Nerds why we need more

The author weakened his arguments, though, by trying to apply them to recent politics. His characterizations of the Gore-Bush election completely failed to convince me. He ignored that many voters intelligent ones, even voted for Bush for ideological reasons, not because he wa This book was a quick, interesting read. He ignored that many voters intelligent ones, even voted for Bush for ideological reasons, not because he was the "jock" in opposition to Gore's "nerdiness".

In fact, until reading this book, I never had thought that Gore was considered a "nerd" or Bush a "jock". Were it really true that the American public devalued intellectual politicians to such a degree as the author claims, Obama would never have won this last election. View 1 comment. Mar 05, Kristi rated it really liked it Shelves: fourstars , nonfiction , science. I really liked this non-fiction title. It was a quick and engaging read. I found his connection between the negativity of the nerd stereotype and the declining math and reading scores to be interesting.

Sadly, there's little direct research on the nerd stereotype for the author to work from, so he extrapolates a lot from other research. I also occasionally found myself frustrated with his snappily titled chapters because he didn't always seem to directly answer the questions he raised in them du I really liked this non-fiction title.

I also occasionally found myself frustrated with his snappily titled chapters because he didn't always seem to directly answer the questions he raised in them during the course of the chapter. By-and-large, however, I really loved this book and would happily recommend it as a very engaging non-fic read for nerds and non-nerds alike.

Jun 11, Lena rated it really liked it Shelves: , nonfiction. David Anderegg is a developmental psychologist who has talked to a lot of kids about the nerd stereotype. He claims that kids, who don't fully understand the complex stereotype, are affected by it and change their behavior to avoid aquiring the name. I thought it was very interesting, especially being one of the kids who never thought it was a bad thing to do well in school, and didn't worry about never having a boyfriend or never making friends because I was in band and mock trial.

Sep 06, Grace rated it liked it. I don't think he grew up in Silicon Valley. Because, if he did, he wouldn't have suffered so much. And, the response from everyone who has seen it has been, "Cool! Can you get me one? The cover photograph of a white boy says it all.

Jun 20, Rosalind Wiseman rated it it was amazing Shelves: recommended. David Angeregg is always good for looking at child development issues in new ways. But every parent should read it because Anderegg is giving us a window into understanding youth culture in a new and important way.

Jun 07, Melissa Angelik rated it it was amazing. Well researched, highly understandable and not just for the "pop-psych" crowd. Feb 01, John Pappas rated it it was ok Shelves: social-sciences. Skip to the last chapter the conclusion. Wonderful chapter but the lead-in was stretched out.

Mar 26, Steven Scribner rated it it was amazing. I was in for quite a surprise. The author makes the case quite forcefully that it is the reason behind much of the failure of American students in math and science, as well as simply being a hurtful stereotype as are all stereotypes. Not wanting to be labelled as a nerd and thus picked on by other students, so the argument goes, many students who enjoy either of said topics in school will nevertheless decline to study them until adulthood.

They weren't dazzled. It had never occurred to me that everyone has different interests from everyone else, though of course I figured it out by high school.

As seen by those last two examples, the stereotype is not only erroneous and cruel to children, but can be genuinely hurtful to adults as well. The author then makes several suggestions on how to eradicate it. The book is written with a little irreverence, lots of humor, and some interesting presentations. Jan 15, April eclecticbookworm rated it liked it.

The book started engaging enough and funny but did hit a lull in the middle when like everything else it boiled down to sex and the author did get hung up a little with it and there were too many pop culture references to not feel dated very soon. Sep 01, April Helms rated it liked it Shelves: history , reference , nonfiction-popular-culture , nonfiction , education. This was a very good book in many ways.

He goes more into why, and just how pervasive it is. He draws on some interesting anecdotes and arrives at some intriguing solutions. The premise is that America's anti-intellectualism is not only impeding the academic process of individuals, but impeding the country's progress as a whole. No argument from me here on that point.

He points out how subversi This was a very good book in many ways. He points out how subversive -- and how accepted-- our ridiculing nerds, geeks and others who don't quite fall on that bell curve of life is, including society's over-pathologizing said individuals.

He makes a strong case for why this mindset needs to change if we want to graduate more educated individuals -- which won't be an easy challenge in a country that has always admired the "rugged individual" and, as Anderegg puts it, people of action, as opposed to those who are "merely" scholars who have never gotten their hands dirty.

