Quick! Bully him, he's smart!

[Sneaky-Pie]

This thread is amusing. It has nothing to do with intelligence (get over yourself) like so many others have already pointed out, but how you are socially.

I was forced to move to a new state during the middle of my 11th year of high school. I was of course nervous being placed in an entirely new culture (the deep south, shudder) and trying to somewhat meet new people so it wouldn't entirely be a miserable experience until I graduated.

I did pretty well in high school (4.0 GPA) and ranked higher than the school's Valedictorian (I wasn't it because I transferred in). My new classmates saw this rather quickly, but because I'm easy to talk to know how to make other people laugh, we all got along just fine and pretty soon I was respected by all the social cliques and silly groups people get in.

Oddly enough I was more popular at this new school rather than my old one. Funny how that works.

 

[KoalaKid]

As one of the self-appointed "smart" kids you may deserve to be bullied. Arrogance is an ugly thing.

 

[GigaHz]

Call my school situation weird but if anyone was to be the bully, it would be me. I was the strongest out of everyone in my grade from elementary school until high school graduation. And personally, I loved the nerds and even considered myself one to some degree (although admittedly, not as smart as some). If anyone decided to give them guff, they would have to go through me.

No one did, and there was a sort of respect for the nerds from the more popular kids. No teasing, no exploiting, just some weird sort of harmony. That isn't to say it was perfect, but I never felt as if there was any open segregation. The nerds were free to embrace their true nature and I'm happy to have had a part in that.

 

[KoalaKid]

easy. at least in the US to understand. In the US, intelligence is evil. look at the people we call heroes. Basketball, Football, Soccer, Baseball players. People whose entire goal is to hit/catch/whatever with a ball. pretty simple. Look at people we call villains. Bill Gates, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Carl Sagan, Stem cell researchers, the list goes on. People who are EDUCATED are bad. So, at least in the US, of course they will bully smart people. They are evil.

I'm going to call bullshit here. Although there are some small cultural groups in the US that don't value higher education being clever and well educated has always been promoted by the greater majority in the US. I have always been encouraged to go to college and make good grades and told that if i didn't my life would suck. I think your simply promoting the currently trendy anti-American stereotypes, but then I guess it's anything to fit in or be hip right?

 

[emeraldrafael]

You dot really have to be smart, just weak enough looking.

I was smart. I made a business out of it, charging people to do Homework for them, and did a lending business (of sorts). But I was small, and i didnt do a lot of "jock" stuff, so I looked weak. BUt it only took one bully to try before I beat him down to show I wasnt taking shit.

But then again, I had freinds too, of every level of intelligence. if you didnt have friends, you were as good as dead (occasionally in a literal sense).

 

[Arluza]

easy. at least in the US to understand. In the US, intelligence is evil. look at the people we call heroes. Basketball, Football, Soccer, Baseball players. People whose entire goal is to hit/catch/whatever with a ball. pretty simple. Look at people we call villains. Bill Gates, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Carl Sagan, Stem cell researchers, the list goes on. People who are EDUCATED are bad. So, at least in the US, of course they will bully smart people. They are evil.

I'm going to call bullshit here. Although there are some small cultural groups in the US that don't value higher education being clever and well educated has always been promoted by the greater majority in the US. I have always been encouraged to go to college and make good grades and told that if i didn't my life would suck. I think your simply promoting the currently trendy anti-American stereotypes, but then I guess it's anything to fit in or be hip right?

I'm gonna call bullshit on your "I'm being hip" idea. I'm not hip by being anti-American. I am being realistic for being anti American. and where I live (Southern Ohio) they SAY go to college, but they don't want you LEARNING something useful. They want you to go to college on a sports scholarship, or to study something simple.

 

[ChocoFace]

It's pretty simple to google/wikipedia what you're asking here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_bullying

This is what i found after a quick skim:
"Bullying is usually associated with an imbalance of power. A bully has a perceived authority over another due to factors such as size, gender, or age. Bullies are not identifiable by their appearance or group identification; rather we need to focus on how they act. The definition of bullying briefly describes actions that are exhibited by an individual that is playing the role of a bully. Boys find motivation for bully from factors such as not fitting in, physically weak, short-tempered, who their friends were, and the clothes they wore. Girls on the other hand, result from factors like not fitting in, facial appearance, emotional, overweight, and academic status. In both sexes, a speech impediment of some sort (such as stutter) can also become the target of a bully.

