The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [152]
In response, the British government implemented Creative Partnerships, a program designed to focus on creative learning by partnering schools with creative professionals including artists, performers, multimedia developers, architects, and scientists. The program was so successful that England’s Art Council allocated £75 million (more than $90 million) to create a new national organization called Creativity, Culture, and Education, to operate from 2009 to 2011.
Meanwhile, U.S. students acutely feel the effects of a system whose priorities fall on the opposite end of the spectrum. “School doesn’t encourage creativity and imagination,” said a Texas freshman. “I think this is why lots of creative-type people, like musicians and artists, are sometimes seen as outcasts. If you don’t behave like everyone else, most likely you’ll be an outcast.”
Student populations blatantly conform their clothing, hair, and other features. A Florida senior noted that, “All the girls fake tan, and you know when a dance or big party is coming because the whole school is orange.” Several redheads told me they were picked on merely because of their standout hair color.
Many teens feel pressured to match an ideal body type. A freshman boy in Georgia said, “Right now, my forearms are about as big as my biceps, because I run and don’t work out. I look around and see all these big guys walking around school and there’s definitely pressure to look ripped, because when you’re small, you’re usually labeled as a nerd.” An Indiana thirteen-year-old added that students are much more likely to pick on boys who are underweight than overweight.
Cliques of girls tend to share levels of depression and self-esteem, as well as body mass index. In the first study to examine eating disorders within friendship groups, psychologists discovered that cliques of high school sophomores shared extreme weight-loss behaviors, body-image concerns, and dietary restraints. The researchers could even predict a girl’s rate of extreme weight-loss behaviors simply by gauging the rates of other girls in her group. “I’ve struggled with anorexia and bulimia since eighth grade and that’s not even rare,” a semi-popular Maryland senior said. “I’ve gone into the bathroom towards the end of lunch to fix my makeup and heard girls vomiting in the stalls. And no one talks about it, ever. Because that would be abnormal, and no one can afford to be that.”
Conformity is a mask behind which students can hide their identity or the fact that they haven’t yet figured out their identity. “I disguise how little of a life I have outside of school by wearing cute, fancy, expensive clothes,” said a Texas sophomore. “I pin myself as a ‘mess in a dress’ because although I look pretty on the outside, I feel awful on the inside.”
More troubling than accessories that can be removed at will are group standards for attitudes and behavior that can’t be so easily changed. Students in gangs, for example, might be pressured to fight or to act belligerently in school. In a group discussion, several minority students from various states told me that they felt they had to “act white” to be accepted by teachers and administrators.
Other students repeated the sentiments of a New York junior, who said that in