Anti-Intellectualism: America’s mysterious downfall Bullying statistics suggest that at least one out of every four kids will be bullied sometime throughout their youth. Children may be bullied for a variety of reasons, including attracting positive attention, being intelligent, having personal vulnerabilities, having few to no friends, popularity, unattractive features, disabilities, sexual orientation, uncommon beliefs, or even race. Among these reasons for bullying is a very important one many
In a world where high school dropout stories are prevalent, the public is beginning to shun intellectualism on a greater degree than ever before. Although top-performing athletes in high school get showered with recognition by their peers, students who equally flourish in the field of academics rarely get acknowledged as much as their athletic counterparts. In his essay, “Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate the Smart Kids,” Grant Penrod proves this assertion. Wishing to capture the audience, Penrod
In Grant Penrod’s “Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate the Smart Kids” he goes onto explain how as a society today we seem to have a built in hatred for those who are intellectuals. The main point I believe Penrod is trying to get across is that many people tend to overlook those who are intellectuals and tend single out and stop intellectuals. In Penrod’s essay he a great example of intellectuals being overshadowed by athletes by telling us how the Mountain View football team had won their state
way to the top of the food chain, the actual learning portion is either set aside or forgotten altogether. In Grant Penrod’s essay, Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate the Smart Kids, he explains how modern children are growing to dislike intellectual children. The varying social ranks teach children to ignore low grades and try to be popular in school. Anti-Intellectualism is a trend which is becoming increasingly popular throughout the world. People who only strive to be popular tend to tease intellectuals
The 1950s-anti-intellectual was a national movement when non-intellectuals raised concerns outside of the intellectual community. During the time of Dwight Eisenhower considered regularly inarticulate. A part of that movement is McCarthyism “arousing the fear the critical mind was at ruinous discount” (Hofstadter). The 1852 primary election between Adlai Stevenson and Dwight Eisenhower further showed the contrast between intellectuals and anti-intellectuals. Steven appealed to intellectualist, and
capture an audience’s attention. Under the guise of this popular platform writers relay political, social and philosophical messages to their audience. The popular 1931 version of Frankenstein, based on Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, depicts an anti-exploration and anti-intellectual philosophy. In Frankenstein there is criticisms for the immoral behavior that is involved with progresses, the natural tendency for humanity to attempt to be greater than God and the pursuit of knowledge. Frankenstein, the doctor
In Gerald Graff's article "Hidden Intellectualism," he discusses his ideas about intellectualism and traditional academic thinking. Graff contends street smarts are as important, if not more important, than academic prowess. Graff feels challenging students on topics that are interesting to them is the best way to improve their academic performance. Graff points out many young people with street smarts struggle to translate their intelligence into the academic world. He says schools may be at
Why street smart students are considered anti intellectual in academic area? In the article “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff, he accounts the idea that street smart students are way more smarted than book smarts. He explains that street smart student will be able to solve an issue much faster than book smart because of his/her previous experience. According to author, the problems with considering street smarts as anti intellectual are they are actually much smarter that book smart students
Chad Decker Professor Kelly Elcock English 101 16 September 2015 Street Smart or Class Smart from Hidden Intellectualism The author elaborates the confusion that comes about when people think of someone who is smart in the streets but fails to exercise the same in the classroom. In many instances, those who are believed to be capable of maneuvering their ways in the streets are capable of surviving in rough neighborhoods. Alternatively, those who seem to be smart in class may not be capable of effectively
In his essay, "The Myth of the ‘Student-Athlete", Gary Gutting argues that schools turn out more athletes than intellectuals, and that the word “intellectual” has become a swear word. I believe that this statement is very true and relevant to how mass media and education is shifting today. Take a look at how the school system is setup today, schools give out more financial aid and scholarships to students that are athletically gifted than intellectually gifted. Isn’t that backwards, shouldn't you
In “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff pens an impressive argument wrought from personal experience, wisdom and heart. In his essay, Graff argues that street smarts have intellectual potential. A simple gem of wisdom, yet one that remains hidden beneath a sea of academic tradition. However, Graff navigates the reader through this ponderous sea with near perfection. The journey begins at the heart of the matter, with a street smart kid failing in school. This is done to establish some common ground
Needs Its Nerds,” asserts that Americans must eliminate the anti-intellectual values in order to prosper as a country. Fridman utilizes rhetorical strategies including exemplification, contrast, and rhetorical questions to defend the purpose of his article: it is crucial for society to idolize nerds, rather than athletes, for the U.S. to maintain power. The author adopts a frustrated and indignant tone in order to convince America that anti-intellectual values must end.
Author and Harvard graduate, Leonid Fridman, in an excerpt of his article, America Needs Its Nerds, points out America’s anti-intellectualism. Fridman’s purpose is to inform the reader of the contempt held for the intellectually curious and call for a change in the country’s attitude. He adopts a condemning tone to make the reader aware of the issue and encourage them to change their mindset. Fridman begins this excerpt with a strong claim. “There is something very wrong with the system of values
schools actually limit on areas of study and overlook the essential of real life experience? In the article “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff claims that schools and colleges are might at fault due to their omission of the “street smarts”-knowledge necessary to deal with reality-, and their failure to invest them into academic work. By stating the fundamental of intellectualism and the influence of personal interests, he informs readers that those street smarts,
Langston Hughes “Theme for English B” and Gerald Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism” portray racial separation and intellectual isolation, respectively. Hughes’ essay is poetic justice, and Graff’s is a call to arms. Hughes’ is short and to the point and is simply what it is, no arguing or convincing, just raw thought. Graff’s is highly intellectual; offering examples and reasoning, and it could even be seen as a not-quite-finished plea to the nation to reevaluate our education system. But the
November 2nd, 2004 was a difficult evening for me. Having helped stage protests against the invasion of Iraq, having urged friends to support the HRC and the struggle for gay marriage, it was difficult to watch the election returns come in, making it seem as though all I had done had been futile. One of the things that got me through was Arundhati Roy’s CD, Come September, which I’d left in my car’s CD player. Driving home from the grocery store I heard her read an excerpt of her article, “The End
In a society that likes to put people into categories based on certain defining characteristics, Leonid Fridman highlights how “nerds” and “geeks” receive unfair treatment for being smart. In his argument, Fridman goes to highlight how our culture, especially in the United States, looks down upon people who are “intellectually curious and academically serious.” Leonid Fridman is able to construct a compelling argument by illustrating how children are dissuaded from being smart and hardworking at
According to “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff says that “ Everyone knows some young person who is impressively “street smart” but does poor in school” ( Gerald Graff 244). He explains that to many people believe that one who is so intelligent in life cannot do well in academic work, and he or she needs spend extra time on his or her school works than things in sports. However, Graff used his own anti-intellectual experience to verify his opinion that street smarts are simply as important
Hidden Intellectualism by Gerald Graff touches on the struggle of integrating street smarts into the academic world. Book smarts were usually associated with middle and upper class, whereas street smarts were usually associated with working and lower class, and Graff felt that he didn’t belong to either. Graff later explains how there should be a way to build a bridge between a student’s outside interests to the academic world, and he believes that can be done through reading, analyzing and debating
devastating movement of anti- intellectualism in the American culture. It rejects matters of science, art, and humanities because of superiority, ignorance, and just from being naïve to situations. Anti –intellectualism is when a person disregards intellect and reason in solving viable situations and understanding the reality of the situation; but, instead uses action and emotions to solve them. Now, this is not saying that those who are uneducated and unintelligent are classified as anti-intellectualist;