36. What do American parents expect their children to acquire in school ?
[ A ] The habit of thinking independently .
[ B ] Profound knowledge of the world .
[ C ] Practical abilities for future career .
[ D ] The confidence in intellectual pursuits.
37. We can learn from the text that Americans have a history of
[ A ] undervaluing intellect
[ B ] favoring intellectualism
[ C ] supporting school reform
[ D ] suppressing native intelligence
38. The views of Ravitch and Emerson on schooling are
[ A ] identical
[ B ] similar
[ C ] complementary
[ D ] opposite
39. Emerson , according to the text , is probably
[ A ] a pioneer of education reform
[ B ] an opponent of intellectualism
[ C ] a scholar in favor of intellect
[ D ] an advocate of regular schooling
40. What does the author think of intellect ?
[ A ] It is second to intelligence .
[ B ] It evolves from common sense .
[ C ] It is to be pursued .
[ D ] It underlies power.
Americans today don ' t place a very high value on intellect . Our heroes are athletes . entertainers , and entrepreneurs , not scholars . Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education - not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge . Symptoms of pervasive anti - intellectualism in our schools aren ' t difficult to find .
" Schools have always been in a society where practical is more important than intellectual ," says education writer Diane Ravitch ." Schools could be a counterbalance ." Ravitch ' s latest book , Left Back : A Century of Failed School Reforms , traces the roots of anti - intellectualism in our schools , concluding they are anything but a counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits .
But they could and should be . Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control . Without the ability to think critically , to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others , they cannot fully participate in our democracy . Continuing along this path , says writer Earl Shorris ," We will become a second - rate country . We will have a less civil society ."
" Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege ," writes historian and professor Richard Hofstadter in Anti - Intellectualism in American Life , a Pulitzer - Prize winning book on the roots of anti - intellectualism in US politics , religion , and education . From the beginning of our history , says Hofstadter , our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism . Practicality , common sense , and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book .
Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children :" We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing ." Mark Twain ' s Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti - intellectualism . Its hero avoids being civilized - going to school and learning to read - so he can preserve his innate goodness .
Intellect , according to Hofstadter , is different from native intelligence , a quality we reluctantly admire . Intellect is the critical , creative , and contemplative side of the mind . Intelligence seeks to grasp , manipulate , re - order , and adjust , while intellect examines , ponders , wonders , theorizes , criticizes , and imagines .
School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted . Hofstadter says our country ' s educational system is in the grips of people who " joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise ."
ANSWER CADBC
