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From: woods@hao.UUCP (Greg Woods)
Newsgroups: net.singles,net.social
Subject: Re: Intelligence
Message-ID: <1571@hao.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Jun-85 14:44:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: hao.1571
Posted: Mon Jun  3 14:44:05 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 4-Jun-85 08:08:47 EDT
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Organization: High Altitude Obs./NCAR, Boulder CO
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> While it's true that intelligence may be more highly valued among many adults,
> it's also true that the kids at the fringes of the group (both ends of the
> normal curve) often get treated rather shabbily.

  This is a very accurate observation, and applies to other attributes equally
well as it does to intelligence. The only exception to this seems to be
athletic ability among males, where the better you are, the more you are
respected in a linear relationship. (Is there a female equivalent to this? 
While I recognize that females participate in sports too, there doesn't seem
to be the social "pecking order" among girls based on athletic ability as
there is among the boys)
   I speak from experience, having been one of those "smartest kid in the class"
types and also a "Fat Albert" type (heavy, slow, and poor at sports) when I
was in high school. The only difference between someone who suffered this kind
of ostracism and those who didn't is that it takes my kind longer to "grow up".
(For example, I didn't have my first girlfriend until I was 24. Most people
have their first SO in high school or college). I think adolescents are 
extremely cruel, primarily because they have not yet learned to see the world
through someone else's viewpoint.
  But I often get the "last laugh" on the jocks who seemed to get such a kick
out of making my life miserable in those days. Most of them are married (or
divorced), and have kids and other heavy responsibilities, and do not seem to
be as happy with their lives as I am with mine.

--Greg
-- 
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