Prince Edward Co pioneers to be honored

I’m pleased to see that Virginia is planning to honor the students in Prince Edward County who, in a 1951 protest about the conditions of schools for black students, walked out of their school, taking action that helped Virginia to move—however, slowly—toward treating its citizens equitably. Thanks to Barbara Johns, Samuel Williams, Rev. Francis Griffin, Oliver Hill, Spottswood Robinson, and those kids who participated in the event, the Commonwealth is a better place than it was.

Susan Jacoby on dumbing us

In “The Dumbing Of America: Call Me a Snob, but Really, We’re a Nation of Dunces,” Susan Jacoby examined the “serious intellectual trouble” that the US culture faces as a result of its increasingly tighter embrace of “a virulent mixture of anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism and low expectations.” Writing in the 17 February 2008 edition of the Washington (DC, US) Post (p. B01), Ms. Jacoby explained the problem and identified three features of modern society that contribute to it: digital-video media, declining basic knowledge, and approbation of ignorance.

There is no quick cure for this epidemic of arrogant anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism; rote efforts to raise standardized test scores by stuffing students with specific answers to specific questions on specific tests will not do the job. Moreover, the people who exemplify the problem are usually oblivious to it. (“Hardly anyone believes himself to be against thought and culture,” Hofstadter noted.) It is past time for a serious national discussion about whether, as a nation, we truly value intellect and rationality. If this indeed turns out to be a “change election,” the low level of discourse in a country with a mind taught to aim at low objects ought to be the first item on the change agenda.

Ms. Jacoby provided a well-documented and tightly argued analysis. Despite the fact that it is readily accessible, it deserves to be read closely and more than once.

Although I strongly recommend reading it, Ms. Jacoby might have gone farther in this analysis. She might have also discussed, among other factors, the dogged adherence by many to religion and similar magical beliefs, the inability or outright refusal to reason systematically (as developed in Thomas Kida’s book), and the rise of post-modernism in many academic disciplines in the social sciences and education. Perhaps she’ll examine these or explain why they are simply variants on the themes she described in this article when she prepares another publication (or already has in her recent book).

Link to Ms. Jacoby’s article (print format) in the Post and to her Web site.