what kind of wood are you?

There are two pieces of wood, one is good, and the other rotting, suppose they are bound together, what’s going to happen? The rotting piece of wood would turn into a fine, useful piece of wood? The answer, to anyone of common sense, is no. so what will happen? Obviously, the good piece of wood will be rotting , because of its close contact to its “buddy”, a rotting one. The reason is some of the bacteria that previously fed on the rotting wood would be happy to reside in a new home.
This was an analogy or a story told by our math teacher in the classroom when I was in high school, and the message the teacher was trying to convey? if you are a good student ,you don’t want bad ones hang around around you, or you will get “bad”.
This was the county’s only so-called “key high school” in the province, and I was one of the handful of students in our town district who were academically good enough to make into it. so when the fresh school year just started, everyone felt a sense of pride for himself/herself to sit with the best of the best students from every corner of the county. it was not long before the math teacher , who later assumed the role of head teacher, after our head teacher fell ill, found me hanging out with other three students quite often, and was at a time openly “amazed” to see me “socializing” with the trio who in the math teacher’s eye were the “ elite” type. Buddy A, although, he was not good enough with his entrance exams, he got a dad who was the village chief or the sort, and the dad exerted some village-chiefly clout and a small fortune to get him acceptance letter to this “prestigious” high school; Buddy B, although originally from the countryside, his parents got some connections with some well-off townfolks, and his parents were running a small business in the capital of the county, so Buddy B’ status was automatically elevated. Buddy C, from a poor family though, with single mom struggling to make ends meet, but with a body blessed with some muscles, he was envied because he was one of few athletes who were able to compete on a city wide level and bring pride and medals for the school. And I? just barely got accepted by the school on academic merits ,was from a village, with parents nobody, I must be nowhere near a good student according to the standard the math teacher was using.
So, again, the message, was for us foursome. I? I had no rights to hang out with the three excellent boys, and the other three boys should see me unworthy. in hindsight, even by the standard of the little township, the math teacher’s snobbishness and hypocrisy was atrocious.
But so many years later, when I again and again reflect on the incident, I find there is one thing so right about the math teacher’s whole conduct and the principle that was guiding him: if one aspires to move upward in a society, be it financially, academically, politically…or simply job wise, he has to carefully choose and design a social circle to max benefit him to realize the goals on his mind. yes ,some might not like social Darwinism, but if you are not a good designer or even detest it, your chances to succeed are will be minimized, if not to have a disastrous life.