Social Institutions and Education Other (not Listed Above)

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The topic of my final research project is anti-intellectualism in America. I believe that this is a problem that affects multiple social institutions, and which is unfortunately facilitated by dysfunctional social institutions too. Some of the most important social institutions in society are related to the domain of education, and anti-intellectualism is a phenomenon that is most closely related to education even though anti-intellectualism permeates other social institutions like political and economic institutions. Furthermore, the social institutions of religion and the media can be adversely related to intellectualism to the point where it can be said that in some cases, religion and the media both foment anti-intellectualism. Verwiebe (n.d.) points out that "media and religion are responsible for the transmission of contexts of meaning, value orientations and symbolic codes," (p. 3). The media is based on profit more than it is on truth, which is why it is possible to blame the media at least in part for allowing anti-intellectualism to take root. Without ethical standards, the media has been allowed to disseminate information and points of view that are contrary to intellectual thought, and which discourage critical thinking. Religion is often anti-intellectual because religion purports to be a higher truth than science or any other area of academia.

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However, education is the social institution that is ultimately to blame for anti-intellectualism. Public education is by definition dependent on government financing, which means that there is a serious lack of prioritization in American politics with regards to the importance of education. In articles in Social Problems, we learn how education has become the "shame of a nation." Education should be a basic human right, as should health care. Yet unequal access to quality education perpetuates poverty and other social problems. When citizens do not access quality education, they are more prone to believing mistruths, the "alternative facts" that are easily spread by the media, both traditional and new media. Likewise, when people from any religious tradition do not have access to the tools of critical thought, they might mistake religious dogma with absolute truth.

We are all stakeholders in anti-intellectualism. All citizens are either party to perpetuating anti-intellectualism by choosing to remain ignorant and not challenging what we see or hear, or are victims of the poor public policy that results from an uneducated public. How is it possible to actually be anti-intellectual? For many Americans, the….....

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