Bob Chase explains in "Fear of Heights" that society praises those who are popular or who made a name for themselves in extracurricular activities. Likewise, they frown upon those who 'hide' behind books and socialize with only two or three friends. As Bob Chase explains however, the changing U.S. economy requires workers with high-tech skills, which requires a high level of learning. With society unwilling to change its view on popular students as opposed to those who will become the next doctor, scientist, etc., it seems that the U.S. is sending itself further down into a slump of mediocrity if not stupidity. I agree with Bob Chase's arguments that America should pay attention to the doctor of tomorrow rather than today's future athlete and that a new generation will find a way to combine academics and social activities.
Those who are popular will eventually fade from society's eyes. Despite the many masses who will fight desperately to defend their so-called 'idols', it has been this way since the dawn of man. Many examples of 'popular idols' include, but are not limited to: song artists, professional sports players, actors/actresses. Even those holding public office such as mayors, governors, and/or presidents will fall in and out favor, but sometimes not based on their job performance and more on their popularity. Thus, in this same extremity most popular and beautiful kids tend to be arrogant and snobby, shunning away those who do not meet their expectations (what I like to call expectations of wealth or 'breed'); however, come graduation of high school, those that were able to get away by being popular find themselves in the harder scene of college and will mostly be away from those who used to admire them. Because they ...
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...further the academia cause, the situation continues to favor the 'old' popular and athletic elite. Those examples can still be applied to our popular icons today (i.e. Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, LaDamian Thompson, etc.) and the remaining 'old' elites; thus becoming 'bright examples of the future' (in that case, I'll move to Japan now). There is a ray of hope though, for the new generations of kids are getting popular by doing things more than just sports or going to the mall; rather, they are the ones getting praised for studying and getting high marks while at the same time helping the community in any way they can. For those who are popular for being smart and benevolent may be able to bridge the brainy, the athletic, and the beautiful together, and there will be a time where those 'cliques' are no longer distinct (or am I being too optimistic for my own good?).
The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth is a book by Alexandra Robbins which summarizes the story of seven different teenagers that have many different problems, which many of todays teenagers also have. I found myself having many similarities to the teenagers in the story, for example, when with her group Whitney, the popular bitch, thinks “You didn't day that when we were alone, but now that you're in front of a group you do” (Robbins 21). I can relate to this because I feel as though many people are pressured to say or do things they normally wouldn't whenever they are with their group or ‘clique’. Robbins has this idea that the freaks and geeks, or “cafeteria fringe” will someday grow up and use what they are criticized for to become more successful than the other peopler people. She calls this the ‘Quirk Theory’ (Robbins page 11). This helped me to learn that right now, in high school, not being ‘popular’ may seem like the end of the world, but the reality of it is that after these four years, it wont even matter, but what will be important is how you learned to grow as a person and the true friendships that were made. This makes me want to focus more on my education and learning to grow as a person instead of focusing on how many friends I have or who I sit with at lunch, because truthfully it wont matter once high school is over.
For a majority of children, their role model is their favorite celebrity. These celebrities tend to be athletes, or musicians. Several gifted children admire people who are not as famous, such as famous scientists, authors, or artists. While an intellectual child may be a fan of a celebrity, they may not look up to them in the same way other students would. “Certainly the image presented by modern celebrities suggests that intellectualism has no ties to success and social legitimacy,” which explains how celebrities are practically promoting anti-intellectualism (Penrod, 755). Other students will likely find intellectuals’ role models strange and will tease both the role models and the intellectual children, which decreases their reputation with the intellectuals. Nobody wants to be friends with someone who mocks their role model. When everybody is making fun of an intellectual’s role model, the chances of an intellectual socializing are slim for his ir her feelings are hurt. If the people setting examples were intellectuals, the anti-intellectual movement would probably be different, but as of now, the only way for gifted people to be popular is to change the world with whatever they do best. Changing the world sounds much harder when an intellectual student does not have
...ntegration of student-faculty conferences, educational facilities will become places full of smiling, bright scholars. As a current student in high school, it is very easy to see these issues in the education system. Each day I walk the halls beside exhausted zombies who debate whether they should use their lunch periods to get math help in the library or sacrifice a club so they could read a chapter of anatomy that is not even relative to what they talk about in class. Due to the ever-increasing competition and subsequent elevation in performance standards, kids’ academic and emotional prosperity is only going to get worse. When I am an adult and have children, there is nothing more that I would love to see in their long drives through high school than an improvement in the education system, so that they would not have to struggle through school my peers and I did.