Individuals that choose to be a bully are not typically born with the characteristic. It is a result from the treatment they receive from authority figures, including parents. Bullies often come from families that use physical forms of discipline. This somewhat turns the tables on the bully, making them the victim. Unfortunately, this leads to a strategy of bully or be bullied."

TL;DR a feeling of inadequancy and repressed negative emotions imposed by authority figures are the two driving factors for bullies.

 

[SilentCom]

It's because they're jealous and want to make themselves feel better by putting you down. Think of it this way, they'll probably be working in a gas station 20 years from now and you'll be a scientist or something.

 

[AgDr_ODST]

kids need little to no reason to bully each other. When 1 kid is seen as being or actually is smarter than the others he's just as likely to be bullied cause that same kid likes pop music while the other group(which is not to say everyone) likes country

 

[Tommeh Brownleh]

and it is for all the reasons mentioned above that I will never even speak to somebody IRL if I don't specifically tell them I wish to speak to them.

 

[AbstractStream]

Actually I was a bully in grade school, but it didn't matter to me if you were smart or not. I was just acting out. Though if and when I bullied the "smart" kids, it was technically because they let themselves...also I had the upper hand being part of the opposite sex >>

 

[Mercurio128]

It's pretty simple to google/wikipedia what you're asking here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_bullying

Individuals that choose to be a bully are not typically born with the characteristic. It is a result from the treatment they receive from authority figures, including parents. Bullies often come from families that use physical forms of discipline. This somewhat turns the tables on the bully, making them the victim. Unfortunately, this leads to a strategy of bully or be bullied."

TL;DR a feeling of inadequancy and repressed negative emotions imposed by authority figures are the two driving factors for bullies.

There's a good point here, that bullies tend to have been raised in an environment with violence or with physical forms of punishment. I have a little anecdotal evidence for this one:
We had an English teacher (actually a media studies grad, but our English dept was down 2 proper teachers) that tried to make us debate the ethics of hitting or smacking a child to punish them for bad behaviour. She came down very clearly on the side that it was definitely OK to smack kids if they were out of line, her evidence being that her parents did it to her and she turned out OK. After getting nowhere for about an hour she asked the class which of us had parents who would smack them as children, WITHOUT EXCEPTION the people who did were the biggest bullies and general violent dicks in the class.

I think the base of the problem isn't that it does the bullies any lasting harm, but that it conditions them to be OK with a little violence now and again, something that the other kids won't have, and who consequently don't know how to handle themselves when suddenly faced with it in a classroom/ playground.

Speaking for myself (but I imagine also a fair few people out there) I often tried to diffuse a difficult situation with words or didn't react because I was genuinely afraid of the consequences of any violence (i.e. suspension/ expulsion - things most bullies don't seem to care about, not the actual violence itself) when in reality, the 'best' option would have been to instantly rise to their challenge, not back down. It's just that I couldn't not think ahead. (if that makes any sense)

 

[DannyHale09]

It's not that they bully the smart people. They bulling the unpopular.
Smart kids are almost always the nerds in early school and nerds are not 'cool' so they get bullied. Simple but they get their own back later in life
..or not.

 

[KiKiweaky]

Was never one of the smart ones in class, average at best but I never saw anyone in my school being bullied for good results at all.

The school I was in was pretty strict about who they would let into what class though, I was in the good one and the people in those classes had done better in their entrance exams than the rest. So I guess most of the idiots and believe me we did have quite a few in my year just werent in the same classes as the really smart people.

 

[6037084]

Well smart people are often socially awkward and thus the easiest targets. In my old class I used being really smart as an advantage and helped everyone that wasn't a dick to me with homework during tests etc and suddenly everyone was my friend

 

[Aprilgold]

The weird thing is I was a quiet child, yet they still picked on me without any reason, pointing out, QUIET child. I can't say this enough, the sooner kids stop thinking their invincible because of their age or gender, the better.

