A respected author John Green questions, "Why is being a nerd bad? Saying I notice you 're a nerd is like saying, ‘Hey I knows that you 'd rather be intelligent than be stupid, that you 'd rather be thoughtful of them be vapid, that you believe that there things that matter more than the arrest record of Lindsay Lohan and why is that?” Many people who are passionate about their studies question the same thing. Leonid Fridman wrote a passage “America Needs its Nerds” in order to raise concern that our society does not value intelligence. Fridman uses compare and contrast to get his point across to the readers. He makes the text more relatable by characterizing the typical American mindset. He successfully explains to the reader that the persecution of intellectuals is something our country should not be doing. Leonid Friedman compares and contrasts athletic versus academic success throughout the passage. He has direct comparisons using an …show more content…
Leonid Fridman characterizes the typical American mindset this makes the text easily understood and relatable for the readers. Because the problem at hand is mainly geared toward Americans he brings up the fact that, “In most industrialized nations, not least of all of our economic rivals in East Asia, a kid who studies hard is lauded and held up as an example to other students.” He is showing the reader that in other countries they praise the children for their academic efforts unlike the US that use derogatory language like “nerd” and “geek” when referring to the academically achieving people. He also compares the jobs of individuals from other countries to show the divide between the American mindset and the mindset around the world. Fridman states “In many parts of the world university professorships are the most prestigious and materially rewarding positions but not in America…” Friedman says this so the readers are aware of the rift between America and other countries of the world especially their view of intellectual
One of the history's greatest figures, Nelson Mandela, once said: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Over the course of years, this statement has only become more relevant. Maybe that is the reason why the topic of the decline of the American education has been recently spurring such a heated debate among national academic and teaching communities. In “The Chronicle of Higher Education”, Carl Singleton, a faculty member at Fort Hays State University, also presented his reflections concerning the U.S. education system.
Well known article writer, Leonid Fridman, in his article, “America Needs Its Nerds”, describes the truthful idea that nerds and geeks, in our society, are ostracized while the kids who play sports and party are prominent. Fridman’s purpose is to impress upon the readers that nerds should not have to conform to society’s unimpressive values of what it means to be “popular”. He adopts an indignant tone in order to convey to his readers that the idea of nerds and geeks needs to fought. Fridman moves to the idea that children who would rather read and build model airplanes are the social outcasts compared to the ones who would rather play football and get wasted at parties.
Leonid Fridman used many examples on how intellectuals are undermined by our society. Some examples he used were on how intelligent students were called many names or how typical parents are sometimes ashamed of their child studying rather than getting wasted. Some intelligent students were called geeks. The proper definition of a geek is a freak who bites off the heads of live chickens. The author expressed how wrong it is for our culture to use such derogatory
“How long can America remain a world-class power if we constantly emphasize social skills and physical prowess over academic achievement and intellectual ability?” Leonid Fridman uses this sentence to finalize his argument for why Americans should stop alienating its intellectual citizens. Fridman uses a few techniques to build his argument including word choice, factual based examples, and appeals to emotions. The text “America Needs its Nerds” could be very relatable for some people.
It is a piece of American literature that speaks on issues that were extremely prominent at the time and carries a strong overall
One of the most strived for things in life is academic excellence however the path to it is never easy. Author Thompson Ford’s article “How To Understand Acting White” outlines Stuart Bucks arguments about the irony of desegregation in education. A separate essay written by, Alfred Lubrano, “The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts” has similar ironies about the average college student. If Ford was to read Lubrano’s essay, Ford would come to a more complex conclusion by incorporating arguments and concepts from Lubrano’s essay. Ford may utilize Lubrano’s essay to expand on certain concepts such as the proximity effect, socioeconomics, and the level of education in top tier schools to further explain the “acting white” phenomenon from his own article.
The common assumption that America is the leading nation in the world takes a hard hit in Amanda Ripley’s The Smartest Kids in the World, a book that explores the top education systems throughout the world, which are not that of the United States. After reading the book, it comes off with strong viewpoints, and makes you think critically about our education system. It highlights the PISA tests, both praised and criticized for their ability to calculate the knowledge and creativity and individual possesses. The book also features a unique narrative style involving three students from America embarking on journeys as “correspondents” to three of the tops ranking PISA countries.
Leonid Fridman writes about the disrespect and ridicules smart people get for how they live and how it greatly impacts our country's future. Smart people are bullied and then in a lot of cases thought
AsAS Fridman mentioned earlierearly in thehis passage, students who dedicate more of their time to studying rather than participating in sports or social activities are made to feel less than and not wanted. The U.S., as Fridman mentions, is one of the few countries where antianit-intellectualism is very high. Also, in more industrialized nations “a kid who studies hard is lauded and held up as an example to other students.” Using the effect of comparing our nation to that of others gives the audience the reality check that they need to understand the state in which our country stands. Fridman continues on to mention that those who are professors at universities around the world are “the most prestigious and materially rewarding positions,” but in America, we have athletes being paid more than the faculty at the best universities in the nation.
They are aware that his intelligence poses a threat to the rest of their society, because the intelligence of one can lead to the enlightenment of many. This supports the theme statement because to a society that craves equality stagnancy, progression is their enemy
“America Needs Its Nerds” an article created by Leonid Fridman, puts forth a pertinent issue in today’s society: intellectually adept students are ostracized. Fridman argues that smart, curious students need to stop feeling ashamed for being smart and curious. Society needs to change because their current philosophy towards intellect is one of pessimism. Fridman develops these arguments in his essay by utilizing the rhetorical strategy of parallelism, drawing conclusions, and through his use of diction.
Gerald Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism” contemplates the age-old idea that street smarts are anti-intellectual. However, as Graff points out, “schools and colleges are at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into academic smarts.” (244). What Graff means by this is that being street smart does not mean a person lacks intelligence. Rather, educational institutions need to find a way to effectively ‘tap into’ this different format of intellectualism to produce academic intelligence.
To conclude this analyzation of Mike Rose’s essay “Blue Collar Brilliance” and Gerald Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism”, Mike Rose’s essay was more effective. He gave readers examples of real life scenarios to validate his point. He used rhetorical tools that would help the more academic successful audience. He also connected with the audience labeled as “Blue Collars”, with stories from his mother and uncle
The Rhetorical Analysis of the “America Needs its Nerds” The mental capacity is treated as a disadvantage in the America, despite the fact it already helped the country many times. This long-term problem became the main topic of the Leonid Fridman’s essay “America Needs its Nerds”. The work first appeared on January 11, 1990 in the New York Times as a part of the series “Voices of the New Generation”. The author spoke about the negative attitude the American society has to smart people and demonstrates it with the usage of words like “nerd” or “geek”.
Yet Petersen is credited with such poorly written phrases, like “one of the most obscure and known characters” And. “This fact opens after when she blamed himself.” (Petersen, “Analysis”). Her essay is written erratically and thus is very difficult to read. Not only is her essay written poorly, but it does not even accomplish answering the question it was originally written to answer.