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 - The DUMBEST GenerationIf 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. Rating: - Shocking and timelyThank 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. Rating:  - The BlameWe 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. Rating:  - 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. Rating:  - A fatal flaw...The author's premise that kids are dumb because of technology has one fatal flaw: Japan. Japanese students consistently rank among the top in the world, and their country is a techno-utopia. This book even has Gundam on the cover. Maybe we should start teaching our students something, and holding them to standards, rather than moaning that they're dumb because they don't know things they were never taught.
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