Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Baba Kueria
Posts: 3146

In the place I grew up, being 'smart' would get you more flak than being gay or of a minority race, but I think that after the 'windows 95 revolution' it's maybe not so much the case these days...

So, I'm curious as to the prevalence of anti-intellectualism in different parts of the globe.

What's it like where you are?

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Registered: Apr 2001
Location:
Posts: 16728

I went to a few schools where I was the only white person or one of the few white people and it seemed that a black kid that did well in school and was somewhat respectful was always accused of trying to be white by quite a few of his or her fellow school mates. This was also the case for the black girls in the girls home. It was quite tragic on so many levels.

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Registered: May 2001
Location:
Posts: 2701

Nobody cared here. Nerds don't get picked on when i was in HS or elementary. In fact some of the really mean and violent hooligans I knew were nerds.

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Registered: Apr 2001
Location: 0.50
Posts: 9355

not much round here. maybe mistrust of "smart kids" by "not smart kids", but it was never a big deal as far as i could tell. some people think i read strange books but i've never felt victimized by them. so, no. most people around here consider themselves "smart", i think, so they find other grounds to base ridicule on. stupid people caught more shit, i'd say.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Sedona, Arizona
Posts: 19114

The highschool here has the nerd/jock/doper/cowboy catagories but the school is small enough to where there isn't much, if any, friction. The town is spread out enough to where they intermingle just so they have someone to hang out with.
I think that keeps the distinctions mellow. Probably the dopers are the only ones who don't mix well but part of that is the parents all know who they are and monitor their kids more closely when they see them around.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35656

I went to a grammar school so not that much anti-intellectualism there, although plenty towards us from the county secondary school at the foot of the lane. At the comprehensive school that I taught at, there wasn't much, although there wasn't that much mingling either, between the smart and the not so smart/academically accomplished; in any case, the school was very much one for the kids of pushy parents, so most did try hard anyway. At the county secondary school that I taught at, there was quite a lot of aggression directed towards those kids that tried hard academically.

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Registered: Mar 2002
Location: Mountains
Posts: 4698

quote:

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Originally posted by euphorbia
I went to a few schools where I was the only white person or one of the few white people and it seemed that a black kid that did well in school and was somewhat respectful was always accused of trying to be white by quite a few of his or her fellow school mates. This was also the case for the black girls in the girls home. It was quite tragic on so many levels.

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Registered: Apr 2001
Location: 0.50
Posts: 9355

but you went from GEEK TO SHIEKCHIC, BABY.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: LfuckinA
Posts: 3374

i noticed anti-intellectualism a lot in the minority communities where fear of intellectuals resides. a lot of it is due to the poor people seeing those with money as those with brains...and those who take from them. it's unfortunate. thus, it wasn't encouraged much when i was growing up, though, my family wasn't too bad about it. my father wanted me to get a good education. my mother, who grew up on a farm in mexico, wanted me to work for the family's well-being, not seeing that getting an education could do this.

as for the students i see everyday...it's cool to be stupid. i honestly can say that i still don't get it with them.

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Registered: Jul 2003
Location: the 45th Parallel
Posts: 127

I had the Fortune/Misfortune of attending 9 schools in 12 years... I never noticed if they were singling (now that word looks like it's spelled wrong...)me out for being in the "Academically Advanced" classes... 'cause they were already singling me out for being "the new kid"... endlessly....
being in with the 'freaks' in jr. high (I took that as an honor, considering where I was for half of jr. high... ) required doing as little as possible, and avoiding as much attention as possible, while still getting better than average grades, so they WOULDN'T notice you...

Bad grades = parent/teacher conference ... worse than being picked on!

but the schools I attended for 11th & 12th in Hong Kong & the Philippines respectively seemed to be more in tune with getting you ready for the working world, than ready to dangle your participles or square a root... academics was first, no doubt, but differing cultures, the business world, teamwork, tolerance, etc. were more in the front lines... which gave you a sense that they felt your were ALL intelligent and capable beings, just untrained and not yet guided... so we all, even us blunt puffing freaks, WANTED to excel in competition with ourselves, more than competing with those around us, who then became allies in being the best you could be... which works really well... and when you get to vote in class on such things as whether your fellow students can smoke their cigarrettes in class instead of waiting for "the Bell" ... ( a 'yes' vote came with the aggreement that you would sit by the window... very democratic of them.. since I smoked back in the day...) i.e., when you treat young adults like young adults, the lines between them begin to mesh and blend and disappear completely at times... at least that was my experience...
I think getting 'picked' on in school is just the animal in us looking for the proverbial 'pecking order'... mostly a man thing ( just one woman's opinion), but women can and do play too.... and it seems to peak in those lovely, hateful years known as "JUNIOR HIGH".... just as breasts begin to come into 'play' (pun intended...) and testosterone levels begin to cloud the minds of young males... and a few semi-females...
and i don't want mean mail from the semi-females out there...
jeeezzz Louise....

"Don't hate me because I'm MENSA..." annonymous 2%-er

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: NYC
Posts: 3598

quote:

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Originally posted by euphorbia
I went to a few schools where I was the only white person or one of the few white people and it seemed that a black kid that did well in school and was somewhat respectful was always accused of trying to be white by quite a few of his or her fellow school mates. This was also the case for the black girls in the girls home. It was quite tragic on so many levels.

