"Penney, Sean" <seanp at ea.com> said: > I think it is a sad fact that in our schools kids who speak well, are good > at math and answer questions in class are generally saddled with derogative > labels - "brain, geek, nerd, etc". Kids will deliberately play dumb to be > accepted by the mob. It's an even sadder fact that media, through TV and > movies, supports and perpetuates this movement by portraying scholastic > achievers as dorky, and athletic achievers as cool. This is especially > obvious in the stereotypical portrayals of males and females. The coolest > guys are dumb jocks, and the un_cool_est are computer dorks. The coolest > girls are tall and beautiful and smart and class president, while the > uncoolest are short dumpy underachievers, (or short dumpy overachievers - I > guess to be forgiven for being a smart chick you have to be blonde and > beautiful). This is a sad-but-true state of affairs in our country (not sure about other countries.) And it is perpetuated by most all media outlets, politicians, and others (just look at the state of our libraries compared to the state of our stadiums.) As to the labels - There's always those who don't get good grades because they don't care, but STILL get labeled as "geeks, nerds, etc." I guess apathetic kids have to be lumped under another catagory; "Apathy" being much to "geeky" a term for the mob to use...:) Cheers, Chris "Life is the nightmare that leaves its mark upon you in order to prove that it is, in fact, real." -Thomas Ligotti- 'The Sect of the Idiot'