the American backlash against Academia and intellect

I was recently accused of being “pseudo intellectual” when I had a dissenting view on what someone had written. This invocation of intellect was as personally irritating as it was troubling. I hadn’t set out to politicize a humorous comment in order to make a larger statement–I spoke from my heart about something that I found deeply unsettling. I believed what I wrote because I lived what I wrote. There is a deterioration of American intellect afoot, and the “i-word” has taken on a nasty meaning. With recent uproar towards President Obama’s comments on education, I am both scratching and hanging my head towards the state of my country. I understand that many harbor fear and dislike towards Obama for many reasons but to get upset when someone suggests personal uplift within our ruggedly individualized culture–America, have you lost your goddamned minds?! I recently had the pleasure of hearing an opinion, which suggested that institutionalized education was inflicted upon our youth too rigidly and too soon. I must disagree on so many levels. I whole-heartedly believe that we need to engage children’s minds from an early age in order to instill confidence and if we can curtail the whole thing by preparing them for a world where even the most concrete things are difficult to grasp–so be it. I may be bias since I aspire to be a public school teacher (clearly, not for the paycheck or respect but simply because I care a tremendous amount about the waning state of academia in America) but I believe that there needs to be a change in the way we view education. Education should not trigger anxiety or alienation in participants, it also should not be viewed as a step towards a paycheck (college, I am looking at you)–it should be viewed as a social tour de force. A moment of self-discovery and passion, education and intellect should bind us all together and allow us to communicate passionately with the only language we have. If we cannot find the words to speak from our heart, then we are silenced–this isn’t about intellect, it’s about the human spirit.