Cool Factor

Having grown up in India, I am used to seeing the the academically gifted students being treated like super-stars in schools. All eyes are on them when the annual achievement awards are given out. Being a geek never used to be uncool though it did help a lot to be well-rounded specially by when you were in high-school. A nerd without personality was well-respected but did not enjoy the same kind of popularity as someone who had both brains and social skills.

The notion of treating smart kids like they were fringe people is something I am finding out about as I get familiar with the American public school system. J's elementary school runs a variety of sports camps all year long and provides information on where you can sign up your daughter for cheer-leading or baton-twirling training. Come spring there is an ice-cream social followed by a carnival and yet more entertainment. Every once in a while they raise money for a good cause but there is no real community service involved. Sometimes, I forget that I am dealing with a school system and not a hyper-active kid's social network.

Other than displaying the name of the spelling bee winner on the marquee each year, there is little evidence of any academic activities. Since this is considered a "good" school, the teachers are highly focused on making sure that the kids do well on standardized tests. To that end, they will have them review and practice test materials for months on end. Not surprisingly almost everyone scores high on the tests. Recently, the school even won some kind of coveted government recognition.

When you look at the test scores you will be impressed but disappointment kicks in as you get acquainted with the school itself ; unless you equate education to test scores with bonus points for achieving coolness. I have asked around to see if other parents have experienced anything significantly different in their school districts. Sadly, it turns out that I am not in the minority. There are avenues for talented and motivated kids within the system which as a whole flows in an entirely different often contrary direction.Being smart is just not considered very hip in most American public schools.

If you get lucky, you may end up in a "good school district" where there is no stigma or penalty attached to being bright - the kids and the teachers will just leave the child alone as they appear to do in J's school. That is the best case scenario and a very sad one if I may add. You will never hear the fifth grader who made a splash at a state-level science fair being applauded at a PTA meeting. It is like it were a somewhat distasteful matter best kept under wraps.

However, when some kid wins a local gymnastic competition, news travels like wildfire catapulting the kid in question into instant celebrity. I have no problem with athletic talent being lauded as long as academic accomplishments are as well. When you hear all this rhetoric about making American schools globally competitive you wonder if the powers that be consider it important to change perception about academic talent and success as well.

If the geeks (and nerds) are not hero-worshiped a little at least, the system is fated to sink to the lowest common denominator level academically - which is exactly what ails the public schools in this country. It is not about more funding or super-talented teachers. We had little by way of infrastructure and very mediocre teachers back in India but a geek was God in the classroom.

Just that cultural precept helped haul the under-achievers up several notches. Not to say that the system was perfect but it did succeed in imprinting the value of education on everyone and being a high-achiever was anything but uncool. So when Michelle Obama exhorts young girls to start viewing education as cool, she addresses exactly the right issue and it is not a moment too soon.

Mrs. Obama visited an all-girls school in north London on Thursday afternoon. She told the 240 girls about growing up on Chicago's south side, and urged them to think of education as "cool."

"I never cut class. I liked being smart. I liked getting A's," she said. "You have everything you need. Everything you need to succeed you already have right here."

I hope that kids (specially girls) in J's school and elsewhere in the country are listening up because if they do their lives could very well be transformed. It is a great aspirational goal for any young person to become a Harvard educated lawyer. Even if they fall a lot short, they will still end up in a very good place.

It only helps for Mrs Obama to be viewed as a style icon because it is a highly visible proof that a being smart does not preclude being cool or fashionable. I am hoping she is successful on both counts - making smart cool in the schools by her own example and being an independent minded trend-setter in fashion.