Indeed, you're right, I suppose what I'm speaking about is an adversity to all forms of productive behavior (which I incorrectly labeled intellectualism) that I witnessed while in primary and secondary school. I just assumed that previous generations (I'm a member of the "millennials") must have had a higher percentage of productive members.
http://www.amazon.com/Anti-Intellectualism-American-Life-Ric...
If you went to a public school in the USA where anti-intellectualism was NOT the dominant meme, consider yourself lucky...