America Needs Its Nerds Summary

Alfie Kohn’s Article “How Not to get into College” analyses many key factors of how the current school system does not work and how we as members of society need to work together extensively to remodel the system to ensure the success of future students by valuing education over grades. By looking at how students only join clubs and and worship numerical grades only to impress colleges; students facing pressure from parents, teachers, and society to get good grades and succeed in life; and how students live through many mental health implications due to a multitude of factors surrounding their educational life, we can determine that systemic factors of this society have turned students of this generation into grade grubbers.

The author agrees with the fact that the jocks get the majority of the fame rather than the occupations that deserve it such as teachers. Teachers show kids how to act during the real life and to learn right from wrong. While

In the world of academia, from Graff’s perspective, street smarts are associated with anti-intellectualism. 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 an academic.” He argues that educators should broaden their aspect of material they once preserved as inefficient. Graff implies that a person who is studious enough can find substance in any content. He reasons that intellect can be uncovered and observed in various forms, hence the name “hidden intellectualism.” He suggests that the Education system overlooks the interest of the students because they consider their interest irrelevant.

In the story “I Just Wanna Be Average” the author Mike Rose argues that society very often neglects and doesn’t see the full value and potential of students.

Society’s view on intelligence is becoming watered down from the truth. In Rose’s article, “Blue Collar Brilliance” Rose discusses societies outlook on intelligence. Rose explains how society thinks blue collared jobs don’t involve any intelligence, and anyone can do a blue collared job. He explains how society thinks that since you don’t have to have a high education to perform well in blue collared jobs, it takes little to no intelligence. Rose says, “We reinforce this notion by defining intelligence solely on grades in school and numbers on IQ test” (Rose 279). Rose explains that even though most blue collared jobs don’t require a college degree, they still demand many forms of intelligence. Rose also explains how his brother dropped out of school in the ninth grade but eventually became a successful employee of the company General Motors. In Graff’s article, “Hidden Intellectualism” he explains how there are many students in today’s world who have an outstanding amount of “street smarts” but are failing school. He explains

In Gerald Graff’s essay Hidden Intellectualism he aims his writing towards schools, universities, teachers and the academic community. He responds to the situation of; teachers, schools and colleges overlooking intellectual potential of “street smarts”. His purpose in this essay is to acknowledge the readers that that there are different types of intellectualism and to point out flaws in the academia. The message Graff is trying to convey is that schools and teachers need to approach education in a different and more engaging way. In this paper, I will explain Graff’s point of view by showing you how he uses sports, personal experiences, students non-academic interest and rhetorical appeals. To give you a better understanding of Graff’s

I selected the book The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth by Alexandra Robbins because I was interested to read about an adult author’s perception of a modern American high school experience. I also chose the book because the reviews mentioned that it related to a TV series I enjoyed, Freaks and Geeks. As I read through the book, I found that it centered around the theory that if a student is excluded or dismissed in high school for having different traits than what other students considered normal, those same traits that made them different will allow them to succeed in an adult life after high school. As soon as I got about a quarter of the way into the book I was not as enthusiastic as I was at first glance. I did agree that these traits could benefit someone, but they don’t define what you have the potential to be when you’re an adult. This high school cliché, despite the seven heartwarming storylines, is inaccurate in describing what the future holds for high school students because our future is unpredictable, and a book with a little statistic and seven high school experiences can’t solidify someone’s adulthood. I also noticed that there were no counterarguments present in the book, leading me to assume that Robbins may not have heavily researched both sides of her ‘quirk’ argument. Although I had differing opinions than the author, the seven characters, their storylines, and the promise of a young James Franco continued to perk my interest and

Every high school has its cliques and because of those cliques, high school students face stereotypes based on the clique they are a part of. There are the straight A students, the jocks, and the druggies. That is just naming a few. For each of those cliques, there are certain stereotypes that associate with each one. For example, the straight A students stereotype is that they always do their work ahead of time, are goody-two shoes, and always worry about school. However, that is not always the case. The same also goes for the stereotypes of the jocks and druggies. This can be related to “Blue Collar Brilliance” by Mike Rose. In this article, the key concept is that working class level does not define intelligence level. The druggies, and even the jocks, could be considered to have a low intelligence level. Rose says, “Intelligence is closely associated with formal education – the type of schooling a person has, how much and how long – and most people seem to move comfortably from that notion to a belief that work requiring less schooling requires less intelligence” (264).

