Is Being Smarter an Advantage?

People often assume that being smart is a huge advantage. And I know it sounds like me whining on the yacht to say that it’s actually not, but I’m going to say that it is a mixed bag. Maybe you can agree with that? Let me explain.

Being smart is something that you often have to hide in order to be socially accepted. No one likes a show-off or a know-it-all. No one wants someone who is the teacher’s pet all the time, who knows all the answers. If you do know all the answers, you figure out after a few years of social ostracization NOT to raise your hand and answer questions, and maybe you even learn to give the wrong answer so you don’t get bullied on the playground ten minutes after class is out.

And my experience as both a kid and as a parent is that teachers and other adults at school are just as bad at bullying as kids are when someone sticks out or makes them feel like they are just average and not as smart as a kid that comes along and is just way out of their league. No adult wants to admit they have no idea what that kid is talking about or have no idea how to mentor a kid because they’re already, at age ten, beyond them. I mean, yes, the good ones do. But there aren’t as many good ones as I wished there were when my kids were gifted in the school system. And gifted kids can have behavior problems, too. They get bored and act out. They don’t have a special self-control ability…