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Title: The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30)
ISBN: 1585426393
Author:
Mark Bauerlein
Publicate Date: 2008-05-15
Publish: 2008-05-15
List Price: $24.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $7.27
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $5.95
Amazon Merchant Price: $16.47
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Infuriatingly Mean-Spirited and Obviously Incorrect
I read this book last summer and I thought about it from time to time during the election season. I found the book extremely infuriating. I read with post-it notes next to me and my copy has little slips of paper with comments and questions sticking out of it. Why? Becuase it is filled with completely unsubstantiated assertions about the stupidity of today's young people due to the Internet and related technologies. Bauerlein attempts to use the tools of social scientists and he fails miserably. He's an English professor and should stick to literary analysis. He cites statistics about the ignorance of young people and then tries to connect this ignorance to things like Facebook and cell phones. As one reviewer pointed out, all kids find ways to procrastinate and connect with their friends. I did the same thing in the '60's. We hung out at the beach, watched huge quantities of schlock TV, listened to loud music, went to the drive-in, and talked on the phone. I was also a voracious reader and became a librarian. Most people grow up and move on. Since the nomination of Sarah Palin as vice president it is patently obvious that the Millennials are in no way the dumbest generation. We have John McCain to thank for pointing that out to us. He nominated Palin because she is pretty and feisty; they are both "Mavericks." Does anyone in the United States think she was actually qualified to be president? The Conservative intelligentsia could not stomache her selection. The New York Times op ed pages seethed with disgust. Old fogeys can delude themselves that they are smarter than today's upcoming generation, but Millennials saw through the appalling hypocrisy of the Republican presidental ticket and helped put Barack Obama in the White House. Even reliably red Indiana went Democrat, which was widely attributed to the fact that 68% of voters between 18 and 29 voted for Obama. Go Hoosiers! Every Republican intellectual in the United States secretly heaved a sigh of relief on election night. Thank you, youth vote! So, I'm waiting for this book to be remaindered because it is already obsolete. Do not buy it. Do not bother to read it. It's a downer but don't worry. You can feel confident that young people will try to fix the colossal mess left to all of us by that bumbling Boomer leaving the White House on January 20. For a glimpse of the future, take a look at a blog that began as a response to Bauerlein's book; it's called "Generation Underrated:" [...]. Janna's related Facebook group is "We're Not as Dumb as We Look." I wholeheartedly agree with her.
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2: The DUMBEST Generation
If I ever become a teacher in the near future, I will make my students read this book, regardless of topic I would teach (Mathematics). These kids have to understand they will effect the world, but they have shown being sloths, selfish and relient on technology and the elders - the world will go under if they do not learn to apply effort to life.
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3: Shocking and timely
Thank you, Mr. Bauerlein, for pointing out what is now all too painfully clear: the newest generation of young Americans has the literacy level of a dirt clod.
Once upon a time--okay, fifty years ago--people read. Newspapers flourished, as did magazines, and publishers put out large numbers of new titles every month. Bauerlein argues that technology has caused the change. Perhaps he is right. At any rate, the statistics he gives are simply tragic. "On the 2001 NAEP history exam, the majority of high school seniors, 57% scored below basic" (p 17). "On the 2005 NAEP science exam for 12th graders..nearly half of the test takers...didn't reach basic" (p 22).
You would think that with all the technology students have today that at least they would excel in technologies. Wrong. "Many students entering college lacked information-technology skills necessary to perform academic work, and the skills that they did have stemmed from school curricula" (p 115).
From page one, this is a disturbing book, a book that shows how few young Americans are learning, reading, and thinking.
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4: The Blame
We know, we know, Western Civilization is going to hell in a handbasket. Nobody reads books any more & people graduate from highschool without knowing how to construct a paragraph or comb their hair. Sigh.
This book has some shortcomings--the author uses too many stats without the visuals to make a real impact, for example. Yet Bauerlein does make a good case that the blame for the whole sad situation doesn't necessarily lie solely with our educational system (where it is often placed). The real culprit: kids with far too much undirected leisure time to spend in adolescent pursuits.
Recommendation: Re-read The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby instead.
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5: A Prophetic Book of the Self-Centered!
As a teacher, I can tell you that Bauerlain's thesis is exactly true. I have always known that my students could learn material in order to regurgitate it on exams, but they had little hope of determining anything past whatever they had made a point of memorizing right before the test. Math students can calculate, but they have no ability to "think mathematically". History students can't attach ideas from one era to another. And heaven forbid if your subject isn't "relevant" enough.
The author here gets it right: technology, money, and self-esteem-overload has made many of today's youth spoiled, self-centered, and stupid. There's no nice way to put it, but results are going to be easier to obtain if we're blunt about it. The author makes the argument that intellectualism should be encouraged and not lampooned, and the sooner the better.
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