DeBoer’s The Cult of Smart

Written by an expert in educational policy, deBoer’s the Cult of Smart investigates an unexamined idea that continues to be widely shared in our private, academic and professional lives. This idea being that we have a fair school system that also happens to be the most effective remedy against social and economic inequality.

By devoting most of his book to critiquing this claim, as well as the institutions, social norms and academic culture that propagate it, deBoer makes one thing exceedingly clear; continuing to use academic performance as a means to measure a person’s overall worth will always limit us. Especially if we are trying to create an equal and merit-based society.

By pointing to socio-economic factors, the intrinsic ability of students as well as the limited brand of intelligence that our schools reward, this book characterizes any society that grants privileges to those that succeed in this “scholastic rat race” in two ways. As purposefully failing to see the inequity it is propagating and as supporting a cruel system that condemns the academically indifferent, sometimes through no fault of their own, to second class citizenship.  And if you are wondering why a book about the failings of the American school system is relevant to us Ethiopians, then you are in for a treat.

Providing a timely insight into those narrow criteriums that are used to measure intelligence, this book is a must read for those that wish to understand our country’s very own cult of smart and how it propagates the type of competitive and elitist attitudes we are seeing in our institutions of learning.

Whether it be our tendency to confuse academic success with personal virtues, self-worth and social status or our pervasive assumption that education is a means to realize the economic roles of our children, deBoer’s the Cult of Smart is a must read for those that continue to equate education with rote learning and academic success with standardized testing and lofty professions.