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 Nerds - the book
Review
by The Week magazine
The
inimitable Dr. Seuss dropped it into a semi-nonsensical line in his
1950 children’s book If I Ran the Zoo: “And then, just to show them,
I’d sail to Ka-Troo, and bring back an IT-KUTCH, a PREEP, and a PROO, a
NERKLE, a NERD, and a SEERSUCKER, too.” Soon
enough, though, “nerd” came to define something no kid wanted to be. Its
actual definition has had shifting boundaries, says child psychologist
David Anderegg. Today
it connotes “some combination of school success,
interest in precision, un-self-consciousness, closeness to adults, and
interest in fantasy.” The
lack of self-consciousness particularly unnerves other people, Anderegg
says. It makes the rest of us feel obliged to keep informing the nerds
that they’re nerdy. To
Anderegg, the nerd stereotype is not just a fleeting playground
obstacle. It
represents a particularly American strain of anti-intellectualism that
has plagued the culture since Ralph Waldo Emerson endorsed the idea
that Americans were “men of action, not men of reflection.” Even
on the playground, Anderegg says, the nerd label remains potent enough
to change the course of some children’s lives. This,
in turn, may affect the nation’s capacity to compete in a global
economy. “Consider
this terrifying statistic” from Anderegg’s cache: In 2004, U.S.
colleges graduated more sports-exercise majors than electrical
engineers. Anderegg
says he counsels the parents of his young patients that they can’t be
mocking bright misfits while expecting good grades from their own
children. He
also tells “a funny and moving story” about trying to convince one
stubborn couple that they needed to buy jeans for their teenager
instead of exposing him to constant ridicule by sending him to school
in tracksuit pants. Considering
broader steps, Anderegg suggests that anti-smoking ad campaigns provide
good models for what a pro-nerd marketing effort could achieve, said
Teresa Budasi in the Chicago Sun-Times Web site. And
how about offering more brainiacs the big-money scholarships that star
athletes now get? “I’d say those are a couple of good places to start.” ~ ~ ~
Highly Sensitive Gifted
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& resources Articles:
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