The Dumbing Down of America
Published by Bob Foster
In terms of the percentage of young people with college degrees, the U.S. has dropped from number 1 to number 12 among 36 developed nations. We decry the dwindling of the middle class, but ignore the fact that today, education is the foundation of the middle class.
I read recently that in the U.S. a child drops out of high school every 26 seconds. Moreover, a report from the College Board indicates that today’s younger generation will not be as well educated as their parents.
Hard-won excellence is no longer a term being used by younger generations, so I guess it should be no surprise that our cultural heroes of the day are people like Lady Gaga and Snooki.
As the older generations retire and head into the sunset, we have to rely on the younger generations to take over and raise our country’s standing in the world. Of course we have some exceptionally talented young people in America, but they are far too few in number…and becoming the exception instead of the rule.
Unfortunately, we are becoming so inured by an ever-growing army of jobless workers; two exorbitantly expensive wars; a broken public education system; decadent economic inequality; big-money control of government; the deficit; etc.—that our nation is more concerned with the antics of Lindsey Lohan, Tiger Woods, et.al. than we are with the future of our country.
Our society seems to be holding intellectual capabilities in contempt, and is more interested in hip-hop and reality shows than in educating our children.
The U.S. ranks behind Canada, South Korea, Russia, Japan, New Zealand, Iceland, Norway, Israel, France, Belgium, and Australia in the percentage of 25 to 35 year-olds with a college degree. If this trend continues, America will become a lesser and lesser player in the fraternity of industrialized nations.
If the U.S. does not get our educational system fixed, and fixed soon, future generations will be living off the handouts from more advanced countries—which will be almost everyone else.
Washington—are you listening?
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Comments
4 Responses to “The Dumbing Down of America”
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Yes, this is concerning indeed. With public education so underfunded while we’ve recently paid for a $100M state of the art High School in Los Angeles – it’s no wonder our kids are getting dumber and less-interested in learning.
There’s also the hopelessness issue facing all Americans, young and old – that is, where are the jobs we’re all supposed to be getting once we’re trained for the marketplace?
Here’s an interesting article about higher ed: http://www.pri.org/business/higher-education-is-like-a-ponzi-scheme2128.html
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Jeff – You asked a very important question “…where are all the jobs…?” The simple answer is that most of them are gone–maybe for ever. I just read that the housing industry may take decades to become robust again, so there go many construction jobs. More and more of our manufacturing is being outsourced, so there go those jobs. And what is even more disconcerting is that so much of our technical development work is now being outsourced.
I think this is also part of the problem the graduates in the article you referenced are facing–too many Ph.d.s for too few positions in this country. The demand for higher educated graduates in the U.S. is not keeping pace with the rest of the world.
I think we are looking at a long term struggle to regain our former economic status–if we ever do.
Thanks for your comment.
I believe that this is an excellent opportunity for any person with an entrepreneurial spirit to shine! A person can sit around and wait for a job to come knocking on their door or they can figure out how to make lemonade out of life’s lemons. I spoke to a guy today who was in construction for years. Losing all hope of getting a construction job in a non-existing industry he went to his favorite hobby, fishing. He began selling crawdads he caught to local restaurants, then it spread to a regional customer base and now a year later, he is selling crawdads worldwide. He is expanding as fast as he can and yet demand still outstrips his ability to obtain product even working 19 hour days. This is just one example, but people are finding ways to enjoy life more, maybe create a smaller footprint and trade quality of life for quantity of life. I realize this is not a solution for everyone, just spotlighting the opportunity for the free thinking entrepreneurs.
Steve – I think you are absolutely right. There will be over 6 million people attempting this year to do what the person in your example did. Some of them will make it, and some won’t…at least not this time. The important thing is to try. I wrote a post some time back about unemployment and entrepreneurship and included this video trailer in the post. I think it says it all…people who lost their jobs and then went out and did “something that matters.”
You’re right, not everyone can succeed–but everyone can try.
Thanks for your comment.