Leonid Fridman's 'America Needs Its Nerds'

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In high school most students receive a label it seems inevitable, but what each teen does with the label is up to him or her. The label a student receives and sticks with him or her will either make or break them. Some people go through life trying to live up to the label that they were given and some spend all of their time trying to run away from it or prove it false every chance they get. What most don’t understand is that they are the one who decides who they want to be or who they will become in a way each person labels themselves. Some people are given everything in life and some have to work extremely hard to get what they want. The students who are wealthier seem to get more positive labels. To me how hard a student works will play …show more content…

Fridman states that “Children who prefer to read books rather than play football, prefer to build model airplanes rather than get wasted at parties with their classmates, become social outcasts.”(Fridman) He also states that In America “average professional ballplayers are much more respected and better paid than faculty members of the best …show more content…

Education,” by Russell Baker he states that many students at a young age are taught to judge or are judged. They learn young if they are dumb or smart. Baker mentioned how students learn at a young age to judge based on skin color. He says “Fathers and mothers may demonstrate to the child the social cohesion that can be built on shared hatred by demonstrating their dislike for the children whose pigmentations displeases them.”(baker) I see that as the sad truth. Children get old enough to tell a difference in color and at that point they realize that they are different. I went to the water park with my friend Heather and her daughter ,Eden, and as we were swimming Eden saw a little girl who was black and she told the little girl that they should play together so we took Eden and the other little girl to the kids pool with the little girl’s mother and Eden came back and told us that her and the little girl were best friends. That evening when we left the water park Eden told heather and me that she was told in Sunday school that skin color didn’t matter and she was going to be friends with everyone. Baker said that children are taught young to judge. I think that our culture needs to teach children to love everyone despite their

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