Analysis Of Grant Penrod Anti-Intellectualism Why We Hate The Smart Kids

Gerald Graff explains, “the fact that we associate those street smarts with anti-intellectual concerns. We associate educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts that we consider inherently weighty and academic. We assume that it’s possible to wax intellectual about Plato, Shakespeare, The French Revolution, and nuclear fission, but not about cars, dating, fashion, sports, TV, or video games” (#). What he is explaining is that to many times school systems force feed student’s material that they have little or no interested in and think they will read the item and not google it and take the easy road. Now Graff doesn’t say that students should not learn about the important figures that shaped the world as it is, but instead ween them in by getting them interested in something they enjoy first.

Well known article writer, Leonid Fridman, in his article, “America Needs Its Nerds”, describes the truthful idea that nerds and geeks, in our society, are ostracized while the kids who play sports and party are prominent. Fridman’s purpose is to impress upon the readers that nerds should not have to conform to society’s unimpressive values of what it means to be “popular”. He adopts an indignant tone in order to convey to his readers that the idea of nerds and geeks needs to fought. Fridman moves to the idea that children who would rather read and build model airplanes are the social outcasts compared to the ones who would rather play football and get wasted at parties.

He dedicates his epiphany to the seemingly unimportant sports conversations with his friends. This typical boy talk contributed to Graff’s realization that he was an intellectual, just a different type. The discussions that he engaged in as an adolescent actually trained him on how to create an argument, to consider different types of evidence, to advance beyond generalizations, to compile the views of others, and to involve himself in conversations that concerned different ideas (pg 267). However, many adolescents feel discouraged to bring their “street smarts” to the typical school setting. Graff believes that

Throughout Leonid Fridman’s essay “American Needs its Nerds” , the author displays how knowledge is extremely important and anti-values needs to be stop. First the author introduces his argument by starting a definition of the term “Geek”,then he exemplifies that people discriminate toward geeks and nerds for their intellectuals and passion for academics. He continues his argument by stating “ Even at a prestigious academic institution like Harvard, anti-intellectualism is rampant: Many students are ashamed to admit, even though their friends, how they study”(Fridman 10-14). Fridman perfectly shows a great source of irony by visualizing how people treat nerds differently from other and how they are a social outcast, even though students at

Graff grew up believing that because he was not concerned about the traditional academic topics, he was not intellectual. In social situations, an individual’s self-esteem is significant in successfully communicating, but students that do not excel in school may fear being ridiculed around those who seem more educated. In reality, it was Graff’s street smarts that taught him the language of intellectualism and he believes that the first step to incorporating this into schools is the use of interesting topics. Graff quotes professor Ned Laff who believes the challenge in this approach “is not simply to exploit students’ non-academic interests, but to get them to see those interests through academic eyes” (Graff, 2013, p.250). If this perspective is successfully obtained, the second step in Graff’s proposal is to introduce the typical writing that challenges intellectualism.

Samantha Nyborg LEAP Writing 2011-05 September 15, 2014 Critique Draft Megan McArlde is a journalist and blogger who focuses most of her writing on things like finance, government policy, and economics. In her article “The College Bubble,” a magazine article published in Newsweek on September 17, 2012, McArlde writes about how the “Mythomania about college has turned getting a degree into an American neurosis” (1). She focuses a lot on the value of getting a college education, and makes an argument that all the time and money spent on earning a degree may not be worth it in the end. McArlde uses several strategies to appeal to her reader’s, and does a great job of effectively using the Logos, Pathos, and Ethos appeals throughout her article.

In Gerald Graff 's essay “Hidden Intellectualism” starts of by talking about the stereotype of being so called “street smart” and and being “book smart” and how in school when you see someone who is street smart but doesn’t do go in school get a bad wrap. People look at them as a waste because they can’t apply there intelligences that they have and use it towards school, so people view them as not the right kind of smart because they are not a A student in school. Graff then goes on to say that maybe it is not the students that are the problem with how they do in school but maybe it is the school that have missed or overlooked the intellectual potential that kids with street smarts have. Graff also says that we only view the educated minds through schooling as the right way and schools and colleges look at kids who do not like school and don’t do well as anti-intellectual people.

