44 pages • 1 hour read
Alexandra RobbinsThe Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 10-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
“Spring”
Chapter 10 Summary: “Changing Perceptions”
Danielle struggles to trust people but does want to make more friends. Running for the position of Webmaster at the National Honor Society elections requires her to talk to people. She begins to widen her social circle and gets a job at Dairy Queen. Michael “comes out” to Blue and they kiss. Whitney becomes close to Chelsea, and engages with other, non-preppy students, even standing up to Bianca. Joy writes a supportive note for a teacher who is being ignored and gives Ariana a toy monkey with an encouraging message and her email address. She gives Keisha, who is being unkind to her, a supportive message and a lollipop. Keisha warms up to Joy, who hopes to become a psychologist. Joy builds a bridge with Mia, one of the girls who harassed her when she first arrived at the school.
Students seek out Regan for support and advice because she is good at listening. When she suspects she has been bumped off a school trip because she is white, she intercedes with the principal on behalf of her students. The only area for improvement in her latest review is about “using discretion,” a reference to her “coming out” at school. At this point, Regan decides to carry out her challenge from Robbins outside of school, offering support for LGBT people within a (grateful) online community. Eli makes more friends and leads his school to its best ever position in the Academic Bowl, but his school does not acknowledge the victory.
Schools sometimes reinforce inaccurate ideas and unhelpful social norms. Biases and stereotypes persist among teachers too. Student and teacher cliques reinforce one another. This affect teachers’ judgements and over time, student performance. Students may be branded “troublemakers,” inadvertently encouraging recidivism. Many schools give awards and other distinctions to the same students every year. Privileges are afforded to certain sports teams and not to other student groups. The dopamine system peaks in teenage years, and grey matter density increases until age 30. Both contribute to the ability to innovate. Therefore, brain is most plastic during the school years, and schools are working in conflict with biology.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Two Steps Forward, One Step Back”
Joy jokes around with her friends in PE class. Xavier tells her pronunciation of “z” is incorrect, and she rebukes both he and Pooja, who interjected by challenging Joy. Her teacher also singles her out because she is clever. That night, she resolves to be proud of her roots and to stand her ground. Conformity is common policy in schools. When her father died from cancer, Amelia from Missouri decided to dye her hair pink in honor of him. Her school suspended her.
Studies indicate that the higher the education level, the more homogenized political discussions become. Schools in Oregon, Idaho, and Maryland have all sent students home for wearing traditional Native American dress on formal occasions. Robbins cites Seth Godin of Marketing Today, who points out that industrialists invented the school system. A Scottish health services report indicated that the capacity for creative imagination declines from 98% at age 3-5 to 2% at age 25, concluding “we teach conformity” (314). In response, England’s Art Council allocated $90 million to found a national organization called Creativity, Culture, and Education. Studies show that behaviors and neuroses normalize within friendship groups.
Noah gains visibility from his recycling efforts but is disheartened when a popular new volunteer is a no-show. Meanwhile, Danielle makes gradual progress with her challenge.
Chapters 10-11 Analysis
It is perhaps not surprising that an education system forged during the industrial era should be more tailored to manufacturing goods and developing a mature society. While essential to the formation of the world in which we now live, industrialized society is conformist by definition. Many of the individuals who have made lasting changes and contributions to the culture have gone against its prevailing mores, and even in the case of Mahatma Gandhi for example, its rules. In the simplest, binary sense, individual freedom is at odds with society. Unfortunately, this can lead to oppressive systems, both overt and convert, such as the Diversity Committee’s suppression of Regan’s LGBT-Straight alliance in Chapter 6, and the subsequent reprove from the principal in Chapter 10.
That socialization can entail indoctrination is almost tautological, yet expressions of difference can be met with forceful resistance purely because they challenge the security of the existing group organization. Joy is able to change her social status from outsider to truly popular by retaining compassion for her aggressors. By showing kindness to Keisha, and standing up to Xavier and Pooja, Joy arguably shows leadership ability. She helps to foster social cohesion, even when met with opposition and ignorance. Regan offers a listening ear to her students, just as Joy is able to extend empathy to the excluded teacher. Both manage to attain a balance between functioning within the existing social structure and reforming it. The homogenization of political discussions in American further education suggests that institutionalization fosters partisanship, which is not without the tribalism seen in the Robbers Cave study.
