The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth by Alexandra Robbins

This book with a wordy subtitle of Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School talks about the various social strata that develop in Junior High and High School.

In the book Robbins introduces us to several students across the country who could be classified in the various subcultures prevalent in teen age life today. In truth these are to a great extent the same groups that we faced as kids. Nerds, Geeks, Jocks, Popular kids, Stoners and beyond. It would seem that there are many more subgroups such as Punks, Goths and Emo's whose description can be found in the book.

The thrust of the book is to try to explore the cliques and how the interactions of students can mar the high school experience. What seems to be clear is that with the exception of perhaps a few king and queen bees there are a great majority of students who are not happy, or if not unhappy certainly not excited about their lives on a day to day basis.

I have memories of my high school experience. I had many friends and hung out with popular kids but I was not one of the popular kids. I played sports but was not one of the better athletes. I grew late which hurt my prospects. One of the experiences I remember was that my senior year I decided that I wanted to be friends with everybody, from several different cliques with no allegiances to anyone in particular. This did not go over well with some folks, for a period of time I had succeeded in pissing everybody off. Eventually it died down and I did not regret my decision. In fact I think it helped prepare me for college.

As I watch my own children at age 16,14 and 12 I wish that I could impart to them the wisdom of this book. We have many times told them that high school is just one experience and that no one wants high school to be the peak of their lives and for those that find great social success in high school that is often the case. However what we say and what they live are two different things and it is much easier to be wise and generous in thought twenty years later as an adult.

For parents this is a good book. Perhaps to me the most eye opening section was when it talked about the cligues in teacher groups and how it can effect students. My wife is a teacher and though she has not experienced it I am sure that in a more diverse area these things do come up. Also addressed were parents who wanted their children to be more popular and encouraged them to do more things that popular kids did. The lesson is that for these kids on the " cafateria fringe" to have a great chance of success outside of the constrictions of high school the most important thing is to feel support from their parents to be themselves and that they were good as they were.

Parents need to know this.

A very enlightening book but it it's subject matter at times a very depressing one.