Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-11-25
Brains Bow
ToAthIetes
In POpuIarity
BY HARRIET GRIFFITHS
Star Staff Writer

By HARRIET GRIFFITHS
Star staff Writer
Being popular counts more
with high school students than
getting top grades, according
to a new study of teen-agers.
It's all right for a fellow to
be brain" as long as he's also
big in sports. But if he prefers
study hall to the playing field.
he's inviting the label of
creep"
The study, sponsored by the
Talented Youth Project of
Teachers College, Columbia
University, indicated that most
high school students won't re-
spect academic stardom unless
more popular traits go along
with it.
What is more, indications
are that some bright, or po-
tentially bright, students give
second place to their studies
to conform or become accept
table in high school society.
Athletes Rate High
Athletes were rated prefer
able to nonathletes with rim
credible consistency" by the
teen-agers surveyed. Athletes
with average ability were
ranked equally with top-Student
athletes.
The study director, DR.. Abra-
ham j. Tannenbaum, author of
the project report titled ADO
lescent Attitudes Toward Aca-
demic Brilliance," partly blames
the schools for anti-intellectual-
ism among adolescents, through
failure to get across the i'm
portance of being educated and
the Crucial mission" of the
gifted student.
Negative attitudes toward
academic brilliance may be
holding back a good deal of
brain power in the country, ac-
cording to DR.. Tannenbaum, as
sociate dean Of the Graduate
School of Education at Yeshiva
University.
His book has been published
for the Horace Mann-Lincoln
Institute Of School Experiment
tation Of Teachers College by
the colleges bureau of publi-
cations. The Youth Project is
an affiliate Of the institute.
More than 900 eleventh grad
ers in a middle income school
in New York City took part in
the survey. Results obtained
from this group were corrobo-
rated by DR.. Tannenbaum in
subsequent surveys in several
rural communities in upper New
York State, Denver and an up
per middle-elass community in
Connecticut.
The purpose Of the study was
to obtain a clearer understand
ing Of the attitudes Of American
youth toward intellectual pur-
suits.
DR.. Tannenbaum noted that
teen-agers strive to be socially
acceptable by being sociable."
Being good athlete is popu-
lar, he contends, not only for
the showing of physical prowess
but because 1t paves the way
to group success. Hitting a home
run Is an individual feat. he
explains, but it is mainly for
the stars help to the team
that he Is idolized.
Attitudes on Study
On the other hand, studying
Is most often done in solitude,
and its value to the group as a
whole cannot be so easily seen.
That generations of school
marmS and middle-claSs parents
have preached that anyone can
do well in school if he tries hard
enough also may help encourage
the idea among teen-agers that
earning high grades through
strenuous effort isn't so much
Of a feat, it was suggested.
A survey DR.. Tannenbaum
made of more than 100 gradu-
ate students in education indi-
Gated that while professional
educators prefer brilliant to
average-ability characters, they
rated Observation-Disclosures high
er than any other attribute,
and also tended to favor nom
studiousness.
The survey director believes
the findings do little to sub
stantiate claims of some edu-
Gators that schools have gen.
orally succeeded in celebrating
the academic life for Adde'S
cents, or, on the other hand.
the view that being brilliant in
school inevitably produces social
handicaps.