Uncool to be 'Smart' in the USA

Recently the NYT ran an intelligent article titled "Math Skills Suffer in U.S., Study Finds." The author, Ms. Rimer, writes that "United States is failing to develop the math skills of both girls and boys, especially among those who could excel at the highest levels, a new study asserts, and girls who do succeed in the field are almost all immigrants or the daughters of immigrants from countries where mathematics is more highly valued..... A major reason, according to the study, is that American culture does not highly value talent in math, and so discourages girls — and boys, for that matter — from excelling in the field. “We’re living in a culture that is telling girls you can’t do math — that’s telling everybody that only Asians and nerds do math,” said the study’s lead author, Janet E. Mertz, an oncology professor at the University of Wisconsin, whose son is a winner of what is viewed as the world’s most-demanding math competitions. “Kids in high school, where social interactions are really important, think, ‘If I’m not an Asian or a nerd, I’d better not be on the math team.’ Kids are self selecting. For social reasons they’re not even trying.” .....“There is something about the culture in American society today which doesn’t really seem to encourage men or women in mathematics,” said Michael Sipser, the head of M.I.T.’s math department. “Sports achievement gets lots of coverage in the media. Academic achievement gets almost none.”"

While this article refers to math competencies, the current campaign run by McPalin is based on propagating the culture that says that being smart and 'good' is 'not good.' The emphasis on 'Joe the plumber,' asserting that 'Obama palls around with terrorists,' calling Obama a 'socialist' and other names all indicate a complete disregard for intelligence. Obama can talk coherently and make a point- so McCain refers to him derogatorily as 'eloquent.' Obama can speak in complete sentences, so he 'cannot relate to the hockey moms and the six pack Joes.'

Now wonder the country has become a basket case over the past eight years - no person with intelligence would want to be associated with this pathetic 'I am proud to get an F' culture.