Much the same with me. I remained on friendly terms with a large amount of people, and try my best to make people laugh. I think that the people around school liked me too much to bully me.poppabaggins said:
Quick! Bully him, he's smart!
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I didn't get teased cause I was smart, I gotten tease cause I was fat.
I DID manage to get back at them though, who knew you could trick kids into believing Cthulu was real?
I DID manage to get back at them though, who knew you could trick kids into believing Cthulu was real?
This guy is totally right. Im willing to bet that at some time you were rude to them after they picked on you right? The "nerds" tend to view retaliation as bulling. I am very close to the top of my class and I get along great with everyone. What I see is the smart person being mean and being upset at the retaliation. Also, not to be mean, but I know a lot of smart people who are quiet and people pick on quiet kids because they can come off as cold if their shyness is taken as rudeness. But who knows maybe its just the school I'm from.RaNDM G said:
Bullies pick on ANYONE they can, for whatever reason they can. They bully the smart, the not-so-smart, the pretty, the ugly - anyone they think who can't stand up for themselves, or anyone who attracts attention for being different.
In my school there were plenty of smart people who were not bullied - why? Because they were also tall and pretty gosh-darn athletic. Some smart people were bullied, but that was usually because they looked like they could be.
I hate to say it, but with some people you can just tell, with one, glance: yep, they'll be bullied. If they are quiet, soft-spoken, and they aren't built like a truck, chances are some bully will try to pick on them. Usually, smart people who focus on academic work are soft-spoken, quiet and unfit - that is one of the reasons why they are mostly picked on.
Also, academically gifted students can tend to lord their skills over the students who are not so good at academic work. One student in particular in my 10th grade mathematics class was pretty good at math, and would derisively refer to anyone who wasn't as a "slow-boy" or "slow-girl". He wasn't too popular after that. It's a myth that all the athletes are all the bullies - I've met enough academic bullies both during school and after - they just tend to use passive-aggressive behaviour, trash-talking, rumours and sabotage to bully their victims.
Also, people who do well at school academically also tend to behave better in class. Bullies hate rule-followers for a reason I could never quite understand.
But by and large, bullying is not due to how intelligent someone is - it's due to how easy a target they are perceived to be. I've seen bullies pick on the smart kids by calling them "egg-heads", "squares" or what have you, but then turn around and pick on the learning-disabled kids by calling them "Retards" "dumb-asses" or "morons" or what have you. A bully will pick on ANYONE who is 1) Perceived to be an easy target and 2) Different enough from themselves to find insults for.
In my school there were plenty of smart people who were not bullied - why? Because they were also tall and pretty gosh-darn athletic. Some smart people were bullied, but that was usually because they looked like they could be.
I hate to say it, but with some people you can just tell, with one, glance: yep, they'll be bullied. If they are quiet, soft-spoken, and they aren't built like a truck, chances are some bully will try to pick on them. Usually, smart people who focus on academic work are soft-spoken, quiet and unfit - that is one of the reasons why they are mostly picked on.
Also, academically gifted students can tend to lord their skills over the students who are not so good at academic work. One student in particular in my 10th grade mathematics class was pretty good at math, and would derisively refer to anyone who wasn't as a "slow-boy" or "slow-girl". He wasn't too popular after that. It's a myth that all the athletes are all the bullies - I've met enough academic bullies both during school and after - they just tend to use passive-aggressive behaviour, trash-talking, rumours and sabotage to bully their victims.
Also, people who do well at school academically also tend to behave better in class. Bullies hate rule-followers for a reason I could never quite understand.
But by and large, bullying is not due to how intelligent someone is - it's due to how easy a target they are perceived to be. I've seen bullies pick on the smart kids by calling them "egg-heads", "squares" or what have you, but then turn around and pick on the learning-disabled kids by calling them "Retards" "dumb-asses" or "morons" or what have you. A bully will pick on ANYONE who is 1) Perceived to be an easy target and 2) Different enough from themselves to find insults for.
I'm going to call bullshit on your all parents in Ohio want their kids to go college on a sports scholarship and hate all that fancy book learn'n . This is a ridiculous idea that can be disproved by the simple fact that colleges in southern Ohio have remained open and functioning. The simple fact that there are colleges in Ohio shows that enough people in Ohio want an education to keep the place from financial collapse. It's possible that you have been pushed to go for a sports scholarship because whoever thinks that's your best chance at a college education.Arluza said:
I used to get bullied when I was at school for being smart (Well, more than the idiots I had to deal with) until they realised I fought back. I remember some guy pushing me into a wall because I 'outsmarted' him in History (By which I mean he didn't know when New Zealand was first discovered (Live in New Zealand), and I did). I was already sick and tired of all the horse-cockery I had been receiving from everyone for numbers of reasons, so I responded by bouncing off the wall, grabbing him by his shirt and throwing him to the ground with a rather wonderful death-metal scream, which somewhere contained me telling him to fuck off.
