If we want to address the very real problems facing society, we require knowledge at the expert level. Value it starts before what we realize.
Throughout the country, you can see how seeds develop from a very early age. When children raise their hands in class because they know the answer, their classmates throw the family insults of “nerd”, “geek”, “dork” or “know it.” The highest performance students, the gifted children, those who clarify or those that are placed in advanced classes, are often ostracted, intimidated, beaten or worse. It is a version of the social effect known as High poppy syndrome: Where if someone dares to stand out, intellectually in this case, the response of the masses is to try to reduce them.
The social lessons that we learn early are very simple: if you want to be part of the great crowd, you cannot seem too exceptional. You cannot be:
- too knowledgeable,
- too academically successful,
- too advanced compared to their classmates,
- Or too intelligent.
Someone who knows more is more successful or that seems to be smarter than you often look like a threat, and so on …
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