Quick! Bully him, he's smart!

[TheAmazingHobo]

You know, I must be in a very small minority on the Escapist because my time at high school wasn't uniformly bad. I was instantly identified as the year's smart kid (especially when I just went into year 7 (11-12yo's for those outside the UK)), because I attended maths lessons with the sixth-formers.

Thing is, I didn't get any flak for it, instead, I became everyone's go to guy for maths and physics, which was kinda cool (and rather embarrassingly for some of my maths classmates, they occasionally asked for help too), though it left little time for me to do my own work.

That was pretty much my experience.
I usually got to help the slower students, whenever I finished early with my stuff. And mostly, I was appreciated (certainly scored me some invitation I otherwise wouldn´t have gotten). It was also gratifying, as helping others understand something usually is.

But to answer the question of why "smart" kids get bullied so often:
My best guess ? They don´t, at least not unless you are in a shit school, which has failed at building either student-cohesion or an academic spirit.
The once that DO get bullied are usually the ones who are either socially inept or try to make others feel inferior.
But from what I am hearing on the escapist, it might just be that American schools really are the soul-crushing hell-holes you make them out to be.
Or American studens are just more whiny.

 

[Whateveralot]

I was bullied but I'm not sure if I was found smart at that time. I was bright, happy, funny. But probably not particulary smart.

 

[Woodsey]

I was always in the upper boundaries for just about everything throughout school and wasn't bullied once.

Of course, you need to factor in your social abilities (and I was shy for quite a while too so that doesn't necessarily count either) and your level of smugness/arrogance. Because if some of the people on here act the way they claim to in real life, then yeah... no wonder you find/found school a nightmare.

And of course, some people are just unlucky.

This definitely seems to be more of an American thing though.

 

[wilsontheterrible]

Fun fact. In human brain conflict and violence have many of the same effects as sexual gratification such as the release of dopamine in addition to the release of adrenaline. The only difference is that while it takes time for a person to develop the proper outlet for their sexual desires we are born with the ability to derive pleasure from other people's suffering.

Ever wonder why people find violent television, movies, cartoons, video games so entertaining? We like violence and as children it's even easier to get that gratification because the punishments levied against them is disproportionately small compared to to the enjoyment they get from such acts.

People who are smaller, typically loners, or otherwise lacking large groups of friends are seen as the logical targets. I was a chess loving advanced placement student but I was also six feet tall by 5th grade and grew up being beat up by black and white students.

In my experience it's not so much they pick on you because you're smart, they do it because they can, your intellect is just a justification. Two responses are available to those so bullied: Either learn to meet violence with violence or get into a larger group. I did both when I was still in high school but different circumstances merit different responses.

 

[Ratlover]

All it really stems from is how you carry yourself. Do wear thick coke bottle glasses and have a Star Trek pin on your backpack, then your a shining beacon for a bully beat down. Just guessing if somebody is smart and then trying to beat them up is retarded. You have something about you that other people see as weak and there for you are asking for it. Sucks how kids think, but it's how they determine the threat level. Thats why as I got older I started wearing shades all the time because I have a staring problem.

 

[Dectomax]

In my experience the kids who call themselves "smart" are the ones I don't mind seeing bullied. They always seem to be an arrogant bunch, while the more instinctive "idiot" kids take them down a notch.

It's how the system works, if no one made you feel like utter shit then you would walk around full of hot air until you made a poor decision that affects everyone.

Morale of the day: just the right amount of bullying from peers is good for everyone.

I understand about the arrogant kids, but when I was in school ( Years ago ) I was quite open with advice and help, hell even if the kids that used to bully me asked for help I'd work it through with them and make sure they understood it. I'm naturally a helpful person, perhaps too much for my own good sometimes ( Get stuck doing chores all the time...)

 

[Seives-Sliver]

Probably several reasons, it makes the bully feel strong against someone who is smarter against them, they think they won't fight back if they are bullied, or they do it just to make themselves feel better because they aren't learning something as well, just to name a few.

 

[LarenzoAOG]

I was pretty smart as a kid, one of the smartest in my class, I had a friend who was also really smart, he was often bullied and I wasn't. Why? Because he was meek and also kind of small, he didn't stand up to the bullies very often and when he did he it was always verbally, so the dickheads would pick on him because he didn't stand up for himself, I also had a friend who was pretty dumb, he got picked on for the same reason.

The reason I never got picked on was because the first time someone tried to bully me I knocked him down and sat on him, I made it known I wouldn't take any shit and the bullies tended to leave me alone.

 

[Mordekaien]

Well, even though I was bullied not that much (only once or twice they tried,and I made quick work with those cases), I had a special role in my class- I possessed informations- for some people considered valuable. Like who will be missing, when will be the test, who said what about whom and so on. Most of my classmates let me at peace, so when they'll want to know something, I will provide them.
Aaaah, good times

 

[Slick Samurai]

In my experience the kids who call themselves "smart" are the ones I don't mind seeing bullied. They always seem to be an arrogant bunch, while the more instinctive "idiot" kids take them down a notch.

It's how the system works, if no one made you feel like utter shit then you would walk around full of hot air until you made a poor decision that affects everyone.

Morale of the day: just the right amount of bullying from peers is good for everyone.

In my experience, the dumb ones are much more arrogant than the nerds. I guess it's just different schools, different cultures, different everything - you really can't generalise.