And I agree about the power of words and associations: cold, hard rigid "facts" - what math and science depend on -- can be seen as inflexible and not-fun, not cool. Or, as the author put it this cracked me up to "harrrd! This race was razor close, and Gore actually won the popular vote by a slim margain , so this conclusion seems a stretch, at best.

Two, he compares the rankings of the test scores of students in the United States, versus other developed countries, and, predictably, America's results are rather dismal. Now, I'm NOT saying there isn't room for improvement, and there's nothing we can't learn from other countries. Far from it. We really need to implement year-round schooling among many other changes, and give education the attention it really deserves. However, I really hate the comparisons with other countries because it is not comparing apples with apples.

One, the United States makes an effort to educate- and test- every student. This does not happen in other countries. Two, education here is free and public with private options available.

That is not the case with all countries; I recall talking with an exchange student from South Africa once, who said tuition to a typical school in her country was about a year's wages for the typical laborer. In short, these other countries are testing their best and most affluent populations. I recall reading some time ago that if you broke down the test and only looked at the top percent or so of students in the U. Also, I recall Anderegg making a comment about how the "jocks" and the very pretty students don't have trouble with being teased and stereotyped.

That's just not true. Dumb Jock? Ditzy Blonde? The "beautiful people" have their advantages, probably more than the more average souls. But they can be discriminated against as well. No one is immune from "labels. May 02, P. Well dang. Item: Anderegg really struggles to define his terms, before finally admitting that it's impossible for him to actually do so, and instead simply relying on the self-reporting of schoolchildren for his categorical statements.

Item: the tautological definition he finally settles on a nerd is someone who is called a ne Well dang. Item: the tautological definition he finally settles on a nerd is someone who is called a nerd is superceded in most of his 'research' by the fact that he treats "good at math and science" as equivalent to "nerdy.

Item: although Anderegg is an academic, his research is spotty, even shoddy in places. There is almost no statistical data here, merely self-reported anecdote and supposition.

He frequently draws conclusions which are unsupported even by that. All in all, a dissapointment. The one takeaway is that those who claim that our current culture has crossed some magic threshold, and that geek is cool now are wrong, almost axiomatically. Geekiness is still geeky. What has happened is that thanks to the tribalistic effects of social media, the geeks can now hang out with one another more effectively, and feel better about themselves. That's a wonderful, positive change which, unfortunately Anderegg completely ignores.

But he's right that there's been no grand revolution. Unfortunately, a book like this one isn't going to do much to alleviate that. Jan 03, Brendan rated it really liked it Shelves: non-fiction , advice-theory , David Anderegg writes a compelling discussion of the idea of nerds and geeks as they get promulgated from high school down to middle and late elementary school culture.

Of course, none of this is news. Nerds like science and math, and like pleasing grownups by doing well in school. Only the first group would automatically be labeled nerds, despite the fact that all three have intense interest in arcane subjects most people find boring.

I know this will stay with me for a while. Aug 27, Shannon rated it really liked it. I really enjoyed this book. I read it while I was nursing my newborn son. I was looking down at him, hoping that he would be "nerdy" - as in smart, interested in science and technology, and not too worried about peer acceptance Would his adorable good looks save him?

However, this book reminded me just how negatively our culture views intellectual pursuits and those who pursue them. Then I began to see it in the media myself, as I watched television and movies that week. I like that the author is a child psychologist.

It is not only affecting the nerd-labelled kids, but it also keeps other children from pursuing science and technology for fear of being called a nerd. In other words, it's holding back American children from their potential. The author really seems to understand kids, so this book also counts as a parenting book, on how to nurture our nerdy - or non-nerdy - children. In fact, he points out that as adults, we've escaped the "middle school mentality" that perpetuates the teasing and reminds us of what our children may be experiencing.

In some cases, he does advise that we let our children conform if they so wish - such as the sixth grader who wanted to wear jeans to school to fit in - he advised the parents to simply buy the kid a pair no matter what their stance on "fashion" and "fitting in" may be.

He also talked about the Asperger's Syndrome diagnosis in a new way, saying that it's wrong for us to be labelling a personality type as a "disease" - that like ADD, people are being overdiagnosed with AS.

I completely agree - and as someone that overcame shy and introverted tendencies myself to now being a friendly, outgoing person - I am glad that I was never diagnosed with a disease that I might have resigned myself to having, rather than pushing myself to come out of my shell. May 17, Kat Shelton marked it as to-read. Book Jacket: Are you socially awkward? Technologically sophisticated or just extremely passionate about one or more subjects? Well, maybe you're a "nerd. In this fascinating book, child and family psychologist David Anderegg examines the process by which kids learn what nerds are, and what happens to their identities as a result of their developing awareness of this uniquely American stereotype.

