Too Stupid to Live?

by Nancy

If you've read or written crime novels or romance novels for any length of time, you're familiar with the character who is Too Stupid to Live. This is often a young woman who decides to check out that funny noise in the basement after the local newscaster reports a serial killer has escaped and the local butcher was robbed of his knife collection.  She puts on her nightgown, grabs a candle and tiptoes down the basement stairs--alone, of course.

Nowadays, I wonder if that character isn't our national mascot.

Are we celebrating stupidity these days? When that Simpson girl opened a can of Chicken of the Sea and asked if she was eating chicken or fish, we laughed. But that was a few years ago now, and I wonder if we've decided to embrace idiocy in a big way? (And this isn't a political blog, so lay off the presidential jokes. I'm warning you.--I've become a connoisseur and only appreciate the very best.)  Is the constant flow of entertainment making us all into morons? And have we reached the point of wanting to believe that's a good thing? Do we aspire to be nincompoops?

Have you seen Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? Sure, it's funny, but I'm not certain we're cheering for those brainy elementary school kids. We're hoping the adults will make fools of themselves, aren't we?

In her new book, The Age of American Unreason, author Susan Jacoby believes Americans are taking an intellectual nosedive. We're not only stupid, but we compete to see who's the stupidest. (At least somebody had the wits to cancel that Caveman show.)  And she thinks we're hostile about being forced to learn. If you'd take a walk into the urban high school that's located 8 blocks from my house, you'd agree with her. (This school even looks like a prison.--No windows.  And no grass growing in the yard---er, football field next door.) A teacher acquaintance of my husband admits that the kids in his 10th grade class are so resistant to learning anything whatsoever---they don't want to get caught "acting white"--that many teachers have given up and simply pass out magazines at the beginning of every class and let the kids look at pictures or nap.  No child left behind? Hell, these kids WANT to be dumb.  At least, they think they do.

But who's dumb and who's dumber? The kids or the teachers? Or the parents? Or the community that allows the situation to continue?

Me, I'm not exactly a brain surgeon. I attended a liberal arts college that believed profoundly in the liberal arts by insisting all students take a variety of courses that would (presumably) mold us into well-rounded adults. Which means I know a little bit about a lot of things.

Although I planned to be an English teacher (after a brief stint in the theater department) I was required to take plenty of courses in history, math, art, a foreign language and--God help my professors---science, too. In fact, my college was so committed to the liberal arts concept that we weren't offered any courses that would prepare us for specific work.  ("If you want to be a plumber, go somewhere else," a fatuous professor memorably said at freshman orientation.  Since then, I have thought countless times that--well, nevermind.  Let's just say that if one of my daughters brought home a plumber to join the family, I would be overjoyed.) We took no how-to classes at my college, but plenty of theory.  The idea was that if we knew enough about education, for example, and had a depth of general knowledge, we'd become good teachers without any training.  The broader the base of what we knew, the better.

Uh . . . are my classmates the teachers now passing out magazines, do you suppose? Because nowadays there are plenty of programs to help teachers better inspire and educate students.  Maybe the liberal arts could use a bit of brass tacks, after all?

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about teachers lately.  They're kind of our last line of defense in the dumbing down of our country. Obviously, I didn't last long in the profession. After 5 years of struggling to understand inner city 7th graders--let alone teach them anything worthwhile--I couldn't cope any longer. It took more than my "depth of general knowledge" to succeed. I have huge respect for teachers, though, who stick it out, take the low pay in stride and strive to improve themselves and their students year after year.

Right now, we're in an era when many parents think it's more important that their kids become a professional athletes than high school graduates. We're willing to pay private coaches to teach our 12-year-olds the subtleties of baseball, but not algebra. Personal trainers aren't uncommon, but private math tutors are. Kids---hell, all of us!--spend hours surfing the web, but one in four Americans didn't read a single book last year. How are teachers supposed to function in this atmosphere?

