Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them [Hardcover]

David Anderegg (Author)

Book Description

Release date: December 27, 2007

A lively, thought-provoking book that zeros in on the timely issue of how anti-intellectualism is bad for our children and even worse for America.

Why are our children so terrified to be called "nerds"? And what is the cost of this rising tide of anti-intellectualism to both our children and our nation? In Nerds, family psychotherapist and psychology professor David Anderegg examines why science and engineering have become socially poisonous disciplines, why adults wink at the derision of "nerdy" kids, and what we can do to prepare our children to succeed in an increasingly high-tech world.

Nerds takes a measured look at how we think about and why we should rethink "nerds," examining such topics as: - our anxiety about intense interest in things mechanical or technological;
- the pathologizing of "nerdy" behavior with diagnoses such as Asperger syndrome;
- the cycle of anti-nerd prejudice that took place after the Columbine incident;
- why nerds are almost exclusively an American phenomenon;
- the archetypal struggles of nerds and jocks in American popular culture and history;
- the conformity of adolescents and why adolescent stereotypes linger into adulthood long after we should know better; and nerd cultural markers, particularly science fiction.

Using education research, psychological theory, and interviews with nerdy and non-nerdy kids alike, Anderegg argues that we stand in dire need of turning around the big dumb ship of American society to prepare rising generations to compete in the global marketplace.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this intriguing treatise, child therapist and psychology professor Anderegg takes a wry and well-rounded look at the legacy of everyone's (least) favorite schoolyard epithet, getting deep into the history of an idea as well as the nuts and bolts of childhood "stereotype acquisition." Beginning with a "Field Guide to Nerds" ("or Why Nerds are So Gay"), Anderegg considers typical nerd traits (and includes a "Nerd Test" copied from "Deluxe NERD Glasses" package copy), parses out the subtle but important differences between "nerd" (emphasizing appearance) and "geek" (emphasizing intelligence), looks at the cultural history and rising profile of American anti-intellectualism, from Ichabod Crane and Ralph Waldo Emerson to Seinfeld and Beauty and the Geek, as well as more recent developments in nerd-related medical diagnoses like autism and Asperger's. Knowledgeable, charming and self-deprecating throughout, Anderegg is at his best when discussing the specific cases of children he's worked with, but readers should be happy to tag along as he occasionally wanders off point (contemplating, say, the Freudian implications of his subject). For educators, therapists and others interested in child psychology, this makes an insightful, if perhaps overstuffed, resource.
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Review

"In this intriguing treatise, child therapist and psychology professor Anderegg takes a wry and well-rounded look at the legacy of everyone's (least) favorite schoolyard epithet, getting deep into the history of an idea as well as the nuts and bolts of childhood "stereotype acquisition." Beginning with a "Field Guide to Nerds" ("or Why Nerds are So Gay"), Anderegg considers typical nerd traits (and includes a "Nerd Test" copied from "Deluxe NERD Glasses" package copy), parses out the subtle but important differences between "nerd" (emphasizing appearance) and "geek" (emphasizing intelligence), looks at the cultural history and rising profile of American anti-intellectualism, from Ichabod Crane and Ralph Waldo Emerson to Seinfeld and Beauty and the Geek, as well as more recent developments in nerd-related medical diagnoses like autism and Asperger's. Knowledgeable, charming and self-deprecating throughout, Anderegg is at his best when discussing the specific cases of children he's worked with, but readers should be happy to tag along as he occasionally wanders off point (contemplating, say, the Freudian implications of his subject). For educators, therapists and others interested in child psychology, this makes an insightful, if perhaps overstuffed, resource." -- Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher; 1 edition (December 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585425907
• ISBN-13: 978-1585425907
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #921,603 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The uniquely American prejudice January 30, 2008

By wiredweird HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Prejudice is a nasty word - no educated person would tolerate bias based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or dozens of other individual differentiations. It's still OK to make fun of nerds, though. (Q: Do you know how to tell when a nerd likes you? A: He looks at your feet when he talks to you.) Anderegg digs into that prejudice with this book. He finds that its roots run surprisingly deep in American culture, and that its branches and leaves cast real shadows on America's future.

