In this article, William Ayers constructs his Phil Smith Lecture as a call to action. Grounded in democratic principles of equality and social justice, the author invokes a liberal conception of human worth and the universal right to educational opportunity. The author critiques the passivity of the American polity in the face of Barack Obama's…

This paper discusses anti-intellectualism in the United States from a rural viewpoint, defines "ideology," and questions whether the psychology of gifted education is an ideology. Fear and loathing of intellectuals are identified with the working class, a view that distorts the role of intellectuals. A rural view of anti-intellectualism…

The great challenge for rural education scholars is explaining what relevance the rural circumstance might have to schooling, a task especially difficult in the case of mathematics education. This paper argues that the rural lifeworld makes math education rural and suggests implications for research based on that statement. The lifeworld is the…

An analysis of John Dewey's writing for liberal journals reveals Dewey's early and forceful efforts to refute anti-intellectual perversions of his theories. During the 1920's, the child-centered branch of the progressive education movement included some schools and individuals that expressed anti-intellectual positions. Richard Hofstadter in his…

This speech is about respect for small things and suggests that schooling could benefit from the care and attention enabled by a smaller scale. Among the points made are that, yes, all children can learn, but that is no big deal. Schooling should contribute to their education, but schooling is far from being identical with education. Learning…

There is no need to create a new curriculum in heritage education. Rather, there is an imperative to use the existing curriculum more effectively, to infuse it with the best content on U.S. history and culture, including models of the built environment that embody and reflect the values, aspirations, and achievements of preceding generations.…

Two concepts have been confused: equality of opportunity and equality of ability, which has led us to link intellectual giftedness with elitism. This linkage undercuts the ability to nurture and benefit from the gifts of the gifted, an important issue in rural places experiencing either withering economies and loss of population or an influx of…

Presents a humorous speech given to high school English teachers on two serious subjects: externally imposed standards and standardized testing, and anti-intellectualism in the classroom and in the culture. Argues that English teachers themselves are responsible for some of the anti-intellectualism they encounter by teaching literature in an…