Rhetorical Analysis America Needs Its Nerds

In the article “The Coddling of the American Mind,” writers Greg Lukianoff and Jonathon Haidt address today’s college campus culture of oversensitivity and how targeting microaggressions by shielding sensitive topics from students may be modeling cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortion is a way our mind twists words to convince us of something that isn’t true to reinforce negative thinking. Since college administrators changed ways to try and block out microaggressions on campus it is actually teaching students to think in distorted ways. As a result, students are learning lessons that are bad for themselves and their mental health. However, Lukianoff and Haidt believe that cognitive behavioral therapy is the next big thing to teach good

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 today’s society, constant judgement as to how well you fit in achieves nothing, rather distinguishes hope for improvement. Ideas including being looked down upon for an individual’s intelligence or being pushed aside from groups due to one’s academic ability are becoming an epidemic as those who seek to better themselves are seen as inferiors. The United States today is accustomed to issues as far as the negative deterioration towards those who possess higher mental values. In America Needs Its Nerds by Leonid Fridman, a look into how geeks and nerds are identified, the reality of childhood dilemmas, and the problem in the broad spectrum of the globe are all noted and questioned as to why America as a society expresses such a negative position

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.

No one can deny the social segregation between nerds and athletes. We see it in the media and reality. Most turn a blind eye to this social occurrence, some put an emphasis towards it. A passionate writer by the name of Leonid Fridman wrote a passage titled, “America Needs Its Nerds,” which expands upon our nation’s social treatment of scholars. Fridman emphasizes the need of individuals who place their focus on learning to help advance our country versus one focusing on less important aspects such as athletics. Fridman uses dramatic tone and ethos to convey to his readers how “geeks and nerds” are undermined instead of admired in our society.

When Rodriguez is in London, he reads Richard Hoggart’s The Uses of Literacy, and is able to see himself in the essay. We see that he gains a “sociological imagination” and that he realizes that he fits the definition of the “scholarship boy” when he says that he “realized that there were other students” (517) like him. Hoggart says that this type of student must be “more and more alone” (517) in order to succeed, and that this student must “cut himself off mentally, so as to do his homework, as well as he can” (517). Rodriguez shows us that he not only grasps what the “scholarship boy” is, but he also understands what the “scholarship boy” goes through because of personal experience. Although he agrees with Hoggart’s definition, Rodriguez also adds to the meaning of the “scholarship boy” by giving his readers the insight of exactly what they go through, how they think, and why they do what they do. For example, he shows readers that he is forced to be “more and more alone” (517) by writing about how his relationship with his parents is weakened, and how the books he reads makes him feel lonelier. This insight not only asserts Hoggart’s definition of the “scholarship boy,” but also lengthens and specifies it.

A prominent reason why high school sports is detrimental to academic accomplishments of students is because of how sports act as a powerful distractor to education. When a student starts to play sports in school, their mindset shifts from being focused on learning to now focusing on improving at their sport of choice. Sports are just another thing that consumes the time and attention of people. This simple fact clearly presents a problem because it means less effort can be dedicated towards academics. A perfect example of how sports teams magnify this effect of reducing academic effort is presented in the article “Why Student Athletes Continue to Fail” when it explains “Tight-knit student athletes will seek ways of fitting into a culture that they perceive as neglecting academics (by defaulting into majors of dubious merit and spending less time doing homework), knowing that their habits are observed by teammates” (Oppenheimer). Clearly, this statement demonstrates that school sports create an environment where students feel pressured to adopt a callous attitude towards academics. Since sports teams form a strong bond between the members of the team, the impact of peer pressure is emphasized because each student wants to behave like the others simply to feel connected to the group.

Towards the end of his third paragraph, Fridman delivers a short statement, “Nerds are ostracized while athletes are idolized,” that strongly projects America’s anti-intellectual values. While “nerds” and “athletes” are two obvious, contrasting beings, the antitheses reflected with the isolation of “nerds” and the praising of athletes heavily pushes the notion that “nerds” are being thrown out of a society that only appears to incorporate anti-intellectual values and undervalues scholars. In Fridman’s eighth paragraph, he illustrates how ballplayers, or athletes, are “much more respected and better paid” than the professors of the most reputable universities. Like before, he displays the divergent individuals with conflicting facts, income and respect in this case, that oppose intellectualism and promote anything but intelligence. Fridman’s use of antithesis deepens the questioning and challenge to overcome anti-intellectualism standards in American

At a young age, most kids are thrown into peewee sports and classified from then on in that point of their lives, as either a jock or puke. Which is where all the horror starts with Jock Culture. As they grow older, it gets worse, in high school, the jocks are looked up too. As if they belong on a throne or are “godlike.” This what Robert is trying to explain basically in paragraph 7 and 10.

