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Stephanie Gonzalez
Professor Altman
English 113
7 December 2014
Why the Labels
Nerds and Geeks are common terms used to describe a person who has outstanding
intellectual abilities. People who are labeled with these nicknames are known for not having a
social life outside of school which is a stereotype. Calling people names is affecting the future
generations because people are afraid of being made fun of. So, people stop being themselves
and do things society will accept with. People who are called names feel like they do not have
anyone to rely on so these people think about suicide or some become depressed and stop their
normal life. The effect of people bullying these smart children it affects their academics because
they feel like if they start slacking off in school then they will fit in. Bullying is expanding to
colleges and universities which affects them because some bullies continue to go to the same
school as those being bullied. While many people think of others only in terms of labels, we
should not label others because it affects their school work and life, it does not allow them the
opportunity to go beyond labels, and it results in depression and suicidal thoughts.
Students who are trying to avoid being bullied all their life stop doing their work because
they are afraid. The expansion of any kind of bullying is now in colleges the rate of people being
made fun of is found in first year college students. As a college student I would say different
because I have not seen these in my first year college experience. I would only say that it only
takes place in middle schools and high schools, but Pattie Johnson differs this and says that
Bullying is also taking place on college campuses.(Johnson 1) The college students are

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experiencing this by internet, social media, and chat room or even through text messaging. It has
risen because of new websites that have been created that users can anonymously post about
others. Before, the bullying was done to people in person but now it is done to people on the
internet which means that sometimes you do not even know who is doing the bullying. The
expansion of bullying is hurting these outstanding students because these rough experiences keep
following them through their schooling career. The sufferings of students who get bullied during
their earlier years in school have a greater probability to continue to be bullied because some of
the bullies continue in the same school as the person who is being bullied. The people who are
bullied have long term self-esteem issues which people actually stop doing what they did before
so they appear to society they may blend in. Bullying can occur to anyone because they lack the
self-esteem or they just simply have no idea what is actually going on in society. The expansion
of bullying is not letting the students be themselves so what happens is the students start adapting
to the trends that are being struck upon them.
Fear is what holds one of doing what they normally do. Students who do not achieve their
goals are because they had been living in the shades of those that are doing the bullying. The
people that fully complete their goals are those who do not care about what others say about their
intellectual potential that is going to take them far. These people try to avoid other people
because they fear people not accepting them because of the history of being made fun of in
public. Sometimes there situations where the bully is bullying a nerd is because they feel infer
to them. The students need to understand that at the moment people would say things they do not
really mean. But also students need to understand that they should not stop doing what they like
because one is afraid of being made fun of. But in reality these people should be thinking about
their future if they do not keep up with their outrageous goals what would become of them. All

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the making fun of will be worth after their done with their career. But those that were bullied
will see those bullies will be struggling to graduate, see that these bullies will not have better
futures, and the what so called nerds will achieve what that bully desire for themselves and
even more. Grant Penrod states social stereotypes, public examples, and monetary obsession
(Penrod 1) are the cause of people disliking these intellectual students. This means that society
such as celebrities set a trend and people who do not follow them are seen as weird people. The
pressure from society and from home makes them bully someone who is weaker than them.
These bullies lack the capacity of an outstanding intellectual ability and back at home the
parents pressure these students for outstanding performance in school. So, this pressure leads to
the bullies to go to school and get help from these smart students and if these students do not
want to help them they are pressured to do so or even beaten up. A nerd for the fear of being
bullied again or in the future helps these bullies and they start slacking off in their own
schoolwork.
Education is a huge part of life if one wants to be successful. Some peoples capacity to
be able to make it through with their outstanding intellectual ability is hard. There are people that
will try to stop them with trying to make these people feel like they are an outcast. Bullies
always try to intimidate people because they feel like that is the only way that they can get what
they want. For example, if a student is on it best at school then it is pointed out because of this
quality. Then those that are jerks or feel the need to be aggressive because they are simply angry
at something or someone that they cannot demonstrate this anger too.
the lack of support leaves these students not knowing what to
do, so they stop doing their hobbies and schoolwork because they
are afraid of being made fun of because they are smart. (Perren 1)

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The students which are weak are absorbed by helping the bullies because they are
pressured to help them. So, these labels affect them emotionally that cause them to stop thinking
about the great future they wanted before.
Nearly all of the graduating seniors will remember the name and
escapades of their star quarterback; nearly none of them ever even realize
that their class produced Arizonas first national champion in Lincoln
Douglas Debate (Penrod 2)
Students will always want to achieve popularity but it affects how they try and get it. You
will always be remembered if you have an outstanding potential that does not have anything to
do with school. So, it becomes a habit to want to fit with the cool kids so they try to achieve
less because those in society say you do not need a very expansive education to successful. The
students become obsessed to wanting people to know who they are after being in the shades. So,
some students lose track of their goals of being successful to wanting to be accepted by society.
This search for becoming someone they are not causing them a lot such as depression or even
suicidal thoughts.
The great effect which it has upon people when they want to be accepted they become
someone else so they are not free to express who they truly are. Not being able to express who
they truly are in the long term causes a great impact on the daily lives which people are not
happy so they may become depressed or even have suicidal thoughts. Suicide is a term where
people feel like they have no reason of living or feel like they do not have any support that they
end up taking their life away. Depression is a clinical term that states one does not do what they
normally do. The children who are exposed to long term bullying of any kind because of their

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intellectual potential one can hold up to certain point. So, those who are around people that have
been bullied because they simple have great potential should not let it just happen.
However, bystanders are not necessarily aware of the consequences of
their responses when witnessing bullying, and they may not know how to
support and defend vulnerable peers. (Salmivalli 1)
People who witness someone being bullied should fight and help these people overcome
the depression and avoid them of suicidal thoughts but some of these people do not know how to
help. Those who witness these incidents of bullying should not just laugh that is a bit for cowards
defend someone that needs help because they have been living this fight for most of their life.
You can help someone come out to live a normal life after being prosecuted by bullies and you
keep them away from trying to give up on what they actually want. Thus, you need an inspiration
to achieve a goal and you can do that for someone else.
While it is true that people should stop labeling people because of intellectual capacities,
people should label people because people should stay inside of their social group because they
should just hang out with them, people become compassionate of others, prepare them for the
real life and they become fighters to what is ahead of them in life. The people should have the
ability to have an opportunity to the real life as a young child not everyone has the opportunity to
be bullied and those people get to see how the workplace is.
Furthermore, bullying should not be allowed and those who witness it should speak out
for those vulnerable people. Also, society should stop imposing how and what they should do
socially. The labeling is affecting these students because they cannot do more than it is imposed
on them. Some ways that the bullying is affecting the students is depression or suicidal thoughts,
being afraid of being judged or made fun of, following them through their schooling and it is

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affecting their performance in school. Those that are being bullied should always remain with the
goal of success and should never change for society because they truly do not care what is right
for you.

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Works Cited
Johnson, Pattie. Motivations Behind Bullies Then Offenders versus Pure Bullies Further
Suggestions for Anti-bully Education and Pratice.134.3(2014):316-325.Web.10
Nov.2014
Penrod, Grant. Anti-Intellectualism: Why we hate The Smart Kids. Norton Field Guide to
Writing with Readings. 754-757. Print.
Perren, Sonja. Moral Reasoning and Emotion Attributions of Adolescents Bullies Victims and
Bully-victims. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 30.4 (2014): 511-530.
Print.
Salmivalli, Christina. Participant Roles in Bullying: How Can Peer Bystanders Be Utilized in
Intervention? Theory into Practice 53.4(2014):286-292.Print.