A year at a diverse school

Beginning of year: all students assume the white kids are the smarties.

Mid year: test scores tell students that maybe some of their minority peers (who are failing all their classes) really are quiet smart.

End of year: Tall, adorable white boy who has worked hard all year to maintain his "A" average yells across the room in the middle of class at sweet, little black boy . . . "Ja---- you are a freaking genius! How do you fail all your classes?" All students agree, and try to catch me up to speed -- as if I'm the one that didn't already know that Ja---- was as smart as (if not smarter than) all of them. Ja---- beams when he realizes everyone has caught on to his disguise.

Is this a game middle school black boys like to play with the rest of us? How can we make it cool to be smart?

And this really isn't a racial thing. It's just a gifted thing. I have plenty of brilliant white girls in the same category as Ja----. The racial aspect of it just happens to walk in the door the first day of school, wrapped up in a pretty little box labeled "Special Delivery: Society's Stereotypes Inside."

The fact: Kids who earn "A" averages aren't brilliant . . . they work hard. Kids who keep steady "D" averages are the geniuses.