Comment by kashunstva
18 days ago
About a decade ago when my son finished high school, on the eve of graduation, I saw that one of his peers wrote gleefully on social media that she hadn’t read a single book, assigned or otherwise, during her 4 years there.
I can only imagine that the intellectual malaise has become more widespread. So long as we reward that form of incuriosity and treat education as solely a transactional economic exercise, the lack of preparedness for post-secondary levels should surprise no one.
There seems to be a rise in some sort of 'anti-intellectual' sentiment that has gotten popular over the decades. For me, I saw similar things on Facebook in 2009 when I graduated.
I suspect if you go back a decade again, to the late 1990s, you may find some prevalence there. I'm unsure of its origins, but it seems more prominent with middle aged and younger millennials and gen z.
I never see nor hear of this sentiment from Gen X or older millennials.
I think in some respects, it mirrors the rise of anti-corporate anti-elite thinking. That these mandatory books put in front of are used as tools of the apparatus that perpetuate systemic societal ills.
Historically though, the counter culture thing to do was to read lots of literature - often literature published by small outlets and other controversial pieces however there was an expectation of simply reading and learning for the greater good.