8 reasons why this is the dumbest generation

boston.com ^

[BBell]

Author Mark Bauerlein aims to provoke in his new book, "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future" (Tarcher/Penguin). Do you agree? Take a look at eight reasons the Emory University English professor gives to ''not trust anyone under 30'' -- see which you think is the best. Disagree, or have your own spin? Have your say on this message board. Or see if Bauerlein answered your question directly in a chat from Wednesday, May 14.

1. They make excellent "Jaywalking'' targets

Bauerlein writes: "The ignorance is hard to believe ... It isn't enough to say that these young people are uninterested in world realities. They are actively cut off from them. ... They are encased in more immediate realities that shut out conditions beyond -- friends, work, clothes, cars, pop music, sitcoms, Facebook.''

2. They don't read books -- and don't want to, either

"It's a new attitude, this brazen disregard of books and reading. Earlier generations resented homework assignments, of course, and only a small segment of each dove into the intellectual currents of the time, but no generation trumpeted aliteracy ... as a valid behavior of their peers.''

3. They can't spell

Lack of capitalization and IM codes dominate online writing. Without spellcheck, folks are toast.

4. They get ridiculed for original thought, good writing

"On MySpace, if you write clearly and compose coherent paragraphs with informed observations on history and current events, 'buddies' will make fun of you,'' Bauerlein says. Wikipedia writing is clean and factual, but colorless and judgment-free. Often the most clever students, with flashes of disorganized brilliance on MySpace, switch to dull Wiki-writing formats for school papers, he says. "If we could combine the style and imagination of MySpace with the content of Wikipedia, we might get good stuff."

5. Grand

[Old Professer]

The science of knowledge is based on the notion that by finding the answers to a set of endless questions that somehow we will know all there is to know about all that is unknowable.

[Tax-chick]

It’s catz.

[Old Professer]

Agreed, I would use coherent istead of complete, though.

[grjr21]

The link didn't work. 

 Worked for me

 

 

What reason makes the most sense for "The Dumbest Generation?"
2. Books? No thanks!
	26.0%
7. Easy teachers, parents
	20.9%
4. Clear thought ridiculed by peers
	12.6%
8. Just age
	11.9%
6. Don't retain information (who needs to?)
	11.1%
3. Can't spell
	6.5%
1. "Jaywalking'' gaps in knowledge
	6.0%
5. Grand Theft Auto, etc.
	5.1%
Total votes: 46449

[BBell]

I think it's different now. Elvis's gyrations were risque at the time. What is considered risque now is akin to porn. The dirty dancing that simulates sex that is done at kid's dances is an example. The pornographic lyrics of rap/hip hop that are so popular amongst even normal kids are another.

We have a younger generation who have been coddled and large portion of them believe capitalism is bad and socialism is good and more government is the answer. Schools used to be a source of morals and standards and now a good portion of them have been taken over by feel good liberal administrators with a everything is all right attitude. That is unless your Christian,or pro life, or pro traditional marriage etc. We have not lost yet but I worry too much.

[Colvin]

I see to for too all the time.
(to many instead of too many)
Spell check won’t save you with those sort of spelling issues.

[12Gauge687]

4. Their penmanship horrible. A young man who has been trying to sell me muni bond investments began filling a form out on my behalf. When I saw his handwriting I demanded the form and told him, “I’ll fill it out myself!”

Huntsville - Re: spelling, it’s not that great at FR either. There have been innumerable instances of “there” for “they’re” or “their” and “your” for you’re.”

[Disambiguator]

They use cant (semisecret jargon like thieves talk, rap, pig Latin, etc) for the contraction of can not (can't) and loose in place of lose or loss.

And dont even get me started on the misuse and abuse of apostrophe's. Its even rampant among poster's on FR.

/(sarcastic intentional grammatical error's)

[BBell]

The view results link worked for me but the ‘Tell us about it’ link did not.

[Landru]

Thanks, my friend. :^)

I see my choice is ranking third.

[Pan_Yan]

spelling, it’s not that great at FR either

Hey! I resemble that remark!

[r9etb]

All those copies of Harry Potter are apparently reading themselves.

I admit I chuckled ... but the truth is that the HP books are actually quite good on a number of levels. Fun and entertaining, but also they've got a good vs. evil theme that doesn't shy away from the ideas of "good" and "evil."

