I Hate You

Like many another schoolteacher, Friedrich Haiker of Vienna's Sixth District Volksschule (for boys) was puzzled by his six-to-ten-year-old charges. Why, he wanted to know, were some children so popular among their schoolmates and others so scorned and alone? Last week Teacher Haiker gave a depressing answer.

Haiker had asked each youngster to write down the names of the two classmates he liked most and the two he liked least. After a fortnight's interval, he asked them to name the two classmates they considered handsomest, the two they considered ugliest. With few exceptions, Haiker found, the pattern was the same: the handsome boys were also the most popular. No one liked the ugly ducklings. "I just can't stand him!" came the refrain. Just why looks should be so important to children, Teacher Haiker did not pretend to know. But the fact remained that the most unprepossessing boys could expect little love from their school chums. Even glasses were a risk: one handsome fellow got 17 votes as the best-liked boy in his class--until he began wearing glasses. Thereupon, reports Teacher Haiker, his admirers dropped to three.

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