Anti-Intellectualism at College Universities

Education once existed as something re totallyy(prenominal) valuable, and something that only(prenominal) the very wealthy obtained. You were considered lucky to turn in the opportunity of redeemting an cultivation, and non galore(postnominal) took it for granted. Today, nearly everybody pick ups an education of some floor, and things learn definitely changed. Students evidently get educations because they ar expected to or be ask to. As the years shake off progressed, slight and little students actu everyy enjoy their education. You get labeled by many other students as weird or a freak if you enjoy learning.These kinds of ideas have led to and continue to t curio to many lines relating to nonintellectualism. Students anti-intellectualism has been increasing through protrude the years, especially at college universities. This is a major problem because the cut d admit is spreading around that it isnt chill out to hurl frontward an effort or to enjoy your cl asses. many college professors argon very concerned that every year students have less and less motivation and are unless attending college because they want a spicy gear paying salary after college.One English professor from the East coast said most(prenominal) students nowadays are averse to learn and to conceptualize and resent being awakened from their stupor. I rush when I consider the future of this area (Trout). It scares a lot of mass that this enormous group of unmotivated students is to someday be in fool a counsel of the country. The future of Ameri roll in the hay society is at essay because of anti-intellectual ideas that are passed onto students because of the idea of wanting to be cool, students just going to college to hold up more than m superstary later, and university expectations decreasing because property has became the main priority quite a than education.Firstly, the understanding of what an intellectual is has to be clear. According to Rich ard Hofstadter, who is a very illustrious Ameri rump historian, he considers an intellectual someone who lives for ideas rather of someone who lives off-key of ideas. His in lay out is signifi sternt because anti-intellectualism is basically his thing, and he was one of the first Americans to economize about it. He goes onto say that two basic traits that intellectuals comprise of are playfulness and piety. By playfulness, he is referring to an individuals curiosity and what makes their capitulum active. Piety is similar o an individuals intensity and how fervid they are about their ideas and beliefs.All intellectuals should demonst score these two traits according to him. (Hofstadter, 259-60) use this definition, an anti-intellectual would be someone who isnt curious or serious, so at colleges that would translate to students being uninterested in their classes/education. One crucial thing to look at is what education was like in the outlying(prenominal) past. Education wa s once precious very highly and you were considered lucky to have the opportunity to get an education. Mainly, only the rich and selected children received it.It meant a pricey future, and most kids took it very seriously. In the beginning of the 19th century, a prime education was the end of schooling for the greater part of students. Towards the 1830s, there started to fetch a demand for all children to have an opportunity of having an education. The 1870s marked when the joined States had started to create education for the general existence (Bradbury, 10). Today, education is more valued as something you have to get and something that the bulk of lot obtain, at least in the United States. As you can see, the opportunities for education have greatly opened up as clip has progressed.This changing trend has caused students to affiance their educations for granted and develop a hatred towards school work. Overall, this growing trend is ca employ more and more students to par ry thinking for themselves and furthermore avoid having intellectual ideas because learning isnt cool. Moving onto modern measure, a go off taken at UCLA showed that a record high amount of high school students entering college were losing interest in their academic experiences. These same students surveyed as nearly had committed less time to their homework/studying than before and had make bored with the idea of schooling.If students arent interested in their education, hence wherefore are they going to college? College is designed to be a place to receive a post-education. There are a lot of students who attend college because their parents do them or they think you have to or for the fun. Students who go to college without a want to learn wont get anything out of it. These kinds of students have a negative impact on students who actually value their education. They spread anti-intellectual ideas to students and give them the impression that they are unusual for aking pr ide in their education and cause them to start anti-intellectual because that is clearly the cool thing to do. more and more kids than ever before are arriving at colleges (Trout). This is good in a way because it means that many more raft are getting a post-secondary education, provided not all students are at college for the right reasons. The kind of students who go to college just to party or for reasons too obtaining further education spread their anti-intellectual ideas around. Paul M. Levitt, professor at Colorado University, plainly says many college kids are a sorry lot. absent with their hair, their clothes, their cars, they have never developed a critical turn of proceed judgement and have no interest in doing so. It does not bode well for high education that many students entering college do not have anything resembling an intellectual life (Trout). Students who dont want a higher education shouldnt go forth and attempt to get one if they arent serious about it. C ollege should be a place that welcomes intellectuals and people who want to think for themselves rather than a place where you have to set to thinking negatively about your classes.What is to become of our country if our generation all conforms to the same ideas? Professor of English at the University of Virginia, Mark Edmundson, suggests that students try very hard to fit in and not stand apart from others. He further goes onto say that for some reason showing your emotions, doing something diametric, or doing anything unlike than the norm will cause you to be disliked (Edmundson, 290). Obviously this is a problem because students have a desire to be cool by being like everyone else.Less and less students want to be different because they dont want others to look down on them for not being like them. The idea of wanting to be cool has caused less intellectual ideas in a place where they should be booming. Another maturation problem with anti-intellectualism at college universiti es is that kids are going to college solely so that they can make more money after college. Students think just because the majority of students go onto college that they should as well, which makes them anti-intellectual for just following others instead of doing what they cute to do.About sixty ercent of high school graduates are estimated to go onto college or some form of higher education (Trout). A lot of times students may not rase want to go to college, exclusively they find oneself like if you dont go to college, you are at a disadvantage. This is partially true because a lot of occupations that a degree is required for offer more money, but a lot of people end up going to college and end up not even using their degree because they find another job they enjoy more. Some people end up getting jobs that make a lot of money anyways though and