Wednesday, January 18, 2006

The ignorance factor in America

When did America become an anti-intellectual country? Was it always? I cannot judge from my childhood and adolescence because I spent them in a narrow-minded community that may or may not have represented mainstream America. On the other hand, I spent my childhood and adolescence in a community where education was a priority. We had one of the country's top high schools in my city, so the other high schools were also excellent, just as a way of keeping up. I received a very good education.

Of course, it goes without saying that any society that believes that women and minorities are not entitled to equal rights with white men is not going to produce a nation of educated people because it does not want to. We have come a long way in offering equal educational rights to women (only thirty years ago, women were driven, by harrassment, out of law schools and medical schools), but we have much farther to go in providing equal educational facilities to people of color.

Nevertheless, the strong anti-intellectual streak in the United States seems to go beyond our refusal to educate everyone equally. Political candidates who are well-educated are made fun of. Institutions such as Harvard and Princeton are reviled for being "liberal," and students who pursue liberal arts degrees are looked down on as participants in pure folly, destined to live useless professional lives.

Most shocking is the number of students in our colleges and universities who not only say they have never read a book, but who boast about it. If they have never read a book, how did they get into a university? I meet adolescents--fairly bright adolescents--in my work who say they do not read at all (fortunately, I also meet many who love to read).

Appropriate grammar and syntax have almost departed the English language; even on National Public Radio, the errors are numerous. The frame of reference is a forgotten institution: People seem to me to have little sense of historical context. Every new film, every new political event, every new social trend is viewed as though it has no precedent, as though it hangs alone in the scheme of things.

Americans show continuing signs of ignorance. Ignorance about history, about their own language, about other cultures, about current events, and--most dangerous of all--ignorant about the of mechanics of logic and reasoning, and of the very process of critical thinking. It is getting harder and harder to have a discussion or debate about anything because logical fallacies have taken over almost any rhetoric about anything.

I do not think this worship of ignorance began with religion--I'm not sure how it began--but some religious groups have now exploited it. Once they got their foot in the door of the classroom, they introduced everything from abstinence programs that teach the inferiority of women to "intelligent design."

Then there is that common American response to almost eveything: "I'm too busy." Too busy to read, too busy to keep up with current events, too busy to do fact-finding, to busy to respond to art.

If this trend--contempt for reading, loss of frame of reference and context, lack of critical thinking skills--continues, we will become a nation of completely stupid people with superficial educations and a deep suspicion of anyone who loves knowledge. We are already that, to some degree. People who cannot think for themselves allow others to think for them.

9 Comments:

Before you get all down on American education (and by inference up on European) let me relate an experience a friend had. Her 10-year-old daughter entered school here, and they were told she'd be behind--"naturally". She was, in math, but in reading and creative writing she was far ahead. Children here are not taught to think for themselves, the way they are in GOOD schools in America.

An excellent teacher once told me children recieve the educations that fit their parents' economic status...blue collar kids are taught down to, while kids of professionals learn in an environment where they are allowed to make choices--which mirrors their parents' workplaces.

The problem is there are far too good schools in America, but I'd stack them against a school anywhere.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:44 AM  

Sorry, that last line came out wrong. "Far too few good schools in America."

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:45 AM  

I don't have any problem believing that, Kathy. I'm writing about America because it is my only frame of reference.

But something is terribly wrong here, in terms of the national attitude toward thinking and intellectualism. It's as if everyone wants the children to get educated, but God forbid that should teach them to think.

There is also a tremendous emphasis on making sure we have enough competent businesspeople and scientists (which is important), but the idea seems to be (or so I see it) that they can skip such things as literature, history, and critical thinking skills, and just jump directly into their scientific or business careers. The demise of the liberal arts is, as far as I'm concerned, very frightening indeed.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:50 AM  

Critical thinking, in fact, any thinking at all, is BAD in a country where fundie beliefs are valued as highly as they are here. All the Southern Baptists (as the ones I grew up among) know that if you take academics seriously enough and if the child is bright, the end result is very bad indeed. The child will leave the fold. Keeping them ignorant is the only way to keep them Southern Baptist. They push sports on the kids instead of literature.

