In a recent blog post, "Waging War on Higher Education," I wrote about the need to encourage students to think critically. The piece triggered a flurry of comments from Huffington Post readers. Most of the comments took on a populist, no-nonsense tone that I found all too familiar. Even so, I found some of the comments disconcerting. My discomfort stemmed not from the critical nature of the comments, but from their widespread disdain for critical thinking. Many of the commentators suggested that critical thinking was a kind of "pie in the sky" activity, a luxury we can no longer afford. In this sociocultural orientation to the world, thinking about fine points of philosophy, art or anthropology is often seen as a waste of time. In this narrative, if you go to college, which these days is a major investment of money, you do so to acquire the set of skills to get a good paying job -- end of story. Indeed, the root of my discomfort came from the fact that I've been hearing these anti-intellectual narratives my whole life.
在最近的博客文章《向高等教育宣战》中，我写了鼓励学生们有必要进行批判性思考。文章在赫芬顿邮报读者中间掀起轩然大波。大多数评论用了一种平民主义的严肃论调，我已经屡见不鲜。尽管如此，有些评论令我困惑。我的困惑主要并非源自评论的批判性本质，而是他们普遍不屑于批判性思考。很多评论者认为批判性思考是一种“天上掉馅饼”，是我们无法承受的奢侈。在这种世界观的社会文化定位之下，思考哲学、艺术或人类学，以得出正确观点总被视为浪费时间。在这种观点之下，如果你上大学，当然这是时下一种主要投资手段，你上学，获得一些技能，找到好工作，故事便结束了。事实上，我困惑的根源在于我这辈子真听了不少这种反智主义的话。

Many people think that professors are members of the wealthy elite -- people who are disconnected from the economic and social trials of "real life." While it is certainly the case that some professors and other "intellectuals" come from privileged backgrounds, many of us grew up in more modest circumstances. I grew up in lower middle-class household in suburban Washington, D.C. My mother and father graduated from high school. Only a few of my maternal and paternal aunts and uncles had studied at a college. Most of my relatives worked -- and worked hard--in small family-centered businesses. At family gatherings they would encourage me to go to college to get a good job and find "the good life."
很多人认为大学教授们是一群有钱的精英们，和“现实生活”中经济与社会实践毫无干系。虽然有些教授和其他“知识分子”肯定具有特权阶层背景，但我们中很多人在更为普通的环境里长大。我便成长在华盛顿郊区的中低收入家庭。我父母只有高中学历。只有父母的几个兄弟姐妹上过大学。大多数亲属都在小型家族企业里工作，并且是辛勤劳作。家庭聚会时，他们会鼓励我上大学，找个好工作，并且过上“好生活”。
If you don't have what it takes to be a doctor or a lawyer, they would tell me, then study accounting -- it's a good profession. People always need accountants, they would advise again and again. In my family's view of the world, the world -- my world -- was filled with limitations. Accordingly, in life it was good to be pragmatic and make choices that would provide for your family. These pragmatic narratives compelled me to study political science with an eye toward law school. By my junior year in college, though, I knew that I wasn't cut out for law or medicine. When I announced to my parents, who only wanted the best for me, that I didn't want to be a lawyer or doctor, my mother cried. My father's unforgettable frown burned into my being.
如果你不想做医生或律师，他们会建议你学会计，这是个好职业。人们总是会需要会计，他们会一遍又一遍地跟我这样说。在我家族看来，世界，尤其是我的世界充满局限。因此，生活中最好要务实并且为了家庭着想做出决定。这些务实的建议逼着我学习政治学，期望进入法学院。然而，当我上到大三时，我觉得我不适合从事法律或医疗职业。当我向一心希望我达到最好目标的父母们宣布我不想当律师或医生时，我母亲哭了。父亲皱起眉头的样子则让我经久难忘。
"What are you going to do with yourself?" my father asked.
父亲问我“那么你想做什么？"
He can always sell insurance like his cousin Ivan," my mother said reassuringly.
妈妈安慰道“可以像他伊万表哥一样卖保险。”
"I want to be writer."
“我想成为作家。”
"What!" My mother exclaimed. "There's no money in that. You're a dreamer," she said shaking her head. She turned to my father. "He could always work with you, I guess."