In "Nerds," Anderegg surveys the long history of American anti-intellectualism and its current avatar: anti-nerd sentiment. Although at first glance it may not seem so bad to call someone a nerd, this stereotype is wreaking havoc in the lives of our children, affecting their performance in school and ultimately jeopardizing American economic competitiveness.

It may not be an accident that international math and science testing shows American fifteen-year-olds in twenty-fourth place among the world's most developed countries. In other words, before they stop being kids. Jul 01, Carole rated it it was amazing. Loved this book. Very thought-provoking. I think I was a pretty nerdy kid, and my main thing as I was reading this book was that I kept thinking, "Oh, calm down.

I didn't feel that marginalized as a kid. About a week later, I had a chance to revisit my old elementary school. The main point of this book is the effect the Nerd stereotype has on kids in particular and society in general. One interesting observation is Loved this book. One interesting observation is that the word "nerd" doesn't so much descibe a specific type of person so much as it encompasses anyone who departs from a really narrow concept of what we're supposed to be.

Once he's identified the problem, his solution seems to be to eliminate the label. This is probably where I disagree.

I think it makes more sense to "decriminalize nerdiness" rather than eliminate the whole concept. There are those of us who take a lot of pride in our nerdy identities. One of the most interesting parts of this book for me was when he talked about interviewing kids about what super-power thay would like to have.

The kids fell into three categories. There were the normal kids, the kids who were marginalized because they were different, and the kids who were marginalized because they were aggressive. The aggressive kids wanted powers to smash things and blow things up.

The different kids almost all wanted either to fly or to be invisible. And the "normal" kids wanted really "super powers" that would make them popular. Like the power to have a cool car or the power to be the best cheerleader.

To quote a movie, "That's not a power. That's a skill. May 25, Snowfire rated it really liked it. Wasn't expecting to like this book, but got it for Christmas from Scattercat, and it's actually pretty interesting.

It's nice to see someone say that many "edge cases" of the vast majority of psychological conditions are just normal human variation, which is nothing new.

This ties into the vast overdiagnosis of Asperger's Syn Wasn't expecting to like this book, but got it for Christmas from Scattercat, and it's actually pretty interesting.

This ties into the vast overdiagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome at the moment which seems to attempt to reduce a whole variety of "odd" behaviors as somehow biologically destined. While obviously this is true in a few cases, it's gone way too far. The stuff on how nerds work, and pointing out that often they correctly focus on what's important rather than stupid trivialities like, say, fashion , is also self-flattering but also sounds correct to me.

It's also a good warning that geek chic only goes so far - sure, it may be accepted by adults more, but there are some extremely harmful stereotypes that are even stronger than ever in our culture about how geeks aren't attractive, athletic, or socially aware. In some ways, it's good that people can accept that these things aren't necessarily important, but claiming that geeks have an inverse relationship with those talents is both false and harmful to kids' growth.

I'm just glad that I personally didn't run into that too much, but meh. So, yeah. Lots of interesting food for thought. Jul 17, Dustin Tatman rated it it was amazing Shelves: science , psychology , non-fiction , , parenting. When I began reading this, it felt like a 3-star book.

It had a little less science and a little more anecdotal information that I usually like from my non-fiction. Some passages even gave me a pop-psychology fluff vibe.

I had to bump it up to 4 and then ultimately 5 stars based on how much this book made me think; think about myself, my past, my future, and how I will raise my children. Issues that have been an important part of my life without my full notice were suddenly brought to light.

Da When I began reading this, it felt like a 3-star book. David Anderagg is a practicing psychologist. Although I've never had therapy, I imagine that the most talented psychologists illicit introspection through gentle prompting, nudging, and asking seemingly innocent questions. You can easily create a free account. Your Web browser is not enabled for JavaScript. Some features of WorldCat will not be available. Create lists, bibliographies and reviews: or.

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Save Cancel. Find a copy in the library Finding libraries that hold this item Examines social attitudes that label intellectually gifted individuals as "nerdy" or lacking in popular attributes, and cites the importance of overcoming anti-intellectual prejudices to protect American interests in the global economy. Reviews User-contributed reviews Add a review and share your thoughts with other readers.