Anti-Intellectualism In American Life

In all reality there are many times that kids go through school and don’t do well not because they are not smart,but because people don’t

The article “The Dumbing Down of the American Mind,” by Doug Soderstrom, states that there is a very dangerous phenomenon occurring in the United States of America. It is the willful tendency for Americans to forgo reality in favor of believing what they want to believe. The author, Doug, uses irony and sarcasm to voice out his opinion about the Bush-Cheney administration, and somehow relates it to the five reasons he gave why we are in the state of “dumbing-down.” According to Doug, the unwillingness to learn of this generation, the tendency of our country to compartmentalize their religious belief from science and philosophy, and the procurement of freedom with the expense of responsibility and the interest in the needs of others

From as early as I could remember I noticed I was not like the others kids. I had an interest for things most kids would not be interested in. I liked interacting with people, knowing about people and their life stories; I wanted to help in anyway that I could when I would hear everyone’s problems. I thought outside the box throughout my whole childhood and I wanted to make the most out of my knowledge. I told myself that I was going to dedicate my life to helping my community.

“Hidden Intellectualism,” by Gerald Graff starts off with an older argument between being book smart and street smart. Throughout the reading, Graff uses his own life experiences to critique the education system today. Points made focus on the idea of overlooking the intellectual potential of those who come across as being, “street smart”. Different authors cited in the reading to show how to accept another’s different intellectual. However, we realize that people who come across as being intellectual weren’t always labeled as that.

Mike Rose disagrees with the assumption that “Intelligence is closely associated with formal education” (Mike, 247). Formal education does not always measure the level of intelligence of a person. Education as something people can gain not only in school, but every day of their lives. We should be learning from our experiences, and apply this knowledge to our everyday lives. Wisdom should not be looked at as just

The reading "Hidden Intellectualism" by Gerald Graff reflects views on being "street smart" and "book smart." He explains that society tends to associate people who are intelligent on solely being "book smart" and performing well in academics, rather than being street smart. He goes on to further explain that students perhaps can be intelligent on topics that interest them. Graff opens up the reading by giving his own personal experience on feeling torn between trying to prove that he was smart yet fearing that he was overdoing it. He was trying to prove that he learned just as much about the real world by reading his sports books and magazines as he would have if he had read the classic works of literature like most students in school.

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.

Intellectualism is the factor of being intellect or intelligent. The idea of what it means to be educated can be interpreted many different ways by different people. Some think it’s having a 4.0 and going to Harvard, while others believe in the idea of having common sense. In the essay, “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff reflects how lack of education is viewed negatively in society. On top of that, a question also lies what it means to educated.

In the article, “Anti-Intellectualism and the “Dumbing Down” of America” Ray Williams discusses the increasing trend of anti-intellectualism in American culture. There is an anti-intellectualism that exists in American culture that is the result of the unpopularity of being smart in High School, the lack of the importance of teachers in the U.S. compared to Japan and the effect of reality TV and pop culture. Williams indicates that one of the reasons that anti-intellectualism exists is that education in the United States is not as strong as it once was. Williams says, “After leading the world for decades in 24-34 year olds with university degrees, the U.S. is now in 12th place. The World Economic Forum ranked the U.S. at 52nd among 139 nations

Innatism refers to a philosophical belief in innate ideas and knowledge which suggests that one is born with certain ideas and knowledge. This contradicts tabula rasa, an epistemological argument that the mind is a blank state at birth. In the history of philosophy, innatism has been widely discussed between rationalists and empiricist. While rationalists assert that certain ideas and knowledge pre-exist in the mind independently of experience, empiricists claim that all knowledge is gained through one’s experience. However, Plato’s story of a slave boy in Metaphysics and Epistemology, the study of neuron system, and research of infants’ representations of events support the argument of rationalists with convincing evidences; therefore, I agree

In my school there are 210 kids. There are definitely different groups, cliques, clothing preferences, and/or behavior codes. I observe that there are the cool and sporty groups, the Goth group, the bad kids group, the smart kids group. In the sporty cool group they dress nicely and talk about their sports a lot and enjoy talking about it. They are also really involved with any school activities, really any chances to go out and do something with their friends or to play sports.

The school system doesn't only do that, but they force people to believe that they are useless and much more. Our system is severely flawed and it is affecting children and teenagers in obscene ways, so action must be taken to change some factors. Many students relate to that fish. They live their

I just felt as though that I would always be ahead of other people because of my learning skills. For example, the first day of ninth grade I walked into my math class, it was a year long course stating “support math”. In which, the only reason I was put into that course was because of

They think that because they are better because they have better clothes then some kids and more money and get to get more. They also tend to be hateful when someone out of their group tries to talk to them or get in their group without being invited. There are some kids in the classroom that really don’t care if they pass or fail

I had people who looked up to me. It meant so much to me that some of my peers saw me as an inspiration. I distinguished myself the most