I look back on the good teachers I experienced from kindergarten through grad school.  (I'll skip over Mrs. White who spent our daily math class teaching us the Flut-o-phone instead of multiplication tables.) I had a chemistry treacher in high school who--despite my wandering around the lab in a state of total discombobulation---managed to help me understand the big concepts and show me that I wasn't entirely stupid---just a victim of the common belief that girls couldn't be scientists. My 8th grade homeroom teacher was also my English teacher, and one day as she was reading a paper I'd written in her earlier class, she turned to me (as I was killing time playing table football---remember that game?) and said with some respect and wonder, "Where do you get the words?" Which was incredibly encouraging to me.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here.  You're all brilliant thinkers (if you read TLC every day, how can you not be?) and interested in many things. (Who among you can please explain the Kosovo/Serbia situation in a succinct and unbiased way?  I'll bet somebody can.) But did a teacher help you become who you are? Or do you remember only the bad ones?

Last week, somebody mentioned the Fractured Fairy Tales, which were smart story-telling for kids.  Here's one.  Enjoy.

Comments

[Tom]

Yeah, I gotcher expuhnaytin ry-cheer.

Serbs and Kosovars; there never was a real Yugoslavia. It was a geopolitical surrealism forced by European imperialists on some Middle Eastern people with a sort of tribal outlook on life. The Yugoslavians never bought in to the nation-state thang in a big way. They still tend to cluster in their tribal homelands.

The Serbs managed, though, through the Nazis and Tito to accrue most of the power in the non-nation - and are hugely upset that anyone would want to free their serfs (the disenfranchised Kosovars, Croats, Montenegrans and Bosnians).

Oversimplified, the ColorForms version. So sue me.

I'd a-left this to Her, Margie, but I saw her with Lars and Felicity a while ago, and there's been a lotta yelping and giggling and howling at the eclipse audible from down the block. If she's doing any writing tonight, it ain't about world history (except in a very personal way).

[Sue]

My son, a junior in high school just came home the other day telling me that an 85% is considered failing in Japan, and expressed great relief that he lived in the United States. Their kids just must give up since they have to study so hard. I looked at him and started spouting names...Sony, Toshiba, Honda, Casio, Hitachi, Nintendo, Nissan.....that, dude is what that 85% is failing got them. World domination in eletronics and automobiles, leading to untold wealth. He might be rethinking his stance.

[Joyce Tremel]

One of my sons is a grad assistant in history at a large university and he said the students are dumb as rocks. He just finished grading exams over the weekend and the class average was under fifty percent. He even tried to find ways to give them extra points, but it didn't help. What really bugs him is when the students complain because they didn't get study sheets or review every question before the test like they did in high school.

One of my favorite teachers was Mr. Titus. He taught 6th grade History (and some English) and really pushed the students. He treated us like adults, called us by our last names, and gave us our first essay tests. He taught us about communism by having us read Animal Farm. I went to a grade school reunion a couple of years ago and he still remembered most of the students thirty five years later. He walked up to me and said, "Oliphant, you haven't changed a bit!"

[Josh]

I have a theory that this dumbing down of America is a plot by one of the major political parties, because an educated populace is its worst enemy. This plot has been part and parcel of this party's policies since, oh, about 1981. This is not a new theory. I think I decided I agreed with it sometime in the mid-'80's.

[ramona]

I wish I'd have had a Mr. Titus. He sounds like a great character.

The teacher I remember most was Sister Agatha. She taught gym. She could sink a basket from mid-court, wearing a full nun's habit, in south Louisiana, in the blazing heat. I don't think she did much for my intellectual development, but she was a good role model. If you did something wrong in class, she threw a basketball at your head.

[Nancy Martin]

Good grief, Josh, I never thought you'd be voting for Mr. Huckabee. Wait a minute---this isn't a political blog.

Sue--Toyota, too.

Joyce, tell me they don't use study sheet at that large university. Egad.

