ABSTRACT
In Britain, we have a culture that does not always value academic success. Ask anyone what their mental image of a very clever child looks like, and likely as not they will come up with a version of a ‘nerd’ or a boffin, a poor physical specimen, with heavy glasses and eyes weakened through excessive study, and spindly limbs due to lack of healthy exercise. Throughout the country we have a very real problem of underachievement, particularly among boys. In far too many schools it is not ‘cool’ to be clever. Take this description from one boy's science teacher: Martin
Martin is a walking disaster. He seems to live in a world of his own. He is never where he should be. If he ever does turn up to the right lesson he is invariably late. He really doesn't seem to know whether he's coming or going. As for his work, it is quite disgraceful. He is extremely reluctant to put anything down on paper, and quite honestly, when he does it's so untidy, so carelessly done that I quite often refuse to mark it. And yet … and yet there's something about the lad that makes me wonder. When he does get interested in what we're doing he asks the most extraordinary questions. Really intelligent and perceptive ones. He often seems to see the solution to a problem before others have even understood the question and he enjoys looking for alternative ways of reaching a conclusion. In fact, when he stops playing the class clown he can be really quite profound.
