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June 09, 2006
Bad generalizations about education
I ran across this quote and found it a little disturbing:
"I've gotten the distinct feeling that Republicans are actually hostile to academic achievement--since they think that higher education itself is biased against them."
Let's pick that apart a bit. I wholly acknowledge that there is a certain, rather large class of persons who, whether it's due to intellectual jealousy or faith-fact conflicts, begrudge and bemoan all things academic. They are adherents to the old saw "those that can't do, teach" and view the letters "Ph.D." with an astonishing amount of revulsion. And, let's face it, a great many members of this class do happen to trend Republican in their voting habits. But is this a cause-effect scenario, or simply two disparate facts about the same group?
On the other hand, one has to be blinkered to think that there aren't superb intellects, who use their prowess and prominence to promote academic achievement, even, who also consistently vote Republican. A quick glance around renders names like David Brooks and George Will, and these are just from the rather gossamer world of media. Rational conservatives have reasons for voting Republican (until now, anyway), but those reasons exclude a distrust of knowledge or a disinclination toward enlightenment.
So what the young (I'm assuming, as he's a student at Carleton) writer really refers to in his offhand observation is the so-called "cultural conservative" point of view. One will find a parallel distrust of primary and secondary public education among this crowd, in addition to the anti-collegiate sentiment. And, like it or not, quite a few cultural conservatives vote for Democrats, especially at the state and local levels, and especially here in the South (and the Heartland). Often it's as simple as one's family tradition.
North Georgia columnist Mike North, when he wrote regularly for Chattanoogan.com, made sure to include "university professors" in every lineup of demographic stereotypes at which he hurled the typical cultural conservative screed. Others came and went: Hollywood actors, Democratic senators, environmental justice activists -- but the "university professor" had somehow garnered permanent residence on his target list. This may have had something to do with an element of North's personal background, but it's not uncommon among other right-wing pundits. And, I'll bet that Mike North votes Republican.
Still, a few examples do not make a universal pattern. We need to keep separate in our minds the base motivations of the "unintelligentsia" and the admirable, if sometimes contrary, classicism of the rational conservative. Cultural conservatives elbow their way toward defining an ever lower common denominator. They are "hostile to academic achievement" because said achievers can so powerfully and deftly undermine their worldview. But they are not all Republicans, and it is certain that not all Republicans belong in their ranks.
Education | By joe lance | 11:33 AM