Apr 3, 2021
Is This the Country the Founders Envisioned? A Brief Look into America’s Anti-intellectualism
In 1776, when the founders signed the Declaration of Independence, what nation did they envision at the time?
America is a nation known for its prideful audacity in its democratic experiment and its wonderfully diverse demography. The United States has always been an inspiration and a role model to the world in its scientific progress, literature, leadership, and humanitarian policies which attracted generations after generations of immigrants who make up this nation.
However, in recent years, the United States seems to drift away from this image, especially in education.
Universities in the United States are credited for their persistent cultivation of leading scholars in their respective fields, which made the United States the center for talented foreign and immigrants students. But even with top universities and research personnel, the United States still suffers from limited primary and secondary education.
During this pandemic, one of the determining factors in controlling the spread of the virus was widespread mask-wearing. Many refused to wear a mask. Federal, state, and local leaders refuse to enact a mask mandate, trying to downplay the severity of the situation; spiritual leaders in some communities organized large gathering events; a portion of the mass believed in conspiracy theories rather than epidemiologists like Dr. Anthony Fauchi; and just recently, state leaders began to eliminate all COVID mandates, all are indications that anti-intellectualism has corrupted a considerable portion of the population.
This problem was not entirely caused by the former administration, though many would like to assume that. Rather, it is caused by the combination of a lack of science and critical thinking education in elementary and secondary level; rejection from elitism in expertise; along with conservative religious values which are ingrained in the founding of this nation from its religious origin.
The founders were men of the Enlightenment era who believed in education and reason, and the education reality of this nation is not what they had envisioned upon the founding. The ways to amend this situation could include having better math and science foundations in education before university, more funding for schools in poor neighborhoods, and secularism in schools.
