Description

---

Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids argues that the teenage behaviors that annoy adults do not arise from "hormones," bad parenting, poor teaching, or "the media," but from adolescents' lack of power over the central features of their lives: they must attend school; they have no control over the curriculum; they can't choose who their classmates are. What teenagers do have is the power to create status systems and symbols that not only exasperate adults, but also impede learning and maturing. Ironically, parents, educators, and businesses are inadvertently major contributors to these outcomes.

About the Author

---

Murray Milner, Jr., is Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. His books focus on the many faces of status, and include Status and Sacredness, winner of the American Sociological Association's Distinguished Publication Award, Unequal Care, and The Illusion of Equality.