The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth

I had a brief stint with popularity in the second grade. It began when I came to a new school and immediately befriended the most popular girl in class, Jennifer. It was the late-80s and Jennifers of all spellings were everywhere.  I think our class had eight. Any way you spelled it, however, the name represented conformity and popularity.

Popularity is fragile. At least mine was, because it eminated only from my proximity to a Jennifer.  It ended quickly over when I refused to conform to the lastest third-grade girl fad: boys.  I refused to like boys, which basically meant “going steady” with a boy. (But not necessarily actually talking to him.) Notes were fine, though. Remember “Do you like me? Circle yes or no.” (Did you ever write the Yes really big and the no really small? Yeah, we were soooo tricky.)

We  girls were immature but beginning to catch on to the way the world worked. Boys were immature and ignorant. I remember Shane G. getting all bent out of shape because when he peeked into the girls restroom we actually had “a candy machine in there.” To him this was SO UNFAIR. The irony!

Anyway, my popularity only lasted a few months, which gets me to what brought all of these memories up for me in the first place….a book I’m reading called  The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School by Alexandra Robbins.

Robbins theorizes that the quirky, fun, and non-conformists among in school end up being the most successful later on in real life.  In my experience as a teacher working with students who sometimes don’t fit in at regular high school, I think this is very true. Let’s all be geeks!