How Dumb be Americans?

I picked up a book at a Barnes and Noble that is still sitting on my shelf (unfortunately) waiting to be read called The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30). It's another in a series of works coming out discussing how stupid today's population in America is.

I found another post dated for the Fourth of July at the Junkfood Science blog that highlights yet again just how dumb we are. It's very disheartening and highlights the lack of critical thinking skills in our student population.

Some points from reading the article:

I agree...an uneducated population is easier to control. We are a population that cares more about toys and ourselves than intellectual pursuits. It's a boon for groups with selfish interests, though, since stupid people are too dumb to understand they're being manipulated.

The article implies that immigrants are more intelligent than Americans since a huge percentage of them pass the test with all the answers correct. I think they study the topic ahead of time. I mean, I took the amateur radio test to get a technician license many many many years ago; I read the practice books so much that I literally memorized the the test. When the time came to take the test I knew what the answer was from the multiple choice exam by reading the first few words of the question, since the questions were taken from a pool of questions. It's not so hard when the immigrants had just studied to come here (although there may be some difficulty involved with the language barrier).

The article brings up a state exam where the majority of high schoolers couldn't pass (and thus not graduate). Since most of them weren't passing, the legislature simply got rid of the requirement. Not surprising. I've seen it happen in similar cases several times before; the Enrichment Program, when I was in school, was our school district's gifted program (for kids tested and found to have a higher than average IQ). Not enough kids were getting into the program for their spending so the requirement for the minimum IQ was lowered and thus created a full classroom; the program was dumbed down but it made the administrators happier. Eventually I think they eliminated the program because the smart kids (in the age of No Child Left Behind) is already "proficient" so they don't deserve additional attention. That's a different problem though.

The post also mentions that there's a problem with teachers in Massachusetts where new elementary level teachers couldn't pass the basic teacher's exam, so the state allowed a huge percentage of them to get certified anyway with the requirement that they pass the exam within 5 years. After having spoken and observed many teachers in my time I have come to the conclusion that teachers are not some different animal from the rest of the population; they aren't necessarily more intelligent or reasonable compared to anyone else. On average they're probably higher up than non-skilled workers, but I was shocked to find one teacher in a school district that believed the moon landing was a hoax. I was floored to discover that an educated person would actually believe this, but in retrospect I shouldn't be. Teachers are people that specialize in their sub-field and aren't necessarily Renaissance Men. I've met some very knowledgeable teachers and I've met some that I'm surprised manage to dress themselves. But there always seems to be one universal...bureacracy from higher ups always seem to be disconnected from their employees' needs and work. I guess politics will always be a detriment no matter the organization.

Overall the article probably is a bit of a simplification of what the founding fathers were really like, but still the post was worth checking out. It was some fascinating food for thought.