The main argument is that perceived throughout the reading is that the schools itself is failing students. They see a student who may not have the greatest test scores or the best grades, and degrade them from the idea of being intellectual. Graff states, “We associate the educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts that we consider inherently weighty and academic” (Graff 244). Schools need to channel the minds of street smart students and turn their work into something academic.

The Rhetorical Analysis of the “America Needs its Nerds” The mental capacity is treated as a disadvantage in the America, despite the fact it already helped the country many times. This long-term problem became the main topic of the Leonid Fridman’s essay “America Needs its Nerds”. The work first appeared on January 11, 1990 in the New York Times as a part of the series “Voices of the New Generation”. The author spoke about the negative attitude the American society has to smart people and demonstrates it with the usage of words like “nerd” or “geek”.

When we look at lifetime earnings-the sum of earnings over a career-the total premium is $570,000 for a bachelor’s degree and $170,000 for an associate’s degree.” (pg.211 para. 1) This is an extremely effective use of logos to persuade as to why getting a college degree can yield “a tremendous return” (pg.211 para. 1), as the Hamilton Project stated. This is so effective because the authors lay all the numbers out right in front of the readers regarding lifetime earnings achieved through bachelor’s degrees, associates degrees, and high school diplomas.

In his essay, “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff criticizes schools “for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into good academic work” (244). Graff argues that intellectualism does not only have to be something that is achieved through this idea of “proper” education which is obtained through school work, but it can also come from the form of “street smarts” which is referred to those who learn things outside of an academic environment, for example their neighborhood. He makes a good point here because if a student is more interested in what is being taught, they will be more likely to engage in the lesson and obtain the information. Schools should give students the opportunity whether they are interested

A respected author John Green questions, "Why is being a nerd bad? Saying I notice you 're a nerd is like saying, ‘Hey I knows that you 'd rather be intelligent than be stupid, that you 'd rather be thoughtful of them be vapid, that you believe that there things that matter more than the arrest record of Lindsay Lohan and why is that?” Many people who are passionate about their studies question the same thing. Leonid Fridman wrote a passage “America Needs its Nerds” in order to raise concern that our society does not value intelligence. Fridman uses compare and contrast to get his point across to the readers.

Ray Williams talks about how America as a whole is foregoing conventional knowledge and replacing it with what could be considered more self-absorbed information in his article “Anti-Intellectualism and the Dumbing Down of America”. He goes on to include a quote from Susan Jacoby, paraphrasing senator Moynihan, about “the triumph of video culture over print culture”. This is of great interest due to the fact that if someone wants to learn a skill or get information about how to accomplish something, one of the first places that individual goes is YouTube. Although senator Moynihan made a great point with his quote, the quote that resonated with me was made by Catherine Liu when she said “We don’t educate people anymore. We train them to get

In the reading, “Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate the Smart Kids,” Grant Penrod recommends that there should be a different way to socialize amongst other individuals. This entire description explains the personal burdens that the intelligent scholars undergo. The ideas are as follows: author 's guilt celebrates, ideas held as standard when communicating, and on the bandwagon to get smart people worn down by the individuals that are against smart people. The author is afraid that people would not take the time out of their day to read or study for their classes. Claiming that bad influence towards education makes it resistant.

Ho proposes a possible explanation on why so many elite students scramble for Wall Street’s job opportunities that “Those most enamored of, or dependent on, their putative membership in ‘the cream of the crop’ seek ways to maintain and continue the high status to which they have become accustomed, especially as graduation looms near”(179). Regarded as the most intelligent and promising students, students at elite universities are accustomed to receiving praise and respect from others. With the date of graduation approaching, they desire to sustain the high social status by working on Wall Street which satisfies their fastidious demand for not only financial security but also prestigious social status. Expecting to sustain high status is not restricted to only elite college students. Similarly, Stiglitz declares that “Those with power used that power to strengthen their economic and political positions, or at the very least to maintain them.