not agree with them. For instance, he often refused to do school
work that he had already mastered, saying that he did not see the
point. When he did do his work, he usually finished long before
the other students. To entertain himself, he concocted complex
practical jokes, which he pulled on his classmates and teachers.
Such pranks, according to Kaplan, “were a way to show intel-
lectual prowess and rebellion at the same time.” 10
He let snakes loose in the classroom and set off explosives in
the teacher’s desk. One of his more complicated tricks involved
bicycles. He managed to persuade his classmates to give him
the combination of their bicycle locks. Then with the help of
another intellectually gifted boy, Steve switched the locks on all
the bicycles, making it impossible for the other children to unlock
their bicycles. “There was this big bike rack where everybody put
their bikes, maybe a hundred bikes in this rack, and we traded
everybody our lock combination for theirs on an individual basis
and then went out one day and put everybody’s lock on every-
body else’s bike and it took them until ten o’clock that night to
get all the bikes sorted out,” 11 Steve recalls.
Strength of Will
As a result of all his mischief, Steve was often suspended from
school. His teachers thought the best way to keep him out of
trouble was to challenge him academically. To determine the best
way to do this, Steve was administered an intelligence test at
the end of the fourth grade. It indicated that intellectually, he
was functioning on a high school level. The school psychologist
recommended Steve skip fifth through eighth grade and be sent
right to high school.
Steve’s parents resisted. Although their son was intellectually
advanced, they knew that socially and physically he was still a
child. They did, however, agree to allow him to skip the fifth
grade. This meant he would start middle school a year early.
His new school was a rough place with many tough, street-
wise students. The police were called in often to break up fights.
Little learning went on there, and Steve hated the place. To make
18 Steve Jobs