The forces of anti-intellectualism in American life, as described by Richard Hofstadter, have been especially prominent in the battle against the teaching of evolution. Glenn Branch discusses the different aspects of anti-intellectualism that are at the root of objections to evolution and explains how creation science, which had a transparently…

Some Americans have always wanted their schools to provide a liberal education, giving students opportunities to read great books, study the academic disciplines, and expand their minds. But many others, perhaps most of us, have looked for ways to avoid the slow, hard work of academic learning. As the historian Robert Hampel explains, we tend to…

Books are often the targets of anti-intellectual censorship efforts in schools for two reasons. First, they are integral to the process and practice of reading, which is how people encounter new ideas. Second, the coercive nature of curriculum means that students must read books with controversial ideas. Emily Knox argues that the people who…

It is a strange and sobering experience to read Hofstadter in our own anti-intellectual era. If anything, left-leaning intellectuals' sense of alienation has increased since the 1990s. To challenge anti-intellectualism in American education, the liberal arts and sciences will need to be restored to their central place in the curriculum.

The evangelical tone and history of American culture has long been identified as a force for anti-intellectualism. The metaphors of educational reform are a demonstration of how this plays out. The very nature of the positivist social science research used to support proposed reform is anti-intellectual and feeds a debate that favors extremes over…

Educators must abandon the notion that intellectual excellence is somehow undemocratic and runs counter to practicality, emotion, and character development. Respecting intellectual differences does not require classifying students in stultifying categories or demeaning them with inappropriate judgments. Educational progress varies from child to…

The two biggest educational issues facing China are critical and related--how to provide for equality of educational opportunity and how to maintain an intellectual community that is both "red" and expert. (Author/IRT)

A jaded education professor deplores the endless memorization, mindless assignments, and incessant testing going on in high school classrooms, to the exclusion of intellectually and aesthetically challenging pursuits. He refuses to devise another strategic plan, restructuring, or curriculum standard. Schools must strive to enculturate youngsters…

School reformers have not been too radical, but have been unable to sustain their reforming energy and innovative thinking. Reformers are not "tinkering toward Utopia," but are relapsing into habit, meandering back into mediocrity. A remarkably coherent tradition of rethinking schooling is yielding to the forces of inertia,…