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[At 11 years old, Brooke Ellison was hit by a car and paralyzed from 
the neck down. Ten years later Brooke graduated from Harvard 
University, becoming the first quadriplegic to do so.]

Brooke Ellison : "Ironically, in the end, it was the naysayers who pushed me the most. Despite my A-plus average and 1510 on my SATs, some people thought I was selected only because I was in a wheelchair. They thought I wouldn't succeed if I went.

Brooke Ellison spent four years at Harvard, accompanied by her mother, Jean, and supported by her dad. She majored in cognitive neuroscience, a dual concentration in psychology and biology. 

The topic of her thesis was Hope, which is something she believes is crucial to accomplishing one's goals. Living out that thesis, Brooke graduated magna cum laude in June 2000. 

Today Brooke speaks to high school students and other groups, and has plans to attend graduate school. "Miracles happen," she says. "They have happened to me, and they are happening to you. You need only look at the people in your lives to see them."

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"The other is a fearlessly ambitious teen-age prodigy who is so sure of her talent that she breaks the rules of female decorum and dares go where no 'nice' woman of her time and station has gone before."

> from review of film Artemisia [dvd]

> Valentina Cervi stars as Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) - one of the first well-known female painters - photo from Miramax Pictures

So when I learned there was a movie about her life, I rented it. Yes, the cinematography is lush. But no, the story is not true. To treat the rape of a young lady with a cavalier attitude does this great woman and artist a terrible injustice.

Artemisia painted the horrific and powerful "Judith Slaying Holofernes" as an angry reaction to her rape. We don't see this anger in the movie as she paints this vicious canvas. And that, at least in this sense, deprives Artemisia of her power.

No, sadly this could have been a fine film. While I liked some parts of it, I found it too focused on her sexual daillances with Agostino. ....

But until another and better Artemisia movie is filmed, I suggest the book "Artemisia Gentileschi" by Mary Garrard. It contains the complete transcript of the rape trial. And it is far more detailed than what the movie showed.

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There are the Etiquette Grrls and the Fabulous Girls, offering paperback guides on good behavior, with a dollop of sauciness. Even designer Kate Spade has joined the group, making her writing debut earlier this year with three advice volumes, one called simply "Manners." ///

"The way we interact and communicate is constantly evolving, and it can get tricky," Spade says. 

"The specific guidelines from one generation to another may evolve and change, so it helps to have a modern perspective."

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This was easy to do, because kids only ate lunch with others of about the same popularity. We graded them from A to E. A tables were full of football players and cheerleaders and so on. 

E tables contained the kids with mild cases of Down's Syndrome, what in the language of the time we called "retards."

We sat at a D table, as low as you could get without looking physically different. We were not being especially candid to grade ourselves as D. It would have taken a deliberate lie to say otherwise.

Everyone in the school knew exactly how popular everyone else was, including us.

I know a lot of people who were nerds in school, and they all tell the same story: there is a strong correlation between being smart and being a nerd, and an even stronger inverse correlation between being a nerd and being popular. 

Why? To someone in school now, that may seem an odd question to ask. The mere fact is so overwhelming that it may seem strange to imagine that it could be any other way. 

But it could. Being smart doesn't make you an outcast in elementary school. Nor does it harm you in the real world. 

Nor, as far as I can tell, is the problem so bad in most other countries. But in a typical American secondary school, being smart is likely to make your life difficult. Why?

The key to this mystery is to rephrase the question slightly. Why don't smart kids make themselves popular? If they're so smart, why don't they figure out how popularity works and beat the system, just as they do for standardized tests?

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Can a person learn to make clever replies? Or is it something you're born with? 

Ashleigh Thompson, Fargo, ND

I think the skill is developed, although one needs a fearless personality to make it work well. 

But may I make a suggestion, Ashleigh? Don't even try. If an acquaintance pokes fun at you or makes a good-hearted joke at your expense, allow this person to have his or her moment. 

Be a good sport and laugh instead. You don't need to formulate a snappy retort and always top everyone or have the last word. That's what insecure people do.

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Emily VanCamp : I have a tutor and I have done correspondence courses, which was great. They were really fun. 

Q: Do you miss anything about regular school? 

Emily: No, I never fit in at regular school at all. It wasn't really my thing. I love learning, but it just wasn't the place for me to do it.

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Emily: Just be yourself, and never ever submit to the pressures that are part of school because it can really destroy you. 

High school can be a really good place, but you really have to be careful and just keep a good, solid head on your shoulders. Keep your head up high, and just do your thing. Know that there are other people out there like you.

from article Star Spotlight: Emily VanCamp - Feb 2003 (scholastic.com) -- quotes and photo from emilyvancamp.org

The 17-year-old star of the new comedy "Mean Girls," about the brutal backstabbing and Machiavellian manipulation of high school life... says she generally got along with people when she was in high school, which she finished early two years ago.

"I was playing different sports, and was involved in cheerleading and art and all that kind of stuff," Lohan told The Associated Press. "I kind of flitted around with every group and, luckily, girls were not that mean to me."

Here are some of Lohan's views on the art of high school war:

*  Stay happy by refusing to let others define you.
"Don't change who you are to be accepted. I think in high school it's difficult for people now. They just want to kind of be popular and they'll change who they are for other people to like them. And it's not satisfying, in the end."

... but then when you get older it's kind of a hassle. It's just not something that's not fun to deal with."

*  If you don't have anything nice to say -- be careful who hears you say it.

What you say to your best friend may not stay with your best friend. Or you may be wrong about where your "best friend's" sympathies lie. "Don't talk about someone behind their back ... because they'll find out eventually," Lohan said.

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On the other hand, if you succeed, what awaits? More demands? And what if you can't step up to those demands, or don't want to? 

Being ordinary is not good enough for people with extraordinary talent.

You could succeed moderately and be considered second-rate -- a mere also-ran when you had worked your hardest.

Still others attempt to avoid or postpone confronting these questions for as long as they can. 

In the film High Fidelity, three young men take refuge in the sheltered world of a music store, where they consider themselves superior, criticize and ridicule others, and mock those they consider less hip. 

In truth, they are frozen. It is only when they begin to take risks that their lives take on any color.

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As Delisle points out, it is understandable why gifted children, when told of their label, often categorically deny it: "Gifted?" they say, "Not me. I'm just a regular kid."

On the other hand, certain issues arise for gifted children that do not arise for their nongifted peers. Gifted children must deal with higher expectations from teachers and parents. 

Because they are often talented in many areas (a term coined multipotentiality), decision making can be more difficult. 

As well, they may confront feelings of isolation or loneliness because of their cognitive and social differences (Griggs, 1991).