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Excellent post! We need to stop overspending in our schools on the low end and put some resources on the blue collar and white collar kids. They are the key to the future.
Good point. For many, just going to college would be totally strange if your friends don't go. You're out of your element from day one and when you return home, you're different than evryone there. It has to be scary to be the first person from the hood to go off to college. You are correct, there is a lot to lose by being successful here.
Climbing any ladder can be scary. More scary is choosing not to try, and damming your own potential.
I read a lot of nonfiction books, magazines (things like the Economist, New Yorker, and National Review - not STAR and People), read even more demographic and statistical data, occasionally read academic journals on economics, and keep up with most of the daily news and current events. I'm certainly not an idiot, but I think "intellectualism" is more than just a love of learning.
It typically involves people who work in some kind of academic discipline. Noam Chomsky is an intellectual and is probably known more for his political views than linguistics, but his linguistics expertise made him an intellectual.
Likewise, Richard Dawkins is an intellectual, and he's a foremost scientist. Poets like Allen Ginsburg were regarded as public intellectuals at the time. So are polemicists like Christopher Hitchens.
The word is now applied almost exclusively to those on the left. The "intellectual Right" is an oxymoron in today's culture.
How many average people are interested in Mark Twain and mysticism? Most people are doing good to know what's going on outside of their personal lives and maybe the municipal government and most don't think past the ends of their noses. That's not saying these subjects are not interesting or useful, just that few people in today's culture pay attention to them.
The dumbing down of America is exacerbated by these phenomena:
1. Excessive smartphone use. It rewires the brain in a negative way. We are not supposed to receive this much stimulus.
2. Excessive TV watching. Is it really 4 hours per day on average?
3. Good universities are getting better and bad ones are getting worse.
4. Not enough exercise. Sound body leads to sound mind.
A big problem is that Schools ruin reading for kids by making them read boring dusty old "Classics". What kind of 8 year old wants to read "A Tale of Two Cities"?
A big problem is that Schools ruin reading for kids by making them read boring dusty old "Classics". What kind of 8 year old wants to read "A Tale of Two Cities"?
That just ruins it for them.
Seriously? 8 years old would be 2nd or 3rd grade and they would not be reading A Tale of Two Cities until at least 7th or 8th grade - it is rated at a 9th grade reading level. Are you being sarcastic?
Some classics they might read:
Stellaluna
Caps for Sale
Blueberries for Sal
The Three Bears
The Emperor's New Clothes
The Story of Ferdinand
Frindle
Mapping Penny's World
Because of Winn Dixie
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Little House in the Big Woods
Peter Pan
Cinderella
You probably have not heard of most of them, but these are what kids today read in 2nd and third grade.
Actually, there is very little assigned reading for 8 year olds. They generally get to pick what they want to read as long as they are reading.
I think part of the issue is that most people just don't care about much outside of their own bubble. They're too busy posting what they ate for dinner on social media to pay attention to what's happening in the world. They would rather watch a trashy reality show than read a book. I can't remember the name of it, but there's a movie with Luke Wilson where he gets frozen and wakes up in the future and everyone is so unbelievably dumb. I think it was meant to be a comedy, but I saw it as a horror film.
This has been bothering me a lot lately. I guess it's sad to see what is happening to us.
In general, we as a society no longer value intellectual pursuits. 100 years ago Latin and Greek were taught in high school. Now we teach remedial math and reading in college. People don't read. I know many, many people who don't even own a book, and many young adults simply have never read a book as an adult.
A lot of young people I know (18-22 or so) don't even want to learn to drive because they have to study and take a test. Or they don't know what street they live on. Or they have these wildly, unrealistic dreams.
You can watch the local evening news and it is 50% celebrity gossip and reports on the newest fast food and smartphone trends. We are a dumbed-down society and most people don't care. 40% of Americans don't know how many senators there are or why the constitution was written or by whom.
As long as we have the latest phone, biggest gas-guzzling vehicle, sexiest clothes. We are walking zombies who can't even write a correct sentence. We know nothing. And we don't want to know anything else. The rest of the world be damned as long as we get what we want! Who cares who it hurts or the repercussions of our actions or the money we spend?
We don't think. We want everything done for us, instead of doing things ourselves as we were still doing 20 years ago. People just don't have a lot of brain power any more.
People worship talentless media figures and listen to talk show hosts for advice. We stuff our faces with frankenfood and become highly unhealthy at an early age. It still shocks me when I go into any public place and I see so many sick, obese people (I was once one of them). People on canes and in wheelchairs. I'm not talking about the elderly. Most of them YOUNG, younger than I am (I'm in my mid-forties).
We don't want to hear about healthier choices or better options. What we think we should do, we should be able to do, or else we cry about it.
The dumbing down of America is exacerbated by these phenomena:
1. Excessive smartphone use. It rewires the brain in a negative way. We are not supposed to receive this much stimulus.
2. Excessive TV watching. Is it really 4 hours per day on average?
3. Good universities are getting better and bad ones are getting worse.
4. Not enough exercise. Sound body leads to sound mind.
1. Agree, this is a contributer.
2. Americans have probably been watching this much TV since the mid-1950s, so I don't think think the impact has changed over that period of time.
3. The issue here is the expectation that everyone should go to college.
4. I agree that most people are not getting enough exercise but is this reaaly dumbing down America?
I think the biggest factor in dumbing down America is the reduction in reading. In the late 1960s, I delivered newspapers. Most people received the local newspaper, If they didn't, I would stop at their house and try to convince them to buy a subscription. Today, many newspapers are going out of business and the papers have gotten a lot smaller.
Schools have not encouraged reading like in the past. Teachers are told they shouldn't teach from the textbook. Students are rarely given homework assignments to read a chapter in their textbooks. In many schools, textbooks are left in the classroom and students never take them home or read them in study hall. What has replaced textbooks are worksheets with the information students need to pass the test.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mandalorian
A big problem is that Schools ruin reading for kids by making them read boring dusty old "Classics". What kind of 8 year old wants to read "A Tale of Two Cities"?
That just ruins it for them.
I wish I would have been forced to read more classics when I was in school. I never had to read "A Tale of Two Cities," but I remember other students in my school reading it in 10th grade.
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