Fighting the Fear of Appearing Intelligent

As a public school teacher, I can’t remember when an article upset me more than the sports feature (May 17) on Robby Price, the California Interscholastic Federation Scholar-Athlete of the Year who has a 4.8 grade-point average and has to hide his scholastic honors so that he won’t be known as a “schoolie”--his term for egghead, nerd or bookworm.

His running, however, can be openly spoken of, a talent that he admits is not going to last.

Although he perceptively admits to The Times that the important question is “What are you going to do for people?” he is unable to communicate that in the school setting for fear of being ridiculed.

Why does this irritate me? Because as a teacher I see this attitude around me constantly. I had my journalism class read and analyze the article about Robby and express to me the pressures on them not to appear intelligent in any way. Reading their papers was an incredibly sad experience.

Perhaps the social scientists who graph the decline of public educational standards should take this sad circumstance into consideration.

Eggheads have always had an uphill struggle in schools, you may say, but I insist that it is much different now. I have taught here in Orange County for the past 27 years, and I believe that it ought to be made known that this problem is getting much worse and that a serious attempt must be made to correct it.

I think that we, as teachers, must all take the unpopular stand against the “spirit of the time” and encourage, promote and publicize scholastic excellence in our students at the same level or higher than their athletic ability is now recognized.

Parents and the community should follow suit, assuming our goal is not just to produce workers for factories owned by Japan and Europe.

PAUL D. SWANSON

Anaheim

JERRILYNN KLINE

Newport Beach