Student Anti-Intellectualism
Student Anti-Intellectualism and the Dumbing Down of the University
Paul Trout
English
Montana State University-Bozeman
"'Why are colleges trying to force this stuff down our throats and trying to make us think when our minds and opinions are already formed?'" (Sacks 79).
A T-shirt sold at Duke University proudly announces, "You can lead me to college, but you can't make me think" (Bauer 13).
A student website offering term papers for sale is named "schoolsucks".
When the professor at an optional help session asked, "Now, how would we do that?" a student at the back yelled out, "'Who gives a shit!'" (Bauer 9).
"But when I looked at Justin, all I saw was blankness. I must have looked at him for several seconds, searching for an expression, a smile, a sign, a movement of his eyebrows, something to indicate that, Yea, that's good stuff and I'm glad this teacher turned me on to it. But I saw nothing. Justin's eyes met mine, and in those eyes I saw boredom and contempt. Those eyes said, 'you don't amuse me with your brand of so-called good writing. There's nothing you can do or say to impress me'" (Sacks 42).
Student Anti-Intellectualism
For well over a decade, college instructors have been complaining about students who are not only apathetic and unmotivated but who belittle and resist efforts to educate them.
Students demonstrate this anti-intellectual mindset in a number of ways: by not reading the assigned works; by not contributing to class discussions; by complaining about course workloads and lobbying for fewer assignments; by skipping class; by giving low evaluations to instructors with high standards or tough requirements; by neglecting to prepare for class and tests and not bothering to do extra-credit work or take make-up exams; by not consulting material placed on reserve or picking up class handouts; by refusing to learn any more than is necessary to get a good grade; by boasting about how little time is spent studying; by ridiculing high achievers; by being impatient with deliberative analysis; by condemning intellectual endeavors as "boring"; by resenting academic requirements as an intrusion on free time, etc., etc., etc.
These anti-intellectual behaviors and attitudes are now so rife on college campuses that motivated and engaged students are being squelched by them. "Try bringing up a book you've read, or a great lecture you've just heard in class and other students will tell you, 'keep it in class. My brain meter's not running now'" (Willimon 29). A sophomore at Duke University complains, "If you try to discuss something that happened in class, or something from your reading for class, they'll ridicule you. People want to be able to turn off the academic switch the minute they get out of class" (Willimon 30). A student told me that she went to a counsellor to find out what was wrong with her because she liked her classes. The pressure is on to display a contemptuous or derisive attitude towards all the grown-up garbage that makes up higher education (Sacks 149).