Anti-Intellectualism: Social Stigma Against Smart Kids

Will you ever find a star quarterback on the high school debate team, Chess Club, or any other academic team that would place him as a nerd? According to Grant Penrod and his essay Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate Smart Kids this would probably not happen (Bullock,691). You can be a jock, but you can’t be a “nerd” at the same time. The winning football team always goes down in history, but the winning academic teams are never remembered. Thinking back to high school you can see billboards of the football team winning state, but not for the state brain-bowl winners.

Social destruction is possible for those who show too much intelligence. “Geek,” “Nerd,” or “High Achiever” no matter the name given; they are doomed for destruction in the social world. The intellectual student bears a mark on him/her for social pitfall especially in high school. Sometimes this may happen in the early elementary years. They are usually targeted on websites and blogs; left out of social events. Take the blog excerpt from Talking-Cock. com “Man how I hate nerds…. if I ever had a tommygun with me…I would most probably blow each one of their heads off. (Bullock,691) There are other websites that talk about test score postings, and don’t these people referencing nerds and geeks have a life. This miss conception is partly due to the un-intelligent thinking that all smart people do is study. Failing to realize that the intelligent people are the ones that help move the world along; this miss conception it actually leaves the un-intelligent out. The media places celebrities and other public figures without a strong education in the limelight, which is harmful to our youth’s minds.

This type of high regards for someone lacking good education, further promotes the way society treats those that are educated. If you take a young high school student who has some athletic ability chances of him/her pursuing the highest academic achievements are less than them going after that athletic win. A choir student may go for the Nashville break instead of pursuing a degree in school. Displaying celebrities’ lives and their income only encourages young minds to seek other ways of living without getting educated.

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A website that demonstrates this is Angelfire. com it promotes famous high school dropouts like Christian Aguilera, Kid Rock, L. L. Cool J and Sammy Sosa. (Bullock,693) Some people have no regards for the intelligence that lead them to where we are in society today. People would rather choose to be rich than to have some means of keeping their wealth. Ignoring that intelligent people are the ones that helped make the progress of the world, and because they are forgotten this is why many individuals do not finish their education.

The anti-intelligent want to blame the media, but in all reality it is the common everyday person who is to blame for ostracizing the intelligent. The following is a poem that was written and appeared on TeenMag. com and illustrates the feelings of a nerd that has been out casted. My loud and bitter screams aren’t being heard No one is there to hear them or to care They do not come cuz I’m a nerd Dealing with this pain is a lot to bear. (Casey F. )

Society as a whole needs to take a step back and realize who got us to where we are today; how we got to where we are today. Intelligent people need to be given the due credit for their works in society and not shunned away. Grant Penrod’s Essay Anti-Intellectualism Why We Hate Smart the Kids is very clear on the devastating social destruction of those that are smart. Works Cited Bullock, Richard, and Maureen Daly Goggin. The Norton Field Guide To Writing. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010.

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