So DS (8yo) thinks that geeks are losers

[soapbox]

But he is undoubtably, without question a geek!

How do we prepare him for the day when it dawns on him?

How do we get him thinking that geeks can be cool?

my son is a geek and i love it that he is different to all his friends .
he loves chess books and computers and i wouldnt want him any other way!!!!

Well of course it is tough for him KM!

That's why I am keen to find out how to try and turn it around so that geeks are not losers - but are cool!

Marina and Callisto have given me some ideas - so come on - how do you handle it when your DS is teased. How do you get him to see that being a nerd is fine?

3kids - I too love DS's quirkiness - I would do, I married his father

But I need to try and ensure that he loves it as much as I do.

me and dh are both geeks, ds1 is turning out that way. he has asked me what the word means and i told him it is a nasty word people use to make clever people feel bad. it is only used by people who are jealous because they are not as clever. important to also know not to repeat that on the playground tho! hopefully it will give him the confidence to be himself and not listen to what others say so much

In my annoyed moments I can relate to that post Chamaeleon - but I would prefer a more 'let's celebrate our differences, rather than let them divide us' approach if at all possible.

Clever isn't better than sporty - it's just different

Bill Gates is a geek/nerd...he is one of the richest men in the world...
ditto Steve Jobs (head of Apple)
ditto Steve Jackson (set up games workshop)
Rcihard Branson was one for YEARS and still pretends he isn't one but he is
Credit Suisse pay one of their computer geeks £4m a year to watch their computers for them
My friend is total geek he earns £££££ writing encryption algorithms for Sky
Andrew Lloyd Webber is a geek, he is a multimillionaire......

When I got picked on (cos I am a geek too) my mum used to say it was just cos the other kids had such limited imagination so I should be sorry for them.
DH is also a geek, he took up karate and beat the shit out of such people-just the once, then they left him alone.
Each to their own.

KM - I think there is definitely a problem in the UK (and it sounds similar in Ireland) with cleverness being slightly negatively viewed. DS got 100% in his end of term science test and actually said that it was really embarrassing and that he wouldn't do that again!!!!!

soapy, do you have houses or teams?
As points are awarded for all sorts of achievements, and this is across the whole of the Juniors, it's so helpful to be able to point out that everyone's a player and all team points are equal...

celebrating differences would def be a good thing, but if someone is already being called a geek then that isnt an option. i dont want ds to feel bad for being clever but not sporty. ds2 is sporty but not as clever as ds1 so i also dont want to make either of them think one option is better than the other! i am less worried about ds2 being picked on for being sporty

and also, we have had the, I expect Muscles wishes he could speak French like you...just like you wish you could play football like Muscles...conversation

We have houses Marina - and points are awarded for all activities. DS got a credit (highest number of points) for his science result but it wasn't quite enough to soften the blow - even although DD, bless her, made such a fuss of him over getting it (they put siblings in the same house).

Miggsie - DS is very motivated by money - so I think he would be very receptive to the earning power of a geek