The Dumbest Generation… by Mark Bauerlein

While teens and young adults have absorbed digital tools into their daily lives like no other age group, while they have grown up with more knowledge and information readily at hand, taken more classes, built their own Web sites, enjoyed more libraries, bookstores, and museums in their towns and cities… in sum, while the world has provided them extraordinary chances to gain knowledge and improve their reading/writing skills, not to mention offering financial incentives to do so, young Americans today are no more learned or skillful than their predecessors, no more knowledgeable, fluent, up-to-date, or inquisitive, except in the materials of youth culture. They don’t know any more history or civics, economics or science, literature or current events. They read less on their own, both books and newspapers, and you would have to canvass a lot of college English professors and employers before you found one who said that they compose better paragraphs. In fact, their technology skills fall well short of the common claim, too, especially when they must apply them to research and workplace tasks (p. 8).

Mr. Bauelein answers for this educator a number of questions as to the “whys” of the perceived trends in education. It “connects the dots” of seemingly random behavioral patterns of students into a cohesive picture that one can understand. The above passage sets the stage for the rest of the book in defining how and why today’s youth are what they are. Mr. Bauerlein points to a couple of cultural and societal influences that he believes are the culprits of this downward slide of today’s youth: screens and weak leadership in adults.

Mr. Bauerlein’s definition of screens is encompassing: TV, video games, computer/internet, cell phones and any other electronic medium of transmitting pictures and data visually. Through the research that he has either personally conducted or that he has read the conclusion is that screens cause an intellectual stunting or a mental stagnation (p.139). The research bears out that the consumption of screens is addictive and causes the user to become self-absorbed (p. 137). This addiction and absorption can take place very easily; just observe what a mother will do with a fussy child when she is exasperated. She will plop the child down in front of the TV with a video. Though seemingly harmless, it is the beginning of a possible habit forming trend.  When the user become self-absorbed, and it doesn’t take much screen action for some people to slide to the state of being self-absorbed, all focus is on the next game, the next text message, the next YouTube, the next email, the next show… The self-absorbed person loses perspective on life, loses interest in the affairs of others, and loses interest in the lessons learned by those that have gone before them (p. 235). The self-absorption that occurs with screens is very similar to phenomenon that occurs with individuals that become addicted to a particular drug (p. 137).

Mr. Bauerlein also points a vindictive finger at the adults in our society for not actively passing on important convictions, traditions, and history to the younger generations (p.199). There are a couple of reasons for this lapse in intergenerational connectedness: the drive for monetary/career success and an over willingness to please and placate children.  When the adults of the society are wrapped up into gaining all the money or career success or social engagement they can achieve, something or someone is going to get the short straw. Many times over it is the children that are the ones that suffer from the lack of meaningful adult interaction from the earliest ages. This abandonment results in a whole host of psychosomatic issues that Mr. Bauerlein does not even touch on. Mr. Bauerlein also accuses adults for not standing up to the whining and affluenza of today’s youth and not assertively helping them understand what is truly important in life (p.136). This takes the form of not allowing that child have an Xbox 360 or that cell phone at age 8 or TV in their bedroom at any age. When parents deny these things, they had better be ready to step in and fill that seeming void with other mind active activities; activities where the parent can engage the child in understanding the world outside the child’s little sphere. This also takes the form of actively educating the younger generation in the cultural mores that have made America great.

Mr. Bauerlein continues with a discussion on how the attitude of the average teen/young adult compounds the problem.

The attitude is even more harmful than knowledge deficiencies we have seen earlier. An ignorant but willing mind can overcome ignorance through steady work and shrewd guidance. Read a few more books, visit a museum, take some classes, and knowledge will come. An unwilling mind can’t, or won’t. It already knows enough, and history, civics, philosophy, and literature have too little direct application to satisfy. For many Americans, that translates into a demoralizing perception problem, a mismatch of expectation and ability. – pg. 193

This demoralized perception then translates to apathy about the events occurring around the average teen/young adult that does not directly affect them. They do not care about the events of Haiti, Israel, Iraq, or Afghanistan and likewise the current affair the elected official has been accused of or current legislation. As an educator, working with a student who is apathetic is pathetic. It is beating one’s head against the proverbial wall – any and all means of engaging the student academically comes to naught. This demoralized perception also translates in some students have an inflated view of the acquired skills. To make themselves feel good about themselves without putting in the effort to truly attain the skill they will inflate the abilities. Sometime the parents come into play as with pressuring an administration to force grade inflation for their Johnny.

Mr. Bauerlein closes with this statement:

The youth of America occupy a point in history like every other generation did and will, and their time will end. But the effects of their habits will outlast them, and if things do not change they will be remembered as the fortunate ones who were unworthy of the privileges they inherited. They may even be recalled as the generation that lost the great American heritage, forever. – pg. 236

May we adults and current leaders heed Mr. Bauerlein’s dire forecast and actively engage ourselves in the mentoring and nurturing of the future leaders of this nation to avoid the impending disaster.

Ron Brace

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