Declaration of Interdependence

[Ender]

Proposition: to integrate with non-nerds at our schools by either socializing with them or recruiting them as our friends for a day.

Would be interesting, eh?

[Kaleeko]

Would be interesting if you could find someone willing.

[deadly7]

Proposition: to integrate with non-nerds at our schools by either socializing with them or recruiting them as our friends for a day.

Would be interesting, eh?

I kind of have to do that every day.. I have three classes where the majority of the people are extremely stupid and not nerdy [but socializing with them is forced upon me by the teacher].  One of them is a bit borderline, but I wouldn't place my entire physics class as intellectuals.  :\  Not to mention all the shit I get from all the other members of the football team for being in math club, mock trial, and other stuff that requires thinking as opposed to lifting weights.

Do I get a prize if I document it?

[rabbit]

Only if the documentary gets an Emmy (or whatever the hell a documentary can get) and shows up on OnDemand.

[iago]

I am friends with a lot of non-technical people.  It's not that big of a deal..

[Furious]

Proposition: to integrate with non-nerds at our schools by either socializing with them or recruiting them as our friends for a day.

Would be interesting, eh?

We are all "nerds" to someone.  I may call someone a nerd because they know five different programming languages very well, or because they stay after school to help the teachers grade papers.  Someone may call me a nerd because I spend a lot of time on the computer - regardless of what I'm doing, or because I know more about cars then they do.  I think what you're trying to do happens everyday,  I've been good friends with many people who excel in sciences, maths and plenty of people who are very knowledgeable in many aspects of computers.

[Sidoh]

We are all "nerds" to someone.  I may call someone a nerd because they know five different programming languages very well, or because they stay after school to help the teachers grade papers.  Someone may call me a nerd because I spend a lot of time on the computer - regardless of what I'm doing, or because I know more about cars then they do.  I think what you're trying to do happens everyday,  I've been good friends with many people who excel in sciences, maths and plenty of people who are very knowledgeable in many aspects of computers.

Generally speaking, I agree with you.  I think there are people who aren't viewed as nerds by anyone (a jock who's barely scraping by, for example), but you don't have to be good at math and pop a boner when you see a rotational mechanics problem to be considered a nerd.

I definitely agree with all of you that say this already happens, because it does.  One of my best friends in highschool was on the football team, got second at state in wrestling (almost first.  the guy barely beat him) and had a wide variety of interests.  In any case, he was not a nerd in the context we're using the word and I hung out with him every day.  I mingled with other people in my school that weren't nerds... it's just not that big of a deal.

I think cliques in your school are too defined.

[Towelie]

I think cliques in your school are too defined.

That is exactly what I was thinking. I have friends who aren't "nerds"

[CrAz3D]

I think we're a very cliquey area.

All of my friends have been or are in band.  There are VERY few people I hang with (like 2 off the top of my head) that aren't, and they aren't even really close friends.  Its weird that way.

[Ender]

Hmm, I don't know what to make of my school's social situation. What I do know is that I'm in a close-knit group of friends that is in some ways (such as hanging out, AIM, etc.) isolated from the rest of the school and in some ways not (like being friendly during class).

Anyways, we're the ones that sometimes do math problems and talk about philosophy and such during lunch for fun. We're also the core body of Seniors in math team, chess team, and science team.

The Freshmen are pretty weird though... they're nerdy and popular... It's interesting to see how different grades can be so... different.

Oh, and I did sit with a relatively new group at lunch today. It was a social success Although, they were also nerds; nerds from different grades.

[Mythix]

Not a whole lot of cliques when you go to a high school with under 100 kids. I was borderline though I was a Jr. Network Admin and I also played sports and did band and such all four years.

[deadly7]

Hmm, I don't know what to make of my school's social situation. What I do know is that I'm in a close-knit group of friends that is in some ways (such as hanging out, AIM, etc.) isolated from the rest of the school and in some ways not (like being friendly during class).

Anyways, we're the ones that sometimes do math problems and talk about philosophy and such during lunch for fun. We're also the core body of Seniors in math team, chess team, and science team.

The Freshmen are pretty weird though... they're nerdy and popular... It's interesting to see how different grades can be so... different.

Oh, and I did sit with a relatively new group at lunch today. It was a social success Although, they were also nerds; nerds from different grades.

