Investigates differences in the person orientation of male and female high school students that may have significant influences on their achievement strivings. Boys are particularly susceptible to anti-intellectual influences from peers. Interference of affiliative concerns with achievement behavior may not be relevant to understanding males'…

In this era of social stress, there are signs of increased pressure against public education from organizations on the political right. We are well advised to consider anew the dimensions of right-wing anti-intellectualism in our society and the role of educators in defending democratic principles. (Author/SJL)

Many outdoor adventure educators are ignorant of the relevant literature and heritage. Books and tradition have become a waste of time for those who believe all learning must pay in the fast-time global mis-economy of fragments for sale. Yet many university students relish the classics and deeper knowledge, once they are given the opportunity. (TD)

Examines literature discussing relationships among American culture, natural environment, and education. Identifies national character elements of optimism, progress, and anti-intellectualism as relating to natural-resource attitudes and policies. Suggests education should reverse or modify current prevailing American environmental attitudes. (TES)

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.…

The author reviews the changes in China's educational policy since the downfall of the "Gang of Four," emphasizing the nation's return to stricter academic standards and credentialing. (SJL)

Anti-intellectualism and negative public attitudes about the professoriate are traced to four sources: (1) unquestioned supremacy of economic over cultural capital in the United States; (2) lack of organizational vehicles for faculty to contribute to social change and public debate; (3) unfair competition from policy institutes and foundations;…

In his Pulitzer Prize winning work, "Anti-intellectualism in American Life," Richard Hofstadter set out to trace the social movements that altered the role of intellect in society from a virtue to a vice. In so doing, he explored questions regarding the purpose of education and whether the democratization of education altered that…

The distinguished Columbia University historian Richard Hofstadter possessed a scholarly imagination unusually open to fresh approaches to illuminating the past. In the seven years that separated the publications of "American Political Tradition" (1948) and "The Age of Reform" (1955), Hofstadter absorbed new intellectual…

This article discusses signs that America has adopted a negative view of gifted children, including the undermining of the Jacob Javits Act, grade inflation, and a shift in funding and legal mandates from the gifted toward students with disabilities or low achievement. Reasons for this trend and suggestions for responsive action are discussed. (PB)

Examines technology in education as social engineering that discourages intellectual development and accustoms children to accepting without question a hidden stranger's mind-altering drills. Relates this perspective to Greek philosophers Thales and Heraclitus' differing thoughts on the purpose of education: solving the universal human dilemma of…

Parents know adolescents can be cruel. They do not want their child rejected by peers. What is it like to be denigrated by one's middle school classmates? How common is a predatory anti-teacher peer culture in junior high school? Does it typically last into high school? How do peer norms of different crowds in a school get established? Who sets…

THE MAJOR THEMES THAT DESRIBED LOW-INCOME CULTURE WERE--SECURITY OVER STATUS, PRAGMATISM AND ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM, ALIENATION ATTITUDE, COOPERATION, PERSON-CENTERED ATTITUDE, PHYSICALISM, TRADITIONALISM, EXCITEMENT, NONJOINING ATTITUDE, AND STABLE, FEMALE BASED EXTENDED FAMILY. THE LEARNING STYLES OF THE LOW-INCOME GROUP WERE PHYSICAL AND VISUAL,…

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…

This paper discusses how elitism and anti-intellectualism have affected the teaching of intellectually gifted students. It examines methods of identifying the intellectually gifted child. It traces trends in education of the gifted through history and discusses the issues of equity, elitism, and anti-intellectualism which have resulted in…