Oct 06 2008
Is the American culture anti-intellectual?
Is this cartoon from The Augusta Chronicle right?
Is America getting stupider? Since 2002, The Bush Administration has set forth to leave no child behind by testing America’s children militantly in math and reading three to four times per year. But in that process, schools around the country have been forced to cut their budgets, strip away art, music, phys ed, and even social studies and science. Yes, according to The Center on Education Policy, schools in K-12 demographics across the nation have had to cut these subjects to focus more rigorously on reading and math skills and have increased class time spent on both by up to 44% amounting to a 32% decrease in other subjects which the CEP calculates to an average of 2.5 hours a week (Click here to read the eight-page report).
Yes, that thing called science which helped the human race learn of the atom, gravity, diseases, the speed of light; all that isn’t too important. Physical excersise: The great stuff that by which all active cerebellums live and die has been rendered obsolete. The thingamabob called social studies which allows children to learn about their histories, their communities, their governments and how they, the future adult population are to function within them doesn’t mean anything all that imperative either. Art: that phenomenon that teaches children that they, themselves can create new things with just the power of their minds… that doesn’t matter any more In a country where the Miss Teen South Carolina can refer to “The Iraq” and as few as 60% of students know where Iraq is on a map, and the president openly confesses to not reading the paper - and while the rest of the world’s citizen’s speak multiple languages and lead in scientific discovery, medicine and engineering, politicians in The States opt for “English only” and continue to confuse Sunni an Shia Muslims when referring to the ongoing Iraq war.
But is America anti-intellectual? The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines anti-intellectual as:
: opposing or hostile to intellectuals or to an intellectual view or approach
— anti–intellectual noun
— an·ti–in·tel·lec·tu·al·ism Listen to the pronunciation of anti–intellectualism \-ˈlek-chə(-wə)-ˌli-zəm, -ˈlek-shwə-\ noun
I at my blogging best can’t say for sure, but I do know a few things about my own and others’ experiences in this country. Mainly being smart is NOT considered cool in this country> Mathletes don’t get the ladies, but the Football captain does (which he won’t if phys ed gets cut). While reading might be fundamental, kids don’t do it and even sometimes my parents, as well as I, don’t have much time to either because digital cable TV, online chats and ipods have taken “Read a book.” off our lists of things to do. Yet, celebrities, shopping and sports have become like gods to Americans, as they beckon us from our television screens! Hmmm, I wonder if this is why the statistics below are what they are. Judge for yourselves.
On Science and Math:
factcheck.org
On Geography:
- Thirty-three percent of respondents couldn’t pinpoint Louisiana on a map.
- Fewer than three in 10 think it important to know the locations of countries in the news and just 14 percent believe speaking another language is a necessary skill.
- Two-thirds didn’t know that the earthquake that killed 70,000 people in October 2005 occurred in Pakistan.
- Six in 10 could not find Iraq on a map of the Middle East.
- Forty-seven percent could not find the Indian subcontinent on a map of Asia.
- Seventy-five percent were unable to locate Israel on a map of the Middle East.
- Nearly three-quarters incorrectly named English as the most widely spoken native language.
- Six in 10 did not know the border between North and South Korea is the most heavily fortified in the world.
- Thirty percent thought the most heavily fortified border was between the United States and Mexico.
Source: The Associated Press
On Reading:
56 percent of young people say they read more than 10 books a year, with middle school students reading the most. Some 70 percent of middle school students read more than 10 books a year, compared with only 49 percent of high school students.
- Reading Statistics Reference Information
National Education Association press statement, March 2, 2001
50 percent of American adults are unable to read an eighth grade level book.
- Jonathan Kozol, Illiterate America
(Click here for more information).
But we are still first in higher education!
Country Top 5 Top 10
USA 1 1
Canada 2 2
United Kingdom 3 3
Australia 4 6
Netherlands 5 5
Sweden 6 7
Switzerland 7 11
Germany 8 4
Japan 9 8
Italy 10 10
Spain 11 9
Taiwan 12 13
Denmark 13 20
Finland 14 15
Austria 15 18
China 16 14
France 17 12
Israel 18 28
Belgium 19 23
Brazil 20 16
Source: http://www.webometrics.info/
So what’s the moral of this tale? Are Americans learning anything? Are they taught to question, to wonder, to imagine? Though we know how to read, do we know how to think? Universities seem to know how. To learn more in four years than in thirteen, something must be wrong.
Wax intellectually!
Stumble It!
Yes, America is getting ’stupider’. And fatter for that matter too.
Well, it’s good to know that middle school students are reading. At least they have time! Who had the TIME in elementary, high school, or college to actually read for fun?! I read all the time for school- dozens and dozens of books. But I never had time to read anything I wanted. And I MEMORIZED a million things for a million standardized tests.
Americans are great at memorization and regurgitation- something that colleges tell you they discourage, but they really don’t. At least many colleges still let you major in the arts, even if primary and secondary schools take them away beforehand.
And now, post college, I read magazines.
Good reasons to homeschool.