School is a forced social setting, because they government makes it mandatory. The quality of teaching is pathetic, and kids are often bored out of their wits and given no direction.
So what do you EXPECT to happen? Obviously a bunch of bored, totally uneducated, confused and bewildered individuals will try to bond with others and identify with a group/clique, primarily out of fear.
So the athletes form a group, the druggies form a group and the nerds form a group. But because they're all forced together into these artificial "classes", with absent-minded teachers, they have problems getting on with eachother and the less popular ones get ostracised.
If parents could choose where to school their children, if schools had to compete for customers like any other business, if teachers taught students properly and methodically, starting with basic laws of logic, the situation would be better.
For one thing, youngsters would have greater self-esteem, and thus, could stand on their own much earlier, rather than defining themselves by their group/tribe.
Also nerdy children could go to nerdy schools, where their talents could be appreciated and encouraged. Imagine how many more genuises could rise if they grew up in an atmosphere of encouragement and cooperation rather than hostility.
I'm not saying nerds are "cooler" than everyone else. Cool is totally subjective.
But if we had a private school system and better teachers, life would be easier for everyone, including nerds.
The reason I loved the workforce so much, when I finally got into it, was that I had some choice in which companies I worked for, and I was able to strive for real-world objective goals, rather than being lumped into a random group of people, without any aim goal or direction.