Hey, Tom, did you see that eclipse last night? Totally cool!

[Nancy Martin]

Ramona, I like the sound of Sister Agatha. If she threw a basketball at somebody's head now, she'd be sued, right?

[Joyce Tremel]

No study sheets, Nancy. The students (mostly freshmen) haven't figured out yet that college is not high school. It usually kicks in after they get a few failing grades, that hey, maybe we should study for this class!

[Kerry, the Martial Tart]

Oh, dear -- this turned into quite a rant. Please feel free to skip to the bottom :)

I've been hearing complaints about the dumbing down of students since I began college myself; I've heard it from generations of college teachers and have added my voice to the choir. Judging from my students, it seems to me that several forces are converging with disastrous results.

First, I think American culture has long included a sort of proud anti-intellectualism. It's what gives rise to the phrase "ivory-towered academician" and to generations of kids who get teased and ostracized for being "too smart." Now add to that attitude the almost diametrically opposed notion that every child has the right to a college education. Not that I don't think that every child shouldn't have that opportunity, of course! But what I see now in my students is not gratitude for an opportunity and an acceptance of the responsibility to make the most of it. Instead, it's the idea that they are actually entitled to a college degree (with the good grades necessary to acquire it) without actually having to work for it. Just another facet of the "entitlement" thinking that seems to be becoming more pervasive all the time.

Finally, in my state at least, we're beginning to see the unintended consequences of state-mandated "outcomes assessment" testing (in our state, known as the Standards of Learning, or, very appropriately, the SOL's). Because test results are tied not only to school accreditation but teacher evaluations and salaries, this program has led to a refocus of education from actually trying to teach kids critical thinking and analytical skills to the much simpler -- and dangerous -- "teaching to the test."

The result, at least in my classes, is a significant number of students who have no interest in learning what I have to teach (I teach two semesters of non-majors biology, a course I specifically redesigned to steer away from the useless and trivial and to focus on contemporary issues that anyone interested in being a smart consumer and good citizen should care about . . .). Another fraction of students don't care about what I have to teach, but realize that they need to pass the class, and are only too happy to blame me, rather than their own lack of effort, for their poor grades. The saddest group includes a bunch of students who are bright, capable, and eager to work hard and do well -- but who, thanks to the new focus on test scores in high school, have never learned how to study and learn on their own.

I should add here that these students collectively make up less than half of the students I teach -- thank heavens! But given the numbers in my classes, that's way too many, in my book.

On a more positive note . . . I was really fortunate in having far more good teachers than bad, and a remarkable number of really outstanding ones. The two who always leap to mind when I think about high school are my 10th grade English teacher and my 11th and 12th grade Spanish teacher. Both of them helped me discover passions and talents different from the math/science realm I'd been tracked into since elementary school, which was a marvel in and of itself. But what I really remember is that they both created interesting, collaborative, engaging, and just plain FUN classroom environments. I don't know how they did it, but I bless them both for it!

[Nancy Martin]

Kerry, when I was teaching 7th grade, I noticed it was the year that the really bright kids could no longer rely on their native intelligence to grasp the material. The other kids had learned to study in elementary school, but the really smart kids struggled in 7th grade. It was the year the rubber met the road in so many ways.

[Kerry, the Martial Tart]

Nancy, that's such a great point. We're seeing some really interesting patterns in our students. Thanks to the odd adjusted grading schemes applied to Honors and AP courses, our students are entering with higher GPA's than ever. We just admitted the class with the best average SAT scores ever. And 25% more of them are enrolled in remedial math than last year. The bright kids are exiting high school looking better on paper than ever before, but having learned less and less about how to be students . . .