[Fridman contrasts the ideals of the nerd and of American culture by seeing how they stand up at one of the most prestigious academic institutions: Harvard.] Fridman proclaims that even at Harvard “there is a minority of undergraduates for whom pursuing knowledge is the top priority” (lines 15-17). Many Americans see Harvard as the college attended by the best of the brightest and would expect it to have a nerdy atmosphere, however this is not the case. It is a shocking revelation for Americans to learn how the anti-intellectual culture has seeped into every part of an American’s life: from kindergarten to college. Therefore, Fridman manipulates these perplexed and shocked emotions to prompt Americans to agree with him through his statement “enough is enough,” (line 29). Furthermore, he does this to demonstrate how Americans do not want to learn for the sake of learning and only desire to attend college so they can get a better job and make more money than valuing the education they are receiving.

What is the first thing people think of when they hear the “smart” kid talks about his accomplishments? Those smart kids get called a nerd and automatically have to deal negative things all because society itself thinks it is okay to do so. In “Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate Smart Kids”, Grant Penrod explains why anti-intellectualism exist. People will remember what the anti-intellectuals do but not so much the intellectuals. Society envy those who are smarter than them and only look at any other accomplishment besides education accomplishments. Anti- Intellectuals tend to bash others around them for their success academically. That is how society works in every generation. Penrod informs everyone of an example of how nerds can be treated differently especially in the school system. More recognition goes to sports teams instead of debates teams, which is factual. Penrod’s lack of credible information and the tone that has been presented has brought a lot of thoughts that need to be analyzed more closely on why he presented this article this way.

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In the passage taken from “America Needs its Nerds” by Leonid Fridman, the author gives examples of how our society compares to others, regarding how they successfully treat intelligence as a gift, and we treat intelligence as a social inormality, ostracizing our nerds. He uses examples from schooling in America to universities in East Asia, to just different amounts of respect shown to different occupations (such as a university professor), in East Asia vs. America.

In Grant Penrod’s essay called Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate Smart Kids he starts by talking about his high school football team and that they won the championship again this year. He says the speech and debate team also won the championship this year. The football team continues to receive mass amounts of praise and attention even after their win, while on the other hand the academic teams that won receive miniscule amounts of recognition. The academic teams might get a shout out at the end of an assembly, but never the amount of praise that the football team receives. The educated kids have the label of nerd and with this label; social norms become more difficult for them. Penrod says that even celebrities make it look like dropping out

“Hidden Intellectualism” Summary In “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff, he starts with the argument of the difference between “book smarts” and “street smarts.” He’s saying even though some people don’t have academic intelligence, they can have common sense or “street smarts.” Graff mainly focuses on how young adults view intellectualism in a negative way that only “nerds” aim for. He also mentions his experiences in hiding his own type of intellectualism. Graff grew up thinking “book smart” was not taken seriously and the subject was stigmatized.

“The Breakfast Club” characterizes this phenomena by depicting the “jock, the brain, the basketcase, the princess, and the juvenile delinquent”. In the movie each character is representative of the social class to which they belong. The “jock” signifies the sports star that can do no wrong, but the movie character bullies another boy and when caught all he received was detention. Although on the other hand the delinquent who is a dope smoking, foul mouthed punk, received the same punishment for talking back to a teacher. Administrators and teachers are very quick to meet out severe punishment to those students that they have deemed worthless, while good kids get a slap on the wrist. The movie’s jock is placed in Saturday detention, instead of being suspended, so that he may wrestle in an upcoming tournament; a case in which Hollywood makes an accurate depiction. This is the “holding of power” that Wehlage and Rutter spoke about in their study, High School and Beyond. Students who receive better treatment seem to do better in school when subjected to “an orderly environment, a committed and caring faculty, and an emphasis on academic pursuits”(Nieto,100).