The Dumbest Generation

That is why Thomas Jefferson counted so heavily on public schools to ensure the continuance of the Republic.

.Here we arrive at the national implications of the Dumbest Generation. The benighted mental condition of American youth today results from many causes, but one of them...1955 to 1975, youth movements...and the mentors who should have fought back surrendered...Two generations on we see the effects of the sovereignty of youth...They don't read enough books...or care enough to do so. The don't ponder enough ideas or have the vocabulary to do so.

.A predictable descent commenced. The sixties generation's leaders didn't anticipate how their claim of exceptional-ism would affect the next generation, and the next, but the sequence was entirely logical. Informed rejection of the past became uninformed rejection of the past, and then complete and unworried ignorance of it.

.Democracy thrives on a knowledgeable citizenry, not just an elite team of thinkers and theorists.

.all unite on one premise: knowledge of history, civics, art, and philosophy promotes personal welfare and national welfare.

.This is why leisure trends among the general population are so important.

.As of 2008, the intellectual future of the United States looks dim. Not the economic future, or the technological, medical, or media future, but the future of civic understanding and liberal education.

.MY COMMENTS

..1. A very weak chapter in which the author argues that the most important thing in the world for democracy is liberal arts education centered on tradition and reading every great book written in the last five centuries. He even demeans science and technology and engineering education. Odd.

..2. I think he misquotes or at least misunderstands Jefferson. The important thing is an educated public, not money for public schools.