The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [211]
“collective intelligence”: Ibid.
floaters are already skilled: See, for example, Shrum, Wesley and Cheek, Neil H., Jr. “Social Structure During the School Years: Onset of the Degrouping Process,” American Sociological Review, Vol. 52, No. 2, April 1987.
the number of floaters: Ibid.
“some combination of school success”: See Anderegg.
a childlike mindset: See, for example, Janecka, Laura. “Think Like a Kid,” Psychology Today, July/August 2010.
geek chic: See, for example, Angier, Natalie. “In ‘geek chic’ and Obama, new hope for lifting women in science,” New York Times, January 19, 2009.
nerd merch: See, for example, O’Neil, Lauren. “It’s hip to be square: Nerd merch brings in the bank,” Toronto Star, June 17, 2010.
nerdcore hip-hop artists: See, for example, Tocci, Jason. “The Well-Dressed Geek: Media Appropriation and Subcultural Style,” paper presented at MiT5, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, April 29, 2007.
“the social pariah outcast aesthetic”: Ibid.
massive mainstreaming of spheres: Ibid.
few trickle-down effects: Interviews.
a “cool nerd” subset: Interviews.
Paul Allen, Sergey Brin: These names are cited in many places; this particular list was in Varma, Roli. “Women in Computing: the Role of Geek Culture,” Science as Culture, Vol. 16, No. 4, December 2007.
Steve Jobs: Jobs, an outsider in school whom classmates viewed as odd, intense, and a loner—and who is now called “arguably the greatest innovator of the digital age”—is also an example of quirk theory. See, for example, Young, Jeffrey S. and Simon, William L. iCon: Steve Jobs, The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2005.
four twelve-to-fourteen-year-olds won: See, for example, Hutchinson, Bill. “News Readers Hurry to Help the Nerd Herd,” New York Daily News, March 27, 2009.
“Nerd HERD! (YES!)”: See Carlson, Jen. “Christine Zaremba & the Nerd Herd,” Gothamist, April 15, 2009.
“drama dorks”: Interview.
a deviant in one group: See, for example, Abrams and Rutland.
“High school was so unimaginably”: Interview.
“The best thing to do”: Interview.
“outcasts in a heartbeat”: Interview.
the Eagles and the Rattlers were so hostile: See Sherif.
“dramatic” and “striking to all observers”: Ibid.
“I just wish people could”: Interviews.
“It’s hard because sometimes”: Interview.
“But you’re smart”: Interview.
“Adolescents who were unpopular”: See Kinney.
Mississippi county school board: See, for example, Joyner, Chris. “Both sides claim win in Mississippi lesbian teen’s prom lawsuit,” The Clarion-Ledger, March 24, 2010.
Committed suicide after being harassed: See, for example, Strauss, Valerie. “How to make schools safer for gay students,” Washingtonpost.com, Oct. 4, 2010.
“If someone asked why I was counting”: Interview.
“I’ve had to make a new group”: Interview.
“Continuously pretending to be”: Interview.
line-matching conformity experiment: See Asch.
By extension, Asch’s discovery: See, for example, Berns, who makes his point in Iconoclast.
Perceived popular kids: See earlier endnotes for each of these separate studies.
“It is essential for children”: See Balter, Lawrence. “When Peers Pressure: You can prevent friends from exerting undue influence,” The San Diego Union-Tribune, March 9, 1996.
effective communicator: For tips on how to talk to teenagers, I like the Passport chapter of Queen Bees and Wannabes, which has many suggestions that apply to kids of both genders. See Wiseman, Rosalind. Queen Bees and Wannabes, New York: Crown, 2002.
Outcast High: Interview
Lobby for changes: We should not assume that it is easy for even the best intentioned administrators to make these changes. As one researcher phrased it, “Schools . . . have a dual task. They should exert regulation . . . but also become sites of social change and emancipation. These tasks have met new challenges in the globalized world in which neo-liberal restructuring of education emphasizes accountability, choices, and markets, with decreasing consideration of equality and social justice.” See Lahelma, Elina.