“As of 2008,” the 49-year-old professor of English at Emory University writes in “The Dumbest Generation,” “the intellectual future of the United States looks dim.”
The way Bauerlein sees it, something new and disastrous has happened to America’s youth with the arrival of the instant gratification go-go-go digital age. The result is, essentially, a collective loss of context and history, a neglect of “enduring ideas and conflicts.” Survey after painstakingly recounted survey reveals what most of us already suspect: that America’s youth know virtually nothing about history and politics. And no wonder. They have developed a “brazen disregard of books and reading.”
Things were not supposed to be this way. After all, “never have the opportunities for education, learning, political action, and cultural activity been greater,” writes Bauerlein, a former director of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts. But somehow, he contends, the much-ballyhooed advances of this brave new world have not only failed to materialize — they’ve actually made us dumber.
The problem is that instead of using the Web to learn about the wide world, young people instead mostly use it to gossip about each other and follow pop culture, relentlessly keeping up with the ever-shifting lingua franca of being cool in school. The two most popular websites by far among students are Facebook and MySpace. “Social life is a powerful temptation,” Bauerlein explains, “and most teenagers feel the pain of missing out.”
This is absolutely true. I teach philosophy, world religions, ethics, and critical thinking at a local college. My students, even the brightest of them, know NOTHING about history, art, literature, politics … and that’s not hyperbole. It’s difficult to exaggerate the depths of their ignorance. They haven’t read the most basic things, like Canterbury Tales or Julius Caesar. They have no context within which to evaluate any of the Great Ideas. They do not understand the phrase “western civilization.” They aren’t sure who the vice-president is or what the phrase ‘checks and balances’ refer to. They know nothing more about politics than they’ve heard from Jon Stewart. If I don’t throw in the occasional “Office” reference they can’t seem to follow me.
Truly, I despair.
[i]If you are perusing this on the Internet, the big block of text below probably seems daunting, maybe even boring.[/i]
It is very hard to read extended text on a screen (Kendall’s admonitions to “read it carefully and read it all” are pertinent here). A book or printed text is far less of a strain on the eyes and comprehension. So growing resort to electronic media may threaten us all, not merely the young. Oh for the days when books were inexpensive (think the old Everyman series) and reading for pleasure was not seen as quaintly eccentric.
[url=http://catholicandreformed.blogspot.com]Catholic and Reformed[/url]
Professor Anglicanum – open a facebook profile and post all of your course information there. Then, when they are surfing facebook during your class, they might actually learn something 😉
-Former teacher, now banker (yeah, I’m a quitter…for the very reasons you outlined above).
I teach high school math. I dumbed down the subject and I still had to give an F to one third of my students. Why? It’s a number of different things, but primarily it’s that they don’t really care. Add that to the 9th grade mindset that they can fail every class and still pass on (like in junior high), and you end up with what I have. I would rather work in a prison; that way I won’t have to worry about my students ending up there.
[blockquote]The problem is that instead of using the Web to learn about the wide world, young people instead mostly use it to gossip about each other and follow pop culture, relentlessly keeping up with the ever-shifting lingua franca of being cool in school. The two most popular websites by far among students are Facebook and MySpace. [/blockquote]
I attended a workshop entitled “Library 2.0” recently. The entire thrust of the one day workshop was why libraries need to have a presence on Facebook and SecondLife (a social networking group, combining chat with ‘gaming’ quality graphics), so ‘teens will feel more at ease accessing the Library on their own’. Nothing on using the computers to present information more quickly or accurately, just ‘social’ sites.
Jim Elliott
(yes, I have a facebook & myspace pages, a blog, and SecondLife presence.)
I played EverQuest and World of Warcraft for a total of 9 years. Where else can you escape from this miserable life and be someone else?
Who is going to hire them? My company required a MS, PhD, or DrS degree. Many of the current hires come from other countries. Many of these kids will end up dishwashers, garbagemen, etc., all needed jobs but it will not support the style of living that they aspire to.
The review was in the LA Times.
Thanks, it was a typo-ed..
So much of the finest art, literature and music (as well as some of the most interesting history) is related to Christianity.
Most parents don’t know it, and most teachers don’t know it (and can’t teach it anyway). The result is there is no context to understand most of finest and most profound part our Western society. No wonder.
#9 hits on my pet peeve – the parents. Why should the kids care if their parents (evidently) don’t? The reason I’m on this site more than any other stems from my parents choice to instill the value of education in me.
Chris, I agree. Parents will usually have the greatest impact on the attitude kids have to education and the aspiration to continue to learn outside of any formal setting.
It looks like your parents have done a super job!