you believe). It\'s because |
| skills, he gets the right answers, at | | | | the adults, who no longer have any |
| least as measured in revenue. | | | | economic use for you, have abandoned you |
| The other thing that\'s different about | | | | to spend years cooped up together with |
| the real world is that it\'s much | | | | nothing real to do. Any society of that |
| larger. In a large enough pool, even the | | | | type is awful to live in. You don\'t |
| smallest minorities can achieve a | | | | have to look any further to explain why |
| critical mass if they clump together. | | | | teenage kids are unhappy. |
| Out in the real world, nerds collect in | | | | I\'ve said some harsh things in this |
| certain places and form their own | | | | essay, but really the thesis is an |
| societies where intelligence is the most | | | | optimistic one-- that several problems |
| important thing. Sometimes the current | | | | we take for granted are in fact not |
| even starts to flow in the other | | | | insoluble after all. Teenage kids are |
| direction: sometimes, particularly in | | | | not inherently unhappy monsters. That |
| university math and science departments, | | | | should be encouraging news to kids and |
| nerds deliberately exaggerate their | | | | adults both. |
| awkwardness in order to seem smarter. | | | | |