How Education Policies Promote Anti-Intellectualism

The stated objective of the U.S. Department of Education is “to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness.” In regards to higher education,

“America’s institutions of higher education have long been engines of innovation, helping the nation to achieve a level of economic prosperity experienced by few other countries throughout history. The dynamics of rapid technological change over time have required greater levels of education to sustain the global competitiveness of the American economy. As a result, an increasing proportion of Americans have enrolled in and completed a program of postsecondary education in order to secure high-quality employment in competitive industries.”

Put simply, the purpose of the education system is for economic growth. Through government incentives, standardized testing, grants, subsidies, alumni fees, and enrollment, the result of our national educational goal is that universities are increasingly focused on degree programs that generate economic growth.

Degrees that promote economic growth tend to be applied rather than theoretical. Applied science and economics such as engineering and business tend not to prioritize philosophical, humanitarian, outside-of-the-market thinking. In other words, they do not promote intellectualism.

More people than ever before are university educated. This is made possible by readily available student loans. These loans enable relatively poor people to afford an advanced education with future earnings potential. A competitive economy forces students to be keenly aware of the financial return of their choice of degree program. There is a distinct and necessary choice between monetary and intellectual degrees. It is very expensive to get a degree – too much so, for most, to play around with intellectual degrees. The economics of education push students into business and engineering and away from arts and humanities. Most students go to institutions of higher education to make more money, and with tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debts, they can afford to do nothing else.

Fortunately for them, a university degree generally does result in higher earning. So, there are millions of educated workers out there with applied degrees, high earnings, high debts, and low exposure to any of the great philosophical or humanitarian thinkers.

How is this different from times before student loans programs? Wouldn’t these people be even less educated and open to philosophical thought without their university educations? Possibly… but two things are for certain: liberal arts colleges across the nation are shrinking, and the programs that do continue to exist are becoming highly packaged, superficial survey courses that do more to bore the students than to inspire them.

Why are liberal arts colleges shrinking? Because their funding decreases as their relative importance decreases. Staff and programs are cut back to fit smaller budgets, and courses are made to cover more topics in less of time with larger class sizes. The courses become superficial reviews of well-know, easy-to-teach topics. They are boring to the students and less interesting to teach. A feedback cycle ensues that further weakens the programs.

Our education policies are aimed at economic growth. Unfortunately intellectualism is an opportunity cost of economic growth. Our policies promote applied degrees which push out intellectual degrees. Not only are relatively fewer graduates intellectually trained, but the quality of their training is being watered down. Economic incentives designed to encourage students to obtain higher education turn education into an economic vehicle. As education becomes more economically focused, non-economic aspects of education fall out of focus.