# Psychology: Rabid anti-literacy **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 3, 2016, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-rabid-anti-literacy/764925 "2016-09-03T19:44:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-rabid-anti-literacy/764925/41 "2016-09-05T01:32:50Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Actually, it sounds like a **Bonanza** episode I remember seeing. Hoss was instrumental in mentoring the kid, who supposedly went on to make the first attempts to measure the speed of light. > > Dad got won over as a farmer when he was shown how ‘scientific farming’ could improve his crops and keep his fields from playing out and forcing him to move yet again. I remember it as being Little Joe, who, forgetting that an illiterate man might take the word “fight” literally, had his debate challenge accepted as an offer to scuffle, and got his ass handed to him. The fact that LJ showed up and took his ass-kicking like a man served to open the guy’s eyes to a new perspective. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-rabid-anti-literacy/764925/42 "2016-09-05T01:43:21Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I remember it as being Little Joe, who, forgetting that an illiterate man might take the word “fight” literally, had his debate challenge accepted as an offer to scuffle, and got his ass handed to him. > > The fact that LJ showed up and took his ass-kicking like a man served to open the guy’s eyes to a new perspective. You may be right. And now ISTR cameo appearances by Grover Cleveland and Mick Jagger, along with the Ponderosa ranch having wooly mammoths among its livestock. So perhaps we should no longer rely on my recollection so much anymore. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-rabid-anti-literacy/764925/43 "2016-09-05T01:54:59Z")
Actually, I have a real world example. My husband’s sister’s ex, who I never met, was apparently concerned that she spent too much time reading aloud to their son when he was a toddler, because it would “make him gay.” FTR, he is 24, not gay, and has a college degree, only the second in the family after my husband. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-rabid-anti-literacy/764925/44 "2016-09-05T02:47:54Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Wonder how Socrates, or the father from the OP, would like smartphones? I’m sure he’d have the exact same reaction as a fifty-year-old White male from the suburbs of the American Midwest, I’ll tell you that much, and validate every single one of that person’s opinions with an unimpeachable authority. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-rabid-anti-literacy/764925/45 "2016-09-05T20:58:51Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > You may be right. > > And now ISTR cameo appearances by Grover Cleveland and Mick Jagger, along with the Ponderosa ranch having wooly mammoths among its livestock. > > … Damn, I’ve searched Hulu high and low and I can’t locate that episode. It’d be epic though. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-rabid-anti-literacy/764925/46 "2016-09-05T21:41:35Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I graduated HS in 1976. And got my BS from a major university in the then-new field of Computer Science in 1979. > > My Dad was less-than-thrilled with my choice of majors, despite the computer tech explosion going on at the time. He was totally insistent that I and my siblings graduate from college. He just couldn’t get behind CS as a major. I got a degree in CS in 1973. While my father wasn’t opposed, he told me I should take some business classes just in case. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-rabid-anti-literacy/764925/47 "2016-09-05T21:44:39Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > TV scripts of the 1950s were often injected with heavy doses of metaphor, which are pretty much meaningless to us today.\* A father who didn’t want his son to read could have meant white Southerners who didn’t want black people advancing, or parents who thought their daughters shouldn’t go to college. Or maybe the struggle between the father and the schoolteacher was supposed to represent something, and the fight over reading was just an issue invented to generate a conflict. Have Gun Will Travel had an episode where a schoolteacher was being attacked for teaching an inconvenient, though correct piece of history. So I bet you are right. Westerns could address controversial topics in the same way as SF. Whatever show this was, it reminds me of Fahrenheit 451 in message. ---
**Author:** ![svd678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@svd678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svd678)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-rabid-anti-literacy/764925/48 "2016-09-07T19:16:49Z")
A friend with a graduate degree, told of his parents who would tell him in HS to get his homework done; his friends’ parents, in a working class neighborhood, would scold their kids for sitting around doing nothing - go get a job! ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Krupe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@Leo\_Krupe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Krupe)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-rabid-anti-literacy/764925/49 "2016-09-07T19:39:24Z")
I thought it was Bonanza. Is [this](https://sengulkupeli.