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 Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 6:57 pm
It has always boggled my mind that literacy and education are looked down upon in many social circles, especially during the teen years. I have never understood why excelling academically means you're somehow 'too smart'.
Is there such a thing as too smart?
This doesn't only happen in High School, though the instances of it happening beyond are fewer and less traumatizing.
Once upon a time I was in a Literature class in which we were discussing Eugenic themes in literature. The class was 'Disabilities in Literature' and since the core material was... short, we moved onto movies for material.
After viewing of Gattaca (1997) we were given a prompt about "what would happen if we got rid of all the bad genes".
Now, I wasn't always a Shakespeare quoting grammar-tyrant. I started in the sciences and after a crash with Chemistry, ran to the liberal arts as fast as my little feet could carry me. Thus, I landed in the class and landed with the topic.
My immediate take on the assignment was an argument that even some "bad" genes are good under certain circumstances and eliminating them (assuming it was possible) would not be as easy as swatting flies.
My argument was simple, using the genes which caused sickle cell anemia as my single example. For those not familiar with genetics, Sickle Cell is bad news, but it also gives protection against Malaria (which is also bad news). I'm not discussing my paper in this thread though so... moving on.
I presented my case, citing scientific journals and showing slides. When I was done there was nothing but silence. That silence that told me it went right over their heads- WAY over their heads.
This is college mind you, and I expected my peer group to be able to follow the simplified punnett squares and results without too much difficulty. But they hadn't and while most were respectful afterward, there was a contingency which felt I was obviously some super brain who could levitate desks with her mind. They didn't understand genetics, they didn't understand that not everything was purely 'good' or 'bad'. They just knew I was obviously crazy. It was very... High School.
So even in higher education I found a certain distaste for those who knew too much. The science guys kept to the math, the lit guys kept to the books... One that delved into both? Over achiever... perfectionist, OCD academic, and someone who clearly had no life (who has that sort of time???). It hurt, it sucked, and once again... I just don't understand why it's a bad thing.
That was long winded, sorry about that. Thoughts? Comments? Stories where this happened to you? Or... am I a super brain who can levitate desks with my mind?
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Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:05 am
You're right, there is no such thing as "too smart." I get this all the time, just if I call out a right answer. It actually makes me feel bad about the people that look down on the "smart ones." They can't grasp the simplest concepts so they must alienate you. It's quite sad...
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Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:18 am
ScreamSilently You're right, there is no such thing as "too smart." I get this all the time, just if I call out a right answer. It actually makes me feel bad about the people that look down on the "smart ones." They can't grasp the simplest concepts so they must alienate you. It's quite sad... Amen to that. My Astronomy Honors class for example was filled with people thinking it'd be an easy A class and didn't even know the first thing about semi serious astronomy- it wasn't that easy and they complained and slowed the class down so much that I ended up getting furious with them to the point of calling some of them a waste of space in class. On a side note: the class itself was a good one thanks to the teacher (he's actually the number one high school science teacher in the nation), and he once joked to some of the girls who wished to babysit his child that he could just hire me and I'd end up teaching his daughter everything he didn't know about astronomy. smile
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Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 9:29 pm
ManateeMan ScreamSilently You're right, there is no such thing as "too smart." I get this all the time, just if I call out a right answer. It actually makes me feel bad about the people that look down on the "smart ones." They can't grasp the simplest concepts so they must alienate you. It's quite sad... Amen to that. My Astronomy Honors class for example was filled with people thinking it'd be an easy A class and didn't even know the first thing about semi serious astronomy- it wasn't that easy and they complained and slowed the class down so much that I ended up getting furious with them to the point of calling some of them a waste of space in class. On a side note: the class itself was a good one thanks to the teacher (he's actually the number one high school science teacher in the nation), and he once joked to some of the girls who wished to babysit his child that he could just hire me and I'd end up teaching his daughter everything he didn't know about astronomy. smile I've been in classes like that. It is very annoying when you're in an an honors or AP class and they slow to a crawl to make sure the people who probably would be better off in core can keep up.
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Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 8:27 pm
Thats easy to understand
AP American/Az history (should be diffucult rihgt?)
Groan I was the only one actually passing the class or doing any of the work. I would get 90's or higher and everyone else would get mad cause they got D's or lower.
I dont understand why people do taht why not just crack open a book and read it for yourself? I'm hoping my Honors Physics class wont have anyone like that in there neutral
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Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 8:32 am
Just because I can... There are people who 'look down' on educated people. My mother in law says I act like a snob, I'm pretty sure it's because I read to much in highschool and always use 'better' words than her. She scares me by the way sweatdrop I would say that there is definetly some looking down on people who are educated. It's also hard to become educated. if you live in the boonies.
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Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 8:26 am
Yeah, there is sometimes a bias against people who appear more intelligent. It's called jealousy. When you "act smart" then people who feel stupid convince themselves that you're trying to be better than they are.
That said, while it's not relevant to this phenomena, there is such a thing as being too smart. It's what happens when you think all the time, and can't stop. It happens to me a lot. You end up overthinking something and coming up with extremely complicated answers to simple problems and the like.
It happens a lot when I'm training in the dojo and my teacher yells at me and tells me I'm thinking too much and I need to just do the motions I'm supposed to be doing.
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:17 pm
Most people in my class have always looked at me as the odd kid out, but still exceptionally smart. The school's a bit small so it's hard to be a bully without really getting noticed, so we don't have that sort of thing, but simply speaking often baffles other students.
The thing about other students not understanding the Punnett squares (I'm almost positive that's misspelled...) is a bit ridiculous, though. Even if they don't remember those from high school biology, a simple diagram should be enough, and even then the dominant vs recessive should be easy to understand. I just took biology last year, it's not that complicated.
