"Kids today" may be the Dumbest Generation, but the parents and teachers
of the Dumbest Generation are themselves so dumb they not only don't
know the information themselves, they don't even know what knowledge exists that is important to pass on.
And I can prove it: the above book What Do Our 17 Year Olds Know? was written in 1987. Those dumb 17 year olds are 40 now. Say what you want about the "elitist" conclusions of The Closing of the American Mind but it was also written in 1987, about 1987 college kids-- who are now adults.
The adults are dumb, all right; but they don't know it. They have a unsettling feeling that something is lacking. The general narcissism and insecurity of parents today-- even/especially the "good" parents, is visible in their parenting. At a birthday party, the kids are running Lord of The Flies while their parents completely ignore them, socializing; meanwhile, they hover over them at the store, at the playground-- "no bicycle without a helmet." They secretly read their kid's email and Facebook accounts, but have never once read the kid's math book. "Oh, ha ha, I don't remember all that math!" Idiot, could you at least pretend it's important?
If you do your kid's math homework with them every night, I swear to you that you won't need to worry about Facebook. I will concede that monitoring their Facebook is easier.
Many professional parents and teachers I know fall back on empty words-- "classical education" or "the use of primary texts" but they don't know what those terms mean. They nod respectfully at Aeschylus, but they don't have the first clue whether he fought for the Greeks or the Trojans. You think these parents and teachers are going to know to tell the kids to read Werner Jaeger? They're not. They're going to buy them a Leapster.
- More Here
And I can prove it: the above book What Do Our 17 Year Olds Know? was written in 1987. Those dumb 17 year olds are 40 now. Say what you want about the "elitist" conclusions of The Closing of the American Mind but it was also written in 1987, about 1987 college kids-- who are now adults.
The adults are dumb, all right; but they don't know it. They have a unsettling feeling that something is lacking. The general narcissism and insecurity of parents today-- even/especially the "good" parents, is visible in their parenting. At a birthday party, the kids are running Lord of The Flies while their parents completely ignore them, socializing; meanwhile, they hover over them at the store, at the playground-- "no bicycle without a helmet." They secretly read their kid's email and Facebook accounts, but have never once read the kid's math book. "Oh, ha ha, I don't remember all that math!" Idiot, could you at least pretend it's important?
If you do your kid's math homework with them every night, I swear to you that you won't need to worry about Facebook. I will concede that monitoring their Facebook is easier.
Many professional parents and teachers I know fall back on empty words-- "classical education" or "the use of primary texts" but they don't know what those terms mean. They nod respectfully at Aeschylus, but they don't have the first clue whether he fought for the Greeks or the Trojans. You think these parents and teachers are going to know to tell the kids to read Werner Jaeger? They're not. They're going to buy them a Leapster.
- More Here
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