Most recent public comments by Professor MICHAEL SELTZER https://nowcomment.com/users/14287 https://nowcomment.com/documents/33426?scroll_to=341713 https://nowcomment.com/documents/33426?scroll_to=341713 After transferring to a newly opened high school, I was warned by its vice-principal that I was on his list of "the lower two per cent". What distinguished me and my fellows from the other 98 per cent was the fact that we all had jobs. We were called "wrenches" by those students whose petty rivalries and status seeking contests we viewed, like spectators at the zoo, as amusing. When you are working 30 or more hours weekly at jobs you expect to be doing after getting a high school diploma, you gain a cloak of detachment necessary for surviving in the toxic atmosphere created by the complex "games" played out in deadly seriousness by so many students. In retrospect, I now see that their lives were constantly ruled by fears of being viewed as different, fears of failing and fears of falling into one of the many pariah groups defined by the caste system of the American high school. Sat, 18 Jul 2015 06:35:19 -0700