Where have all the great (young) math geeks gone?

mmmkay let me start off by saying im a very unique individual. ok so im 12 and go to high school (2nd year and no im not a savant) yesterday, after leaving school early with my mom to pick up my 11 year old, normal, slightly retarded brother to go to the dentist. I had the chance to walk through the same 7th grade hallway i walked past when i was 10. interestingly almost every kid had an f*in ipod, wore abercrombie, and had a razr. i heard kids scream MATH GEEK, B***C, smart-azz, etc as i walked by. i believe the media and such to blame for all of this labeling. weird enough, i couldnt find anybody that was my type (geeky).








in the class i got to in H.S im also seeing a decrease in my people. Does anyone else here think that society is pressuring kids to become ""NoRmAl"" and fit in, with the rest of the popular croud?

Where have all the great (young) math geeks gone?
You should be a foreign exchange student! Seriously ... it will change your life. AND you can get a 'real' education!


And think about other nerdy-types that have done well for themselves, (like the guys in the band DEVO). Screw all the "cool guys" ... they'll end up fat, divorced and working jobs they hate.
Reply:I'm sorry that the other young people were not very friendly to you because you are academically oriented. There are young people, who like you, enjoy maths and do well at school but they are a bit rare nowadays. I know children who are like this. They enjoy studying, even though their people do not force them to work hard. They just want to find out about things and gain knowledge about topics that interest them.





I agree with you that the media and the society is putting pressure on young people to become what they think is "normal", which can sometimes mean "mediocre". I think that's because these normal people make up the larger part of the society and expect everyone to be like them. I don't think you should feel annoyed by this. Just tell yourself that you are different and people can't understand this that's why they can be somewhat hostile sometimes. The most important thing is continue to believe in yourself and enjoy what you have been doing --- learning and excelling at academic subjects. The world always need some brilliant minds to solve problems that the masses can't solve.





Have you heard of Mensa the society for high IQ people? Why not take a test to see what your IQ is? If it is high enough, you could join Mensa and meet like-minded people through its activities.
Reply:Welcome to puberty. And Yes high school can really suck. Society is not forcing kids to do anything, just their own desire to have friends and be happy is. You of course have these same feelings which is why you wrote this question. Know that as you get farther into studding what interests you, you will find more people you feel connections with. Also college kids tend to embrace geekiness as a whole. One really important thing you need to keep in mind is that just because you think you are smarter then someone dose not make it so, they may just have a different type of knowledge (like how to make friends). And being more intelligent than someone dose not make you better than them. To believe that makes you more ignorant then you will ever know.
Reply:1. Make sure your parents know you're using Yahoo! Answers and that you are allowed to (which I believe Yahoo! says you can't).





2. You shouldn't swear, even if you're spelling it wrong, etc.





3. I agree with you, but was it any different in, say, the 80's?
Reply:hey this is lima bean (seriously) im really not stereotypical like it may sound but i do truly enjoy learning new things. by geek im referring to people who dont care about being normal
Reply:Ironically enough, I believe that the media is to blame for YOUR perception of high school, with respect to the classic 'nerd and jock' stereotypes. The math geeks you speak of, do not generally exist. While, of course, there are math geeks, they don't typically wear the thick-framed glasses and pocket protectors your accustomed to seeing on TV. Smart kids don't like music or wear abercrombie? Trust me, you have math geeks at your school. They're just in disguise.
Reply:Hey Lima Bean, you could have just added additional details to your question.





Anyway, people are just scared of what they don't understand which is basically anythign that's completely different/unique and they tend to dislike anything they can't be a part of (ie. having brains) which is why they'd call you names.





The other people on here are right when they say you shouldn't stereotype that just cos someone has an ipod means they're dumb in the head. Granted, people who have earphones pumping music into their ears all day tend to think less (music takes over and blocks out thoughts etc) but it doesn't mean that they have a complete inability to think about deep issues or complex mathematical problems. I bet you like to listen to music too.





It's also true that once you get to college and you're actually specialising in your chosen area, you'll meet a whole bunch of people just like you. I'm doing math at uni and you can tell straight away that everyone in these advanced classes actually want to be there learning math. There's a lot of incredibly bright math "geeks" but because we're all interested in math, no one's considered a geek and we all think of ourselves as normal.





You'll find that terms like those drop off like lemmings over a cliff when you get out of high school and most people really don't care about sticking with what's popular.