• Question: did you ever feel embarrassed to show your love of science in school? eg getting called geek? nerd etc

    Asked by 322tema29 to Joe, Jos, Kate, Lisa, Pierre on 13 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Joe Reed

      Joe Reed answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      Not at all. It’s a real shame that enjoying or being good at science and maths is looked down on, yet those people are the ones that invent and discover things and move humanity forwards as a species.
      Anyone who calls you a geek or a nerd is probably jealous, so don’t worry about it and do what you enjoy.

    • Photo: Kate Dobson

      Kate Dobson answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      Yes, like many people good at science and maths I was called a geek and a nerd when I was at school. When I was younger there weren’t the “cool” scientists on TV like there are now, so I think it may have been worse than it is now, all the scientists you usually saw on TV or in the papers were in white coats in labs with uncool clothes. I went to an (all girls) high school where we were encouraged to do what ever we were good at, I don’t know if that made a difference but once I was there is was much better.

      I don’t know why people need to be cruel to people who are good at science or maths. If you are good at music or painting you get called gifted or talented, and there isn’t really any difference is there? If you like somethign you like it. If I could wave a magic wand I think I would make it so if you are good at something (or even if you just like something a lot) then it’s treated the same no matter what the subject.

      It’s a real shame, but I think some people get put off trying at science and maths as children because it’s not “cool”. Maybe if we get more scientists on TV (both doing science and just as the normal people they are) then that might change. I hope so.

    • Photo: Pierre Lasorak

      Pierre Lasorak answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      I use to, but not any more. Sometimes when I explain what I do to people, they thing I am nuts, fine.
      I mean there are also lot of things that I think are not going well in the world, and I don’t think that looking at neutrinos is the worst of thing to do. So all in all everybody is something, nerd, greedy, geek, lazy, you can always find complain about everybody!

    • Photo: Lisa Simmons

      Lisa Simmons answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      At school I wasn’t particularly into science, but I did love english literature, and was quite happy to see there reading shakespeare. I used to get called a ‘swot’ and a ‘geek’ for doing that, it never stopped me though. You should never stop doing what you enjoy because of other people.
      I’m hoping it’s a bit different nowadays for science, there is so much more of it in the media that I hope those stereotyping labels are getting used less and less often 🙂

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