Hahaha.  My group of friends is exactly the same way.  Except for one or two people, we're all relatively close-knit and friendly towards each other and not the rest of the school.  We are also quite contemptuous in that we think of those with no ambition or those that just are plain annoying to be with in class [or outside of it] as morons.

Our discussions usually involve world domination, science [we discussed, for an entire lunch, white phosphorous one day].  Only two of my friends are on the math team, though.  One of them just flat out doesn't want to join because it cuts away from his video game time.. and a couple of them keep forgetting.  My friends and I, for the most part, had made up the math team.  And then a bunch of Asians invaded.  Now we're actually relatively good!

The nerdy freshmen are those that I just want to pound on so much more than the others.  All the freshmen at my school are, quite honestly, annoying as all hell.  Most of those kids I've known for three to four years and so I've gotten to know them enough to realize I don't like them.

Speaking of people that sat with new groups... my cousin sat with me at lunch.  He's one of the freshmen I talked about, except he's not even close to smart enough to be considered nerdy, and his computer talent is equivalent to my dad's (and my dad hadn't seen a computer until this year.. he's in his fifties).

[iago]

Hahaha.  My group of friends is exactly the same way.  Except for one or two people, we're all relatively close-knit and friendly towards each other and not the rest of the school.  We are also quite contemptuous in that we think of those with no ambition or those that just are plain annoying to be with in class [or outside of it] as morons.

I used to have somewhat of an attitude like that, but as I grew up I realized that I'd be pretty lonely if I stayed thinking that way.  So I'm now tolerant of a lot more people.  Especially when you're working or on a team or at a social event, unless you accept other people for who they are, you are always going to be an outsider.

[deadly7]

I used to have somewhat of an attitude like that, but as I grew up I realized that I'd be pretty lonely if I stayed thinking that way.  So I'm now tolerant of a lot more people.  Especially when you're working or on a team or at a social event, unless you accept other people for who they are, you are always going to be an outsider.

You'd think differently if you knew the people at my school.  They make five year olds going to kindergarten for the first time look like the youngins are more ambitious.

[Krazed]

I think you need to get some friends. If you write a document about being friends with non-nerds, you are a complete loser.

[Ender]

Actually, I have many friends. But they are all nerds. That was a baseless assumption.

The point of this thread is that I believe that the integration of different social strata would be beneficial to a social environment. People are more than the stereotypes that their images portray, whether it be socially, economically, or ethnically. Social interaction in high school is often preluded by the tacit agreement that two people's images are in accordance. These images are nothing more than simulacra.

Yet as we all know, groups divided remain divided unless acted upon by a force The first step could be joining a different table than the one you normally sit at during lunch.

EDIT: I got to use the word "normally". Yes!
EDIT2: Made the Newton reference sound better.

[Sidoh]

*grumbles about people relating Newton's laws to social environments...*

I still think cliques in your school are defined more than the average one.  It could be because the several schools I attended were small (less than 300 students), though.  That seems to be one of the main advantages to smaller schools.

[Ender]

On the contrary, I don't think cliques are a problem at my school. I think my school has a very pleasant social environment -- much more than other schools I've seen. For instance, I visited my cousin's school and the social environment is very cliquey and snobby. If my observations don't provide enough evidence then my cousin's persistent complaints corroborate this opinion.

In my school there's basically just normal people and weird people, and I'm one of the weird people. The idea is to share our weirdness with normal people. Maybe infect them

EDIT:

The above was probably an abuse of sarcasm and humor. I'll be more clear and say that I'm very friendly with people outside my social group every day in school. We talk regularly, we work in groups, etc. But we never hang out together or instant message eachother. So we don't get to share our lives with eachother -- that's the crux of it.

In a sense, what I am saying that there are many people around you who have the potential to be your close friend but never ends up being one. This can be because you don't share a common interest intensely enough to immediately befriend eachother on that basis. Or because you never sat next to eachother in a class. All of these are trivial circumstances that should create neither boundaries nor barriers.

[Sidoh]

So you're saying we should spend immense amounts of time making an effort to thoroughly introduce ourselves to people, just so we can verify that we aren't losing the potential for a long lasting friendly relationship?

Sorry, but I think that's stupid.  Unless you need more friends, I don't suggest you spend great amounts of time getting to know everyone in your school.