books read in the last couple weeks
Monday October 23rd 2006, 6:41 am
Filed under: youth ministry, books, youth work

confidential.jpg, by jeremy iversen.

jeremy iversen grew up in mahatten, attended an exclusive prep school (a boarding school, no less), then was at the top of his class at stanford, double-majoring in something like biology and economics. he was on what he calls “the track” — with an assumed after-graduation 6-figure salary from a consulting firm. but at a job fair just before college graduation, he balked. he decided he wasn’t interested in “the track”. moving to hollywood, he considered his next step. sitting one day in a mall, watching teenagers, it dawned on him that cameron crowe had, 25 years prior to the exact month he was living, posed as a high school student to do research for ‘fast times at ridgemont high’. jeremy thought it would be interesting to see what was really going on in the lives of today’s high school students. he narrowed his search down to 270-something high schools in southern california that fit his description of average (not elite or in a highly weathly area, not urban, no monocultural), and starting asking if he (by then a 25 year-old) could attend school as an undercover transfer senior. school after school rejected his idea; but when he was down to only two more possibilities, one said yes.

only the principal and the district superindentant knew his true identity and plan. for six months, iversen fully entered into the life of a high school student, making his way into the popular group of seniors.

he takes an interesting approach to writing the book, due to his agreement with the school that he would keep the school and all its students and teachers (and administrators) completely confidential. he explains this using the metaphor of cartography. when cartographers create a map, they have to decide which things to hold constant or true, and which things to bend. when we look at the most-common views of a world map, for instance, greenland is looming ridiculously huge over the atlantic. of course, we know it’s not actually that large. but the map-makers chose other things constant, and had to forfeit relative size, especially toward the poles. iversen chooses to keep actual dialogue as his constant. so the quotes from students and teachers and administrators (which make up a sizeable portion of the book) are word-for-word, or very close to it. but the characters themselves (including the school) are fictionalized to mask their identity.

the book is fascinating and horrifying. really. certainly, i wasn’t in the popular group in my high school. but i have worked with teenagers for 25 years, and this book is probably the most cage-rattling inside look i’ve ever experienced. this is clearly because there was zero attempt on the part of the students to mask or spin. as a youth worker, it will break your heart. if you’re a parent, it’ll scare the crap out of you and drive you to your knees.

parents should probably read this book — but it’s not for the faint-of-heart. and this book should become part of the library of every youth worker. now, i wish someone could pull off the same thing in the world of middle schoolers.

opposite.jpg, by paul arden.

i heard about this little book on jonny baker’s blog and ordered it. it’s a quick read, as most of the pages are lite on text and heavy on design. not really a “book” in the traditional sense, it’s more a collection of ideas and thoughts (and a few stories) to get you thinking in different ways. i didn’t agree with everything in the book; but i still found it really worth reading, and will likely be one i take a second pass through.


2 Comments so far
Leave a comment

as a youth worker, it will break your heart. if you’re a parent, it’ll scare the crap out of you and drive you to your knees.

“parents should probably read this book — but it’s not for the faint-of-heart. and this book should become part of the library of every youth worker.”
You are not kidding. I am a teacher in a middle school. I am also a student worker. I see and hear things that would scare most people to the nut house. Most people have NO IDEA what the student world is like these days.

now, “i wish someone could pull off the same thing in the world of middle schoolers.”

That would be cool, and not as hard as you think. Some of my 8th graders are 6 foot and 210lbs.
8th graders.

Saulnier

Comment by 10.23.06 @ 9:28 am

[…] i read jeremy iversen’s brutal and insightful book high school confidential last week. posted about it here. one of the primary characters is a christian, and not a bad guy, really. but the thinly veiled references to either young life (probably) or campus life were tough to read, because it was an unfiltered description of so much of what we do in youth ministry. the author didn’t seem to have an axe to grind about christians or christian clubs (he attended every week, he wrote at one point). but the whole thing comes off sounding so much like the pep-rally in the movie saved. here’s one of the sections that made me wince: that evening after dinner, she received special permission from her father to go to spiriteen and come straight back. parents like the idea of christian youth group; brian’s party the next night would need a much harder sell. […]

Pingback by ysmarko 10.29.06 @ 1:03 am

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI


Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:

(required)

(required)