Anti-Intellectualism in the Classroom

In a new Brookings Essay, Politico editor Susan Glasser chronicles how political reporting has changed over the course of her career and reflects on the state of independent journalism after the 2016 election.

Ben Carson’s rise to the top of the Republican presidential field shows that many Republicans, especially Christian fundamentalists, have decoupled from the real world — and are proud of it. The more that GOP candidates embrace “anti-knowledge” the more popular they become, as Mike Lofgren explains.

An interview is presented with political scientist Elvin T. Lim discussing the rise of anti-intellectualism within the rhetoric of U.S. politics in the 21st century. Questions include the persuasive advantage of appearing simple while enacting a complex strategy, the role of marketable speech-writing in the decline, and the application of such concepts to the candidates of the 2008 presidential election.

He loves the poorly educated, and he attended the best schools.

The Oval Office is up for grabs between Clinton and Trump, and I can’t remember the last time that I, living in a capitalist society, as a consumer, somehow ran out of options. If I can get my beer non-alcoholic and my ice cream fat-free, surely I can get my presidential candidate ...

Days after Republicans in the US Congress agreed to raise the nation's debt ceiling in exchange for huge cuts to the federal budget only hours before the moment when, economists had predicted, the world's superpower would go into default, Maher asked his guest why politicians and the public had been so quick to dismiss the warnings of such well-educated experts. Like the scientists who have over decades built a huge body of evidence and a consensus about global warming but find their work still rejected as fiction, economists all along the political spectrum had warned in vain that failing to raise the debt ceiling would harm the nation's credit rating. Yet when US presidential candidates make egregious errors of historical fact (in addition to guaranteeing that the debt-limit debate would not damage the nation's credit rating, Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann erroneously said that the country's founding fathers opposed slavery, and was wrong about the town where the American Revolution began; while Tea Party favourite Sarah Palin, who recently declared that she would not seek the Republican nomination, said American patriot Paul Revere rode through the countryside at the beginning of that war to warn the British - not, as was actually the case, his fellow colonial rebels - to arm themselves), their supporters respond by trying to change Wikipedia entries to make the candidates appear correct.

Truth has been relegated to a secondary position in the nation’s public schools, universities, political forums, and public squares.

Americans pride themselves on their high ideals. On national holidays Americans delight in quoting phrases like “all men are created equal” and “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The ideologies of freedom of religion, democratic government, and socio-economic mobility are ingrained in American children beginning in pre-K educational settings. While these ideologies are admired from a distance, real progress in reaching these goals is undercut by a growing national trend: anti-intellectualism.

The article reports on how higher education became the determining factor in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Topics discussed include the populist message effectively promoted by Republican candidate Donald Trump to voters with no college degrees and the public resentment toward the elitism and insularity that higher education is often thought to represent. The disparity between economically depressed areas and the relative prosperity of public universities is mentioned.

The author discusses the spirit of anti-intellectualism as presented in historian Richard Hofstandter's book "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life." The author examines the changing public sentiment towards intellectuals. The author responds to two arguments regarding liberal education and developing knowledge of history and critical thinking among students. He asserts that liberal education is essential for enriching the individual experience.

Deals with an argument raised by the book `Anti-Intellectualism in American Life,' by Richard Hofstadter. How the subject of anti-intellectualism is reflected in the November 2000 United States presidential election; Highlights of the book; Impact of the argument on the nation's popular culture; Changes brought by the emergence of television on anti-intellectualism.

I hope that students leave my classroom
with a sense of awe and wonder about
what science can and is trying to explain, predict, and understand.

Standard media coverage of higher education hasn't changed that much since the 1940s, and it doesn't serve the core functions of higher education well. US news media could not maintain their anti-intellectualism without widespread public acceptance, but schools of journalism must accept their share of the blame. The author contends that US colleges and universities, including their journalism schools, need to improve their products: their curricula and their graduates.

The BBC’s Sherlock – along with most contemporary adaptations – seems to indicate that the values of the intellect are not those of society.

In New England, they outnumber conservatives 28 to 1. Why that’s bad for everyone.

Regardless, saying that Gelernter is “fiercely anti-intellectual” is a bit like saying Tiger Woods is fiercely anti-golf. So what on earth could the Washington Post mean with that headline?

Over the last year and a half, the Stanford History Education Group has prototyped, field-tested, and validated a bank of assessments that tap civic online reasoning—the ability to judge the credibility of information that foods young people’s smartphones, tablets, and computers.

This paper presents findings about the challenges today’s college freshmen face, and the information-seeking strategies they develop, use, and adapt as they make the transition from high school to college and begin to complete college-level research assignments.

Stanford researchers assessed students from middle school to college and found they struggled to distinguish ads from articles, neutral sources from biased ones and fake accounts from real ones.

Help awaken your students to these new practices of digital deception, and help them face them effectively. They need this knowledge.