Anti-intellectualism

In his critical essay, “America Needs Its Nerds”, Leonid Fridman attacks the rampant anti-intellectualism in American pop culture through juxtaposition and rhetorical questions in order to reform the misdirected society into one that upholds “nerds” so that the country can be successful in its competition with foreign countries that already have that mindset. Furthermore, Fridman elaborates on the problem by demonstrating the derogative origin of “geek” and its unjust application to the…

Are You Doing Here,” and William Chace, author of “A Question of Honor,” both give their reasoning to this decay of intelligence. Both Edmundson and Chace examine the ways in which colleges and universities play a key role in the problem of “anti-intellectualism” in America. Mark Edmundson informs his readers of his beliefs that college is only the beginning. He starts off his article by addressing this issue with his intended reader, college students. Edmundson speculated that to get a “real…

Hidden Intellectualism has been become a controversial topic for educators of late and needs to be assessed so that educators can address this particular issue and modify classroom teachiwhether or not a person with a highly evolved “street smarts” and who does poorly in an academic environment should be considered any less intellectual than one who is well acclimated to academia and categorized as an excellent student On the one hand gerald graff argues that “real intellectuals turn any…

In a 1990 article published by the New York Times, “America Needs Its Nerds” by Leonid Fridman, Fridman argues that people that are intellectually curious are degraded and disrespected in America. If we do not begin to prioritize intellectualism, America as a country will not be able to keep up with the rest of the world. In the first section of the article, Fridman establishes that the terminology people in America use to refer to the intellectually curious is derogatory. Fridman references…

territory goes down. Teachers and school professionals should stop and ask themselves, why their students seem uninterested in learning? That is exactly what Gerald Graff, a professor at the University of Illinois did. What Graff realized is that “Intellectualism” can be taught to students through more than just books. He argued that by allowing students to use their personal interest will not only spark an interest in learning, but will also improve both their overall academic and intellectual…

We are really looking forward to tomorrow's discussion and are hoping it will clarify some of these points for us further - however, we have done a lot of thinkinng about these topics in the last few days and this is how we hope to steer the conversation. Firstly, our readings for this week were centered around intellectuals and universities. But what is an intellectual? We encountered several definitions from diverse sociological standpoints. We started with "those who create, generate, and…

for the rest of your life? According to Mike Ross in Blue Colored Brilliance Rose’s mother was only a waitress and didn’t go to college. He believes that she still acquired knowledge through brains and physically. Whereas Gerald Graff in Hidden Intellectualism believes that “street smarts” can turn into successful academic people. In Graff’s story he does a great way of listing the ideas to support how his mother still learned intellectual ideas by not going to college. Whereas Rose, tells…

Irony in Good Country People Good Country People by Flannery O’Conner, touches upon the identities of Christians of Southern America and also focuses on the part played by intellectualism and physical challenges in the development of identity of individuals. The entire plot is spiced with tearing irony. There are four clear sections in the story emphasizing the relationships between four prime characters. The irony of the story encompasses the social and religious parameters and the rude outlook…

In the text “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff’s defined intellectualism as the knowledge that varied within different experiences not only academically but non-academically. In his definition Graff considered book-smarts and street-smarts as intellectual persons. Graff definition on intellectualism was based on his belief that people who develop another interests beside schools’ topics are also able to write and think critically, as an evidence he gave his personal experience on how his…

knowledge cause some people to doubt the functions of the college, and claim that the college is already not the best place in nurturing intellectuals. Gerald Graff expresses the similar idea depending on his childhood’s experience in “Hidden intellectualism”, and claims the “street smarts” can provide more benefits than “book smart” which we learn in the college. I would argue that the college is still the best place for students become intellectuals because of the unique benefits such as the…