From the mists of time.

[rivka]

lysana recently noted that Google Groups has filled in many of the holes in their Usenet archives - they now apparently believe that they have everything dating back to 1981.

This gives those of us with long-term histories on Usenet the cringeworthy opportunity to go back and see what kind of drivel we posted in our youth. For the most part, it's an opportunity I would rather have foregone (not that I can stop looking now, of course, it's like poking a sore tooth with your tongue). And yet, I also found this:

>: [My sister] felt that the reason that I wasn't happy or content in my job
>: was that I wasn't teaching the "gifted" kids. I guess she felt that I
>: should be using my creativity on "kids who can appreciate you."
>:
>: Do you think that people (teachers) w/ above avg intelligence should
>: use their creativity on smart kids?

>I think smart people have a duty to contribute as much as they can to
>society. (Just like anyone else.) For some teachers this would mean
>teaching smart kids, but for others it may mean teaching average, or even
>disabled (mentally or physically) kids.

Keep that attitude up and someone's going to roll over your toes with their
wheelchair. PLEASE, even among the nerd community, Stephen Hawking should have
made it quite obvious that PHYSICALLY DISABLED does not, in fact, preclude
some measure of intelligence. I was a crippled kid. I was also one of the
brightest kids ever to come through my (admittedly small-town) elementary
school. Now I am a crippled adult and a lot nastier, so don't make slurs
about the intelligence of disabled people or I'll whack you with my cane. [...]

Rebecca
The smartest cripple on rec.org.mensa

Okay, so it's needlessly hostile. And I'm surprised I didn't injure my bad hip further with the severity of the knee-jerking displayed here. Still, I kind of have to admire my feistiness.

I wrote this about six months after I'd been told by an eminent orthopedic surgeon that I would never walk without assistance again. I was struggling hard to figure out what that meant about me as person and a member of society. I was 20. It wasn't the most graceful struggle, but I'm not sure that anyone's would have been.