are Americans hostile to knowledge?

[rm]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/books/14dumb.html

Worth it for the "cultural conservationist" label alone. I've been looking for a phrasing of that sentiment.

Comments

[graene.livejournal.com]

I will second this, as someone who grew up in a similar locale where the private schools were for those who couldn't quite hack it in public schools.

I also think the self-esteem culture is an issue. Teaching students to focus on plot by not marking down for bad grammar is one thing in first grade, but to not mark corrections or mark down in fourth and fifth quite another.

Plus, parents have no respect for the system and their kid is always in the right and incapable of lying, therefore the teacher is attacking their precious one and being undermined by the parent in front of the kid - but still expected to teach those things the parents 'don't have time for' to the same kids.