Wednesday, December 1, 1999: Ouch

[NonsenseWords]

...

[Bocaj Claw]

As a kid I had to put up with hearing kids who were terribly abusive to me, for no good reason, praised by people in positions of authority in ways that suggested that their ability to, say, run fast while carrying a ball made them better people than the rest of us. The resulting resentment found its way into the early strip a lot.

[Cactus Jack]

Its not likely that they were praised as better people, but rather, praised at being better at carrying a football.

[Arloest]

I don't know, when I was in elementary school I never ran into any hierarchy systems like this. Then again, I'm a girl and that may have changed the whole chemistry of the situation.

[Cactus Jack]

I am a man the last time I checked and I never ran into this hierarchy either. I was pretty weird and nerdy through high school but I was still a two sport athlete, and the others who were heavily praised were good at sports as well as academics.

[klimt]

from what i remember, the particularily smart kids got praised, and the athletic kids got praised, and there was quite a few kids that were good at both.

if your grades are pretty average and you can't run around with a ball then...why should you be praised for it?

[Arloest]

Because you're DARING to be DIFFERENT, by sucking at life.

[Bocaj Claw]

The commentary is meh to me. I like the strip because Ozy is snarking about how the ones who beat him up are considered normal and he is the one sent to the school psychiatrist.

And in the fourth panel you can see Dr. Ringtail realize that all of her years of studying at a prestigious university in Prague have been for naught as she is relegated to being a psychiatrist to an elementary school.

[NonsenseWords]

And in the fourth panel you can see Dr. Ringtail realize that all of her years of studying at a prestigious university in Prague have been for naught as she is relegated to being a psychiatrist to an elementary school.

That's beautiful.

[Tom_Radigan]

I don't know, when I was in elementary school I never ran into any hierarchy systems like this. Then again, I'm a girl and that may have changed the whole chemistry of the situation.

I'm a boy and my elementary school didn't have that kind of hierarchy either. There were people good in sports, but they weren't necessarily particularly popular.