Chapter two of "The Dumbest Generation" by Mark Bauerlein follows begins with same punch that is found in chapter one and I assume the rest of the text, our generation has been dumbed down by technology. Not only does the author continue with his accusations that our generation is the worst the world has ever seen, but he supports his argument with flawed statistics. The first mistake Bauerlein makes is by overwhelming the readers with numbers. There are statistics from every major firm and agency in the country about the consistently falling educational scores of our generation. Now before diving into the problems with most of these statistics, I do want to say that some of these facts are alarming. The idea that there is a majority of students our age who are more likely to identify Germany or Japan as an ally to the U.S. in World War II is scary, regardless of the sample. With that said, the majority of the statistics presented are flawed or lacking the necessary information to be credible
I chose the picture seen above, because I believe it embodies perfectly the concept the author ran away with, how to lie using statistics. It does not take a professional statistician to realize that Bauerlein either forgot to perform some basic analysis of the data, or simply chose to ignore such an analysis. Either way, shame on you sir. If we look at page 46, the author presents us with a simple figure of literacy rates over a 20 year span across most age groups. Bauerlein correctly points out that between 1982 and 2002, literacy rates among 18-24 year olds dropped from 59.8 percent to 42.8 percent. While this may be a sad reality, young people are not the only ones who watched their literacy decline. If you highlight the numbers diagonally you will see that each age group grows older, their literacy rates drop a few points. This fact holds true for every single age group presented. The author is correct, literacy rates are dropping, but not just for our generation, for everyone.
Another problem I wanted to address comes from Bauerlein's final paragraph on page 55. This section deals with a national survey taken on student engagement, specifically on books read for personal enjoyment. The majority of students surveyed said they read between 1-4 books for personal enjoyment in a year. The author then has the nerve to state that college students spend too much of their reading time dedicated towards academics. Now as a English professor, I am assuming Bauerlein is aware of the amount of reading college students undergo. Students are constantly finding themselves without enough hours in the day to complete all their work and through all of this we need to pick up a leisure books to appease the author. I am sorry, but god forbid students take a well deserved break from studying and do not pick another book. Does a runner cool down from a 5 mile run by hitting the weight room immediately after? In the words of Kevin McCallister (main character from Home Alone) "I don't think so". Having more reading presented to us than ever before as students, it can be hard to find the same amount of enjoyment from reading that we did as adolescents.
I do not completely disagree with the argument that technology has lead to decreased educational scores. In fact, I do believe it is one of the tools contributing to this trend. Our generation however, is not the only group experiencing this same phenomenon. Literacy rates are dropping regardless of age, which begs the question, why is Bauerlein so intent on targeting young people?
Comments (2)
Could it be that we're the target because we're the generation that's going to perpetuate this trend? Or is it the case that those people currently in the 60+ age range exhibited the same trend 40 years ago when they were in the same demographic we're currently in? I'd be interested to see the history of these trends and data. If this decline across the board is a new development, it may well be cause for concern. On the other hand, if such an all-inclusive trend can be found anywhere you look in history, I think I'd point the blame at the devices used to gather and compare the data rather than at the people themselves.
Posted by Dan | April 7, 2009 10:38 AM
Posted on April 7, 2009 10:38
Although I feel like it is the devices used could get the majority of the blame, I think it also deals with the amount of time we spend using them. We have talked about multitasking and how often do you see people with their phone in hand or ear buds in their ears. It has to be a combination of both.
Posted by Brittany | April 7, 2009 12:20 PM
Posted on April 7, 2009 12:20