It seems as though Mark Bauerlein is going to spend an entire book pointing out different individual's ignorance and highlighting some instances where our generation may seem a little dumb. I am going to take my normal stance against the author and point out that even though there are some people in this world that will amaze us with there lack of knowledge, they do not represent our generation as a whole.
Early in the chapter, Bauerlein uses the segment from the Jay Leno show entitled Jay Walking to highlight the ineptitude of todays generation. However, he fails to point out not only that they edit out the individuals who answer the questions correctly, and also neglects to address the fact that people of all ages end up on this show. I guess if I use his logic then each generation is equally as dumb as the next.
Another problem that I have with his arguement is that he blames our generations low intelligence on technology. Computers and texting are not the only reasons that could explain the decline in young American's academic scores. I am a firm believer that the will to learn comes from a child's parents. If mom or dad do not want to sit with you when you are a toddler and read a book, then chances are that that child will not enjoy reading when he or she matures.
I think that we need to take a look at the big picture today in class and maybe try to identify what other factors may play a part in the facts that Bauerlein is giving us because quite frankly, I think that the relationship between technology and academic scores is a spurrious correlation.