This is incredibly true. Scarily so.
I remember first noticing this in college. Women who were smart, capable women when we entered college, were quickly turning into air-heads. Usually the switch occurred when they procured a man.
The next time I was faced with almost militant anti-intellectualism was during my first full time teaching position. The area was poor, rural and predominantly African-American. The boys in my classes all but refused to learn. The didn't want to read, didn't want to write, didn't care if they failed the 8th grade (multiple times). I asked the principal what was wrong, and mixed in with the usual no parent involvement and reading difficulties was the fact that they want to be ganstas didn't want to "act white."
I was stunned. Intelligence is now anti-black?
This attitude, that being able to read, write grammatically correct sentences and hold an intelligent conversation is beginning to spread. I ran into it during my years as a fifth grade teacher. Students wondered why we couldn't write an essay as if we were writing a text message. They refused to look things up in a book if there was a possibility of googleing it. I wondered if the students were lazy. Now I'm not so sure.
I think that we should honor intelligence as much as we honor sports heroes.
But that won't happen. Look at the recent presidential candidates. Sarah Palin, Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann have proven that they have a complete lack of understanding of History. Rich Perry goes as far as to refuse to look at any sort of statistical analysis, well at least when it comes to sex education in Texas.
It's very frustrating, and I don't know how to stop the dumbing down of America...
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