Life doesn't have to suck

Thanks to Vox for the heads up on nerds.

Why Nerds are unpopular

I'm suspicious of this theory that thirteen year old kids are intrinsically messed up. If it's physiological, it should be universal. Are Mongol nomads all nihilists at thirteen? I've read a lot of history, and I don't think I've seen a single reference to this supposedly universal fact before the twentieth century. Teenage apprentices in the Renaissance seem to have been cheerful and eager. They got in fights and played tricks on one another of course (Michelangelo had his nose broken by a bully), but they weren't crazy.

As far as I can tell, the concept of the hormone-crazed teenager is coeval with suburbia. I don't think this is a coincidence. I think teenagers are driven crazy by the life they're made to lead. Teenage apprentices in the Renaissance were working dogs. Teenagers now are neurotic lapdogs. Their craziness is the craziness of the idle everywhere.

Having attended and graduated from a small Christian school, I grew up in a multi-grade classroom setting. Even the real nerdy kids were accepted. We all played together. No one was picked on too much. I sucked at school work but that was because it did not interest me.

I wish I could go back. I would love to devour some history book all day long.

As a senior my teacher tried to get me to read "The Road to Surfdom", boy I wish I would have. Instead I read "The New World Order" by Pat Robertson. How silly was I?

All that to say, my kids are going to get a Classical Christian Home Education!