I Am Better Than That Asshat!

[Carbonbased]

Have you ever been told by your teachers or parents that you may be good at many things but your never “better” than any one else?

As a kid I got this message allot from my teachers, “you may be good at science but that doesn’t make you better than any one else.” Now looking back I realize “O fucking really? I beg to differ because I look at some of the assholes that run around town and I think I am better than these pricks.” I’m talking about junkies, the morbidly obese that do nothing about it, welfare queen and the assholes that beat their chicks.

I’m tired of this message being disseminated to our kids by a tree hugging hippy society. I’m telling my kids that they are better that 99% of the people out there and that they had better live up to, because they are being given an exceptional opportunity.


Your thoughts on being better than other people???

[AtrainV]

This isn't necessarily specific to psychology, so I'm going to move it.

[hooloovoo]

I think the message your former teachers might have been trying to impart was simply to have a little humanity. It's easy for kids that do well in school and have a relatively straight forward life with few road blocks to simply look down on people who faced more challenges and ended up not doing as well.

It's good to motivate your kids, but there is a danger in teaching them their higher self-worth is dependent on the opportunities and advantages they have at that moment- you never know which overachieving child will have fate seriously cripple those advantages. If so much of their self is tied up in being a "top 1%" they might just never recover from a life-altering set-back.

Plus, there's the more frequently occurring possibility that they might just grow up to be narrow minded dicks. :/

[Carbonbased]

Yea I was going to try and tie in how implanting the idea that "were all equal" into kids might have an effect where they limit them selves. On experiment found that in a classroom setting when teachers were told that some students were on the verge of an intellectual boom by the scientist conducting the study, the teachers paid extra attention to them and in turn they got better grades and test scores. (god I wish I could find the study!)

It was like a self fulfilling prophecy, an expectation of quality produces it to some degree.


This is why I think that telling my kids that they can be better than others would benefit them.
(I'm going to say "can be" because after further thought, if someone told me that I was intrinsically better than every one else, what reason would i have to compete, I'm the best! and that would be counter productive;)

[Cliche Guevara]

lol thats such a interesting study I would really like to take a look it, if you ever find it post it. I'm assuming that the teachers were not told who would be getting better grades, so that probably meant the teachers would be looking for the children that needed more nurturing and probably spent more time nurturing the students who they taught would 'boom' and neglected the other children they can guarantee would remain at best, average. That explains why the children had better grades, the scales of attention are tipped towards certain people. There are alot of probablys in what I just said, and again I would love to see that study. I'm also assuming these teachers genuinely believed these scientists had figured out a way to qualatitively determine when/if a child would go through an intellectual boom.

Anyway, I think humbleness or humility is a great quality thats very underrated. Maybe if your kid really was undeniably in the 99percentile of everybody then by all means go ahead and tell them that. But you shoudn't lie to your child. I will encourage my children but if they really suck at football I won't tell him that hes brett fucking farve.

What I mean is you should encourage what your kid is talented at, not just blanket everything they do as awesome.

[i poop in your cereal]

Pygmalion Effect. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_effect)

If you want to read up on it, do a search for Robert Rosenthal and/or Lenore Jacobson.

[Nero]

Yeah, fuck being "equals".

lern 2 darwinism :mad:

[i poop in your cereal]

You can't say that you're better than anyone else.

You can say that you're better at science, sports or videogaming than someone else, but you can't be "better".

The whole concept is meaningless... How do you measure someones worth? By their physical abilities? By their intellect? By their looks?

And how do you even measure those?

It's just fucking retarded.

[Mankonaut X]

I wanna be the very best, like no one ever waaaaaas... line?

[Im Bored]

I am the best

/Thread

[refugee]

Have you ever been told by your teachers or parents that you may be good at many things but your never “better” than any one else?

As a kid I got this message allot from my teachers, “you may be good at science but that doesn’t make you better than any one else.” Now looking back I realize “O fucking really? I beg to differ because I look at some of the assholes that run around town and I think I am better than these pricks.” I’m talking about junkies, the morbidly obese that do nothing about it, welfare queen and the assholes that beat their chicks.

I’m tired of this message being disseminated to our kids by a tree hugging hippy society. I’m telling my kids that they are better that 99% of the people out there and that they had better live up to, because they are being given an exceptional opportunity.


Your thoughts on being better than other people???

They were speaking in generalities about your overall being. You should really take a step back and realise that you are NOT better than any junky, or obese person, or anyone on welfare, etc etc. Mainly because they have had different ecperiences in life and handled it according to their own perceptions. Please watch "what the bleep!? down the rabbit hole" and maybe you can change your elitist thinking.

Living is about realizing all people were created the same exact way, and in that sense, you are no better than anyone else.

[ArmsMerchant]

At the Highest Reality, we are All One. No one is better, or worse, than anyone else.

This is the greatest and most profound truth of all time. Yet those who are burdened by their ego, their smugness, their overweening arrogance blind themselves to this truth.

Being "better off" does not equate with being "better ."