My latest post over at special-ism is about the dangers of being the class clown. There's nothing wrong with being "class clown" if you play it safe but sometimes it's not so easy to be safe.
Click here to read the article.
http://special-ism.com/is-your-child-a-class-clown-to-gain-acceptance/
I was a class clown myself for many years and I still have my homework diaries full of fun commentary (and numerous reprimands from my teachers to prove it. They were always telling me that "you don't have to be anyone else, just be yourself". I never understood what they were saying - or why they were harping on about it at school but now it makes a bit more sense.
I even have a great written comment from one teacher which says "Gavin spends too much time making futile attempts to amuse his classmates. I would suggest spending more time be spent in the pursuit of knowledge"
(Yes, it has a grammatical error in it because the teacher had read some unsavoury attempts at humor against himself seconds before writing it -- and he was far from calm).