Wow, talk about a small target audience!

Here’s a link to the story that, I think, was behind the article you’re thinking of:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4311223&page=1

Jordan:
Check out the book on Amazon and search for the word “genocide.” The two or so pages around that section should give a sense of the whole “geek rights” thing. The key segment was on page 110-11:

A more prudent and humane response to the problem of the “geek syndrome” would be to abolish it legislatively by dropping some, if not all, social-skills deficits from the manual of mental illness. This will not happen, of course, until there are enough nerdy people who rise up, as homosexuals did in the past, and demand an end to official stigmatization. It may not happen in our lifetimes, but it will happen if only for the simple reason that many social-skills deficits will be less and less debilitating in the future.

That’s about the only place it comes up, I think.

I’d be interested in hearing more about that…

Overall, then, Dr. Anderegg is very compassionate towards kids who get labeled as geeks and nerds, and thinks of geeky pursuits as healthy for kids (and, in the long run, essential to our economy), but isn’t really addressing the fact that many continue to find deep personal meaning in these terms well into adulthood. Rather, his two big fears are (a) that certain kids who fit the nerd stereotype get picked on mercilessly and they shouldn’t have to deal with it (which I think we’d all agree is true), and (b) that even kids who don’t fit the nerd stereotype will go out of their way to seem not nerdy, which means they will do poorly in school, and which is why the US is lagging in science/math/tech degree recipients.

In the way of further clarifying, consider this: In the conclusion, he mentions a 17-year-old girl who is in a “Geek Club” at school, where the only entry requirement is having taken calculus. He contrasts her with another student, who is a fan of Beauty and the Geek and is actively avoiding doing well in school so as to avoid being labeled a nerd. It’s the former, he suggests, who is dealing with the geek stereotype in a healthy way—not letting it get her down, having a sense of humor about it, even embracing it to some extent. Into adulthood, he basically says that the nerds like her, the who aren’t ruined by harassment in school, will grow up to turn out pretty normal, save for a lasting distrust of “alpha dog” figures (can’t find the page to tell the exact quote, but you get the idea).

I should acknowledge, though, your concern about whether he’s just saying that kids need to conform to social norms. He certainly doesn’t have any particular love for the popular crowd in itself, which sort of comes across looking unintentionally mean and slavish to conformity. By the same token, he eventually suggests that kids are better off conforming in a few tiny ways, if they can, just to avoid the worst kind of harassment during middle school, when students are essentially merciless and capable of inflicting deep psychological damage on one other. Examples of acceptable conformity he suggests include getting your kid contacts instead of glasses, and buying your kid jeans because everybody mocks him for wearing sweatpants. Whether these are worthwhile sacrifices are up for debate, though of course not every kid can get past whatever thing marks them as mockery-worthy.

So, in summary, while I wouldn’t say I agree with all his claims and analyses, I did find him sympathetic to geeks. It’s not that he’s anti-geek—he even suggests that there’s nothing wrong with being so socially unusual that people accuse you of having a “syndrome”—but that he’s concerned about how kids process this concept. He even implies that some sort of “geek rights” may be the next logical precursor to GLBT rights (potentially in the face of those who would wish to commit “genocide”—his term—against nerds by genetically cutting off Asperger syndrome).

I hope that helps to clarify, but I hope my ridiculously long comment on this isn’t the last word on the matter around here. As I said, it’s a quick read, so I’d be really interested to hear what anybody else thinks.

“Basically, this book is meant to convince parents to help eradicate the nerd/geek stereotype among middle schoolers, and to give some helpful tips to parents of beleaguered nerds and geeks in the meantime.”

Based on the excerpt that Church found awhile ago and this comment I’m getting the feeling that this book is almost sort of anti-geek or something along the lines of “why kids need to conform to social norms”.

If you can expand on the mind set the that the author is approaching his subject with I would appreciate it.