I'm not referring to school culture, I'm referring to human culture. There were people in history who were never talked down to. People like princes. The princes were peerless, literally royalty. One day they became kings, but sometimes tyrants.

Peasants fed off one another, lowly townspeople with no where to go but up. They had people to encourage, and people to submit to. In the end, they led lives as farmers and merchants. They could never become kings, but they would also never become tyrants.

I take it you've been bullied before, the pain of knowing someone despises you hurts. But you cannot say you would be where you are now if it weren't for those bullies. They made you who you are as much as your parents or your heroes. A bittersweet aspect of anyone's lives.

 

[staika]

I don't know about everyone else but I had a very different experience, I was a very quiet smart kid in high school and I was one of the more popular kids for reasons I can't fathom. What would happen is that every class I took I would start out as the quiet kid and in two weeks I was one of the most popular kids in the class that everyone wanted to talk to. The thing was while I was quiet I just never started conversations but I am very talkative once I get started and I believe that's what everyone wanted that and I was very generous with helping everyone in class.

 

[VegetaPrinceofSaiyans]

I share your experience, all throughout middle school I was a smart kid who was targeted by those who found the need to prove themselves superior(thoroughly proving that humans are indeed no better than common animals) Admittedly, some of that was brought on by my own sarcastic ways. I have never been able to tolerate stupid people(ex: random dumb girl that causes the teacher to stop and repeat himself 5 times and repeatedly asks him to slow down because she can't manage to keep up with her texting while having to take notes)and there were definitely times where I ended up calling people out on their stupidity and basically punked them in front of the entire class. (Hence the partially self inflicted part) but after putting up with that bullshit for 3 years, when high school started I just sat in the back, put my head down, tending to only awaken from my slumber in the event of a test or some other major grade, do said assignment, receive an A or B on said assignment, then return to my psuedo-catatonic state. basically I was the cliche very smart but incredibly lazy(moreso caused by my one friend introducing me to the joys of Marijuana in 10th year) video game and anime loving nerd that would sit in the back and either sleep or draw all period.

TLR kids are dicks, but sometimes the smart ones cause(at least partially) their own suffering

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

In my experience people didn't pick on smart kids, they picked on weird kids who thought they were smart and let everyone know they thought they were smart by being a dick about it. Everyone in the classroom already didn't want to be there, and this ***** was basically thinking everyone around him was a caveman. We knew this because his shirt declared it sarcastically. When time for colleges came around, they bragged about applying to Yale or MIT while everyone else with realistic goals were applying locally or in Athens or Atlanta. Then as the school would list seniors and what schools they were accepted into, they were mysteriously missing.

The real smart kids were all athletic, pretty, and stayed in their own close-knit group making little inside jokes about math and this one teacher or band camp all the way through high school. They became friends simply because their entire regimented life was encapsulated by the school and their parents. I only saw them because I took a few AP and college courses with them. They were good people, just so closed off. You could never really get to be their friend because their only friends were people they hung out with since Kindergarten.

 

[Doclector]

Anyone different from the norm is a target to them. They exist only to make an attempt at wiping out individualism in the cruellest possible manner. If most people around you ain't smart, then the smart are the target. If most people around you are tall, the short are the target. They have no real reasoning to this, they just do it. Personally I believe them not far removed from animals. Animals that would be culled for being too vicious. Usually, in society cruel things happen for some evolutionary reason, but bullies have no reason, no purpose.

 

[VladBlok28]

ACTUALLY, studies have shown that there is no direct corelation between success at school subjects and likeliness to be bullied.

Instead, what makes kids susceptible to bullying is lack of social skills (and social reasoning), compared to the bullies who *always* have well above average social cognition.

The "smart kid gets bullied" is a stereotype. It is not unknown for bulles to be successful at school and bullied kids to also be unsuccessful at school. (talk about a bad combination)

 

[nukethetuna]

In my experience, the kids that were bullied weren't the ones that were smart, necessarily. They were the ones that were introverted. However, introverts often prefer things that are equated with being nerdy, and therefore intelligence (i.e. books, dnd, vidya games, etc), so it might seem like it's the smart kids who were bullied, when in reality it was the ones with less social aptitude. Introverted people seem less confident, and seem like easier targets as well.

 

[Kurokami]

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?

To be frank, in New Zealand I feel the 'popular' kids and such are simply those who have decent social skills and looks. Being smart often appeared to be a bonus, as well. Yes, there are some 'nerds' who had people talk behind their backs and insult them and such... But in high school that was just about everyone. The only real distinction was social skills, and I don't think being outcast for that is difficult to comprehend. Maybe I was just lucky to go to my school.

 

[WanderingFool]

Bullies tend to pick on smart kids to compensate for not being as smart.

 

[teqrevisited]

In my experience it was nothing to do with intelligence. Pre-existing friend groups from former schools stuck together and depending on how well they got on with other groups they'd annoy each other or have an uneasy alliance. For example, in the top classes I knew people who hung around with those in the lower classes.

I wasn't particularly high on the popularity ladder, but we got on with each other. The people that didn't know me didn't attempt to cause any trouble because they thought I was dangerous. Not saying a great deal and being tall is a winning combination.

 

[Da pyro man 999]

I don't really know why, i was picked on at school because i was fat. But, after a while, i turned from fat into ball of muscle and all my problems cleared up.