Rhetorical Analysis Of 'America Needs Its Nerds'

Nerds and athletes. Two different types of people that are treated differently. "America Needs its Nerds" by Leonid Fridman, Fridman believes that nerds should not be looked down upon. He compares both nerds and athletes, and compares that status to other countries. Fridman also includes rhetorical question for the reader to think about.

America Needs Its Nerds,” an essay indited by Leonid Fridman, proposes a pertinent issue in today’s society: astutely gifted students are ostracized. Fridman argues that keenly intellective, curious students neegd to stop being inglorious of being perspicacious and curious. Society needs to transmute because their current posture towards astuteness is one of pessimism. Fridman develops these arguments in his essay by utilizing the rhetorical strategy of parallelism, drawing conclusions, and utilizing

In his essay, “America Needs It’s Nerds”, Leonid Fridman describes the erroneous hierarchy of athletics to intelligence. Fridman recognizes the poor treatment of people who do not excel in sports or would rather be reading than attending parties. He emphasizes the social outcasting of people who are considered “nerds” and how society mistreats them. Fridman develops his argument by describing the American culture and comparing it to the culture of other countries, incorporating a dictionary definition of the word “geek”, and by including rhetorical questions at the end of the essay. Fridman compares American culture to the culture in other countries to strengthen his argument about the dangerous idolizing of athletes over intellects.

In the article “Hidden Intellectualism” written by Gerald Graff, Graff target college students to inform them about a hidden intellectualism that can be found in our everyday society. In the article Graff draws attention to the many types and ways different people can identify with intellectualism. He argues that people are intelligent in several ways and just need to learn how to plug the intellectualism they enjoy into a school-like setting during classes. He exemplifies this by using his own intellect within sports and such as an adolescent. While being very analytical of sports team movies, and the toughness he and his friends engaged in, he was unknowingly before now trained to be intellect in a class room and other school subjects.

In the passage, “America Needs Its Nerds,” by Leonid Fridman he develops his argument by using the three pillars of literature: pathos, ethos and logos.

In Hidden Intellectualism, Gerald Graff seeks to expose what he believes to be a fundamental issue in today’s schools and colleges. He brings attention to “street smarts”, students who are intelligent about so many things in life, yet their potential is overlooked because the things they are knowledgeable about are not things we associate with educated life such as cars, sports and video games. He claims that students are more likely to enter the world of academics if they were encouraged to view their interests from an academic perspective rather than to be forced into subjects that are considered “more academic” by the rest of society. Gerald Graff’s main point is that teachers should take advantage of the interests that students already have and convince them to pursue those interests with “academic eyes”, rather than forcing content on them that they are uninterested in. Although I agree with the first part of Graff’s statement, I think a crucial skill to acquire is the ability to find interests in something outside of subjects we initially find our interests in so that we may develop more as a whole person.

In the world of academia, from Graff’s perspective, street smarts are associated with anti-intellectualism. Graff states “we associate the educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts that we consider inherently weighty an academic.” He argues that educators should broaden their aspect of material they once preserved as inefficient. Graff implies that a person who is studious enough can find substance in any content. He reasons that intellect can be uncovered and observed in various forms, hence the name “hidden intellectualism.” He suggests that the Education system overlooks the interest of the students because they consider their interest irrelevant.

Fridman gives examples of some of the types of people in society who would be discredited for being academically serious. At Harvard, many students are ashamed to admit how much they study (Lines 12-14). Nerds are ostracized while athletes are idolized… The same thing happens in U.S. elementary

Although competition is something that can drive one to the top of a mountain, sometimes there can be an enormous negative consequence that no one can handle. Middletown High School, where Brendan Lawlor and Gary Searle both attend, holds an extremely high competitive atmosphere. In particular, this school puts the most drive into their football players and wrestlers. “Everyone around here knows the football players. Either they see them at the games or they read about them in the newspaper” (78). However, as shown in this book competitiveness may lead to a complicated result, in this case a shooting. As a result of the power put into the athlete at Middletown High School, the athletes and the academic students receive contrasting treatment

Sports have always been a hot topic in the academic world. They are seen as a great extracurricular activity that creates a sense of community between players. On the other hand, sports are viewed as a distraction from school. Everyone can agree that sports have become the focal point at many schools leading teachers to feel academics have become secondary. The seemingly endless debate is addressed by Dr. Mark Edmundson in an article of his that was published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

There are these ongoing stereotypes that student athletes are “dumb,” “lazy,” and “privileged.” It’s understandable that people believe these stereotypes, news magazines and reports are always talking about how athletes are “coddled” and “cheat” their way to success. Though it is nowhere near true for the majority of student athletes, a select few situations encourage this negative categorization of us, thus putting student athletes under even more pressure to perform. Student athletes are constantly misjudged and the assumptions are affecting us.

In the American society, the exterior of a human has higher values than the interior. For instance, an athlete is held in high regard by the public, due to their aesthetically appealing body and the proficient ability to do physical activities. On the other hand, a nerd or geek is seen as an outcast in society, because of their intelligence. These uneven values of society are exactly what the founding member of the society of Nerds and Geeks at Harvard University, Leonid Fridman argues upon in his writing of “America Needs its Nerds.” Through the rhetorical strategies of tone, pathos, and rhetorical questioning, Fridman emphasizes the significance of intellectually driven people in America.

The future of America as a superpower depends on educated people who can develop political, financial, and military strategies to keep the country strong. Fridman questions how a country where parents are ashamed of children who choose intellectual activities over sports and social events can maintain its world-class status. Indeed, it seems that soon football players will control the government and the academic will be spurned and forgotten. The intellectuals and academics are ostracized for their desire for education and information and compared to an outcast street performer through the term ‘geek’. Fridman develops his argument for the return of respect for those who desire knowledge through real-world examples, and thought-provoking

This article helps us understand if the levels of anti-intellectualism are related to students who choose specific majors like business and sociology. It gives us a chart with results that portray the SAIS, Student Anti-Intellectualism Scale (Laverghetta). This is a survey/questionnaire that measures a student’s anti-intellectualism and represents it on a scale (Laverghetta). The results that they found show that students with majors such as business administration, criminal justice, communications, and nursing scored higher on the SAIS as opposed to students who had majors in sociology, philosophy and theory embracing

Colleges and high schools across the United States were shutting down their athletic programs in fear of student safety. In the year 1905 alone, 18 sport-related deaths were recorded in America with 159 serious injuries. Within the next two years those numbers would slowly decline, with the year 1909 being an outlier in the death category with 26. Not only was the overall wellbeing a factor to this American ideology of the early 1900s but education as well. Participation in athletics as by the athletes and the many spectators who devoted their time to events were widely believed to cause many people to ignore the importance of education. This was especially of high concern among college-aged youth. As Brian Ingrasia, a professor of History at West Texas A&M University wrote “extracurricular activities – fraternities, choral societies, yearbooks, newspapers, and athletics – came to dominate university life.” Athletics were more influential on college campuses than simply lining the newspapers and being a free-time leisure activity. It was negatively affecting the educational realm as well. For the Augustana campus, something had to be done.