"Affluenza" in Schools

Ironically, in a country where education is free and the citizens of the United States of America are provided with the opportunity to make use of their literary advantages, doing well in school has become something "uncool" for American youth. Steps such as the "No Child Left Behind" law have been taken to improve the American school system, but they ignore the role of students' attitude toward academic excellence. If students don't want to learn the maximum, they won't. The media, especially advertisements, are a subtle, but important, contributing factor to this anti-intellectual trend.

Most Hollywood movies portray schools in which the pursuit of excellence is left to the "nerds." The popular students are the handsome athletes, girls with phenomenal physical features, and the comedians. This is not to say that attractive athletes, girls who are pretty, and people who have the ability to make others laugh are always bad students - nor are they always portrayed this way - but 90 percent of the time this is the way these groups of students are seen in the popular movies for teenagers that are coming out regularly in theaters. To name a few: Accepted, a comedy about a high school burnout who fabricates his own college when he finds out he has been rejected from all of the schools he applied to; The Perfect Score, a movie about six high school students who steal the answers to the SAT so they can get into the school they want; Mean Girls, a movie about a girl who moved back to the U.S. after growing up in Africa and who tries to fit in by doing whatever it takes, even if it means failing calculus on purpose so she can get the guy she thinks is cute to tutor her. Doing well academically in school is not part of theme of these movies, if the subject of class work comes up at all among scenes of high school students skipping class and engaging in harmful behaviors such as drinking, partaking in casual sex and disrespecting their parents and teachers.   

America is falling prey to a disease called "Affluenza" in a 2001 book. It is a disease where people, in particular children, are brainwashed by constant advertising on the TV, in their schools and even on the sides of their buses. Cuts in funding for public schools force the administration to turn to agencies outside of the government for much needed money. As a result, places like the hallways of Colorado Springs high school boast posters proclaiming "satisfy your hunger for higher education with Snickers" and "M&Ms are better than straight A's." The irony is that the very snacks that are promoted through commercial advertising are the ones that health classes warn against.

As a result of "affluenza," school is no longer a place to learn, to increase knowledge, but a place that serves as a springboard for later positions of power and success in the affluenza-dominated world. The belittleing of learning begins with our President, who was recently quoted as saying "I delegate to good people. I always tell Condi Rice, "I want to remind you, Madam Secretary, who has the Ph.D. and who was a C student. And I want to remind you who the adviser is and who the president is." A man who should be a role model for America's youth and inspire them to take interest in schooling will allow them to become "the future leaders of America" is in fact displaying his own ignorance the entire nation. Between negative messages thrown at teenagers by the media and poor role models from the leaders of our country, it is no wonder that schools have trouble enticing their students into learning for learning's sake. There is no point in excelling and getting an A if they run  the risk of being labeled a "nerd" for trying and have the potential to rise to President on merely a C.

- Kara Lofton (This article was originally published in the Daily News Record)