I hated being seen as weird as a kid (heck, also as an adult) but to me there was/is a line between not wanting to stand out and actually dumbing down. I didn't want to attract attention so for things like class participation I'd do the bare minimum and try to fly under the radar. Probably brought my grades down but it was worth it to maintain my teenage social life and not attract negative attention. Tests, I'd write everything I could and hope the teacher wouldn't single me out when handing out marks. I usually didn't dumb things down although if I was called on in class I wouldn't exactly go out of my way to show off either. I have no idea what could have been said or done to encourage me to not downplay things. Honestly, I'm an introvert who was trying to survive junior/senior high school which can be a pretty nasty place at times. Outside of school I read like crazy, had great conversations with family and close friends and was able to fully be myself. Not sure if that helps or not but figured I'd offer one view from the other side.
