JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 200

Richard Hofstadter’s  Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963)–an argument establishing the American distaste for intellectual and educational elitism derives from the combat between higher education versus the pragmatic, church-wisdom, common sense Horatio Alger steadfast American legacies–established the American vanity and distrust of intellectual life.  I think.  Maybe what was needed a little more was a little less thinking and distrust of learning and building some greater monuments to the exercise, starting with the very desks that kids use.  For example, this magnificent German school desk leaves nothing to question about the value of learning–the message it delivers is very clear and unapologetic  The desk is its own cathedral, granting the occupier with an instant respect, as in “we take this stuff of learning very seriously, and we take you seriously, too”.  Perhaps if children were granted such a specific importance in the chain of knowledge the overall outcome of education might be a little changed for the better.   After all, isn’t part of the corporate  stick-and-carrot routine the bigger desk? Why wait?  Perhaps if everyone had a proud pulpit to themselves like this from the beginning, we might take the business of learning how to fill up our brains more seriously.  Let’s face it–it would be tough to fool around in surroundings like this.