Speaker Alexandra Robbins is a New York Times bestselling author of Pledged and The Overachievers. She’s spent over a decade “examining… various microcosms in U.S schools” and is the 2007 recipient of the Heartsongs award for her contributions to the mental health of children and young adults (Robbins, 6). Robbins immediately establishes credibility by featuring her credentials in her About the Author section and mentioning her experience in U.S schools early on in the book. In The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth, Robbins introduces the idea of quirk theory, which states that “many of the differences that cause a student to be excluded in school are the same traits or real-world skills that others will value, love, respect, or find compelling
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In an interview with Liane Hanson on Nevada Public Radio on May 21, 2011, Robbins admitted her inspiration for writing The Geeks came from the students she met who felt hopeless or like something was wrong with them simply because they weren’t popular (Robbins, 2011). As a kid, Robbins was neither an outcast or popular; she describes herself as a floater, one who could float from cafeteria table to table without having a solid and sole friend group, and she is proud of it (Robbins, 2011). Meeting students with such deep feelings of hopelessness shocked her. They feared they were “doomed to experience [exclusion and bullying] for the rest of their lives” (Robbins, 7). As explained in the prologue of The Geeks, bullying reached a peak in early 2011, causing many suicides, a lot of exclusion, and clique warfare. It was becoming harder to be considered normal and in the in-crowd. Robbins wrote this book to explain to students that popularity doesn’t determine self-worth and there are more qualities to a likeable person other than who they socialize with, which is a very valid reason for her audience that feels this way, like students and parents who have
In an interview with Liane Hanson on Nevada Public Radio on May 21, 2011, Robbins admitted her inspiration for writing The Geeks came from the students she met who felt hopeless or like something was wrong with them simply because they weren’t popular (Robbins, 2011). As a kid, Robbins was neither an outcast or popular; she describes herself as a floater, one who could float from cafeteria table to table without having a solid and sole friend group, and she is proud of it (Robbins, 2011). Meeting students with such deep feelings of hopelessness shocked her. They feared they were “doomed to experience [exclusion and bullying] for the rest of their lives” (Robbins, 7). As explained in the prologue of The Geeks, bullying reached a peak in early 2011, causing many suicides, a lot of exclusion, and clique warfare. It was becoming harder to be considered normal and in the in-crowd. Robbins wrote this book to explain to students that popularity doesn’t determine self-worth and there are more qualities to a likeable person other than who they socialize with, which is a very valid reason for her audience that feels this way, like students and parents who have