Make It Cool to Be a Nerd!

According to the article, Revenge of the Nerds, by Daniel Roth in Wired (September 2009), the key to reforming education is to "make it cool to be a geek." Roth mentions High Tech High and Roxbury Prep as examples of schools that are breaking the mode. Many students in these schools come from low-income families—families without a background in education. The success of the students in these schools is evident their acceptances to colleges, in student performance, and student acceptance of  "nerds". After all, according to Roth, they are all kids who are achieving and making the most of their learning. All geeks, all nerds, perhaps, and that's the way it needs to be. Isn't that what schools are all about? Schools should be places where it's cool to get good grades, to create and to work hard. They should be places where students appreciate each other's talents whether these talents be in sports, the arts, the academics, or leadership; not places where cliques determine what's to be appreciated. The youth culture in many schools is holding kids back, and we have to turn that around.