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 people fail to realize and this is anti-intellectualism. Anti-intellectualism is hostility towards, opposition, and mistrust of intellectuals or people with intellectual views. Anti-intellectualism basically believes that academics or any form of professionalism isn’t important to listen to because it doesn’t have much “common sense”. Intellectualism is usually expressed throughout education, philosophy, literature, art, and science.
Anti-Intellectualism never actually originated; it has always been around but there was never a specific word for it until 1963. In 1963, Richard Hofstadter, an American historian and public intellectual, wrote a book about anti-intellectualism called Anti-intellectualism in American Life. All of sudden there it was, the word Anti-Intellectualism. It simply came about and slid into the dictionary. It was evidently in invisible ink, since no one saw or even knew what the word was. Its meaning was unknown to most and irrelevant to others, so it became engulfed with a dust full of curiosity and mystery.
The most famous and excessive political case of Anti-Intellectualism was in the 1970’s in Cambodia under the rule of Pol and Pot and Khmer Rouge. People were killed for simply being intellectu...
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The next piece of data used is from Harvard. Harvard is known as a home of scholars and highly intelligent individuals. Fridman challenges this connotation by citing the “rampant anti-intellectualism” within the college. This data and the backing that follows has a profound effect on the reader. If even the highest point in America’s intellectual scene has been poisoned by this stigma then the implication is that nowhere is safe for those seeking unbridles
They also relatably talk of the way that they affect students in their higher education. In Gerald Graff’s essay about hidden intellectualism it is implied that we all have intellect within us. It just may be show in different ways among different people. He offers the example that a love for learning about anything can later be converted into a love for learning about academic subjects. Where in the second essay we talk more about people who have feelings of anti-intellectualism which we learn is a negative feeling towards intellect or learning itself. You could say that those who feel anti-intellectualism tend to have dwindling desires to continue in school and gaining this so called intellect, leading them to complacency in their education. Whereas those who have increased desire to further their intellects will tend to stay on a path of fulfillment and
In Anti-Intellectusim: Why We Hate the Smart Kids by Grant Penrod he argues that intellectual kids are looked down on in today’s society and not respected. He makes a valid argument with good points, but he bases his opinions off of his high school experiences and the world is much different after high school. His idea of intellectual kids not being praised in society is false. This can be compared to the idea of social classes in society. The intellectual kids would be at the top of the social class ladder with the access to all the privileges.
Then, for the bulk of the passage, Fridman offers various examples of nerds being looked down upon to convey the issue’s pervasiveness. This is seen when Fridman refers to Harvard when he describes “anti-intellectualism is rampant”(paragraph 3). By citing an esteemed school that prides itself on academic achievement and rigor, Fridman shows how far reaching intellectual devaluation is. In other words, even places that claim to have academically driven
School is a frightening place. It is broken down into multiple social ranks, and many children find themselves at the bottom. With children trying to work their 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, but this is not half of the story. If the only goal children have in school
Graff, G. "Hidden Intellectualism." Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture 1.1 (2001): 786-90. Print.
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.
A person who has the ability to think critically, experienced conflicts, educated is known as an intellectual person. Author Malcolm Gladwell agrees with all of Gerald Graff’s asserts. In the article, “Hidden Intellectualism” and “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted” authors Graff and Gladwell both insists that knowledge does not only belong to those people who are educated, but also it belong to the people who gets scholarly from media or from the environment, known as “street smarts”. Gladwell and Graff, both supports education, critical thinking, and wisdom delineates intellectualism.
Intellectuality needs to be redefined; what does the word intellectual mean? Typically one would describe someone as either “street-smart” or “book-smart,” in other words someone who knows how to live in the real world versus someone who has knowledge about academics. But is one more “intellectual” than the other? In the article “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff addresses this issue and brings to the audience’s—the audience being experts about the subject along with himself—attention that schools are missing the opportunity to fuse together street-smarts and book-smarts to increase overall academic performance. Graff definitively presents his opinion on this topic by manipulating ethos, pathos, and logos. Through ethos his credibility
While this article was written extremely well and understandable it is not very effective, An effective article or essay will have a strong style, language and tone.“Hidden Intellectualism” does not have a clear or strong style mentioned in the essay. The author is clear with his point and opinion but he restates himself multiple times. He does not have a clear style of writing where the reader can collect and group their personal thoughts together. The author’s tone is also very bias and harsh towards the subject. The article states “Give me the student anytime who writes sharply argues, sociologically acute analysis of an issue of source over the students who writes a lifeless explication on Hamlet or Socrates Apology”(Graff 792). The author does not look at the other perspective of others and only focuses on his point of view. The articles detail also is not very adequate or strong,”Hidden Intellectualism” states “I offer my own adolescent experience as a case in point” (Graff 788). The author uses his personal experiences with academics to proves to us his point. Further in the article there is not enough detail or examples to help the reader understand his point of view. Lastly, the article is not effective for the reader and needs to have a clearer style, more detail and examples for others to relate
Srabstein, Jorge Carlos. "News Reports of Bullying-Related Fatal and Nonfatal Injuries in the Americas." Revista Panamericana De Salud Publica 33.5 (2013): 378-382. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 May 2014.
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, they don’t equal opportunity , and schools along with colleges never challenge their mind get them to succeed in academic work.
Bidwell, Allie. "Report: School Crime and Violence Rise" U.S News & World Report, June 10, 2014
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