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/bonanza-pride-of-a-man/) your card? > [@](#): > > During one of the episodes, entitled “Pride of a Man”, Little Joe (the youngest son of Cartwright family) temporarily works as a substitute teacher. However, two teenage boys in his class, who exhibit conduct problems, challenge Joe’s teaching skills. Soon after, Joe realises that the actual source of these problems is the boys’ father, William McNabb. > Little Joe teaching to McNabb Boys > > Despite being an illiterate hog farmer, McNabb holds highly positive view of himself—due to the inevitable operation of the self-enhancement motive (Sedikides & Gregg, 2008). Moreover, McNabb believes that his sons should follow his footsteps—leave school and become illiterate hog farmers too. His very high self-esteem (narcissism?) is nonetheless insecure. He represses his feelings of shame, experiencing hubristic pride (Brown & Marshall, 2001; Lewis, 2000;Tracy & Robins, 2003). Unlike authentic pride, which facilitates positive psychological outcomes, hubristic pride facilities maladaptive behaviours. It is associated with anti-social behaviours (e.g., aggression and hostility), conflict in relationships, and interpersonal problems (Bushman & Baumeister, 1998; Campbell, 1999; Kernberg, 1975; Kohut, 1976; Morf & Rhodewalt, 2001; Paulhus, Robins, Trzesniewski, & Tracy, 2004). > McNabb experiencing hubristic pride > > Unfortunately, McNabb experiences most of these negative outcomes. He fights with Joe, and argues with his sons, attempting to prevent them to attending the school. Eventually, however, McNabb realises—with Joe’s help—that his sons’ education is more important than his own self-enhancement. The episode ends with a scene where Little Joe rides back to Ponderosa, full of authentic pride… ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-rabid-anti-literacy/764925/50 "2016-09-07T19:56:46Z")
That sounds very similar, but it doesn’t mention the father being physically abusive, and my hazy recollections include just one son, who didn’t have behavioral issues. There was a very specific scene where the main adult character happens to walk in on the boy as he’s putting on his shirt, and sees the boy’s back covered in welts from a whipping. And the actual teaching wasn’t taking place in school — the father wouldn’t allow the son to attend. Rather, the boy and the teacher were meeting secretly for lessons. Arg, trying to accurately recall something I saw 30+ years ago is frustrating. Did I actually see what I “remember”, or has time embellished the memory? ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-rabid-anti-literacy/764925/51 "2016-09-07T20:32:22Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > You and your wikipedia cites are wrong. Are there some deaf adults who are down on cochlear implants? Yeah, there are a few, and especially so 20 years ago when they were brand new. Note your last cite was from 1995. 20 years ago this was absolutely experimental surgery on the brains of little kids. That’s scary. > > Why would someone believe that deafness isn’t a condition that needs to be fixed? That’s because in actual fact in most cases it can’t be fixed, if by fixed you mean “Give a person normal hearing”. > > The problem here is that the vast majority of deaf kids have hearing parents who don’t know anything about deafness. And so of course they want to fix their deaf child, and a cochlear implant looks like the solution. No more deafness! But of course it usually doesn’t work that way. Your child is still deaf. And you aren’t interested in hearing the perspective of deaf adults, because what would they know about deafness? > > A few people 20 years ago who were extremely skeptical about cochlear implants is completely different than what we’re talking about. Here’s an article in the Atlantic from 2013 on the same topic. Is it inaccurate? > **[Understanding Deafness: Not Everyone Wants to Be 'Fixed'](https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/08/understanding-deafness-not-everyone-wants-to-be-fixed/278527/)** > > Hearing people often assume that Deaf people would naturally want to take advantage of any method that could lead them to the hearing world. In reality, that assumption is far from true. > [@](#): > > The controversy is sometimes difficult for hearing people to understand. Hearing people often assume that Deaf people would naturally want to take advantage of any method that could lead them to become part of the hearing world — especially cochlear implants, the most advanced hearing technology we have. In reality, that assumption is far from true. To members of Deaf culture, American Sign Language is a cultural cornerstone. Because Deaf children who receive cochlear implants at a young age will likely be educated in the oralist method, they are less likely to learn ASL during their early years, which are the most critical years of language acquisition. For some Deaf parents, that would result in a child who speaks a different language than they do. Understandably, some see this as a loss of culture- one that, in some cases, has been passed down through generations. What may seem to a hearing person like an opportunity may be seen by some Deaf people as a loss. > > The debate stems from a fundamental disagreement: one group sees deafness as a disability, and the other group sees it as a culture. The trouble is that the former group holds a disproportionate amount of power, and the latter group are the ones affected. > > Jeff DuPree volunteers with Audism Free America, and is a proud sixth-generation Deaf person. I spoke with him through an interpreter at the symposium. Jeff told me, “My whole life I’ve lived as a Deaf person. I married a Deaf person, I’ve worked and associated with Deaf people, and I’ve had no problem in this world. So why are organizations like this trying to take away my right to live the way I want to live, my right to raise my children the way I feel they should be raised?” ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-rabid-anti-literacy/764925/52 "2016-09-07T20:39:02Z")
I was going to suggest \*The Rifleman \*as well, but I think this trope appears in quite a few Western T.V. show episodes. > [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > Actually, it sounds like a Bonanza episode I remember seeing. Hoss was instrumental in mentoring the kid, who supposedly went on to make the first attempts to measure the speed of light. [Albert A. Michelson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_A._Michelson), the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. He grew up in Virginia City, where _Bonanza_ is set. Early episodes of Bonanza often incorporated real historical people who lived in or visited Virginia City, like Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and Lillie Langtry. Of course the whole story about his father and the illiteracy was completely fictional. Michelson’s family were Jews from Poland and his father was a merchant. I remember looking Michelson up years ago after I saw the episode, and being disappointed that the backstory wasn’t based on fact. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-rabid-anti-literacy/764925.md?page=2)