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:58 pm
I completely emphathize(sp?) with this subject. It always is this way in any of my classes that I find enthralling.
For example: In my psychology, AP English, AP History and Graphic Arts classes last year, I was the kid who knew everything. I set the curve in every one of those subjects and my peers absolutely hated me. (Mostly because I refused to give them direct answers or let them copy my work but heck, I believe that they should do their own work and not mooch off of me.) I tried to help but that never was good enough. Those bastards were just lazy...
Another thing I noticed last year was that if I didn't like the teacher I found absolutely no motivation to work in that subject. Example: I HATE Gym/Health with a passion but last year was cool because I got a new teacher and he was the greatest guy ever. I got an A in that class when in previous years I usually scraped by with a C-.
My question is; does anyone else seem to have this problem? Do you find yourself not liking the teacher so you don't care about the class? (And by not liking the teacher I mean you find that if you don't have any connection with this person, you just become completely apathetic.)
If so how do you deal with it?
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Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 8:01 pm
it's really sad
my aunt and uncle are finishing up their masters degree
and making 16 dollars an hour and strugiling to even get by
there neighbor who never even finished high school
is now making 30 dollers an hour and living fine with no worrys
why is that?
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:14 pm
I think we're getting "ability to learn" mixed up with "will to learn," here.
When I looked at the topic name, I thought this thread was going to involve tragic stories about how people were abused and a**-hacked because they knew a word with more than three consonants. I'm a little disappointed, actually.
Some people are simply incapable of learning things, or of learning things quickly. I imagine that at a College level, most, if not all of the students you (the OP) mentioned could comprehend the nuances of genetics after another couple of hours of detailed instruction.
And then people have mentioned peers that would not read study material and the like. Well, that's on them, ain't it? Lack of ambition's going to ******** them hard down the good 'ol road of life, so why not grab some popcorn or reading material while you wait?
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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 1:58 pm
I think it's due to social context.
I've never found education to be looked down on.
Literally, never.
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Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 4:58 pm
IchigoAmi it's really sad my aunt and uncle are finishing up their masters degree and making 16 dollars an hour and strugiling to even get by there neighbor who never even finished high school is now making 30 dollers an hour and living fine with no worrys why is that? What you said irritates me a little, quite honestly. You're confusing knowledge and intelligence. People can be quite smart even though they never went to school, and conversely, people can manage to finish school and still be fairly stupid. Bill Gates never went to college. While your relatives were in school, their neighbor was probably working his a** off gaining experience and getting promoted. This makes him a desirable candidate for jobs in the field he specialized in. When your aunt and uncle finish their degrees, they may very well be qualified for much higher paying jobs (Depending on their major) but working on a degree isn't the same thing as having one.
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Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 5:19 pm
The closest poll option there was "The 'uneducated' (A little harsh for the fact that they're in college) ones are jealous.", but I don't want to pick that because it's not necessarily the case.
I think it's more that they're intimidated and threatened by people that appear to be far more intellectual, opposed to pure jealousy. Especially because our major attribute over all the creatures around us is our intelligence.
In my mind, there's no point where you can be too smart. Though, with intelligence comes responsibility. I think you have to have a certain amount of wisdom to even out the intelligence, or no good will come of it. There's a point you can reach where you have too much intelligence for your own good, but no support (Wisdom), so you'll just hurt yourself and the people around you.
Life hurts, a simple fact. Try not to let the pain have a huge impact on your life, unless it's positive.
EDIT: For the record, I don't believe educated people are looked down upon much. Of course some do, but that's the same for everything, it's not the problem of the people being educated, but of the person looking down on others.
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Sand From The Future(GTD)
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:49 pm
Too smart, huh?
I think that as the intelligence goes up, other factors like common sense go down.
Just a theory of mine though.
Cause my brother is really smart.
Like, REALLY smart.
But he fails at stuff that I go, "Duh" to.
I dunno, maybe he's just so stupid he's smart.
xd
But anyway, I like answering questions in class.
Especially in my anthro class at Ohio University (the "proper university" that I went to.)
(I got my associate's degree from Hocking College... WOOT!)
I'd taken anthropology classes at Hocking and had really enjoyed them, so I decided to take one at the REAL college.
(Cause you know, those people that only get their associates, they're just there cause they can't hack the real thing)
*eyes roll*
Anyway, I was always the one to raise my hand.
I think THAT'S the thing that people get antsy over.
I'm not someone to sit in the back of the class and let someone else answer for me, even if it's the wrong answer.
I DO believe that there really is no such thing as a stupid question.
(However, there are many inquisitive idiots)
So I'd ask questions when they popped up, and state my opinions on things and everything.
There was actually a point where my professor said, "Okay, someone OTHER than MJ answer this."
Because I KNEW my stuff.
Granted, it was an introductory class, and I'd already taken about THREE at Hocking.... but still.
I think it's intimidation that someone is brave enough to actually speak their mind.
Because seriously, what are we taught since grade school?
Sit down, shut up, ask questions only when necessary.
Take notes and don't question the teacher; teacher knows all.
So when someone DOES break the mold, they just freak out.
Especially someone like me, too.
I LOVE literature and science.
(and by the way, Solarii, I totally understand what you mean by sickle cell and Malaria... we talked about it in anthro class.)
Why NOT combine the two if that's where your passions lay?
I guess I don't understand the whole making fun of someone because they're smart...
I was always ostracized but respected.
I mean, I'm 6'2", a girl, pretty darn hawt (yeah, that sounds bad, but whatever), and outstpoken/intelligent.
People were scared of me in high school cause I KNEW my stuff, and everyone thought that I got straight A's, even though I never did.
Same thing in college.
*shrugs*
It's just another way for people to be mean and categorize people, I think.
Just ignore them, and go out and make your millions.
mrgreen
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