EXPERIENCES HAVE GIVEN EDUCATOR SHARP INSIGHT

Sally Steward, executive director of the Indiana Middle Level Education Association, knows just how much popularity can affect a student's life.

"You couldn't pay me a billion dollars to go back and be a seventh-grader again, because that was the worst year of my entire life,'' she says.

While Steward never had to be a seventh-grader again, she did see a lot of them in her three years as seventh-grade science teacher at Brownsburg Junior High School. Maybe that is why she remembers her school years so clearly.

"In elementary school, I was never the popular person. But I hung out with all the popular kids; they were my friends,'' she says.

"In junior high school, I made good grades, so they decided that I wasn't so cool after all. I had very few friends. It was terrible.''

So Steward decided to pursue two of her interests, student council and swimming, to keep herself busy.

"Then once I got to high school, those were my two groups of friends. I was friends with all the people who were on student council, and I was friends with all the people on my swim team. I wouldn't say I was popular, but I had a lot of good friends who I was friends with for the right reasons -- because we shared a common interest.''

Some popular kids use their popularity against other students, but some use it to help others, she said.

"Popular kids have the ability to really have a positive effect on their school climate, if they take their popularity as a responsibility and not as a kind of royal title.''

For example, she says, a popular girl who pays attention to a not-so-popular student can really make that student's day.

A popular student can also help others by intervening when somebody is being ridiculed.

"A popular kid can make a difference by simply saying, 'OK, I think they're fine and I think that's not a big deal,' '' Steward explains. "Oftentimes other people will follow suit.''

But there can be a downside to being popular.

"Popular kids do get some ridicule, too,'' Steward says. "They're made fun of because they have lots of friends, and the kids who aren't popular will oftentimes, out of their own defense because they're feeling bad about not having as many friends, they will make fun of the popular kids.''

She has some advice for students of all ages: "Just because you're not popular doesn't mean that you're not valuable and you're not worthwhile. You'll still find where you fit in. You can still find people that have your same common interests, and if you can make some good friends, I think you find out that popularity isn't so important after all.''

REPORTERS: Christine Beyer, 11; Patrick Beyer, 12; Anna Boetto, 11; Evan Daniluck, 13; Andrea Phillips, 12; and Evan Phillips, 13.