Unfortunately, though, American attitudes about education, school, and anything that remotely smacks of intellectual development have always been ambiguous at best, to say the least. There is a somewhat perverse anti-intellectual streak in the American psyche, and it's perhaps more evident when we look at who we consider "role models" or who the more popular students are. When we live in a society where a girl like Miley Cyrus is making millions at age 15 (just as Britney Spears was several years back) and that most students would rather be dating the athletes and cheerleaders but not the "bookworms" or "nerds," what does that say about us as a whole?