You know what really grinds my gears?
There are people out in the world that choose to act dumb, despite being somewhat smart, and they develop this persona for society to see.
I guess I am really asking why? Why do people want to act dumber than they really are? Personally, I want to appear smarter to people than I really am, because I find that intelligence is a desirable character trait. So does society consider acting dumb a desirable trait?
I am choosing to focus on high school students, although I could talk forever about dumb celebrities (Paris Hilton). As an observant high school student, I watch people all day long that make most people wonder why are they in high school? You see, I have a philosophy about all students: All students are capable of learning to their full potential; nobody is born stupid. However, for those students that don't do well in school and do not try to get help throughout the year to better themselves actually try to not do well. Some may say that they are setting themselves up for failure, but I believe that some students actually try so hard to fail, that if they applied the same effort to succeeding, then they would receive great grades.
For the student that gets C in his or her classes, but tries his or her hardest everyday to do well is not at all stupid. I believe that these students that actually try deserve A's and B's, especially when considering other students that completely fail a class because they don't do anything to try to bring up their grade (until the last day of the semester). To go along with my philosophy, I believe that you have to put more effort into failing a class and less effort in passing. What really grinds my gears is that those kids that receive F's in their classes are okay with their grade.
Really? And how is that F a positive thing? It surely doesn't help out yourself or anybody else.
As society continues to sensationalize celebrities that appear to do nothing for all of their wealth, high school students begin to believe that they too can do nothing and still succeed in life. This is a major fallacy, for even those celebrities have had to work very hard for their success.
So after going off on a tangent there, allow me to go back to my original thesis. Some people feel that failure is an okay thing, and they act on this impulse and it develops into their ego. They take their ego, and they let everybody else know it. In my opinion, society is becoming more accepting of failure and acting dumb, which is certainly very bad. But who do we blame? We can blame the parents, celebrities, or the kids themselves. I would rather blame the education in America for being too soft on these kids and letting them get away with a slap on the wrist. Education should reward the good and punish the bad; however I believe that American education does pretty much the exact opposite.
So again, after going on a second tangent, people that act dumb really grind my gears, especially when, in my honest opinion, people are not inherently dumb.
And to repeat, that is what grinds my gears.
Cameron
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1 comment:
Interesting post, Cameron - I noticed many of the same things that you did while I was in high school, but I came to a few different conclusions:
First, I've realized that the students that get poor grades aren't just acting stupidly, but they are actually very unintelligent. Of course, these students would have a better mastery of course material if they spent some time studying, but many of them are actually quite unintelligent. I think most of these people realize that intelligence is a good character trait, but they also realize that they just aren't very smart. So they resort to looking like they are just playing stupid to cover up the fact that they are morons.
Second, you note that you believe "society is becoming more accepting of failure and acting dumb". I'm not sure that this is entirely true. I think that the visible American society is becoming increasingly dominated by youth culture, but I think that the youth culture itself has remained relatively stable since the 70's and 80's. In fact, if you look outside of the “stupid group” you will notice that 2009 was the most difficult year in college admissions, average SAT scores are going up every year, and the IQ of the population is, on average, rising. Americans, including students, are becoming more intelligent, and inside college admissions the room for acting stupidly has diminished exponentially.
Third, you would rather blame the education system of the USA than blame parents or the kids. The education system of the US is clearly flawed (especially in elementary schools IMO), but I think that the primary source of much stupidity is the students and parents. For all of its downsides, the US education system will give you opportunities to match the effort that you invest in your education. It is the primary responsibility of parents to instill in their children a love of learning and a strong work ethic. The "stupid group" can be clearly defined by the absence of these two traits. Therefore, blame the parents. But, we should also blame the students. In the US the students are in control of their own educational decisions. Therefore, if the students want to be morons and make moronic decisions, it is their fault.
You are more optimistic about humans, but less so about the future. I think that one day our society could easily be dominated by youth culture and commercialism, but there will always be room for the intelligent and hard working students. My thesis is that we should just ignore and forget the “stupid group”. They will always be around, but it is their decision to be stupid. There isn’t enough time to try to force every student to be dedicated and independent, just let the morons drive themselves into obscurity.
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