Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate Smart Kids

School is a frightening place. It is broken down into multiple social ranks, and many children find themselves at the bottom. With children trying to work their way up the food chain, the actual learning part is set aside or forgotten altogether. In Grant Penrod’s essay, Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate the Smart Kids, he explains how children these days are growing to dislike intellectual children. Anti-Intellectualism is a trend taking the world by storm. The varying social ranks teach children to ignore low grades and try to be popular in school. People who worry about popularity tend to tease intellectuals, but this is not half of the story. If the only thing children care about in school is popularity, grades will slowly drop until eventually,
They do not have to worry about failing tests for they study the material. Children make fun of intellectuals for not having a life. The answer to this is quite simple. In reality, intellectual children do not have to study nearly as hard as their classmates do for they learn very easily. Intellectual children can be social, most choose not to. If an intellectual bonds with another person over an interest, he or she will be friends with the one person. Intellectuals will even go out of their way to make new interests to bond with people. “Of course, not all “nerds” are socially excluded; most high school students could readily name a few intelligent people with at least a degree of popularity,” proves how intellectuals can be social. Once an intellectual child has become friends with another classmate, the friendship can grow and can even lead to the other person trying out one of the intellectual child’s interests. Students should not ostracize their Intellectual classmates for their talent. They should strive to be smarter as well. Intellectuals deserve more credit for their accomplishments, no matter what the celebrities or other classmates are saying. Whenever a student is bullying an intellectual, he or she should stop and imagine where the world would be without intellectual people. The technology of today would not be possible without the