[crooked-v]

I still remember eighth grade and the teacher who used the 'smart' kids of the advanced math classes as an excuse to not actually bother teaching anything and make it all 'self study'. My math grade went from a solid A to a D in the course of one semester because I couldn't just figure it out myself from the book.

[DoreenMichele]

I was one of the "smart kids" the teachers held up as an example. It made me a target of rampant hatred and helped to socially isolate me at school.

It's part of why I walked away from a National Merit Scholarship and dropped out of college at age 20.

[barry-cotter]

“Look at Tim, he’s 16 and already 6’ tall. Why can’t the rest of you actually try to be tall, like Tim. You’re just slacking, sitting there at only 5’4”.”

[DoreenMichele]

Yes. Only more like "I'm such an amazing teacher, that's why he's so tall. But you slackers aren't even trying and it's making me look bad!"

I was the youngest kid at home and I learned to read at age four because my long-suffering, doting older sister reread me the same book a jillion times at my insistence. The poor woman could still quote the book in her forties.

Most of what I knew had nothing whatsoever to do with school.

Plus, it winds up being code for "You should all beat him up in the bathroom every chance you get!"

Gee, thanks.

(No, I was not literally beaten up in the bathroom.)