Also, to add since I might as well, its more or less because you weren't in the inn group while they were babies talking about sex [no, seriously, I have heard preschoolers talk about sex] Its just about how un-cool you are, and that turns you into a villain, while anyone that is popular is a good guy, and these people don't get any of their torment later in life, unless they die in a accident. I just despise kids that think they can get away with anything, and I hate parents that won't sternly tell their kid to nock it off, it would be nice if it was brushed into their minds popularity doesn't matter, and if your being a dick, your getting a stern warning from your parent and more school work. Just, ah, well, fuck it, who am I going to convince typing this, I could go on and on, but no one would care. Thats my school history summed up, no one would care, teachers wouldn't stop this kid from emotionally wrecking me, the parent wouldn't intervene, the child wouldn't stop or care if I were about to die the next morning, and mainly, the teacher didn't care because of funding reasons [they let the kids bully me to keep funding for the next year, yeah, thanks.]

Rest is replies.

Spoiler

So my dear escapists...

Here I was, casually surfing the web when a thought struck my mind. I can't remember what it was, but it pulled up the memory of school ( one I dislike ). A lot of you may have experience this too, where the other children will pick on the "smart" kids, for...well? Being smart. I got it most in science, because Physics came to me much faster than any others in my group. This got me thinking, why do they pick on the "smart" kids? Just because we understand what we were being taught and picked it up is grounds to bully us? Maybe it was them thinking we were weird or just different. I'm not sure.

What do you think escapists?

* I am by no means calling myself smart ( Before you think I'm arrogant ), hell Science was one of the only subjects I was good at...

EDIT: This is from a UK based school - I understand some of the response are aimed towards the US schools, so to add further discussion, how do US schools differ from UK based schools in terms of bullying and behaviour towards other students?

It's not intelligence they pick on you for, it's the fact that you act like a geeky tosser (presumably). I was quite sharp in middle and high school, but due to the company I kept and the way I acted I got no flak for it.

If you play the role of a weak stereotype, people will go after you. It seems to be instinct, not conscious resentment.

Wait, so your your assuming that it was his attitude, I have seen kids from goth to mr. sunshine respectful man get bullied, so THEY'RE acting like stereotypes as well? Isn't it about the fake popularity bar that goes around, and if you aren't on it, you will be killed off? My schools were hell, praticually because, again, every kid that wasn't these 5 people were emotional wrecks by the end of each year, and when we confront teachers, they do nothing, just SIT there. So your saying that those 5 kids were indivuals that were more complex then the rest? And that the 20 odd kids and me were all stereotypes cloned to be picked off, what?
And what made you think he was a geeky tosser in the first place? I'm more or less asking for answers to WHY you said those things, since from the way you said it, was kinda dickish sounding, could you please, elaborate for me?

 

[FuktLogik]

So my dear escapists...

Here I was, casually surfing the web when a thought struck my mind. I can't remember what it was, but it pulled up the memory of school ( one I dislike ). A lot of you may have experience this too, where the other children will pick on the "smart" kids, for...well? Being smart. I got it most in science, because Physics came to me much faster than any others in my group. This got me thinking, why do they pick on the "smart" kids? Just because we understand what we were being taught and picked it up is grounds to bully us? Maybe it was them thinking we were weird or just different. I'm not sure.

What do you think escapists?

* I am by no means calling myself smart ( Before you think I'm arrogant ), hell Science was one of the only subjects I was good at...

EDIT: This is from a UK based school - I understand some of the response are aimed towards the US schools, so to add further discussion, how do US schools differ from UK based schools in terms of bullying and behaviour towards other students?

It's not intelligence they pick on you for, it's the fact that you act like a geeky tosser (presumably). I was quite sharp in middle and high school, but due to the company I kept and the way I acted I got no flak for it.

If you play the role of a weak stereotype, people will go after you. It seems to be instinct, not conscious resentment.

 

[zehydra]

Because kids will bully other kids for absolutely any reason they can find. Because they're malicious bastards.

Kids? You mean people?