hate their jobs, so that is hardly an advantage.Not everyone is meant to go to college, but for some reason the idea that you have to go to college to be sure-fire has been portrayed. Also, President Obama has announced that he thinks every American should have at least one year of higher education, but on the contrary, high education experts agree that not everybody succeeds at college or dies there (Olson). The hot seat shouldnt be saying things like this because it puts pressure on students to palpate like they have to attend college.This has caused more anti-intellectuals who dont belong at college to go and influence others. The next huge contributing cypher to anti-intellectualism developing at universities is the universities themselves. Because of the growing amount of students bringing anti-intellectual ideas to the classrooms, universities have responded by lowering their standards. The reason for this is simply the more students the more money (Trout). Administrators have besides been starting to create more interesting classes because of students neutrality in other courses (Bradbury, 14).The a dministrators are starting to create things to attract anti-intellectuals and are serving them instead of the intellectuals. College universities have become more interested in the money that the individuals bring rather than the individuals educations. Universities are setting up their campuses to be ideal for anti-intellectuals to succeed at. The fact that colleges are conforming to how the students act is a serious problem, and it concerns many experts about what is to happen in our countries future.Colleges have also started introducing a grade inflation to make it easier for students (Trout). College faculties are to blame broadly speaking for that. The most likely reason for grade inflations would be because it keeps more students on campus. Students are earning higher grades for less work, which isnt how it should be at all. strike off inflation and money are not related at all, so they shouldnt have effects on each other. If this trend continues, the purpose of a college degree is going to be lost because a college degree will become essentially something you can just buy.Something else that should be very alarming to intellectuals is that studies show many teachers are either anti-intellectualist to begin with or their career turns them into one. Studies have proved that the majority of teachers do not even read very much, and if they do it is normally not scholarly. Reading is something that makes individuals think and come up with intellectual ideas and teachers are starting to turn toward students habits of not reading. Further studies show that teachers who start their careers as intellectuals lose their passion oer the years.These teachers either find a new job to avoid seemly an anti-intellectual or they continue teaching in a way that is unbeneficial to intellectuals. Also, many teachers do not encourage intellectualism because it teaches their students to question ideas and think things out thoroughly. Teachers see this as a threat to them selves if students start questioning them on their ideas. (Bradbury) If there arent any teachers to promote intellectualism, then more and more intellectuals will disappear. College universities are to blame the most for anti-intellectualism growing at their campuses.I say this because they are the ones that are encouraging the conditions by dumbing down their universities for the interest group of money. Also, if they kept their standards high, that would mean less anti-intellectuals overall. College should be a place for intellectuals to strive, but universities have made it a place where people who hate it can succeed just the same. Universities ultimately can control their campus and who they let in and as of now, many universities are letting in about anybody who has a high school diploma and money.One of the first reforms that needs to be made at college universities is eliminating student evaluation of teachers. This whole concept of having the students appreciate a teacher s ability is absurd. Seeing as how students like a shot want a minimum amount of work, they will simply rate teachers who make it easy for them as excellent teachers. In reality, those teachers arent component the students and rather are just obliging to what students want. The teacher then who gives students a lot of work and challenges them gets a worse rating from students.If universities are so interested in how the teacher is doing, I see no problem in the heads of departments just observing the class. They can make their own judging based off what they saw, and it would most likely take less time than it takes to review all of the student evaluations. Student evaluations end up promoting anti-intellectualism more than it promotes good teaching methods. An alternative opinion to this would be that students are to put at blame because they are after all responsible for their own education.This is a valid argument because nobody can force a student to be an intellectual/anti-i ntellectual. The student is partially at shift key if they attend a college for post education and then dont even attempt to learn further. The flaw in this opinion is that most students coming into college are around the age of eighteen, so influences and their environment greatly affect them. If students show up to college, and the standards are set high and everybody knows that, then they are probably most likely going to try to put forth the same effort as everyone else.However, if they come to college, and they see students partying all the time because standards are set low, then that makes them want to put forth the marginal effort to get by. Putting forth a minimal effort and not living for anything would be an anti-intellectual lifestyle, which is the environment of many colleges. If our country continues along this path of intellectuals dominating, there will be many effects considering what has already happened over the last few decades.In 2002, it was put down that s ixty seven percent of college graduates read books for pleasure, while in 1982 it was cardinal two percent. The decline of reading books is related closely to the incline of photograph games and the internet. The overall effects of anti-intellectualism are affecting more than just college students. Our country has changed a lot in a short period of time. From 1968 to 2000 the sound bites for presidential candidates has been dramatically reduced from 42. 3 seconds down to 7. 8 seconds. The public overall has lost a desire in obtaining knowledge.An example of this would be that twenty percent of Americans believe the Sun revolves around the Earth. (Jacoby) As you can see, our country has a dangerous future if these kinds of standards continue to be acceptable. In summary, the number of anti-intellectual students at colleges has been increasing from year to year. Students need to quit conforming to the ways of other students because they think not caring is the cool thing to do, and more importantly, the colleges need to accept the right kind of students instead of just anyone who has the money for it.The future of American society is at risk because of anti-intellectual ideas that are passed onto students because of the idea of wanting to be cool, students just going to college to make more money later, and university expectations decreasing because money has become the top priority rather than education, and ultimately the universities are required to integrate intellectual ideas and challenges into their classrooms if anything is to change. If anti-intellectual ideas are continued to be brought to college by students and promote by universities, our country has a frightening future.