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Baba Kueria
Posts: 3146

It's interesting to see that it generally co-incides with 'bad' areas, as smug pointed out in chat, it's more prevalent in the working class, and that all makes sense. What doesn't make sense is how common it was when & where I was a kid, given that the area was considered to be middle upper class. I guess it makes sense in the context that in that area, just about everyone's dad was either a builder, plumber or electrician who'd made it out of the middle class.

*shrug*

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: aggressivly happy
Posts: 9130

i am smat!

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: is futile
Posts: 5027

I am the first person in my family to get into academia, and my grandmother (sole surviving grandparent when I enrolled) is proud of me on one hand, but on the other hand she cant understand why I cant get a "real" job (like carpentry or plumbing). Some of my parents siblings shares that sentiment, and seem to be a little patronizing and overbearing when I tell them about what I do for a living.

I think I became immersed in school around puberty, as the jocks had decided that I was a geek, and needed to be pushed around. I bore it, and pushed back in the classroom... outperforming all of them damn meatheads.

I am good at accumulating and storing information, and Im good at taking exams, and writing papers.

This trend continued at the Gymnasium (senior high equivalent)... but instead of jocks there were the "cool guys" (kind of like frat boys, only less organized)... they made fun of my geekdom, I laughed when they failed their courses... (boohoo... algebra is soo unfair... boohoo... why do we need to learn foreign languages, etc.)...

by this time reading was what I was best at, so I continued into college... but without really knowing what field I wanted to specialize in (In Danish universities... there is no such thing as general education. If you study physics... you get nothing but physics-related courses... if you study economics... you get only economy-related courses etc.)

and after a brief flirtation with macroeconomics (which I was good at, but never really liked)... I have ended up studying archaeological and forensic anthropology... IMHO the pinnacle of nerddom... there are no nobel prizes, no real prospect of high wages.... its great

nerdy come full circle...

HOORAY!!!!...

I will cherish a high school reunion... so I can see my old tormentors and snicker at their accomplishments (my new car is RED... I painted it myself etc.)

Life is glorious

Last edited by mudded on 07-08-2003 at 12:05 AM

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Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Rio de los Brazos de Dios
Posts: 3876

Kauaigirl, just to wonder why you were such a settled stick in the mud
and didn't get around.

You went to nine schools in 12 years---I went to 26 and skipped two grades so that was only ten years. You attended nine schools---I attended six in one year. Actually I enjoyed it.

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Registered: Jul 2003
Location: the 45th Parallel
Posts: 127

Navy brat... Air Force wife... Domestic Goddess...
y tu?

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 7504

In the rich suburbs of Kansas City, there is not a lot of prestige in being dumb. Particularly not on the debate team. If anything, it takes some doing to convince the kids that being stupid doesn't make the kids WORSE than other people. Even in Salina (rural Kansas), the climate wasn't anti-intellectual so much as overtly racist.

America as a whole has a serious developing problem with anti-intellectualism. The most disturbing aspect of the 2000 election, for me, was that the Republicans saw it as desirable to play up their man as being a simple, folksy "man of the people" and to try to paint their opponent as too smart to be representative of the public.

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Registered: Apr 2001
Location:
Posts: 16728

quote:

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Originally posted by CHiPsJr
and to try to paint their opponent as too smart to be representative of the public.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Beatrice, Nebraska
Posts: 18808

I think that the proliferation of the street thug lifestyle by pop culture has contributed, if not caused, the new breed of anti-intellectualism. A real playa needs to keep it real. Street real, niggah. A real playa ain't got time for school cuz he's too busy with husteling . . . even it he's some rich subarbanite cracker. I would also say that it stems from a general lack of good parenting over the last ten years or so. It has gotten to the point where you can't even punish a child for doing something wrong without fear of a law suit. Parents are being ruled by their children.

In short: Tupac didn't say it was cool to learn, therefore it ain't cool to learn. Tupac didn't need no book learning and look how phat paid he got. Cash money, bitch. Thanks MTV!

I would also say it stems, on a local level here, from the school putting more emphasis on the athletic departments. You talk about cutting a sport budget here in order to cut costs and you'll be chased out of town by an angry mob. You talk about cutting a part of the education budget (say for the science department or the art department) and it'll get passed in no time flat. No debate.

Perhaps I've gone off topic.

I hope I made sense.

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Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Rio de los Brazos de Dios
Posts: 3876

"y tu"

Son of a construction distribution electrician and for part of his life a construction superintendent for Southwestern Bell.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Beatrice, Nebraska
Posts: 18808

quote:

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Originally posted by euphorbia
I must have missed that part?
Al Gore seemed certainly as much a bumbling fool as Bush.
Republicans are just more fashionable to pick on....

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Registered: Apr 2001
Location: 0.50
Posts: 9355

they certainly played up the "good ol boy" thing. or, maybe not played up, but people reacted to it. a lot of response to mr bush referred to how they felt they could sit and have a beer with him, that sort of thing. it was crazy.

reaction to clinton maybe. old slick willy. don't want to be reeled in by a huckster again?

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