On thursday, 8-22, Sunny Han wrote: I think that in our schools kids who speak well, are good at math and answer questions in class are generally saddled with derogatory lables- I have always been that "geeky" kid. I was lucky and I never found myself the victim of taunts or discrimination. It was the exact opposite. My fellow students respected me more, valued and asked for my opinion, and generally liked me for who I was. Yes, I was a varsity athlete, yet I had a 4.0 average for high school. I went to a public high school so it wasn't like I was at a school for the gifted where everyone else was a "geek" too. The one thing that I did experience was a feeling of isolation from my fellow students. I did not feel like I fit in until I attended graduate school. Everyone there was a "geek", just like me. I think that sometimes the lines between catagorisers and catagorees can become blurred. I know a group of people that feels proud to call themselves 'nerds' and has developed an identity with the term. Yes, they are all computer programmers, and very talented at that. They are proud of thier brains and are unashamed to be 'nerds'. A name can only hurt you if you let it. John D. Barbato