I remember my Grandmother criticizing someone on the way home from church one day. She said he looked at the Bible from an academic point of view. She clearly, seriously disapproved of this. I was a mere child at the time, but I remember this day, this conversation, because I thought WOW, THERE'S A WAY TO STUDY THE BIBLE THAT IS ACTUALLY INTERESTING? I couldn't wait to find out what this person was doing. Eventually I did. Of course, I dumped the Southern Baptist thing while still in my teens too. They are right about that. Intelligence plus a thirst for knowledge = EVIL.

Anti-intellectualism is a necessity for the churches. It's a matter of survival. Fortunately, for them, there is a whole population out there who are in no danger of leaving the flock. Their treasured beliefs should not survive a grade school education, but they do because the adults continue to insist upon them long after the reality of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the tooth fairy have been abandoned, even when they have their own doubts. The "Am I really saved?" issue is a big problem for the smarter but still committed among church members. They get past it by systematically suppressing the workings of their own minds. Look at what they have to lose if they fail: family, community, friends, and the security of a salvation that rides on belief in what would otherwise resemble a fairy tale.

It isn't always an easy path to salvation. Bummer.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:39 AM  

I agree that some of the churches play a major role in the nurturing of ignorance, but I also believe they are not alone. There is also a secular culture of "I don't want to know," "I don't need to know," and "What good will Shakespeare do me?--I program computers."

The demise of reading, the mental laziness that keeps people away from good films, and the ever-pressing need to make more money (for both the desperate working poor and the deluded comfortable professionals)all push learning and critical thinking to the bottom of the pile.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:37 PM  

diane, you make a good point in that last comment about money. i think a big issue is that institutions of higher learning are now thought of as places to acquire the right piece of paper to get you the right high-paying job. education is merely a tool to make money.

has it always been thus? i don't know. i surely don't like to idealize the "good old days" where dead white men ruled the canon and there were "gentlemens clubs" on campus, but it also seems to me like at some point we moved away from an idea of education as a life-enriching experience, and towards it being just a means to an end.

interesting topic!

By Blogger kate.d., at 4:03 PM  

There is actually quite a debate going on in American schools (or was when I was there) on rote learning vs. learning to think. Whenever I hear the term "back to basics" I cringe. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, those schools that emphasize critical thinking are all in wealthy areas. So, rich white kids in Wisconsin are learning these skills, while in other districts kids are learning what one teacher in Fairborn Ohio told me was "the most important thing she could teach these fourth graders": how to follow directions.

Oh, don't get me started...

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:54 AM  

Broadcast media (primarily television) is the key.

Commercial broadcast media fills time, doesn't challenge thinking (because designed to be noncontroversial and gather the largest number of eyeballs), cuts down on interpersonal interactions, cuts down on reading and hobbies time.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, families used to read Shakespeare at home, attend political debates, attend lectures on various topics (sometimes in the venue of a "chautaqua", a summer vacation institute where lectures, theater, music, and outdoors activities were combined - camp for adults). Workingmen's and workingwomen's institutes had similar Saturday afternoon events, though these were not accessible to all urban/industrial workers - generally available to urban small-shop workers.

Formal education was harder to obtain, and generally people were proud of their education. Of course, elite universities had their share of slackers without clear goals other than to escape the parental eye. Women and blacks envied men for their greater educational opportunities. Blacks started their own reading circles that focused on literature and world history as well as on politics - "race improvement" was a duty. Reading and owning books was a way to indicate that you had aspirations to upward mobility. An extensive library was a proud possession displayed to visitors.

Now, the possession displayed to visitors is likely to be the home theater. And the movies run in the home theater are the usual focus-group-tested non-controversial Hollywood pap.

Books are outmoded. Upwardly mobile adults may have a few coffee table picture books, a few cookbooks, and a lot of genre schlock (a relative's complete collection of Danielle Steel comes to mind), but no moderately demanding literature or history. No wonder the children don't read.

NancyP

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:41 PM  

Very well said, Nancy.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:12 PM  

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