But can they still sleep with them?

submitter told not not proof read his submissions.

My teacher called me clever...but that's because I'd discovered how to remove her bra without so much as a tug on the clasp.

Did anyone notice the foobies link accidentally placed here a few minutes ago and then quickly removed?

Or is my subconscious telling me something?

I saw the Foobies link too...now we need blurry photographic evidence to prove it.

I wonder if Dubya calls them "dorkesses".

tortilla burger: I wonder if Dubya calls them "dorkesses".

'Dorkular'.

The foobies link (involving Charleze Theron, rowwrr) probably got taken down for NSFW reasons. At least it should have. Yow.

Lord I love me some Theron! My fave African actress!

Does clever mean something else in the UK than in the US?

"A culture has developed that mocks being clever. We should fight it. Change the language we use."

Ann Nuckley, from a South London college, said image-conscious pupils refused to collect prizes from ceremonies.

"Image-conscious" students? God forbid you take your prize for excellence if someone might mock you for being good at something. No wonder UK students are getting dumber. (The US as well.)

Oh my god.

The actually gave them their pudding without eating their meat.

WHY did they give them their pudding if they didn't eat their meat???

How's that working out for you?

It gets you beaten up more if you teacher calls you clever... not so much embarrassing as painful.

/speaking from experience
//have a slashy
///and another! I'm so generous :)

So a double negative means positive, right?

So they're calling them clever?

/I'm clever for being the umpteenth person to mention it

Refer to them as persons of expansive intellect.

The dumb ones will simply furrow their brows in a vain attempt to understand.

wpmulligan


One of my favorite Simpson quotes.

I believe "dork" is a unisex term. Women have free and equal access to all the social isolation, scorn, wierd mannerisms, and escapist fantasy that contemplative men enjoy. So, pull up a chair women and help yourselves to some of this here elf porn... here's some tissues... um, I guess you don't use those...

*snort*

TFA: Delegate Simon Smith, from Rayleigh, said: "A culture has developed that mocks being clever. We should fight it. Change the language we use."

Fight the Power! Or don't, I'm confused.

RichMeatyTaste: One of my favorite Simpson quotes.

I couldn't remember the exact quote, but I think I got the jist of it.

Sure beats "Your a friggin Moran who will do little or nothing in your miserable tragic life"

Professor Wormbog, that's pretty clever, but I wonder if some PC mom will sue over it.

Yesterday, a government spokesman said that it wasn't one of the union's best ideas.

I have to say, I've never had a problem being called clever.

Fits right in with the "my kid beat up your honor student" bumper stickers. Every time I see one of those, the rise of W makes more sense. As does the success of lottery programs.

submitter should be embarrassed with his own proofreading ability.

And yes, I know this is in England. It would seem they're heading in the same direciton.

NO NO NO NO NO!



For god's sake, the right thing to do to combat anti-intellectualism is NOT to change your language. It' to not let the buggers bring you down. For god's sake. Don't let the farking kids think the adults, the supposedly intelligent adults who teach, are in on the anti-intellectual vibe too. For god's sake will nobody stand their ground against the forces of stupidity and "cool"?

I lack the ability to read the article without envisioning John Cleese in the role of that goofball doing the talking. I'm sure I'd have more control of it if the substance of his remarks made more sense, but, alas.

So "clever" is out, then. Are we still good with "brilliant"?

These kids are just becomming less and less prepared for the harshness of the real world.

How so? I mean sure, countries like Japan, South Korea, India, etc. promote learning and education, but they're not exactly the economic powerhouses that the UK and the USA are... I mean, we're Americans for fark's sake! We always were, and always will be, inherantly superior to all other countries and creeds! The happenstance of being born in a certain geo-political area trumps any sort of fancy "education" that these poor deluded countries are wasting their time on...

B.J. McKay: The happenstance of being born in a certain geo-political area trumps any sort of fancy "education"

I thought it was because Jesus loves the US of A more than he loves the other countries.

ALL of this stems from the stupid policies they have where instead of sorting classes by ability, they throw all the kids into the same class.

What happens in a UK state school:

You want to learn? No chance - you are in the same class as the idiots who just disrupt lessons and will threaten you just because they can.

You are a geek - you get beaten up.

You don't fit in - you get beaten up.

You win anything except a sport award - you get beaten up.

Spot the trend?

Schools should just stop drawing attention to people. For example, like learning at school? Got 100% attendance? Guess what? Some genius at the school thinks it's a good idea to read out your name at assembly (believe it or not schools in the UK are legally bound to hold an assembly every week and it must have some form of religious bias) or call you up for a prize.

Guess what happens afterwards? You get beaten up.

The clever kids sabotage their own attendance to avoid things like this.

School in the UK is what one imagines prison to be like - unless you are able to beat everyone up, you should do nothing to draw attention to yourself or risk unwanted attention from the arseholes that you are forced to go to school with.

I'm all for this not drawing attention to the smarter kids (as lets be honest, they are typically not the violent ones) but the real problem as I see it is that they should sort by ability.

