The "More" Child

Was surfing around the technology section of the Post this morning, when I spotted this article “Ridicule That’s Getting On Our Nerds,” a book review of NERDS: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them by David Anderegg.

Anderegg is a professor of psychology at Bennington College in Vermont and a practicing psychotherapist. As the Post puts it, “In his breezy book, Anderegg deconstructs the stereotype, traces its history and makes the case that it undermines individual kids and the country as whole.”

Sounds like a book I’ll have to look for. According to the review, Anderegg focuses rather narrowly on those interested solely in math and science, which is unfortunate. And I’m also curious if Anderegg talks about the nerd stereotype as it impacts girls. One statement in the review, however, surprised me:

Anderegg points out that there’s very little research on what effect the nerd stereotype has on how kids learn and interact. (He keeps mentioning areas for study, so much so that one wonders why he didn’t take on some of this research himself.)

Uh, hello. I don’t know where Anderegg is looking, but there is a ton of information on the social and emotional lives of highly gifted children. He just needs to look here and here and here specifically, for starters.

Periodically there are discussions on some listservs I subscribe to about the terms “nerd” and “geek.” (Evidently Anderegg carefully parses the subtle difference. “Nerd” is more tied to appearance, whereas “geek” is more about intellence. I think many people use them interchangeably.) Should they be considered derogatory and thus discouraged? Or should they be embraced, thereby negating their power? [SeeWeird Al Yankovic's hilarious--and popular in our house-- "White and Nerdy" video.]

We’ve dealt a bit with this issue with C. and once again, it underscores how she just can’t be put into a box..and how isolating extreme giftedness can be when trying to build your self-concept. Starting in 2nd grade she was tagged “the walking dictionary” by her peers. She had some esoteric interests (I’ve mentioned the old time radio, but also broadway showtunes, British comedy, deep interest in law, politics and current events) and a reading compulsion with unusual-for-her-age reading choices that set her apart. I suppose some would call her a “nerd” or “geek.”

At the same time C. does not fit the “nerd” stereotype. She’s attractive, petite. She’s interested in fashion and popular culture, though not necessarily embracing them. She can be an engaging conversationalist. She’s artistic, dramatic and creative. She’s physically daring (was a competitive gymnast for several years). In the past two years when we’ve had the opportunity to meet some other kids who are her age and intellectual peers she’s come away insisting that those are *not* her people, because…well, they did tend to fit some of those stereotypes. They were predominantly boys (boys seem to be identified as exceptionally gifted more frequently than girls) and their interests tended more in the direction of math and science. Neither (the math and science that is, not the boys ) is a passion for C. Yet at other times she will spend lots of time on cafepress.com looking at snarky political t-shirts and tell me that she needs to buy some geekwear.

This feeling of being a minority (verbally gifted) within a minority (a girl) within a minority (exceptionally gifted) was driven home again this spring at the CTY awards ceremony. This was the Grand Ceremony, where students who had scored high enough to achieve SET were honored. The honorees for math achievement filled an entire page with four columns of names in small type. The honorees for verbal achievement: two columns of larger type and maybe a third of a page. The keynote speaker was a noted researcher at Johns Hopkins–who went on to give an esoteric and frankly stultifying talk in which he basically presented his research findings. The assumption was that this audience of kids would find him fascinating, and I’m sure some of them did, but I thought “What a missed opportunity!” It would have been so much more meaningful, I thought, to have someone talk on a personal level about his or her journey with giftedness, someone with the grace and humor of say Randy Pausch, whose last lecture electrified the Internet. Or someone who could tie together science and society and politics. Oh well. Guess I’m just a verbal geek girl too.

In any case, it will be interesting to read other reviews of this new book and to see if it makes any waves in the media. With the recent spate of articles on how the gifted are being neglected under NCLB, plus all the anxiety about America’s economic standing in the world, I won’t be surprised if it does.

Just a final note…a commenter on the Post made the observation that kids who might be viewed as “nerds” elsewhere actually find acceptance and even …dare we say it… are celebrated here in the Washington, DC area. I would have to agree. DC is kind of nerd central. For years I’ve said that DC is where all the student body presidents/National Honor Society presidents come.

And I should know.