on the subject of american public schools

[rone]

<dem-> eh, what they teach hardly matters.  american culture glorifies stupidity and ignorance
<ronebofh> and i wish i knew why.
<venividi> it's what you get when you cross egalitarianism with mediocrity

Comments

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I'd be hard pressed to say it's gotten worse for me; 25 years ago I was getting punched in the gut fairly regularly for being a weird intellectual nerd, and nobody's punched me in the gut for a long time. But that's mostly because I'm out of junior high school. Stage-of-life effects count for a lot.

[johnstonmr]

Oh, I should have been more clear; I didn't mean it's gotten worse for me in general; like you, I'm long out of jr. high. That said, however, I've received odd looks on the bus or train while reading. On one occasion, I was verbally snarked at, with much "What a fuckin' idiot" commentary, because the book happened to be titled The Neutronium Alchemist.

On the whole, though, I think the anti-intelligence crusade has been picking up steam in America in the last twenty years.