Paul Graham: Why Nerds are Unpopular

A friend at work posted the above link on irc. Being a "nerd" and a "freak" (terms from the article) in high school, I was initally interested in the whole "why nerd" part of the article (maybe the first 2/3rds or so). In reading many of the situations I thought "Yup, that was my school." But then as I got towards the end I started thinking things like, "Exactly - why are chools like that?" and "No wonder Jaime lasted one day in school." Well worth the read, even if it is long.

A few other thoughts:

• As I said, Jaime went back to public school and lasted one day. Not because of the work-load, etc. But because of something she couldn't even explain. I believe this article touchs on some of it.
  
• Student lead youth ministries. I've been the Fusion (youth ministry @ my church) Worship Director for a little over a year now. A vision of this ministry is to be student lead, and it is very successful at being so. More and more my "rallying cry" is becoming "student lead ministry". Why is it successful? In part, I believe, due to the exact things that Paul mentions. Students are: valued, expected to do the ministry, and are treated as apprentices and given "real work" to do. This is not merely a place where we can baby-sit them and watch over them for 4 hours (a prision - to use Paul's term). This is somewhere they can be trained, learn, and DO something.

The amazing thing, to me, is that so many people don't get this. When asked, "Do you have your students do xxx", the answer is usually "no." They are: too unexperienced, not committed enough, not responsible enough, don't have enough integrity, etc. According to Paul, it wasn't always this way. Apprentices were expected to add value, and they did. I find the exact same thing to be true. In fact, because they are so bored, have no focus, etc.; they are usually MORE committed, reliable, etc. than many adults. *All* they need is someone to mentor them, expect great things from them, and then let them go DO IT.

OK... I'll climb down from my soap box now... that article just really got me thinking...