Washington Post - Cliques, mean girls, bullying. The vast majority of children have to run through an unpleasant social gauntlet at some point. For parents, it can be excruciating to witness their children fall out of favor with the crowd. Our first instinct may be to try to help. But a new book suggests that as long as the treatment isn’t extreme, it’s probably best to stay out of it. And, maybe celebrate. According to authorAlexandra Robbins, being unpopular may be one of the best predictors of future success. For the book, Robbins studied students and teachers at several high schools, including a few in the region. (She didn’t want to name the locals for fear of “outing” the students.) She concluded that the traits that often make kids unpopular, such as creativity, individuality, passion, can make them more interesting and successful adults. She calls it the “Quirk Theory.” “I am definitely a beneficiary of the quirk theory” said Robbins, a 1994 Whitman graduate. A self-described “floater” in high school, she said she socialized with many groups, but never felt like she belonged to one. It made for some lonely weekends. But now, she realizes, it helped her learn to relate to all different kinds of people. Robbins advises parents to understand that their child’s social exclusion likely has more to do with the school culture than with the child. If his social life seems wanting, but he’s okay with it, parents should be okay with it too. If a child seems unhappy, then parents can encourage extra-curricular activities outside the school atmosphere. Only in a worst-case-scenario should parents consider changing schools.
What is the world coming to? Now we have people telling you that its a good thing if everyone fucking hates your kid. Don’t worry that your kid will spend the first 39 years of his life being completely miserable, getting beat up, and never getting laid. When he’s 40 he’ll being a successful computer programmer! Fuck that. Just about the only thing that gets me through the day is remembering that I had an awesome childhood. If I had to put an exact year on it, I’d say my life peaked in the 8th grade. I was fuckinnasty at basketball and bitches sweated me. I got to first base more often than Rickey f’n Henderson. I was probably the coolest I’ve ever been at that point. And reminiscing about those times is just about the only thing that stops me from killing myself. If I was a loser my whole childhood I wouldn’t even be able to wake up in the morning.
So yea its easy for this chick who was a loser to be like “heyyy don’t worry if your kid sucks, he’ll turn out to be just like me!” But that poor kid is gonna grow up miserable because you won’t take the time to look him dead in the eyes and be like “Son, you’re a goddam dork. Lets fix this.” And lets cut the bullshit with these little keywords and catch phrases that hide the truth. “Creativity, Individuality, and Passion?” Thats just loser speak for “weird, ugly, and creepy.” But go ahead and tell your kid he has no friends and nobody likes him because of the “school culture.” Go ahead and blame him being fat and lonely on all the other kids in class. And cross your fingers and hope to God he has a successful job once all the best years of his life have passed. But more than likely you’re just raising a Feitelberg. And nobody wins in that scenario,
