Oh yeah - his place in the pecking order. 3rd Grade I felt like
   a level zero in the pecking order. But thankfully, after a year
   of walking home saying, "stick and stones may break my bones but
   names will never hurt me", by 4th grade, I knew I only had to
   _pretend_ to be a Level Zero around certain people because
   _they_ didn't deserve to know *just* how high a level I really
   was.

   Even then I knew that "sticks + stones" was BS - because names
   (like "Level Zero") *do* hurt... but the magic was the shield it
   gave me, "It really *is* "Just Words"" - an early subjective
   lesson in Semantics, or disassociating words from having any
   intrinsic meaning. For me, it was "Nerd" (girl/geek/fag - they
   were all interchangeable in 3rd grade). I learned they could
   call me whatever they liked - they didn't define "me". I defined
   me. I got PLENTY of opportunities to practice the defense
   mechanism a *lot*... because kids are cruel and teachers were
   blase to it all. [still working on that "defining myself"
   part... didn't know it would become a *lifelong* endeavor ]
   Thank you* :)* The layers, bundles and complexities of meaning
   that are wrapped up in a single word or phrase that has
   emotional impact is something I've been unraveling and
   untangling for a lifetime so far.

   In the movie, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" this is represented by "The
   Cheese Touch" - an old piece of cheese that has been stuck on
   the playground since time immemorial. If you touch the cheese,
   you are an outcast from society, an untouchable, ignored,
   avoided, a social pariah, shunned, etc.

   It's a feeling that we can all relate to and I loved how that
   book/movie symbolizes it in that piece of moldy cheese. My
   nephew loves the series [he's 4th grade]