Return of the Geeks, Constitutional Measures, and the Case for Good Thinking
Teacher Magazine ’s take on education news from around the Web, July 8-21.
If you’ve lived long enough, you’ve witnessed the phenomenon before: Last time it made headlines was the ’80s, when Revenge of the Nerds was a hit film and Huey Lewis’ “Hip To Be Square” was a hit single. Now, thanks to computer CEOs like Bill Gates, the movie Napoleon Dynamite , and a plethora of sci-fi TV shows, the perfect “dork” storm has arrived once more . That’s good news for students like Steffi Weiss, a 15-year-old school orchestra member in Lake Zurich, Illinois, who, along with friends this past spring, began sporting “Orch Dorks” T-shirts. “We used to not be able to stand the fact that we were in orchestra,” reveals the violinist. “Finally, we realized that’s where all our friends are and that’s where we have the most fun.” Of course, Steffi’s epiphany only proves the point that unique segments of society should always be celebrated, not just dusted off every 10 or 20 years. But this recent trend brings out the territorial instincts in some. Nick Ross, a 20-something freelance artist, has put together the True Geek Test—to filter out posers, evidently. “The label of ‘geek’ actually has nothing to do with computers anymore,” he claims. “It’s become about irony. Among young people, liking something cool is uncool, and vice versa. There is no logic...
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