<p>I am wondering if being a "nerd" or "geek" is getting a lot more respect than it used to. In my HS days, ('70's) being "popular" meant playing football, cheerleading, drinking, etc. Generally, the nerds or geeks were looked down on, made fun of, stuffed in lockers by the jocks, and some of them even dummied themselves down in order to be accepted. Now, it seems that the geeks rule. I see the trend on television and in movies, as well. Is this just at my D's HS, or is this happening across the board?</p>
<p>My son and his friends proudly refer to themselves as geeks. According to them, geeks run the world now. Geeks make the best music, start the best companies, have the most fun being geeky together. </p>
<p>I don't think it's this way at all schools or even for all kids at my son's school but compared to my high school experience (80s), there seems to be more room for geeks to be proud of who they are and like themselves.</p>
<p>As my kids transitioned through hs, I noticed an interesting (to me, anyway) phenomenon. In freshman and sophomore years, the cool kids were the ones who partied and took chances, and no one paid attention to grades except the nerdy kids. Near the end of junior year and into senior year, the coolness seemed to reverse: Suddenly, when all the talk focussed on college and graduation, all the nerdy kids who had taken their grades seriously and had some amazing choices were suddenly the popular ones.</p>
<p>I think kids today just care less and are a bit more tolerant. There is a LBGT group on ds's campus, and it's totally cool. In my days, NO ONE came out, and if they did they'd get the crap beat out of them.</p>
<p>It's better today.</p>
<p>I have a mix among my kids from my geeky engineer to my oh so social athlete. What I've seen compared to my high school days is that each found a clique that they were fully comfortable in.</p>
<p>But if you watch Friday Night Lights, I'd question whether this is the same in areas that are not cosmopolitan.</p>
<p>I don't think geeks are anymore "popular" these days, at least at my kids' school. That said, I think in general all the kids care more about their grades which mixes up the kids in the advanced classes (geeks, the hipsters , the band kids, the jocks and whatever other subsets exist). In the seventies at my school, the only kids that cared about their grades and were in the college track classes were the geeks and the band kids and maybe a couple of the jocks. Each subset seems to be comfortable and my kids say its all cool. The kids today seem to move more comfortably through high school than in my day. That said, I agree that there are regional differences. I remember my college roommate from an entirely different part of the country talking about the "freaks" at her HS...we didn't have any of that "classification" at my HS. I agree, I think it's better today.</p>
<p>At my high school ppl have groups, basically you hang out with people in your group but all the AP kids know each other. The AP people don't really know the non-AP people unless they take an elective or something so I am not exactly sure how others view the "geeks". My class size for senior year is like 495 so it probably has to do with the size.</p>
<p>its cool to be smart and popular. some of the kids at my school show up to class high, drink on the weekends, get high, yet maintain 4.0+ GPA's and score 2250+ on the SAT's. but its kinda true that being dumb isn't really cool anymore, i'm not saying geeks are getting mad girls and ****, but a lot of my AP classes are full of popular kids that do well as well as party and chill hardcore</p>
<p>Mathson made on effort to be part of any crowd. My younger son when I asked something similar didn't feel that there was a particular crowd that would be labeled "popular". His particular crowd seems to run to music and history APs. I don't think they are drinking or doing drugs. I am told that in my older son's year there were kids who felt it necessary to both be smart and drink, but my son wasn't one of them. He marched to his own drummer - very much on the periphary of a small geeky group.</p>
<p>I think Bay is spot on. It really transitions as you get older as the focus changes from fitting in and finding out where morning assembly is to where your friends are going to school. </p>
<p>What is that quote? </p>
<p>...."Be nice to geeks. Chances are you'll end up working for one."</p>
<p>Go Geeks.</p>
<p>Most of the self-proclaimed "geeks" are really just popular kids calling themselves geeks in order to be popular.</p>
<p>Basically, there are two different paths to popularity now - the traditional route (football, cheerleading, drinking, etc.) and the geek-hipster route (Starbucks culture).</p>
<p>WhirledPeas - It may seem that way now, but in the '70s we were observing the world through teenage eyes and today we're in a stage of life during which the geeks tend to get their due rewards. I wonder if your highschooler would agree with your perception that geeks rule.</p>
<p>BTW, there has always been a phenomenon that pulling off geekiness with a certain flair is the height of popularity. RIP Buddy Holly on the 50th anniversary of the week the music died.</p>
<p>I have a mix too...one nerdy , creative , intelligent and self-proclaimed geek.
