In Hidden Intellectualism by Gerald Graff, he begins with the argument of “street-smarts” versus “school-smarts”. Graff explains that school-smarts can be hidden within street smarts and can be learnt through not just talking with friends, but also from the media and our surroundings, hence the “hidden” intellectualism. He goes onto explain that “schools and colleges overlook the intellectual potential of street-smarts” (198) because these types of intellectualism are actually considered anti-intellectualism. Graff then begins to discuss that intellectualism is often looked down upon within schools, and people that are considered “school-smart” are seen as nerdy, or boring. We learn that as a child, Graff was afraid of bullying and name-calling so he did not show his intellectual side out of fear. As he wanted to be accepted so badly, he decided to become an “inarticulate, carefully hiding telltale marks of literacy like correct grammar and pronunciation”. (201) Through this, he discovered that he was still able to show his intellectual side by using arguing and reasoning strategies while talking about subjects such as sports and toughness with his friends.…
Interestingly enough, the author’s main idea is to enhance the readers understanding of Jock culture and to inform the readers that there are people in this world that are driven to believe that jocks and pukes are completely different men. Also there are some people who don’t want anything to do with all the chaos.…
Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem, “We Real Cool”, tells the story of seven troubled teenagers. The poem focuses on what activities the teenagers participate in to make them look cool. Through its symbolism, imagery and tone, “We Real Cool” illustrates how losing one’s identity to become part of a reckless group in insolence of moral and social traditionalism will lead one to an early grave.…
When it comes to academics, nerds usually passes the grade level that jocks get. Jocks are usually more concerned about how large and toned they are, whereas nerds, on the other hand, are usually more concerned about their studies. When the jocks are in the gym and on the field, the nerds can, most of the time, be found with their noses in a book somewhere. The benefits of this are pretty obvious. Spending so much time working out and practicing can get a jock an athletic scholarship to a university. For the nerds, however, their studying can get them an academic scholarship to a university. So either way, what you devote their time to the most will be strong point.…
Halfway through his essay, he compares the United States with East Asia and the intellectuals at Harvard to athletes in order to show the dire need to take a stand. He compares to the intellectuals that live in the United States and the intellectuals that live Asia. who ironically do not feel comfortable expressing their own intellectual self’s to the world because the chance of embarrassment. In the last sentence in the third paragraph “Nerds are ostracized while athletes are idolized.” this quote is explicitly trying to inform the reader that intellectual individuals should be more idolize as well as any other athlete or celebrity.…
Have you ever heard that too much television can ruin a child’s mind? Malcolm Gladwell proposes in his article, “Brain Candy,” that playing video games or watching television is just as important as reading a book. Gladwell is using rhetorical appeals to prove that in fact, video games are not dumbing down society. Pop culture is helping to improve test scores and knowledge. In “Brain Candy,” Malcolm Gladwell does affectively use rhetorical appeals to convince his audience that pop culture is making our society smarter.…
In America Needs its Nerds, Leonid Fridman uses vivid diction, syntax and sentence structure, and comparison to express his disgust with the inequality of the nerds and geeks. He uses these techniques to call America to change their ways.…
High school can be one of the most confusing places to be in the world. This is where you find out who you are and where you fit in. There are many different groups or cliques in high school that you can be a part of. Cliques have been around as long as there have been high schools. Jocks, preps, and nerds are the most common you can find in high school.…
There have always been labels in the world. Regardless of the time or place, people have always labeled other people. Whether it was negative or positive in one persons mind, it could mean the opposite to others. There are recent examples of labels, but labels have always existed in our society.…
The idea of being a nerd, versus being popular has plenty of analytic depth. Studies have shown that nerds get teased and bullied by their peers. The kids that appear to do the bulk of the teasing are those who are unsure about their status quo and or the popular kids who have bad days. Usually popular kids don’t bother nerds because they’re already secure about themselves, they don’t really need validation. Nerds are an easy target for ridicule because somewhere down the line someone decided that being smart or intelligent was uncool, and that the average minded people should be treated like royalty. Nerds are constantly faced with an inner conflict; they want the perks of being popular and the perks of being smart. They have these ideas…
In the article, “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff discusses the topic of book smart versus street smart. Being street smart means having interest in other activities more than in school work, while being book smart is the complete opposite of that. Graff believes that having the personality of a street smart person can benefit society if one knows how to channel their potential correctly. He persuades his views to the readers by using his personal experiences and displaying the positives of being street smart.…
In “Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate the Smart Kids”, Grant Penrod makes the argument that academic achievement should be rewarded just as much if not more than athletic achievement. He gives out on the fact that today’s society tends to glorify non-intellectuals, such as athletes and celebrities, while the intellectually skilled individuals get left on the sidelines with little recognition for their accomplishments. The intellectuals, typically seen as “nerds” or “losers “it’s so sad. As Penrod puts it, “the result of anti-intellectualism is a crushing disregard for the lives and achievements of fellow human beings” (Penrod 755). Basically what he is saying is that through these anti-intellectual practices, people seem to be going out of their way to put down other individuals successes. Instead of being seen in a positive light, there is an offensive for intellectuals that have become a big part of our society. Why is this? Perhaps, once again using high school as an example, students who are less academically inclined are jealous of their peers academic successes, or maybe they just simply cannot relate to them. Penrod says: “the trend to dislike intellectuals stems at least in part from an inescapable perception that concern for grades…excludes the coexistence of normal social activity” (Penrod 755). What this essentially means is that among the many ideas of intellectuals is that they are in getting perfect grades, test scores, etc., that they are just nerds who have no social lives. Penrod goes on to say that this false idea leads to an “unbreakable cycle”, because many of these intellectuals are not actually able to make leaps and bounds socially due to the fact that they are excluded from the society. I…
@rajab1377: Exactly your point! Indonesia is the biggest Muslim country in the world with more than 650,000 mosques (registered) and perhaps millions more of unregistered ones (including madrasah, pesantren etc). We even have Minister of Religious (Islamic) Affairs - whose salary is paid by hard-working tax payers from ALL RELIGIONS!…
MC Frontalot (aka Damian Hess) is often credited with coining the term, “Nerdcore.” His first mainstream success came with the song, “Nerdcore Hiphop” from…
There are four different grades in high school; freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior. From when you are a freshman you always want to meet new friends, and get good grades. No matter what your grade is, you are still a student. So in a way, all the students are the same, but they do have tons of differences.…