Based on their evidence, the focus on athletics contributes to lower dropout rates and higher test scores; however, they do note that students participating in athletics are obligated to be extremely focused and dedicated. It is no secret that achieving in athletics and academics is challenging and demanding. Additionally, communities achieving success in the athletic field have a greater social capital. Social capital is “the norms, the social networks, and the relationships” that individuals have within one another (Bowen and Hitt). Social capital is pertinent for children growing up to be prosperous adults. These relationships help build academic success. Likewise, most schools have equal success in athletics and academics. This direct relation has been researched and speculated to prove that athletics do not take away from academics but rather facilitate
American society has started to take education for granted. Today it is so easy for most anyone to afford or to be accepted into a college that you wind up with people being here to socialize instead of learn and that leads to a decline in overall performance because it turns the atmosphere away from learning and into more of a four year party before the real world. Society seems to show college as a next step, almost if its a responsibility instead of a choice which hurts not only themselves but at the same time serving as a distraction for the people who are aspiring to do something better with their life. These dedicated individuals deserve better than to be forced into an environment where they are subjugated to a mass of people who would rather party than learn. The real students have enough to deal with as it is but forcing people to go to class would only exacerbate the situation forcing focus driven students to have important cla...
In my analysis I will focus on “Hidden Intellectualism” an excerpt from “They Say/I Say.” Gerald Graff argues that schools and colleges are missing opportunities with street smart students. He feels that “…the education life is too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts...” (Graff 1). Graff believes that through his own experiences as a kid, caring only for sports, Graff attempts to persuade fellow professors of his beliefs of missing opportunities in such students. He talks about the real world and how everything portrayed in the media, is not what schools and colleges are looking for. Graff argues that, “Only much later did it dawn on me that the sports world was more compelling than school because it was more intellectual than, school, not less” (Graff 3). Graff feels that his street smarts past has sculpted him has made him who he is now. He eventually argues about the Marilyn Monroe example, agreeing with the other side for a little bit, saying there isn’t much difference.
Recent studies show that high school students no longer only talk to, and/or become friends with the stereotypical cheerleader, jock, or band geek that they are, but rather look much farther than that. Maybe a quarterback does not understand his algebra class, and his nerd of a classmate wants to learn how to throw a perfect spiral for physics. Tradeoff. The quarterback asks the nerd to help him, and visa-versa. Wait a minute. They actually had fun together, and are now fr...
