| Author | Message | ||
     Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
...the child genius I apparently once was. When they were trying to teach us the basics of algebra when I were a mere nipper - nearly 30 years ago, they used the usual question - If 3 apples cost 15p, how much does one apple cost? The teacher asked me as I was one of the bright children but I stared back at him blankly. "Come on this should be easy for you" he said to me. "But Sir," i replied (completely seriously), "Apples are sold by weight, not by unit. Without knowing the relative weights of the apples I couldn't say how much one apple costs. The best you can say is that the average cost per unit of those three specific apples is 5p." To this day I don't know if the look on his face was anger or trying not to laugh. I also don't know what happened to my brainpower, coz I certainly don't think I'm in any top percitiles these days. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.10.7.83 |
From a scientific point of view, I believe it's possible to trace a diminution in one's cognitive abilities by the existence of a single variable generally introduced to young men via a social medium at around the age of 15. This variable, coupled with various rowdy communicative regimes, can be demonstrated to possess a negative correlation with the ripening of both intellectual ability and emotional maturity. Tests have revealed repeatedly and indisputably that the variable in question bears a corrosive effect which eradicates all nascent powers and reduces them to irrecovable mush. It is perhaps unnecessary to state the name of this variable. The variable exists and that's all that needs to be known. It is legal. It pollutes. And you, my friend, are loaded with it. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
That explains it. Thanx | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
percitiles? percentiles... | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
You're right Gary - but it happens to girls too! I was one of the brightest kids in junior school, passed my 11+ (in the days when we had those), went to grammar school - and then I met a boy on the school bus. My intellect took a downward turn, culminating in me failing most of my O-levels (in the days when we had those too). I had to stay on an extra year to retake them (still, it gave me an extra year sitting next to XXXX on the school bus *swoon*). Hormones are a terrible thing (unrequited love is even worse).  | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
Awww you poor thing, Caroline. It was most definitely his loss!  | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.225.57 |
I was a bright kid up until the age of twelve. Nearly always second or third of my class, sometimes fourth or, on rare occasions, first. Somehow between age twelve and thirteen my grades dropped considerably, and with it went the esteem previously bestowed on me by parents and other adults. This had a devastating effect on my overal performance. I lost all interest in school work. As to why my school performance became such a sorry affair - I have no idea. The onset of puberty? | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
>>Awww you poor thing, Caroline.<< I know, Stephen, I know. You know, I once got terrible blisters on my feet doing a 20 mile sponsored walk at HIS pace just so I could stay with him and talk to him for the duration of the walk. And then I spent ages pretending to be interested in model trains so that he'd take me up to his attic and show me his. Not to mention the old trick of pretending I couldn't do my maths and science homework so that he'd help me with it on the school bus. I thought if I made him feel clever, he'd be more interested in me. Instead, it probably just made him think I was thick! The final kick in the teeth was when I caught him holding hands with my friend at a school fireworks "do". Oh, the pain! And this was the very same friend I always used to buy a Cadbury Creme Egg for on the way home. The harlot!  | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
So, what I'm trying to say is, as a result of having my mind on other things, my school work went out of the window during adolescence, as did my ability to think straight. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
Brilliant!!  I was always the awkward skinny kid who lost the power of speech when faced with a pretty girl. Made up for it in later years though lol. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.173.45 |
Weber, as the son of a maths teacher, I'm actually very impressed by your anecdote. It shows an early abilty to 'think outside the box'. I was a super-bright kid in a compensatory way that caught up with me later, when I realised quite how disturbed I had been. That's always helped me not to imagine that being bright makes you superior. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.10.7.83 |
Jesus, you swots! Hormones? I was actually referring to alcohol. I was thick as fuck as a kid. Good at drawing maps, though. For some reason. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.10.7.83 |
(Btw, I'm dismayed to think that people might have thought my comment above was written in an un-ironic style. I really am lost in my own naff reputation!) | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
Yes, alcohol - or Guinness to be specific - turned things around for me! Brainpower decreased in direct relation to an increased confidence with the ladies. I may have been talking balls but at least I was talking (and other things)... | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.202.7 |
I was supremely average at school. Always the bottom of the top class rather than top of the next one down. Somehow I found music, or it found me and apparently I ain't too bad at it. Some of us find 'our thing' others not...Some don't seem to care. I'm sure I am trying to make a point here, but I am too thick to. Hey ho. gcw | ||
| Soozy (Soozy) Username: Soozy Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 86.170.202.7 |
Joel, being bright does NOT in anyway make you superior! | ||
| Soozy (Soozy) Username: Soozy Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 86.170.202.7 |
Sorry Joel that sounded like I was having a go at you, what I meant was being bright doesnt make anyone superior to anyone else, we all have our strengths and weaknesses...even the "bright" ones | ||
| Alexicon (Alexicon) Username: Alexicon Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 88.106.44.152 |
oi,wot all u nerds an goody2shoos chix on aboute? geezers rool OK? | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.224.216 |
There was a time when I felt more than slightly superior to most of my classmates: it was always the same four or five people at the top, and we were good friends. In the same Troop most of the time, too. This bonding wasn't officially encouraged, but we did feel privileged and were sure we would become doctors, lawyers, professors etc. while the others were condemned to a life of bricklaying. I know it sounds awful, but I was only ten years old at the time. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.10.7.83 |
Soozy, that's exactly what Joel said: realising one is 'disturbed' leads one to realise that brightness isn't a superior thing . . . | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.202.7 |
She probably didn't read it right Gary.... (Shall I tell you wot she got up to in class?....She wasn't working let me tell you! ) gcw |