Conversation with the health & fitness teacher at school today, and we remarked on the “cool kids” as the little cliques ebb and flow across the schoolyard: bear in mind these are elementary school kids, no older than 10. And while the H&F teacher is a self-described dork, to me he’s a grown-up version of those guys who drifted effortlessly through what we called PE back in the day: physically fit and totally confident at any sport, able to finesse their way through anything physical. But he thinks of himself as “uncool” or somehow geeky and is OK with that.
We hit on a new meme: it’s cool to be uncool. It boils down to being yourself and not worrying about the cool kids, either what they think or who they include in their little games. Not easy to do, but for some of us, we never had the option of being cool. But over time, it became clear that you could be accepted for yourself. The underlying tension of cool is inclusion — who’s in and who’s out — both being in and knowing who’s in or out. The first is obvious, but upholding the exclusivity by ignoring the out crowd is just as important. You can’t mix with the Others lest it jeopardize your status.
But perhaps there’s a middle ground. Genuinely not caring, either through force of will or by not having any intrinsic coolness, won’t get you admitted to the Elect. But there’s something in being uninterested in being cool that has it’s own vibe. You can cultivate your own exclusivity — a clique of one — and watch the the pack try to justify itself in the face that. Since this is elementary school, most of the kids are too young to care who’s who: once they hit the blacktop of the playground, they’re in it for the fun. I hope that doesn’t change for quite a while . . .
I’ve often opined that there is no crueler creature than an adolescent school kid: nothing much has changed since my own school days. It’s reassuring to see so little interest in the social clique and more interest in games and real play, even as early as it is.
Now playing: There Ain’t Half Been Some Clever Bastards by Ian Dury & The Blockheads from the album”Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll – Best Of” | Get it