The students who are the most manipulative and most concerned with status tend to be the ones that are chosen as leaders by school administrators. They're the ones who muscle their way into those roles. Their egos demand it. If you have classes with those sorts of students, they are not particularly gifted or even interested in the material, but they strive for As by sucking up and lying and always seeking attention. If you are bright, but don't participate in scheming and sucking up, you often confuse school admins because they expect such behavior from their "best and brightest". They think something is wrong, that you're not ambitious enough, or that you have low self esteem. I speak from the position of having attended American schools, public and private, honors and "normal" classes. The honors kids have always tended to be richer, whiter, and more conformist than the "normal" kids at the five K through 12 schools I have attended. I might have enjoyed the material in certain harder classes more, but dealing with honors students was always more stressful because they're more competitive. College is a little better, but I also think the "best and brightest" experience more pressure in college to conform and behave in that manipulative way by admins offering scholarships, grants, prestigious awards, etc.