Dumb or Dumber

“Fair enough, but we suspect that if young people don’t know the Bill of Rights of the importance of old COLORED ENTRANCE signs—and they absolutely should—it reflects not stupidity, but a failure of the school system and of society (which is run by grown-ups) to require them to know it.” (Bauerlein)  Our generation doesn’t know near as much as people in earlier generations do in particular subjects. Our generation doesn’t know all parts of history, but we can recall most of the pop culture that we see and hear about today. This isn’t shocking. I think most of the people in this generation will be taught something, memorize it, be tested on it, and forget it because it doesn’t pertain to us. The information that we learn only matters when it comes to test time when dealing with a particular subject. I’m not saying I agree with this, but that’s reality. This generation is more focused on different things such as going on the internet or watching TV. Earlier generations didn’t have these types of tools so they read more books for their studies or as a pastime. Because our generation has access to the internet and television, we become more interested in that because it’s faster than going to a library, looking for a book, and taking the time to read it for the information we need. Also, the internet and other sorts of technology could benefit us such as helping us find cures for cancer or other diseases that are so common in our world. Since we are so equipped in using technology more so than earlier generations, we can help people out. Technology is more of interest to us than history, so therefore we are going to know more about it. Because we like to use the internet to find fast facts or not having a particular interest in something doesn’t necessarily makes us “dumb”.

I think our generation is smarter in different ways than other generations. We are going to know more about electronics and technology more so than the earlier generations. We are creating and inventing things to make life “easier” in a sense. Even in schools, they will have the TV on before class to show recent updates or they will have the iPads for students to do their research on, instead of enforcing reading and going to the library. We are more equipped in finding out information on our own through the internet than having it tucked away in our brains. We will learn about something and forget it very easily because we are involved in so many other things that earlier generations didn’t have the option to. Teachers don’t reinforce facts so the students can retain it, but rather make sure their students know what they need to for a standardized test so it doesn’t look bad on them for not teaching it. We aren’t necessarily at fault here. And if people think that we are the dumbest generations, what are they going to say about generations to come?

Bauerlein states that anyone under thirty is the dumbest generation. I don’t think that’s fair in any sense. Comparing us to a beauty queen isn’t right. She probably cares more about her looks and her desires more than who fought in World War I.  Not everyone in this generation is like that. I would give credit to many people in our generation for how intelligent they really are. Everyone has different interests, so that could mean they aren’t going to know everything about history, but they may know a lot about science. Usually if you’re interested in something you’re going to retain the information and you’re going to want to learn more about it. It’s sad that more people don’t know what happened in history, but that could mean they are more interested in other subjects. In high school, history was probably the most boring subject for everyone. Everyone dreaded the history classes. I was one of them. I’m not saying the class wasn’t important because it very much is, but other things interested me more. I have more the love for science, but I still care about what happened before my time. The past affects our future and it’s very important to know the facts of history. We are where we are now because of what happened in history. I agree and disagree with Bauerlein when he says that we are the dumbest generation because we don’t know everything there is to know about history, but we should know the major things. I do think there are many people in this generation that are very smart. I can admit that there are people that don’t even know facts that you commit to brain at an early age that everyone should know, but they might be smarter in a different interest and we shouldn’t make them feel “dumb” if they don’t’ know who the speaker of the house is. Everyone’s different. It’s not fair to generalize our whole generation as “dumb”.