An Answer to Anti-Intellectualism in Wood: the Desk-Cathedral

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. 

Comments

[Rick]

Silly me--I instantly thought of Mr. Brilliant composing odes to the archane and erudite descriptions of newly discovered ephemera, all while sitting at that desk.

Then, I realized it was not your desk! Dang.

[John PTak]

Hey there Rick,
I don't know who this Mr. Brilliant guy is but I'm sorry to say that it isn't my desk--I'd *love* to have it though! Actually, I'd love to have that peg that the briefcase (which I'd also love to have) is hanging on. And the lamp. Etc. Actually, I'd love to have the whole thing, put wheels and an engine on it, and then tool around town in my own Pope/Writin'-Mobile. Of course in Asheville I could get away with it and blend in, so long as I didn't pimp it out and paint red flames on the thing.

[Jeff]

Well, d*mn, I really wanted to be clever and send a famous image appropriate to this. But I can't find it. And I just saw it recently. It's a painting, perhaps Baroque, showing a famous church figure, perhaps a Saint, working at his "desk" in a large space in a cathedral. He is dwarfed working on this raised platform supporting his desk/office. A beautiful thing. If I can find it, I'll send it. But most likely you'll say, Oh, yeah, that one. And we'll be done.

[Jeff]

Here's the picture I mentioned above. It's called "St. Jerome in his study" by de Mesina, from the 1400s. Curiously, the book in which I saw this image published it backwards, unless several websites, including the following, have it backward. But now, I prefer seeing St. Jerome facing the other way.
http://www.pbase.com/stephenrichardrogers/image/47380092