They're quite right, being called the smartest kid in class in front of everywhere is often a prelude to a playground beating or at least a playground.... um... ostracizing.

Screw that. I tell my students they're clever if they deserve it. It's not as if I mock the ones who don't get it either. Why are some people convinced kids fall to pieces at the slightest provocation?

ah fark it. dumb kids may beat the smart kids up in school, but once you graduate, the dumb kids will be pumping your gas and picking up your garbage.

One of the biggest jock assholes from my school that used to give me a hard time now picks up the trash my parents leave on the curb in my hometown. He's got a nice beer gut and looks like shiat. Meanwhile I'm getting paid for clicking buttons on a mouse in an air conditioned office.

It was a good experience for me as a person, I learned a lot about people and it all worked out in my favor in the end.

My old school district (this is in the United States) no longer has Valedictorians at graduation. Why? Because the school board doesn't want to make the kids who didn't make Valedictorian feel bad.

Morons.

my kids had creative ways to not get around that "geeky smart kid" label. my daughter dressed goth and dated really scary drug dealers and made it a point to fail a test once in a while. my son convinced everyone in his high school that he was a violent psycho and they were all afraid of him. (the really brilliant kids are so far underground you never notice they are smart) American high schools are vast wastelands of ignorance and violence. my advice: test out early and get into community college. get the grades and transfer to the college of your choice after a few years.

My high school wouldn't let us have honors classes because, "it would make the people in the regular class feel bad." After four years of parents threatening to sue (we all knew it was an empty threat, all of us were poor), they added honors classes the year after I graduated.

I completely agree with sorting by ability. Even in college I'm being held back by the morons that just can't comprehend basic engineering problems and refuse to become business majors.

The valedictorians at my high school were chosen by student vote, not by academic performance. Their speeches, apparently, have been rated as prime yearbook material, something akin to "inside joke!!1, Good times in Toronto, I'll miss every one of you" material.

In University, my housemates and I love to draw distinctions between genuinely brilliant students and the "weasels" - students who ask every question, contest every point, and when they're laughed out of the lecture hall, mutter things like "The world's not ready for me", or "I think too much". Everyone has them.

ShannonKW

So grab your dick and double-click!

Sure the smart/dorkly kids aren't the violent ones. Until they have been beat upon and ridiculed enough, see that the authority does not really care, and find that most of the other students support the douche bags doing it. So they lash out with homemade pipe bombs and hunting rifles. Of course we all know that Doom and Quake are the real culprits here, not an indifferent school policy that like althetics better becuase it gives the school and admins more money.

If the clever are called successful, then only the successful will be clever.

/what?

went to a public HS (USA) for my freshman year. The place was crowded, had almost 2000 students, and all they really taught was "learn this, it'll be on your [state run standardized test]". They didnt have enough honors classes for the students who didnt want to share a classroom with the whitetrash mulleted kids, so they randomly selected students to get into honors programs rather than adding another section. Sadly, this is one of the "good" schools in the state. Since then, despite the fact that they've got little more than a mass produced education there, they're making plans to make the school the largest in the state of Michigan.

went to the local catholic school and never looked back.

Professor Wormbog: My dad's a high school math teacher, and sometimes before he gives an exam he'll have two bowls on his desk; one filled with Smarties, and one with Dum Dums, and he lets the students choose their own treat based upon how they think they'll do.


Your dad sounds like a cool teacher. :)

wingnut396

Sure the smart/dorkly kids aren't the violent ones. Until they have been beat upon and ridiculed enough, see that the authority does not really care, and find that most of the other students support the douche bags doing it. So they lash out with homemade pipe bombs and hunting rifles. Of course we all know that Doom and Quake are the real culprits here, not an indifferent school policy that like althetics better becuase it gives the school and admins more money.

School admins like athletics more than academics because really, if you were all that smart yourself would you become an administrator of a high school?

BlindMan
School admins like athletics more than academics because really, if you were all that smart yourself would you become an administrator of a high school?

BWHAHAHA, well played.

Nobody likes a clever trousers!

I guess it's sort of ironic because all the geeks that are clever in computers or or clever about writing or clever in music or clever about video production are going to end up redifining what's cool in the future for the double digit IQ spawn of the kids that are teasing them now.

I love having the perspective I have right now because whenever I return to my hometown I inevitably see some dickwad who thought he was all that in high school hauling around his beer gut, his trashy wife and his three mouthbreathing kids. I would be so disappointed if I had lived the best years of my life between the ages of 13-18...

I had just moved to Mullingar Ireland. I was doing well in my drafting class. The teacher held up my work and said something like "Look at this, he's only been here for a month and he's doing better than most of you". It totally shocked me. I figured I'd be reciving a "scrum" as they called it. Scrums consisted of the class hitting and kicking one person for "a laugh".

My High School had the Honor list and the High Honors list. I dressed in the heavy metal shirts with denim and leather and still consistantly made the High Honors list.

From last class reunion, I was one of the few who hadn't done jail time, had a good paying job, didn't have a crack habit or ballooned out to 500+lb.