[Maryann Mercer]

There are so many places blame could be placed it's not funny, but let me say this first: the kids who want to learn will find a way to do it...sometimes in spite of the system.
When political bickering and pork barrel funding (not to mention...um...war) become more important than funding education, it speaks ill for the country. When students from other countries are better able to afford education in a US college or university than the kids who live IN the country, that says volumes about how much this country values education for future generations. Administrators in this area are overpaid, teachers are underpaid, finding the money for additional classroom materials from their own pockets. Some teachers who are tenured stop caring. New teachers struggle, some of them trying to reach students only four years younger than they are. It's the hardest, worst and sometimes most rewarding job in the world. Oh...and did I mention the parents who NEED that passing grade so Johnny can quarterback the big game and get into SEC or LSU or Ohio State. Or the parents who just don't give a damn.
Back in the day, Catherine had an 8th grade alegebra teacher who gave everyone (yep, everyone) in his classes "A"s for the year. This placed them in AP Algebra in high school, when most, including Cath, were still at the 2x=4 stage. The result? Math anxiety. And tutors. I have a young friend who is teaching her second semester of high school English. 3 Classes advanced, 3 classed remedial. She uses a combination of film, poetry, music and books. She said to me "you just have to get their attention". So far she has. I hope her enthusiasm never fades. The kids who get her will learn-in spite of themselves :o)
I had three notable teachers (and lots of good ones): Mr Mutz-who made history people and not just dates, Miss High-who spoke Spanish like a native, inspired me to make that my major in college, and was not adverse to donning a sombrero and celebrating Cinco de Mayo, and Miss Childs-my junior English/Lit teacher. We read college level material, went on field trips to the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and discussed everything with passion. And it was free.
One question and then I'll be quiet and go make breakfast. If education in this country were truly free; no tuition, just the opportunity to learn, would it make a difference in the way our children view learning? (and in addition, would teachers without budget worries teach more effectively?)
Done now.

[Karen Olson]

My daughter is in fifth grade. Her teacher is in her mid-20s. Her teacher freely admitted during the parent orientation at the beginning of the year that "I don't like science." What? The teacher also told the children recently that she didn't pass her teacher's exam on the first try. She had to take it again. I don't think she should be telling the children that. And the notes that come home from her are littered with grammatical and spelling errors. My daughter's essays are not marked for grammar or spelling (and I have to point out any errors, and there are errors) but always have a smiley face and "good job!" written on them. There is a lot of emphasis on making the children feel good about themselves. While that's admirable, it should not shoulder its way in front of actual education.

[Nancy Martin]

Maryann, as per your question about free education: My neighbor, Joan, teaches 4th grade in the city. When the school district offered a free computer to any family that showed up to get one---no kidding---only two parents showed up FROM THE ENTIRE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL POPULATION.

Oh, Karen, I want to weep for your school district. Are we reaching an era when the district will need to educate the teachers before they're allowed in a classroom?

[Kathy Reschini Sweeney]

Last season, "The Wire" focused on education, especially in urban middle schools. The writing is amazing, of course, but it's worth watching to get an inside look.

Some of you guys may have already heard this, but I sometimes teach Business Law in college. In my first class, made up of juniors and seniors, only *two* kids out of 50 could name the three branches of government. One of the two was Canadian.

I brought in the School House Rock DVDs and started from there.

[Abbe]

I received a phone call yesterday, just as I was putting on my coat. The user needed help... saving a document for a graduate class. Barely able to disguise my disbelief, I said, "You don't know how to save a document?" When she answered, I just wanted to cry.

[William Simon]

I'm going to let Aaron Sorkin say it:

"Education is the Silver Bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes. We need gigantic revolutionary changes. Schools should be palaces. Competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be getting six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge for its citizens, just like national defense. That is my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet." - The West Wing

I consider myself to be extremely fortunate to have gotten an actual education, instead of just going to school. There's a huge difference....

[Me, Margie]

Last night's eclipse was totally cool!

Did you know that some people think that lunar phenoms like that can cause increased fertility? Which is great, you know, for people who want that. The rest of us? Well, let's just say there are other ways to get there without risking conception. I learned that in school. Okay, not in a classroom, but it still counts as education, I think.

