Professors, We need You!
In this article, Nicholas Kristof discusses how academics in America have become more of a second thought that is overlooked. It has become uncommon for intelligent people to become professors or educators for the general public and almost looked down on. Certain parts of the article strongly display Kristof's points and what his attitude is on the subject. For example, in the beginning he writes, "The most stinging dismissal of a point is to say: "That's academic." In other words, to be a scholar is, often, to be irrelevant." This rather short portion illustrates how Kristof feels that academics and education is overlooked as something unimportant to most of society. He also claims that "[Americans have] marginalized some of it's sharpest minds [and that] they have also marginalized themselves." With the latter claim, readers get a sense of disappointment in American attitudes towards education and its waste of sharp minds. The preceding claim gives readers perspective on how Kristof feels like Americans treat intelligence and academics. The main goal in creating this piece is to inform those in the academics field or those who avoid the field on why educators are important. The opinion also does well at criticizing current opinions on education and intelligence such as when Kristof writes "Ph.D. programs have fostered a culture that glorifies arcane intelligibility while disdaining impact and audience." He also gets another person's input when he quotes Jill Lepore: "a great, heaping mountain of exquisite knowledge surrounded by a vast moat of dreadful prose." The whole article is significant because Americans have lessened their focus on education and the importance of it. Kristof brings this to readers' attention and gives important points on why ignoring certain academics is wrong and wasteful.