In the past few months I have noticed an increasing number of stories about school children who report that displaying their knowledge brings the wrath of their peers on them. Children who enjoy playing chess or taking part in math or science activities outside school, quickly learn to keep quiet about them in school. Even worse, children who know the answers to a teacher’s question are harassed if they answer, or worse still, show any enthusiasm for the lesson. The worst kind of peer pressure seems to have risen to the surface so those who are least interested in education are imposing their values on everyone else. Gaining or displaying knowledge is now apparently something to hide.
My attention was drawn to this situation again when I came across this article by Jeremy Clarkson in the London Times. In it he laments that intellectual comedy, based on an assumption that the audience will understand the references, has given way to the lowest common denominator – generally bodily functions – and that anyone who aspires to be a comedian has to bow to this pressure. While I enjoy a good laugh about body noises, I wouldn’t want a constant diet of it, which may explain why I don’t watch much mainstream television. Unfashionable or not, I enjoy learning about new ideas and possibilities . . .
While you may not mind that comedy has become more accessible, the cultural trend behind this move does worry me. When I went to school there were definitely students who had little interest in being there. The town had several factories where 16 year olds could be sure of getting work, and academic qualifications were unnecessary. This was essentially a class difference, and the school quietly subdivided us into those who wanted to study and get into higher level jobs or university, and those who would be leaving at the earliest opportunity and so simply marked time at school. We all co-existed as we knew implicitly who was in each group, and other than the occasional Romeo and Juliet-esque romances, the two groups only met for sports or school-wide events.
As with most of the changes I’ve witnessed over the years, I suspect that this anti-intellectual trend is almost certainly a continuation of the response to the centuries when learning and knowledge were exclusively the domain of the wealthy and the clergy. We tend to be scornful of what we can’t have so we feel better about our ourselves, and see this current attitude as a development of this long-festering mindset. In Victorian times education became more widely available and less exclusive, but ironically, while it has helped many of us, it seems to have inadvertently devalued knowledge.
I hope I live long enough to see the tide turn again, so that education returns to being something to be desired – and something we can once again enjoy without fear.
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I share your dream of a world where knowledge is valued. There are small, good signs, such as the recent trend in TV dramas towards “geeky” protagonists – CSI, Bones, Criminal Minds, to name a few.
The only thing that will mend the rift between those interested in learning and those not interested is tolerance of difference. This seems to be what you had in your high school, how lucky you were. Some kids will not accept the smarter ones (there, I used the word) because they cannot understand them, some because the teachers like them, just as some brighter kids will scorn those who are not so clever in class.
If we can teach our kids to tolerate difference, not only of race and sexual orientation, but of ability and interest, then we’ll all be happier.
I share your concern. Unfortunately, many in our culture have confused equality of opportunity with equality of outcomes. We all have different skills and abilities. While we can provide equality of opportunity, the only way to provide equality of outcomes is to have that outcome be the lowest common denominator–the ‘dumbing down’ of our society, if you will. Even our current political climate is attacking individual accomplishments in the private sector. The underlying message is scary.
Unfortunately, it’s not just the schools, it’s also the result of dumbing down over the last several decades. We retired to a rural area about 15 years ago; maintaining our network of family and friends and enjoying the slower pace. But, early retirement wore off and we looked for meaningful ways to help – as in joining local organizations such as friends of the library, the clinic, historical commission, and economic development committees. When we were assigned jobs, we did the research or work, and went to the next meeting prepared, or so we thought. The work wasn’t well received, so in our ignorance, we doubled our efforts (which I would later learn, doubled the discontent). Mind you, we weren’t trying to take over or change anything, just to help with what the locals said they wanted within the civic groups they had formed. It should have been a clue when the President of the Bank lost his school board position to a highschool drop-out. Eventually, a County Commissioner, in Court, pointed out the error in my ways. He stopped me about three sentences into a short (requested) presentation on the all-volunteer built County website. “Ms.G,” he said, “everytime you come in here you make us all look stupid.” I have since thought of what I might have said, but at the time I was speechless. He, unfortunately, was right. Every time we went to a meeting prepared, our efforts were scorned. Obviously, it made those who failed to perform as agreed feel bad. By some convoluted reasoning, what I took to be acting responsibly was not only unappreciated, it was seen as my trying to make them look bad because they didn’t perform. Needless to say, there were (are) lots of meetings but no progress. There has been a population loss of about 25%; and maybe 10% of our currently elected officials have any higher education. I don’t think anyone on the school board has a degree. We definitely live in interesting times and I’m beginning to understand why that was a curse.
Looking back down memory lane, when I was in Jr. High and High School in NY in the mid to late fifties, my friends and I were rather competitive about grades. We admitted we did well with quiet pride, when asked, and felt ashamed when the test scores were less than stellar. We did our homework without being hounded because we knew what was expected of us. Doing poorly in school was simply unacceptable. We were collegebound. We didn’t necessarily have parents who were professionals. There were others in the school who either chose, or were directed, into vocational/commercial courses. This was at times because the families couldn’t possibly support a college student, and the grades didn’t quite reach scholarship level. Other times it was simply a lack of interest in anything academic. These two groups, while not hostile, just didn’t mix.
Some families, lacking a history of academic achievement for whatever reasons, don’t even register higher education on their radar screens, seeing it as unmanly, unnecessary, and an attempt on the part of an academic achiever to distance himself from his family. This is a pretty dysfunctional state of affairs, leading to a total waste of perfectly good minds. I haven’t done a study, but there must be a lot of it around, as many books have been written on the subject, Neil Postman and John McWorter being two that come to mind.
You’re right that knowledge, per se, has been devalued so that for many a college education is persued only in order to gain higher earning power, but certainly not for the purpose of becoming an educated person, of leading a life of the mind. As has been stated many times before, “If you want to know where you’re going, you need to know where you’ve been.” We’ve now reached a stage in our development so that we cannot sit back and let a few make decisions for the many. The survival of humanity, of the earth itself, depends on clear-headed, mature, knowledgeable policy-making. Reality TV is not going to save us. We need better education for better educated citizens, and I, too, hope to live long enough to see the tide turn again so that knowledge becomes an entity to be respected, not by the few, but by the many.
This trend played out in my own family. I am from a lower middle class family and found that I had to hide my intellectual curiousity so as not to be ridiculed. It’s very difficult when you want more for yourself, and have no support at home. When you go to school, and find the same disvalue of education from most around you, it takes a very strong stubborn person to not succume to just settling. I lived at the library as a child, and my nose was constatly in a book. I read “deep” stuff as my mom would put it, and even though they were proud that I did go to college, it wasn’t a priority to them. I homeschooled both of my children through highschool. They both have gone on to college, and are proponents for higher learning. We turn the tide one person at a time starting with ourselves.
It is scary that we have widely listened to radio and TV programs, that promote the dumbing of America, by telling folks that it’s elitist to be well educated and hold public office – that an education means one can’t connect with folks. Glen Beck often speaks of this and years ago Rush L did the same. These guys say whatever will garner ratings, rile folks up, and help them make a buck. As I recall neither one completed college. Before folks get all riled up and decide I’m being elitist for bringing this up – you don’t have to have a college education to be intelligent or have ability - but I want those who lead my country to be intelligent, well educated and skilled - the world is far to complicated not to have leaders with common sense and good educational credentials. So I’m not saying an education is all that’s needed but it is a must – and having one isn’t a strike against a person. If we want to compete in a global economy we can’t have world leaders that don’t know geography.