http://www.wcax.com/story/16010844/one-of-a-kind-jim-mobus
Springfield, Vermont - November 10, 2011
Jim Mobus is trying to come out of his shell. He's playing the part of Deputy Graves in drama class, a spotlight he's not used to.
"I do not have necessary people skills and this is a way to learn it," he said.
Jim is a freshman at Springfield High School.
Reporter Gina Bullard: Is it hard adjusting to high school culture compared to middle school?
Jim Mobus: Not really because I'm sort of antisocial, so I don't talk to many people.
A shy 14-year-old who is also extremely smart. He loves math-- its order-- and finding a definite answer. Jim is capable of taking senior-level precalculus, but it was full of seniors who need the course to graduate, so instead he's in Algebra-- still ahead of his classmates.
"I don't come in knowing everything but I learn everything extremely quickly," Jim explained.
That can sometimes be a burden. School can sometimes be boring for this academic all-star.
"When the teacher goes over something once I get it and then go over it two more times to help everyone else," Jim said.
He loves a challenge and wanted to see how he'd do on the SATs, a test normally taken by 11th- and 12th-graders. As an eighth-grader he scored 680 out of 800 in math. The average Vermont math score is just 517.
"I don't think I'm smart, I think I have an accelerated learning capability," Jim said.
"In the gifted population we have more introverts than extroverts," said Carol Story, an education expert.
Story says 10 percent of students are gifted. Of those kids, at least half are introverts. That's twice as many as the rest of the population. Story says that's why gifted kids can have a hard time finding friends.
"These kids are mostly recognized for their different intellectually and as a result they don't fit with their age-mate peers," Story said.
Jim Mobus: I just was not built in such a way that I interact well with other people.
Gina Bullard: Would you say you're a typical teenager then?
Jim Mobus: I wouldn't say typical, but I'm closer to average than most people think.
Jim wants kids to know he's not that different from them, he may be smart but he's still a teen.
"I still go to my classes, I still moan and groan, I can hardly get up in the morning like other kids," he said. "I'm different because I value academics a lot more than my social life most of the time."
At home that's very clear. Jim's older sister Carrie has 500 friends on Facebook. Jim hardly ever goes onto social networking sites.
His mother, Lisa Mobus, admits she sometimes worries about her son's people skills.
"If I want to talk to somebody and I don't know what to say I make up a bad joke," Jim said.
But at the same time, Lisa Mobus knows her son is happy with who he is.
"Sometimes I think Jim makes jokes to amuse himself because I'm not sure he really cares if anyone else thinks they're funny," she said.
Carol Story agrees. If Jim's happy, there is no need for him to conform.
"Finding people who can think and talk the same way and make the same jokes... it's probably hard for Jim to find that," Story said.
Being smart, being different at a time when most kids just want to fit in draws attention, and it's not always positive. Jim's sister, Carrie, says he's picked on by other students and she won't stand for it.
"He's my brother; don't talk about him that way. I mean, yeah, I have fights with him too, but that's at home and I'm going to protect him," she said.
"Other kids picking on me... well I would like to think otherwise because I like to think people aren't that shallow to pick on the guy they don't even know," Jim said.
Back in drama class, Jim puts any difficulty with students behind him as he focuses on this new challenge.
"I love coming to school because I most of the time learn at least one thing or cement one thing into my mind," he said.
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