O'Thomas, Mark ORCID: 0000-0001-9264-8813 (2016) Ten reasons why parents should value academics. The Huffington Post.

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Abstract

Academics rarely seem to get a good press. Michael Gove typically summed up what has become a season of anti-intellectualism when, prior to the Brexit result, he declared that the public had had "quite enough of experts." More recently, MP Glyn Davies launched a Twitter attack on academics where he revealed a heart-felt irritation of university lecturers living in ivory towers knowing nothing of the real world yet spending their time "rubbishing the efforts of those operating at the sharp end, without facing up to the hard decisions." In the face of all this common sense, and not to mention a new US President who has viewed scientific evidence with disdain, it is difficult to imagine why parents spend so much of their time nurturing their offspring through A Level extension classes, helping them hone their UCAS statements, taking them the length and the breadth of the country at university open days, not to mention assisting them in the considerable costs of attending a university in the first place. So perhaps it's worth offering an alternative point of view - or a corrective to this apparent groundswell of opinion - that might help remind us parents why they and society at large should value its academics.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	The Blog
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Anti-intellectualism, Brexit, Michael Gove, universities, students, academic research
Subjects:	L Education > LB Theory and practice of education
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences > School of Humanities & Social Sciences (HSS)
Last Modified:	26 Sep 2018 10:31
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/21771

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