Throughout time, women have been considered housewives and mothers. Not all women stayed home, throughout history women have worked, mainly clerical jobs, teaching, charity workers, and other less demanding physical work. It was never a new thing that women were in the work force, it was the impact the propaganda posters and WWII made on the women in that workforce. This propaganda poster; titled “We Can Do It” features a beautiful women with her arm flexed and she is in her work coveralls, above her it say “We can do it.” the author is J. Howard Miller, he uses pathos and ethos to inspire a social movement that increased the number of working women, and changed the face of the workforce.

On page 338 “Lennon...out,” Farrey is speaking with Kevin Lennon a representative at the NCAA, who shares with him that when he was speaking with his daughter gymnastics coach, to try and lessen the 20 hours a week time commitment, in order for their family to have more time together, their coach was not amicable and replied either “you’re all in or all out.” This was a very surprising especially since his daughter was in fourth grade and the reason for the decrease in the time commitment was plausible. This shows that our outlook on youth athletics is somewhat flawed if children's families no longer take precedence over sports. On page 338 “His...abuse,” Farrey uses situational irony to emphasize the idea that parents competitiveness and actions towards officials are so abrasive that not even adult referees want to face that. Farrey claims the source of this behavior from parents, stems from the $1.5 billion dollars that is at stake in terms of scholarship money. To me this shows that we need to change how valuable parents of especially young children, view the importance of college scholarships. It can be assumed that parents are suppose to one’s encouraging fair play and fun in sports but in many cases they are the one's taking that away. On page 345, Farrey says that the benefit of travel teams for kids is to eliminate future competition. This reveals the mindset that we as a society have adopted, which has a very individualistic and non inclusive. Farrey used this to show how youth athletics is depriving children the right to play sports, especially if they are eliminated in grades as low as middle school. This contrasts the idea that athletics is a human right because it implies that not everyone will make it, only the

Being a smart kid is an honor to most, but as a child Mark Bowden believed otherwise. In “The Dumb Kids’ Class” he tells his unique experience in Catholic school, where he was in the dumb kids’ class and then switched into the smart class, and discovers the true differences between them.

Fridman defends “nerds” by comparing the extremes of how people are perceived as “nerds” or athletes”. In society “someone dedicated to pursuit of knowledge is compared to a freak biting the head off a live chicken”(10). This juxtaposition is used to emphasize the ridiculous way that someone who pursues knowledge is viewed. Fridman makes his point by taking a dictionary definition of something good and showing how extreme it is. He defends the “nerds” by going on to point out other statements that do not idolize nerds. In school, “nerds are ostracized while athletes are idolized”(17-18). Someone who is intellectually advanced is not valued as much as someone who shows physical strength. Fridman states this because of the irony of it, he thinks

As the interaction with the family escalates, one of their sons, Junior states that the Internet is a safe place for him, where he can discuss his interests without being teased for them. Dre’s response is “Not now, nerd”. “Nerd” is a term that denotes intelligence, but implies the person is lacking social skills. It is a dysphemism because it is considered a good thing to have intelligence, as they are respected more. However, being unsociable is thought of as bad because it implies that no one enjoys spending time with that person because their personality has flaws. If Junior spends all his time online and not interacting with other people in person, he can therefore be considered a nerd. Dre calls him a nerd to draw attention to his supposed lack of social skills, in hopes that Junior will feel insulted and thus change his behavior. Throughout the episode, Dre is generally not rude to his kids, but his increasing anger led him to insult Junior. In doing so, Junior should get the message that Dre is extremely upset and therefore should change his behavior to be on good terms with his father. Being called a nerd should cause Junior to spend less time on the Internet in order to prove to Dre that he is not a nerd and is a good sociable person. Dysphemism and code switching are both used to help Dre and Bow attempt to get their kids to

While all the other children are in school learning, and being; for the most part, obedient and civil youngsters , the seven dropouts “being cool” at the golden shovel in the story “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks do not realize the amount of damage their doing to their futures by living the lifestyles they do. The work is a condensed yet concise statement on the recklessness of youth who are like cars without brakes in the frenzy of youth. They do not anticipate an accident awaiting them in their uncontrolled life. They do whatever they perceive to be “real cool,” (1) and this nonchalant uncaring way is the latest “in” thing to do. As they take pride in declaring that they had left school and they “lurk late” (3). Throughout the poem