The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [0]
Inherit the Earth
POPULARITY,
QUIRK THEORY,
AND WHY OUTSIDERS THRIVE AFTER HIGH SCHOOL
Alexandra Robbins
TO MY FAMILY,
PAST AND PRESENT,
WITH UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1 - Meet the Cafeteria Fringe
LATE SUMMER TO EARLY FALL: THE POPULARITY MYTH
Chapter 2 - Quirk Theory and the Secret of Popularity
Chapter 3 - Why Are Popular People Mean?
FALL: WHY QUIRK THEORY WORKS
Chapter 4 - In the Shadow of the Freak Tree
Chapter 5 - It’s Good to Be the Cafeteria Fringe
WINTER: OUTCAST PROFILING AND OTHER DANGERS
Chapter 6 - Challenges
Chapter 7 - Misperceptions
LATE WINTER TO EARLY SPRING: BEING EXCLUDED DOESN’T MEAN THAT ANYTHING’S WRONG WITH YOU
Chapter 8 - A Brief Introduction to Group Psychology
Chapter 9 - Why Labels Stick: The Motivations of the Normal Police
SPRING: QUIRK THEORY’S ORIGINS: WHY THESE ISSUES ARE HARDEST IN SCHOOL
Chapter 10 - Changing Perceptions
Chapter 11 - Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
LATE SPRING TO EARLY SUMMER: POPULAR VS. OUTCAST
Chapter 12 - Popularity Doesn’t Lead to Happiness
Chapter 13 - The Rise of the Cafeteria Fringe
Chapter 14 - Cafeteria Fringe: Lucky and Free
Endnotes
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Learn More
Also by Alexandra Robbins
Copyright
Prologue
Early 2011. Bullying in school has recently driven several teenagers to suicide. Exclusion and clique warfare are so rampant that the media declares bullying an epidemic and rallies for the public to view the tragedies as a national wake-up call.
Throngs of students who are not outright bullied are disheartened because it is getting increasingly more difficult to become an “insider,” to fit into a group, to be accepted as “normal.” Students feel trapped, despairing that in today’s educational landscape, they either have to conform to the popular crowd’s arbitrary standards—forcing them to hide their true selves—or face dismissive treatment that batters relentlessly at their souls.
Schools struggle to come up with solutions. Even the most beloved parents are met with disbelief when they insist, “This too shall pass.” Adults tell students that it gets better, that the world changes after school, that being “different” will pay off sometime after graduation.
But no one explains to them why.
Enter quirk theory.
Chapter 1
MEET THE CAFETERIA FRINGE
DANIELLE, ILLINOIS | THE LONER
When the bell rang, Danielle slowly gathered her books as the rest of her class scrambled out of the room. She reluctantly made her way into the hall, slinging her green messenger bag—backpacks were too commonplace—over her shoulder.
The hallway was already beginning to empty as people disappeared into classrooms. Students didn’t acknowledge Danielle and she didn’t acknowledge them. She walked with her head down, slouching her five foot ten frame, her dark, shoulder-length hair shielding her face.
Stone Mill High, a large public school in a middle-class, racially diverse Chicago suburb, had a small cafeteria, which was why its two thousand–plus students were divided into four lunch periods. Usually juniors were allowed to leave the building during lunch, but not on the first day of school. Tomorrow, and probably during the rest of the year, Danielle would avoid the cafeteria altogether.
Danielle wandered the halls for as long as she could, stopping to take a long drink from the water fountain and to pick up a form in the main office. Then she tried to walk nonchalantly past the cafeteria’s floor-to-ceiling glass wall, as if she just happened to be passing by. She could see students arranged predictably throughout the room. In front of the window sat the lucky students who had sprinted to the cafeteria to grab the small tables so they wouldn’t have to sit at larger ones with students outside of their social circles. Behind them, underclassmen sat in rows of long tables. Goths, emos, and scene kids flanked the left side of the room, closest to the lunch detention area. Preppy popular students claimed the far corner of the cafeteria.
She scanned