There's actually a growing genre of that type of kids' fiction -- heroes and bad guys duking it out over timeless themes -- and some of it is very well done. It makes the kids think, anyway.

[kabar]

Hm. If I didn't know a whole bunch of smart, active, well-read teens who are the exact opposite of what this guy describes, I'd think he had a point.

Anecdotal observations are fine, but the facts say otherwise. For example, 1 in 4 California high school students drop out, state says: Using a new system for tracking dropouts, California discloses a rate considerably higher than previously reported. About 1 in 3 students in Los Angeles Unified left school.

Or this: The Latino Education Crisis: The Consequences of Failed Social Policies, by Patricia Gandara and Frances Contreras, offers an unflinching portrait of Hispanics’ educational problems and reaches a scary conclusion about those problems’ costs. The book’s analysis is all the more surprising given that its authors are liberals committed to bilingual education, affirmative action, and the usual slate of left-wing social programs. Yet Gandara and Contreras, education professors at UCLA and the University of Washington, respectively, are more honest than many conservative open-borders advocates in acknowledging the bad news about Hispanic assimilation.

"Hispanics are underachieving academically at an alarming rate, the authors report. Though second- and third-generation Hispanics make some progress over their first-generation parents, that progress starts from an extremely low base and stalls out at high school completion. High school drop-out rates—around 50 percent—remain steady across generations. Latinos’ grades and test scores are at the bottom of the bell curve. The very low share of college degrees earned by Latinos has not changed for more than two decades. Currently only one in ten Latinos has a college degree.

That's not to deny the fact that there's a grain of truth in what this guy's complaining about, but I suspect that this next group of young folks is going to surprise us.

Surprise may be too mild a word. By 2023 half of the children 18 and under will be minorities. Except for Asians, the academic performance of blacks and Hispanics is a cause for great concern. High school drop-out rate in major US cities at nearly 50 percent: A report released Tuesday by an educational advocacy group founded by retired general and former Bush administration Secretary of State Colin Powell finds that almost half of all public high school students in the US’ fifty largest cities fail to graduate.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

I have trouble with then and than, I have to think
is it a result of prior action or or is it just
pointing out a difference.

[Landru]

Gottit, my friend.

And thanks for posting this.
Is a fascinating piece, one I've personally wondered about in part or whole for some time now.

The dumbing down of American citizens, for whatever reason(s), will manifest in so many ways we'll not be able to keep track.

Is there any single issue more important then the future of the USA; which, is precisely what the author's addressing. ;^)

[kaylar]

Re: spelling, it’s not that great at FR either. There have been innumerable instances of “there” for “they’re” or “their” and “your” for you’re.”

Marshal(l) law for martial, succession for secession, ammendment for amendment, sovereignity for sovereignty...Actually, I see these errors so often they now look correct to me, and the correct spelling looks "wrong".

[humblegunner]

3. They can't spell

Lack of capitalization and IM codes dominate online writing. Without spellcheck, folks are toast.

Hey, that's you!

[Califreak]

He was dumber than a rock, but he loved America.

[Hank Kerchief]

“I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise [disrespectful] and impatient of restraint” (Hesiod, 8th century BC).

“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority, they show disrespect to their elders.... They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and are tyrants over their teachers.” Unattributed, but sometimes attributed to Aristotle.

You DO know what happened to Greece, of course. Now it’s happening to us.

Hank

[r9etb]

Yes, yes.... doom and gloom. We're all gonna die.

Statistics are great for that. And I don't even deny that we're headed for some tough times.

However.

Statistics don't address individuals, nor do they address the actions and motivations of individuals. Nor do they address how individuals respond to tough times.

This professor yutz is engaged in the time-honored navel-gazing lament, "why, oh why, can't the kids of today be as brilliant and swell as I am?"

The thing is, I've encountered some truly remarkable teens who run counter to what the contents of this guy's navel is telling him. Not just talented, but there's also something about their attitude, which is far more important; if I had to describe it, I'd start by saying that they're cynical about the right stuff. Real change is driven by that sort of attitude.

No, not all teens are remarkable; not even most of them -- but then, that's always been true. Sure, you can moan about Hispanic immigrants (which of course you would....), but they're not the ones who would make a difference in any case.