Mark Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University in Atlanta, GA has written a book entitled The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jepordizes our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30).
I would repeat that unnecessarily long title for you, but since I'm so stupid (because of technology induced ADD of course), I can't remeber it. I have a few problems with the basic premise of this book, but I also agree with some of the finer points Bauerlein makes.
Some of the main reasons for alarm that this books points out are the incredible statistics of actual stupidity that come out of America's high schools and universities. Kids believe that the most defended border in the world is the one dividing America and Mexico. Graduates do not have high enough literacy levels. Employers spend $1.3 billion teaching people how to write. And somehow, all of the blame falls upon this "dumbest generation". Apparently, I am the downfall of civilization.
Seriously though, these are awful statistics. I am ashamed that my generation has not been more academically succesful. However, I don't believe we are the ones who are at fault. I believe Mark Bauerline is part of the problem himself.
Here is a man writing about this awful future where Americans are fat, lazy slobs who do nothing but sit in fron of the computer and drool. We can't read. We can't write. Well, at least some of us can't read or write. The pied piper is blaming the rats for following him to their deaths! I blame this Professor of English and the entire generation preceeding us. In the 60's and 70's they were massively irresponsible and fried their brains on drugs. After recovering and coming of age in the Reagan era, they spent the mid to late 80's and the enitre 1990's raising us and discovering their identities as parents. Now they realize we don't know as much as they did when they were our age. And whose fault is it? It's theirs. The Baby Boomers pioneered strip clubs, hardcore pornography, casual divorce, ultra-violent outlets of entertainment for their children, and recreational drug use. Now they are blaming us for learning from their bad example. Their awful management of America's moral and political landscape has raped the nation's education system, leaving us dumb and illiterate. Instead of handing us a book, they handed us the remote control and the computer to shut us up. So where did we learn? The boob tube and the world wide web.
And instead of teaching us about our own geography, about one of the most beautiful and expansive nations on the planet, they decided that it was more important for us to focus on our feelings and fingerpainting. How dare Mark Bauerlein blame us for how we turned out? According to the Emory University website, he spent over two years as the Director for the Office of Research and Analysis for the National Endowment for the Arts. This is the same National Endowment for the Arts gave a highly coveted award to a picture of a crucifix immersed in human urine. And this man bemoans our stupidity? He wants us to learn who wrote the oratorio "Messiah" but will call this "Piss Christ" a work of art worthy of a $15,000 award?! That is how much the two "artists" who created the photograph received from the National Endowment of the Arts.
I guess that if I ever have trouble paying for my useless education, I'll just take a picture a picture of myself sticking the Bible into a used bedpan and send it to Mr. Bauerlein. The $15,000 still wouldn't be enough to cover just one year of tutelage under learned beings such as the author of this crummy book.
Fact Checking made easy!
http://www.newsweek.com/id/138536 <-- Newsweek article that turned me onto the book
http://www.english.emory.edu/people/faculty/bauerlein.htm <-- Emory University's faculty profile of Mark Bauerlein
http://www.dumbestgeneration.com/welcome.html <-- Promotional website for the book
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ <-- Wikipedia article for the "Piss Christ"
3 comments:
I'd agree that a good many Gen X parents have let their kids down by not infusing their children with a stronger work ethic. And I'd agree that indifference or simply a lack of thought led many Gen X parents to thrust remote controls into the hands of their kids instead of books.
But you can only fault your parents for your upbringing as long as you are a child. Gen Y adults need to step up to the plate, assume some responsibility for where they'll go from here, and then turn this thing around. You can develop a fierce work ethic as a result of your parents - or in spite of them. You can have a more academic mindset because of your upbringing - or in direct opposition to that.
There are some distinct problems that a significant percentage of Gen Y needs to own up to. They need to address some of the generalized issues that Bauerlein raises - if not for their own selves, then at least to ensure that their Gen Z children don't fail into the same traps. But by & large, that doesn't seem to be happening. Gen Z is shaping up to be even worse, in some respects.
I think one of the most important and immediate fixes that needs to be put into place is an abandonment of the cavalier way we're thrusting technology on children. Gen Y parents should now know enough to see - if they'll bother looking - that just deluging kids with technology isn't the answer. Kids don't need interactive digital toys and constant streaming media - they need interactive parents who introduce some quiet, introspective (media-free) time into the lives of their Gen Z children. Children need an opportunity to exercise & develop their minds, not just their thumbs.
For as long as I can remember (the mid 80's, basically) we've seen "shocking" news stories about the percentage of high school seniors who can point out China on a map or tell you which century the American Civil War took place in.
Something often overlooked in the discussion: even a generation or two back, a significantly lower percentage of the population was provided an education as compared to the last 20-30 years. So, in essence, you've added a bunch of people to pad the bottom end of those statistics. So sure, in our grandparents day most high school graduates could diagram a sentence or explain why colonial Americans rose up against England--but part of that, at least, was because such a small percentage of the population as a whole received the opportunity to be educated.
In time, as the system catches up with itself, I think there will be improvement.
But in general, I don't tend to put a lot of faith into any argument where an older generation bemoans the laziness/stupidity/whatever of the younger generation. Our grandparents' grandparents said it about them, and we'll say it about our grandchildren.
All told, though, great post on a great topic.
Wow, your ability to use words is incredible. While I agree the each generation has faults and we live in the shadows of those faults, the only way we can change now is for us to take responsibility for our current state.
That said this is a great insight. And great writing. Adding you to my RSS Reader.
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