For many college students, college is their first big step into adulthood. Students now need to worry about money, roommates, serious relationships, pursuing their passions, future and present jobs, and above all homework, class, and studying. This is the situation that most college students are thrown into. We simply don't need one more thing to worry about. I believe this is why in 2008, an AP survey found that eighty percent of students say they are stressed daily, thirteen percent have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder or depression, and nine percent have considered suicide.(Cite 1) This makes colleges that are actively pursuing lowering students grades such as Princeton seem maleficent. Harrell brushes this off in his article as he says that lower grades will increase competition and then makes the incredulously pompous statement: if you wanted to breeze through college you should have gone to Harvard. Harrell says that at Princeton their goal is to “Teach, not to entertain... [to] maximize academics, not leisure.”(CITE0) This mindset is not healthy. A student at a university that puts an emphasis on lowering everyones grades and increasing difficulty fosters a culture that overemphasizes gades. In other words, a college with this attitude would have a campus where instead of pursuing things like health, community, or lieser, students would mostly be inside worring and
a rarefied world of wealth, taste, and class: the popular young woman is in Phi Beta Kappa, an
In their minds, if they do well in school, they can get a career that can help them become successful. Although the students do not put limits on the relationship between social class and education, the school system does. The view that the school system has for the classifications of intellectualism leaves out the interests of most of the students. The writer Graff address this in his article within the lines, “ Only much later did it dawn on me that the sports world was more compelling than school because it was more intellectual than school, not less. Sports after all was full of challenging arguments, debates, problems for analysis, and intricate statistics that you could care about, as school conspicuously was not.” (Graff 790) In those lines, he speaks about sports, which is a topic that is not considered to hold intellectual value by the school system. He shows that other interests besides the things we learn in school can have intellectual value. He makes it apparent that it does not matter the individual’s economic status because they can still be smart. This article shows that everyone can connect and contribute to learning with their different interests, and their interest can bridge the gap that society creates between the social classes if they decide that they want to be successful and take their education
Most popular kids engage in a school sport which makes them well known and liked throughout their social atmosphere, not only by their peers, but by their teachers as well. Many outcast do not engage in these acts of physical teams like sports, but rather in other institutions such as a culture, theater, and various academic clubs. These tend to be labeled “uncool” and separate these kids from other students. Their “abnormal” interests, that vary from the conventional athletics, can make them looked down upon and questioned by others. Having these preferable extracurricular activities is normal, yet these kids tend to be misunderstood by the jocks who don’t have a particular preference to these clubs. Based on the same survey from stageoflife.com, interests are the second leading cause of teens feeling inferior to their peers at 49% (stageoflife.com). Also, “63% of teens say that their appearance is an important factor in their identity” (stageoflife.com). Kids feel that their ability in activities causes them to subordinate to others. Teens are often judged for these interests which should not happen since their enjoyments are irrelevant to popularity
In one journal entry I wrote, I brought to light that the popular group is something that every one of us, for some reason feels as though we need to be a part of. This is from my own experience and things I have observed throughout my four-year career in high school. I think it was perhaps worse in junior high, however. When you are in seventh and eighth grade you are not sure of who you are and are desperately searching around for something to belong to, to be a part of. Why is this, why are we a society that are most often drawn to the most popular, "cool" and "beautiful" that high school has to offer? Why is acceptance the most important thing to us, is belonging really as important as losing your own sense of self? Who you hang out with, who your closest friends are as an adolescent without a doubt help to shape who you are. And it's funny that you seem to end up being friends with the ones who are the same type of people as you. Same fashion sense, taste in music or cars and movies. When searching for an identity in high school, it is hard not to just attempt to pick up the one that seems the most socially acceptable. I know that my personal experiences include these conforming characteristics. Still as a freshman in college I am constantly looking at the fashion of my peers, wondering to myself "do they think I fit in"? This was especially true the first few weeks of college when I wasn't sure who my good friends were going to be; I made sure that I dressed as well as I could everyday, in all the new clothes I had bought specifically for college.
McNeal, Ralph. “Extracurricular Activities and High School Dropouts.” Sociology of Education v68n1: Jan 1995, 62-80.
It seems as though that popularity is a main issue to teens. The need to feel accepted by others in order to be the center of attention, and the need to be distinguished greatly from everyone else is a strong force that exposes itself to nearly all teens at school. We spend most of our years at school, and begin well-known can almost seem to complete an emptyness that we feel.
“Never suffer youth to be an excuse for inadequacy, nor age and fame to be an excuse for indolence.” These are the words of Benjamin Haydon, a painter in the late 1700’s to the early 1800’s. Although his ideas could be rendered outdated, it is this quote that stands out even among today’s standards of ethical code and morality. Another quote that stands out is from the book entitled Growing Up On the Set, “fame is a dangerous drug and should be kept out of reach of children.” These words were spoken by former child actor, and current writer, Paul Peterson. His words are far from invalid. While fame can boost a child to the top, and makes them feel great, it is mere seconds before they fall into temptation.