The other science oriented, sorority , busy social butterfly. They are friends with each other's friends of all types. I think they were all too busy with their own pursuits and interests once in HS to be judging others for being nerds or populars</p>
<p>S gave his senior speech (a big deal at his school) about how the cliques of highschool really dont do justice to defining people and by either 1) believing it or 2) defining yourself by it leaves a lot of oneself behind. He is a great athlete, but at the same time he is a really smart kid and once had his AP teacher help him set up a date where they dissected cow eyes after school! It IS possible to be both athletic and geeky without just calling yourself that, but you have to be willing to step outside your comfort zone and show all parts of yourself to others. Some people do that better than others. </p>
<p>All of this said, I will agree that it is probably a little easier to be oneself these days, but on the other hand the pressure to do it ALL so well was never like this in my day. And the stakes never seemed as high either.</p>
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Generally, the nerds or geeks were looked down on, made fun of, stuffed in lockers by the jocks, and some of them even dummied themselves down in order to be accepted.
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<p>Oh, some of that still goes on, trust me. However, geek subculture has become pretty strong. And I feel like by high school people are growing up a bit. Middle school is where things are bad.</p>
<p>In D's school they never really labeled anybody with any kind of label. At the same time nobody ever knew much about academic stands and so worth. D graduated at the top of her class and pointed out many times that nobody in her class knew that she would and they never discussed academics / grades anyway. It probably depends on school. D went to very small (whole HS 9 thru 12 grades was about 160 kids) private school that always placed 100% of graduates into 4 years colleges.</p>
<p>Our local HS is in a very high end area, very large and every activity is very competitive...sports, academics, speech, band, etc. You have to be the "best" to be a part of it. They cut from the speech team, sports teams and choirs. There are good bands and choirs and poor bands and choirs. Being smart and competitive in a particular area is "cool". That being said there is still a divide among the kids. Everyone is smart, no one has bad teeth or acne (Thanks to orthodontists and dermatologists!). Geeks are indeed popular as long as they have good social skills. Even within the AP classes there are those who get together for study groups and those who aren't asked because of personality/social skills differences. So around here some geeks are in but not all. sigh....</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>I laugh because the students in D's class are so much like the students in my own class from the 70's. I really don't think kids change much from generation to generation, and most of the kids are OK. I do feel that the students respect their academically inclined peers more these days, however the administration still caters to the jocks and popular kids.</p>
<p>It appears the geeks are more readily accepted into campus life these days. My S is thankful he's on varsity water polo/swim team, which dials back his geekiness level quite a bit (and he's not so geeky socially, just intellectually.) </p>
<p>Still, the kids in school are well aware of the pecking order with academics. Last year, I went in to pay for the yearbook and the girl taking my check asked the other one "Isn't XX the guy who took AP Calc BC as a sophomore?" The other said, "Yeah, I had him in others classed. He's REALLY smart."</p>
<p>Info gets to other parents from the kids. I went to a water polo practice once, and one of the mothers who I didn't know well starts chatting about how well XX does in math, and it's so nice that he helps tutor the other kids on the team, etc. etc."</p>
<p>Sorry to burst everyone's bubble but not at the HS my kids attend. In fact this is homecoming week and every time they nominate one kid who is a geek as a joke. This year the parent of the boy sees my D and I at the pretty regularly. She keeps asking my D (who is not a popular or a geek) for information about homecoming. It's sad to see how happy she is for her kid and how she has no idea the whole thing is a joke.
Ugh. High School.</p>