“什么？”妈妈大喊道“这挣不到钱。你在做梦。”她边说边摇着头。她转向父亲说“我猜，他起码还能去跟着你工作。”
No one in my family could have ever imagined that I would spend seven years of my life in West Africa and learn to speak foreign languages, let alone become a professor who publishes essays and books. That narrative just didn't compute in my family. In my case, a perfect storm of circumstances -- the draft, the war in Vietnam, and the potential of a Peace Corps deferment -- propelled me to the Republic of Niger and eventually a life as scholar, a person who has spent a lot of time reading books, thinking about what's he's read, and then writing texts about those ideas.
我家里没有人曾想到我会花上7年时间呆在西非，学习外语，更不用说成为一名教授，发表一些散文和出版书籍。这种事我家里根本想不到。对于我，一场环境的完美风暴，包括：出书、越战以及有可能美国和平工作队的暂缓派遣，都推动我来到尼日尔共和国，最终过上学者生活，成为一个花上大量时间阅读，思考以及写出自己想法的人。
"And they pay him for this," my mother would say in wonder. 'He could have done better in law or business."
“他们雇他做这些，”妈妈好奇的问道“但如果干法律工作或者从商，收入可能更高。”
Even after I had been teaching for several years, my parents did not understand what I did for a living. I felt -- falsely as it turned out -- that my career choice had profoundly disappointed them. Eventually they came to better understand what I did and read every one of my books, proudly showing them off to family and neighbors.
即使我已经教了好几年的书，我父母还是不能理解我靠什么过活。我感到这种错误的结果——我的职业选择让他们深深失望。最终，他们深深地理解了我的做法，并且读了我写的每一本书，并且自豪的向亲属和邻居们炫耀。
So what happened to steer me away from the narrow life path that the circumstances of my birth had shaped. For the, college had a profound impact on my life. I stumbled upon professors who took an interest in me. They became mentors who exposed me to the wonders of the world, who convinced me that my life was full of possibilities, and who told me that I had the potential to teach at a university.
因此，是什么令我走出了成长环境为我塑造的这条狭窄道路呢。原因是大学生活深深影响了我的生活。我偶然间碰到了对我感兴趣的教授们。他们成为我的导师，引发我对世界的好奇。他们令我相信生活充满了各种可能，告诉我我有潜力在大学里教书育人。
You should at least try to follow your dreams, they advised. Maybe things will work out for you. Maybe they won't. But try to follow a different path. Who knows what you'll find
他们建议我说，你至少要追逐自己的梦想。或许环境会磨练你，或许不会。但努力找到一条不同的路。谁知道你会发现什么？
There is a deep tradition of anti-intellectualism in American cultural and political life. It has a long history, spreading its messages into every nook and cranny of American social and political life. We are the "can-do" nation that values "common-sense" solutions to our problems. We are suspicious of "egg heads," dreamers and "pointy-headed" intellectuals who drive Volvos, like French food, and drink frothy cappuccinos. Such notions, of course, are gross fabrications that lead to a dangerous ignorance.
美国文化和政治领域存在着很深的反智主义传统。长期的历史扩散到美国社会和政治领域的方方面面。我们是“万能”的国度，崇尚用“普遍意识”解决我们的问题。我们总是对那些书呆子、梦想家、酸文人臭老九心存疑虑，觉得他们就是开沃尔沃，吃法国菜，喝溢满泡沫的卡布奇诺的人。当然，这种观念是粗俗的，危险的是还会使人无知。
In the past, "can do" pragmatism was the fuel of America prosperity. But that pragmatism was reinforced with an abiding respect for knowledge and critical thinking. In the past we knew that it was hard to do anything in a place devoid of new ideas, a place where dreamers are discouraged from dreaming. That's why in the present it's important to combat the anti-intellectualism of the public sphere and support enlightened higher education, a space where mentors, to borrow from one of my readers, don't teach students what to think but show them how to think -- a skill that prepares them for a productive life in the world, a skill that moves all of us forward.
过去，“万能”的实用主义为美国的繁荣充满动力。但坚持对知识的尊重和批判性思考会强化实用主义。过去我们知道，在缺乏新理念的地方，在梦想家无法追逐梦想的地方，很难做好任何事情。这就是现在很重要的是要战胜公众中反智主义思想和支持进步高等教育的原因。这个世界里，借鉴我的一位读者的经验，希望导师们不要教导学生去思考什么，而是教他们如何去思考。这种技能令学生们能够在世界中创造丰富多彩的生活，这种技能令我们所有人继续前进。