Review Of Leonid Fridman's Yamerica Needs Nerds

The rate of bullying that can be detected in schools these days is astonishing. Now a days, with the use of new technology but also with traditional ways, kids continue to bully other children simply because they are different. Leonid Fridman demonstrates how these wrongful actions have taken a toll on children and young adults across the nation. In the passage from ¨America Needs Nerds¨ by Leonid Fridman, Fridman develops his argument that intellectuals should stop being ashamed for their intellectual achievements and instead should be praised for them through the usage of an accusatory tone, rhetorical questions, and continuous comparisons. To start off, Fridman develops his argument that intellectuals should stop being ashamed for their

One way in which Fridman shows that the shaming of young intellectuals is affecting society is through the use of comparisons that show the way U.S students compared to others in other nations are doing and how the performance of the U.S students has been affected. Fridman shows that in the United States students such as the ones at Harvard ¨are ashamed to admit, even to their friend, how much they study¨ all because of the ridicule that they would face for their abilities (3). Fridman than explains that this also occurs not only in Harvard but also at elementary and high schools all over the U.S. The comparison is then made as he explains how a kid in East Asia ¨who studies hard is lauded and held up as an example to other students¨ unlike the students of the United States who would only face bullying (7). He goes on to also state that in America, ¨average professionals ball players are much more respected and better paid than faculty members of the best universities¨ (8). With these two comparisons Fridman highlights just how different the United States is to other countries in terms of intellectual praise. He demonstrates just how much the U.S must change in order stop limiting the potential of young intellectuals and instead encourage them to use these abilities to further progress in