Tom - next time you hear howling at the moon, get ML and come on down. So to speak.

[ramona]

It sounds like Sister Agatha needs to be resurrected to throw a bunch of basketballs at people's heads. She can start with Karen's daughter's teacher.

I do smiley faces in my critique group, when I like something I read, and only if I like it a lot. If I like it a little, you get a check mark. I don't give out smiley faces lightly, and certainly not if there is bad grammar involved. In my group, you have to be tough. If you want to feel good about yourself, you probably have no business being a writer.

But I admit, I might be a little OCD on the subject of smiley faces.

I could write a dissertation on the downward spiral I have witnessed at my sons' high school over the last four years, but I will spare you all. There are not enough basketballs in the world to throw at some of the jokers in charge.

[Karen in Ohio]

Wow, what a great topic. This blog is becoming more and more of an intellectual treat, thank you. And talk about a rant! I apologize in advance for the following lengthy one:

Did you know that Costa Rica has abolished their military, and now focus on the health and education of their citizens? They have the right idea, I think, and it's contributing to the general wealth of the country, as well as making it a great place to live. We could not get away with that, but there is certainly no reason why the US has to spend ten times as much on our military as the next highest spending country, especially to the detriment of the education of our children.

We are fortunate to live in a very good school district, and both our youngest two daughters ended up with full, four-year scholarships, one to a highly competitive engineering school. But I recently ran into a history teacher from the high school who was lamenting the general lack of knowledge (basic, like the names of the states) and lack of interest in his students. This is a middle to upper middle class area, with really good elementary schools, too. It makes me so sad to hear this.

A few years ago I taught in the local community ed program, beginning computers and beginning Internet, for adults. The last class I taught was an eye-opener for me, and speaks to the general laziness of Americans. I was showing the class how to use all the Word commands, my theory being that, if one knows how to use the various keys and menu items of Word, one will understand virtually any Windows program. Finally, one woman said--whined, really, "Can't you show us something we can use, something fun?" I told them about the games, and then said that I would take no responsibility for the time they would waste in the future, and pulled up Solitaire. Can you believe that's all they wanted to know how to do, to sit at a $1,500 deck of cards? After that I could no longer teach that class, it just put me off. I ran into the vice principal, who asked why I was no longer on their teacher roster, and I shared the above story. He said "Welcome to my world". So it isn't just kids, sadly.

We expect to be entertained every single minute of every single day, it seems, usually with useless noise. Have you ever been to a mall or a store where they don't play Muzak? It's immediately noticeable, that absence of noise. In Europe it's more common to not have it, and it makes a difference. Watch sometime, while you sit at a traffic light, to see how many people are driving and talking on cell phones. Watch, sometime, when you are walking in the park or working out at the gym, to see how many people are plugged into iPods. Some of them may be listening to a book on mp3, but I doubt most of them are. Our kids see this, and they see us parked in front of TVs or computers, as well. Children learn what they live. Which is why our kids learned to read, I guess. We read incessantly, including at the dinner table, and we read to them nightly until they were in middle elementary school. We never allowed cable or video games in our house, and they were not allowed to watch TV except on the weekends. Yes, it's a form of entertainment, but it's not passive; reading, even light reading, requires more of the reader than channel surfing does.

Heavens, I do get worked up about this topic. We need to be teaching parents how to teach their kids. And we need to stop emphasizing sports so darned much. Other than that, I wish I knew how to light fires under our kids, and their parents!

[jodiL]

Nancy, your comment about 7th graders really hit home, only with me it took a little longer. I was in college before I realized I couldn't just go to class and absorb the information, I had to learn to study! I was very fortunate that all my high school teachers were really dedicated teachers and I learned so much even without much studying. For some reason, I bypassed all the "easy" teachers and picked the hard ones. Learned so much more that way.