Remember Ichabod Crane and the legend of Sleepy Hollow? Ichabod, the town schoolmaster, dresses badly and looks funny. Brom, his nemesis, is popular, handsome, strong, and uneducated. In the end, Ichabod loses the girl, Brom gets her, Brom runs Ichabod out of town, and at least some of the townsfolk decide as a result that book learning would only harm their children. Fast forward almost two hundred years to the "Math is Hard" Barbie doll, stopping at presidential elections with educated losers, from Andrew Jackson to Al Gore. In most other popular cultures, the smart guy is also the athletic, happy, romantic, handsome, and well-liked one. In the US, the intellectual guy in the typical movie is none of those - and "transcends" his role only if he abandons it.

As a clinical child pyschologist, Anderegg explores some of the reasons why children might pick on those who do well academically. Whatever the reasons, children in grade school use "nerd" as an epithet that has real power to hurt, whether any one calling or called that has a strong idea of what it means. By seventh grade or so, the kids' herding instinct is also a hurting instinct. Despite the demonstrated irrationality of being "popular," kids will do anything to avoid being unpopular - and being a nerd is the easiest and perhaps most fixable way to be unpopular. If a kid is determined to avoid academic success, you can bet they'll succeed in avoiding it. By high school, the non-nerds have already given up literally years of exploration and education in math and physical sciences. Only the rarest among high school students can overcome that and go on to college and a career in technology.

And people wonder why more colleges graduate more PE majors than EEs. Well-meaning economic incentives come years too late to unravel the prejudices laid down earlier. If the math nerd is the one who never gets laid (regardless of whether anyone else does), would a $100 reward for acing algebra attract many high schoolers? Do the math.

Anderegg offers a few postive suggestions for parents of potential outcasts. Very often, even doting parents don't realize the power of kids' peer pressure, and a few innocuous aids to fitting in will go a long way. He also claims back Asperger's as a strictly defined medical term - as something present only if it debilitates the individual, not as a casual excuse or insult for someone whose focus isn't where the speaker's is. Without the shrillness of a nerd pride activist, Anderegg shows clearly why nerd prejudice has such far-reaching implications.

-- wiredweird, who calls himself a nerd

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This is not Revenge of the Nerds. February 8, 2008

By C. Ries

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Nerds is a thoughtful and insightful look into the reasons for an accepted discrimination present in American society. It approaches its topic with humor and an expert's eye.

Any parent or teacher (I have taught sophomores for 14 years now) should definitely read this book. I found it enlightening and revealing.

You will never look at Ichabod Crane the same again...

Highly recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth the time to read February 6, 2008

By J. Broestler

Format:Hardcover

The book offers a thorough look at a curiously ignored problem: why the nerd stereotype persists, and the damage it is causing. The author does a good job exploring such topics as what defines a nerd (though his parsing of differences between nerd and geek is a bit tedious and superfluous), how this label originated, how it impacts us as a society, and what to do about it.

He does try to utilize what little research evidence is out there on the subject, but the book is admittedly full of a lot of personal opinion and conjecture. But given the sparse and maddingly vague nature of the scientific data concerning this issue, one can't fault him too much, and he does repeatedly try to present all sides and remind readers of the dangers of coming to dogmatic conclusions about sociological and pschological phenomenon (though he rightly argues that the official diagnostic criteria of the Mental Health profession ought to considered the authority when addressing what some consider the 'abnormalcy' of nerds).

It is a good book about a real problem. There is so much that is good and beneficial in the life of the mind and the experiences offered to kids who are allowed to explore their interests without being poked fun at for it. His comments on Scouting and how the idea that it's a nerdy thing deserve a big hooray, to give an example.

A great read for parents and teachers alike, especially those trying to understand why their normally bright student is suddenly doing worse academically. It could very well be his/her fear of being labelled a nerd, according to the author.