Many of my years at school were absolute shithouse, but the last couple of years were somewhat better.
Many of my years at school were absolute shithouse, but the last couple of years were somewhat better.
Don't kid yourself, you weren't picked on because of your intelligence or interest in science. You were bullied because you were a social outlier.Dectomax said:
I don't know you so this is all speculation but maybe you were seen as a try-hard, a goody two-shoes, or teachers pet; maybe you didn't have a "normal" sense of humor; maybe you were particularly non-athletic; maybe you were on the uglier sides.
A close friend was quite popular in elementary and high school and he is one of the smartest people I've known. Personally, I am relatively smart(80's in 2nd year uni without having to slave over school) and my interest has always been science yet I've never been the victim of real bulling; obviously there has been times when fun was made at my expense but not more than normal.
Simply being smart rarely attracts bullies, it's how you ACT that determines how people treat you.
I'm glad one person in this thread actually struck on the real reason people are bullied. It was your lack of natural social awareness that caused you to be bullied as a kid. Acquiring that understanding and being able to communicate amicably with other human beings (and understanding why people might react negatively when you say or do something) is a skill to be trained, rather than something to be scorned.fundayz said:
Assuming that the root cause of the problem is fundamentally outside your control effectively ensures that you'll never succeed in that area. You weren't maligned by your peers because you were a good student, but rather because of how you made them feel through your words and actions.
It is easier to blame others than admitting our own words and behaviour can bring problems down on ourselves, no?derkis said:
Is it fair that those who deviate from the norm are made fun of or excluded? Not at all, but that is the way human society works and resigning yourself to a life of social maladjustment is not going to make it any easier.
Reason 1: You are different. ANY difference counts as grounds for bullying.
Reason 2: To a lesser, more subtle reason, jealousy, perhaps.
Reason 2: To a lesser, more subtle reason, jealousy, perhaps.
From what i've observed, its the smart kids who go after the less intelligent ones at my school,
because they see them selves as superior to the "dull minded idiots" so they can do whatever they want to them.
I'm one of the less intelligent people (more because i am lazy) but they know not to mess with me because i'll make their life hell.
because they see them selves as superior to the "dull minded idiots" so they can do whatever they want to them.
I'm one of the less intelligent people (more because i am lazy) but they know not to mess with me because i'll make their life hell.
This guy, right here. In my experience, it was usually the smart guys who were also total pricks/really weird and annoying who were picked on. Not saying that that's always the case (since people can be complete bastards for no reason), but that's the most likely answer.Sneaky-Pie said:
I was a dumbass in school but I was still bullied. Asshole parents have asshole kids, that's all there is to it.
How Socratic of you.RaNDM G said:
I always figured the smart kids get picked on because the "dumber" kids feel inferior. However, intelligence is a hard to define thing, and each person has something they understand and do well.
Well said! This pretty much sums up my experience, the teachers siding with me and trusting me. However, I realised when I was 13 or so, that I really were acting badly and they really had reason for acting like they did (no physical bullying, only verbal (mental)).zarghul said:
I tried to change how I acted, and believe I succeeded to some extent, but there was still one wouldn't let off (still bugs me why he did it). Some of them, I believe, didn't realise that their actions actually harmed someone, but when that was made clear, they stopped. Just to be clear, I do not believe that you acting smugly is the only reason someone might bully you, but it's probably the most prevalent one.
My friends, however, were still acting kind of smugly about themselves (I probably did too, without realising, but if so to a lesser extent), and they were bullied a much longer time than I were, but I believe it stopped after some time too.
Just for information, I was pretty smart, but I was not at all good at practical application (theoretical subjects are my strong side, especially language).
If any Escapist finds that I am acting arrogantly/smugly or somehow disrespects someone, please do inform me! I am doing my very best to become a better person, so any help is very welcome.
People consider me smarter than I actually am, they ask me ridiculous questions expecting me to know the answer to everything. To be fair I very rarely say 'I don't know' I usually have a pretty good educated guess haha.
I've never been bullied because of it though as I'm notoriously fast-witted so most people don't try to put me down as they are quite aware I can do it them but better and faster. I'm also 'The Entertainer' of the group so it's sort of a reverse where the supposed geek is the alpha.
I've never been bullied because of it though as I'm notoriously fast-witted so most people don't try to put me down as they are quite aware I can do it them but better and faster. I'm also 'The Entertainer' of the group so it's sort of a reverse where the supposed geek is the alpha.