I have been thinking about anti-intellectualism recently. I am reading a book called Nerds by David Anderegg. I was expecting it to be about anti-intellectualism in America. I discovered that David Anderegg is a child psychologist and book is more about the nerd stereotype and how it is affecting our children and how that is changing America.
I find that many of the points he brings up I can't identify with. I think that mainly has to do with a few things about my life that are uncommon. First, he talked about how the many girls don't pursue a career in math or science because of social pressure that tells them it is unattractive to be more intelligent than boys. He brought up the point that many schools feel that girls and boys should be educated separately than boys in math and science to reduce this pressure. For middle school, I went to a Private Girls School which heavily emphasized math and science. Because of this school, I excelled in math and science and took very advanced classes in High School. I believe part of the main reason why I went there was because my parents felt this is an issue and then wanted to prevent that. Since I haven't felt the pressure myself to dumb myself down for boys, I can't really identify with this societal problem.
Next, Anderegg talks about the portrayal of nerds and how that affects a child's behavior. Since the concept of a nerd is difficult to understand, most young children believe a nerd is a suck-up, someone who pleases the adults around him. The problem that occurs with that is children that hear their parents make jokes about nerds logically believe that if they are to be liked by their parents, then they shouldn't be nerdy. This is also an idea that is foreign to me. My dad is a huge nerd but he defies the traditional stereotype of a nerd. Since I have grown up with my dad as a norm, I never really had the need to rebel. Even now, I don't really feel the negative connotation that most people associate with the term nerd. It is my secret aspiration.
The other day, before I started reading this book, I was talking with my mom.I told here that the two things that bug me the most seem like opposites. The first thing is I hate people underestimating my intelligence. This actually happens a lot. I am blond and I sometime a bit slow and sometime I do dumb things. However, I am not stupid. So, when people see me and try to dumb things down for me, it makes me really angry. The second thing is when people think I am smart. I know it sounds like a contradiction, but it is not. Before I changed my major, back when I was still an electrical engineering major, when they asked, I would tell them my major. One of the most common responses was "Oh, you must be smart." Well, my problem with that statement is to them it is not a good thing. They have just classified me as one of those "smart people" that they can't associate with because I am too smart. Now, that usually doesn't happen, but it just as insulting as if it were true.
Why do Americans look down on those who are smart? Has our success as a country pushed us so far that we believe we don't intelligence and a good work ethic? Is this why our national leadership has suffered? America, it is time to step up and reevaluate who we are and what we want.
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11 months ago
2 comments:
I don't know the "why", but the evidence that the US doesn't value education is all around us. So many people spend their days trying to find out the latest news on Celebrities. Their lives are consumed with who's secretly pregnant, and who's secretly dating whom, how much money so-and-so spent on their wedding, etc.
Our education system has been gutted of substance in favor of "make the kids feel good about themselves"-ucation.
I spent 4 years in middle school where the science "education" was centered around "working in a team" and you got points for using each other's names, and assigning roles like "time-keeper". The attempt at teaching science was an after thought to the "teamwork". Because you had to make sure everyone in the team felt included in the group, lest someone have their feelings hurt.
In my case, however, this incredible boredom in school is part of what drove me to teach myself how to program starting in 6th grade.
First of all, I was a little confused about the title, but I'm thinking it's supposed to be sum-'arts. Smarts. Got it.
I pretty much second what you said enigmatic as well as curious physics minor. I never really had a problem with the idea of being a girl in the engineering field until I came to college. In high school in my AP Calc/AP Phys class, although I had noticed there were more guys than girls, in was in no way overwhelming like it was in my engineering classes at BYU. It wasn't until I got here that I realized how different I really was. It actually threw me off for quite awhile. I was kind of scared to ask for help or ask questions because for some reason I felt like I had to prove myself smart because I was a girl and that made my engineering intelligence questionable. Luckily I have finally gotten over that and I know that so long as I don't slack off I can keep up just fine. So yesterday when a guy asked me how it was being in a field with such a low percentage of girls, I could honestly shrug my shoulders and say, I'm fine with it. Because I am. But I know there is that block there for girls, which is super lame.
On my family's blog, my brother said his eight-year-old girl is doing well in school, especially in math. That made me happy and I told the computer screen, You go, girl! :-)
My student development professor pointed out that the "make the kids feel good about themselves"-cation (well put, curious physics minor!) doesn't really work because expectations are lowered and the kids do not get pushed to their full potential so they never know what it is. In such a system, as shown in The Incredibles, saying that everyone is special sends a second message that no one is.
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