Dear Dish-It, I Don't Want to Be Dumb

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Dear Dish-It,
My school has four different teams: purple, magenta, crimson and gold. Gold being the smart, straight-A students and purple being the slackers and basically dumb people. Well, I got my class schedule and it said I'm on the purple team. Now, I knew I wouldn't be in gold but I thought I might at least be in magenta! Now that I know I'm in the slackers group, I feel really stupid and I'm mad at myself thinking I could do much better. I got decent grades last year, A's and B's and 1 C+ in math. I was known as a blonde last year cuz I didn't get things right off but now I feel like a total idiot! I'm going into 8th grade, my last year of middle school and I don't want to be on the purple team! All of my friends got almost all the same grades as me, maybe a B- in math though, yet they are in magenta or crimson. What can I do? I mean, should I talk to the school or try to study really hard and show them that I'm not dumb?! What can I do to make myself happy again?! I feel like crying! I don't want to be dumb!
:(_Breck_):

Dear :(_Breck_):,
You are not dumb! Repeat that over and over until it really sinks in. You've been thrown into a school that has a really messed up way of evaluating its students. It is not cool to group people into the Smart team or the Dumb team. Not only is it completely unfair, it lowers people's self-esteem at a time when it's already a struggle to fit in and feel confident about yourself. I think you should sit down with your parents and let them know what's going on and how it is making you feel. Get them to talk to your principal and if nothing changes after that, take your complaint to your school board. This is not something that you are overreacting about - it is making for a divided school where students are made to feel worthless. Don't let some stuffy adult toss you into a group and label you. You have just as much potential as all the rest of your classmates and you should be given all the same opportunities. Make your voice heard because you can make a difference! Good Luck.

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