[Tom]

Yep, Nancy, it was a terrific eclipse (even with light cloud cover). Hope Harley got Captain Astro out to see it, since astronauts need to know about 'traffic' conditions near Earth.

Josh, you're correct about the plot, but about twenty years late according to my observations. Campaigns against school funding and property taxes by Those People started around Chicago right after Nixon lost in '60, for the reason you gave.

Uhhm, You, Margie - thanks for the invitation but when the Moon is full I go through some changes of my own . . .

[Harley]

I was lucky to go to a great public school. I am abjectly grateful that my kids' dad makes enough money for our kids to go to a great private school. My kindergartners can read and they're not the kind that would be doing it on their own, naturally. They painstakingly sound out words, using phonix and SRA, just like I did, a billion years ago.

Good education is still available. You just need lots of money.

My mom taught at the University of Nebraska and one of the first economic realities I absorbed was, if you teach any of the fine arts, you make peanuts. If you teach football, you make a whole lot more peanuts.

My kids will be okay, academically, but unless everyone else's kids are, what's the f***ing point? Okay, I'm going to go cry now.

[Luce]

I went to a - I guess you could call it an "inner-suburb" High School. After I graduated I discovered that it was rated at the bottom academically. Which helped to explain to me why I wasn't taught all the things every other college freshman already knew - especially in my science courses. It took me a year to learn how to study and to catch up with everyone else. Unlike Nancy's 7th graders - I was never challenged and the rubber didn't hit the road until college.

I do remember one year in HS I was misplaced and put into a General Biology class instead of College Prep. I figured it couldn't be much different, afterall a few of my friends were in the class - boy was I wrong. We spent the first week just doing word searches. Luckily, I was able to transfer out. And this was over 30 yrs ago - so the dumbing down has been a long process.

Also - parents should also shoulder some of the blame. I know I wouldn't have gotten as far as I did without the support and expectations of my family. Which could explain how I ended up being a research scientist - certainly not because of my HS education.

[peach]

I wish I had the time today to write a long essay on today's topic of discussion. Here is a synopsis:
1. If I knew today what I thought I knew back when my daughter began kindergarten in 1990, I would be home schooling her. Me who has always been vehemently opposed to the idea.
2. With more than few educators (retired or presently working in the education system)in my family, they all agree that education has gone so to speak "to hell in a handbasket". Their experience runs from rural schools (13 grades in one building), to suburban (athletics the be all and end all to existance), to City of Pittsburgh Public School system (that speaks for itself). They all teach for the test.
3. Is Cyber School the answer?
4. Comparing my daughter's experience to my own, during our college years, we both graduated with degrees in History. While she loves history, her basic knowledge of historical facts seems to be lacking. 'Back in the day' we took overview courses during our first three years of college which gave us a comprehensive look at all periods of history. She had only a few and thus there are great gaps in her overall knowledge. The trend seems to be specialized topics. Yet in her overall college career she probably had to write over 100 papers (short and long) while I only had to write 5 during my entire college career. She is now in grad school so her education is not finished as yet.

My favorite/least favorite teachers: Being a product of the 1970's where the transition was beginning in education both at the college and high school level, I can truly say that I had only one teacher in high school who inspired me. During my 8th grade year Mr. George inspired my love of history. I have a lot of candidates for worst teacher since we had a lot of new young teachers in my school who were products of the late 60's early 70's college education system.They were terrible then and were still terrible when my daughter had them in her high school career. College brought many inspiring professors, in many types of classes, but the absolute worst were those in Secondary Education. I started out in that track and stuck to it for three years. I never learned one thing about the nuts and bolts of education. Changed my major after that to my family's great horror. I believe I would have made a terrible teacher.

I don't know what the solution to our present system will be. Even with all the problems in our educational system what children are expected to learn is so much more than what we had to learn. Is the answer technology? Is it one on one learning? Is it throwing more money at the problem? Maybe the answer is one room schools for each neighborhood!