All of my life, I’ve been a “smart kid”. And it sucks. Because when you’re the “smart kid”, that’s all anyone ever notices about you. Us “smart kids” live under tons of pressure: people telling us we should be doctors, lawyers, world-changers, break-through scientists. I’ve heard it all. But apparently, people feel like it’s okay to put tons of pressure on smart kids because we can “handle it”. And no one ever thinks that maybe we don’t want to be a doctor or a lawyer. We have our own dreams, and other talents as well besides academics.
Let me tell you what growing up a “smart kid” is like. First of all, unless you get really lucky, your teacher has problems with you. They may love you, they may hate you. But you cause a problem. Because you are already way ahead of the class, and so you have to be taught differently. Some of us deal with it by being bored and not doing any work at all because it’s so dadgum easy. I’ve been that kid. Some of us get all of our work done super fast, because it’s so easy, and then sit around by ourselves bored. I’ve been that kid too. The worst scenario I’ve had to deal with is the teacher announcing to the class how smart I was or how well-done my work was. The consequences? I was bullied through most of elementary school.
My own scenario was already bad because I went to private schools from second grade until finally going to a State University my sophomore year of college (one of the best decisions I’ve ever made). So the vast majority of my peers in public schools already thought I was a prick. However, even in the private school setting, I was a “smart kid” – which earned me good grades, yes, but no real friends because of the teachers. The only “friends” I had really just wanted me to do their homework for them, with a couple of very appreciated exceptions. There were no honors societies to group us “smart kids” together so we’d have friends at our own level.
Don’t get me wrong, good grades are great! But is it really a good idea to advertize to other students in the class how well one student is doing? Wouldn’t that just make the rest of the class feel underachieved? Less than perfect? I’m experiencing this right now – someone in my family is smarter than I am, and so there are those singing her praises who’ve never sung mine. It sucks. And I don’t want anyone else to feel that way.
This is why I hate when people point out my academic abilities. I don’t care about school, honestly. The only reason I continued my education past high school was because that was the only way my parents would buy me a car. And now that I’m in my junior year, I might as well finish. My point is, let the “smart kid” be the kid that cares about school. Let them be the kid that works hard for that A, as most of us “smart kids” don’t really have to. If you feel like you must point out a students’ abilities, ask their permission first, and be prepared for them to say no. Because they may be a “smart kid” like me.
My grades are not who I am. I would love attention for my novels, for my singing, for my acting, for my service. Because that is who I am. Those are the talents I like most about myself. I hate attention on my grades. Because I know that somewhere if I am getting attention for my grades, there is someone who worked infinitely harder than I did, and didn’t get any attention at all because of the stupid number written in red ink at the top of the page.
Obviously, I am not all "smart kids". I know there are some people who do really well with public praise on the academic abilities. And if it is someone's dream to be smart and go to Med school or Law school, they should go for it. But just remember that "smart kids" are not just their grades. We have our own dreams, that may not be the dreams you think we should have because we're smart.
