{"id":16657,"date":"2011-05-12T00:02:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-12T05:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/?p=16657"},"modified":"2011-05-12T08:19:33","modified_gmt":"2011-05-12T13:19:33","slug":"inherit-the-earth-the-meek-or-the-geek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/12\/inherit-the-earth-the-meek-or-the-geek\/","title":{"rendered":"Inherit the Earth? The Meek or the Geek?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Every high school teacher, every youth pastor, and every parent of a high schooler should buy, read, and talk about this book with students and with friends: Alexandra Robbins\u2019 The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School<\/a>\"\"<\/em><\/strong>. This book is a sketch of what it is like to live amongst high schoolers. Even when you disagree you will find yourself thinking about a culture and wondering how in the world we got ourselves into this condition.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I don\u2019t want to suggest we are falling off a cliff, but the social interaction and cliques of high school students are potent, damaging and culture-forming. But that high school culture is a mirage, reality can be found elsewhere \u2014 and years later.<\/p>\n

What do you high school teachers see in \u201ccliques\u201d? What are public schools doing about labels and groups? What do you think of her groups (after the jump)?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t teach high school but did coach a bit in a high school for a decade and, even if times have changed, the whole \u201clabeling\u201d thing is everywhere. \u201cToday\u2019s students are so label-conscious that there is even a label for students who consider themselves independent of labels\u201d (indie; p. 40). But labeling is shifting in a notable way: \u201clabeling is shifting from targeting what a student does \u2014 studies hard, dresses darkly [sic, dark], plays a band instrument \u2014 to what a student feels<\/em>\u201d (42).<\/p>\n

But Robbins\u2019 book is a very important book for another reason: she subscribes to something called \u201cquirk theory.\u201d Here it is:<\/p>\n

Many of the differences that cause a student to be excluded in school are the same traits or real-world skills that others will value, love, respect, or find compelling about that person in adulthood and outside of the school setting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thus, her point? Popularity in high school does not predict success. It measures conformity.
\n<\/p>\n

So what are the labels? the groups? She follows these o-so-pungent categories of high school stererotypes, labels and identity-forming categories:<\/p>\n

The Gamer
\nThe Popular Bitch
\nThe Weird Girl
\nThe Band Geek
\nThe Nerd
\nThe New Girl<\/p>\n

Plus Emos, Indies, Scenes, and Bros.<\/p>\n

Go to the cafeteria, where you will find the populars and the preps and the \u201ccafeteria fringe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reading this book is both intoxicating and sickening \u2014 and it describes a condition called high school in which great love is needed, intense mercy required, voluminous patience desired, and gobs and gobs of good youth pastors at work.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every high school teacher, every youth pastor, and every parent of a high schooler should buy, read, and talk about this book with students and with friends: Alexandra Robbins\u2019 The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School. This book is a sketch of what it is like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[540],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-youth-ministry"],"yoast_head":"\nInherit the Earth? 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