The Cult of Smart: How Our Broken Education System Perpetuates Social Injustice - Hardcover

DeBoer, Fredrik

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1250200377 ISBN 13: 9781250200372

Publisher: All Points Books, 2020

Synopsis

In order to move toward a more egalitarian society, the American education system must be reformed to account for genetic differences between individual academic abilities.

All groups, all races, and all genders are created equal. Not all individuals are.

The Seed and the Soil is a provocative and groundbreaking discussion of human potential, a topic which, in recent times, has been corrupted by the pernicious and cynical pseudoscience of "race realism." Fredrik deBoer―an expert on testing and assessment who has spent as much time in a classroom as he as in the library―takes on intelligence and inequality from the unorthodox perspective of progressive politics. He makes the case that intelligence exists, matters, and is diverse, and that this diversity of potential should be embraced by all who hope for a more egalitarian society.

Our education system, our expectations for students, and our fundamental values as a liberal society are based on the idea that every seed can ultimately produce equal fruit. This premise is pretty, but it denies science and reality and misplaces our values: we shouldn’t cultivate our children in the first place. We should help them grow.

To be fairer, more equal, and more progressive, we must embrace subjects that our politics have unnecessarily made uncomfortable. This book may sting at first, but its ultimate message is one of profound humanity and optimism: we aren’t all equal in every way. It isn't incumbent on us to treat one another equally because we earn it; we must treat each other equally because it is the right thing to do. Let’s tend to the soil.

About this title

About the Author:

FREDRIK DEBOER is a writer and academic. He works at Brooklyn College, and has a PhD from Purdue. His writing has appeared in such places as The New York Times, Harper’s, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Politico, Playboy, New Republic, Foreign Policy, n+1, and Jacobin. He is one of the most original and prolific voices in essays today, and his anti-tribal style has earned him admiration from political thinkers from all quadrants.

About this edition

• Publisher: All Points Books
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 1250200377
• ISBN 13: 9781250200372
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288