What’s that old saying? Each generation will become weaker and wiser. Who said it?
The high-tech age has encouraged a sedentary lifestyle, which renders us physically weaker than generations before us. We’re weaker morally, I think, because we’ve mainstreamed permissiveness, sexual and otherwise.
Are we wiser? Under the definition “having knowledge or information as to facts, circumstances,” perhaps. Thanks to the microchip, we know (or can know) a little about everything. If we’re using the definition “having the power of discerning and judging properly as to what is true or right,” then a resounding no.
What’s sad is that America as a whole is losing touch with the meaning of biblical references (the patience of Job, the wisdom of Solomon, the return of the Prodigal Son, Judas’ kiss, doubting Thomas, etc.). On a related note, we’ve heard and read about how poorly young people do on historical literacy tests. A new study from the American Enterprise Institute reports more of the same.
Half the nation’s 17-year-olds can’t identify history references, such as pinpointing the decade in which the Civil War was fought, knowing the main theme of 1984 or what Senator Joseph McCarthy had been trying to do. (But, if they’re taught, they will learn. What do government schools teach these days? I don’t know.) From USA Today:
In all, students earned a C in history and an F in literature, though the survey suggests students do well on topics schools cover. For instance, 88% knew the bombing of Pearl Harbor led the USA into World War II, and 97% could identify Martin Luther King Jr. as author of the “I Have a Dream” speech.
Fewer (77%) knew Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped end slavery a century earlier.
“School has emphasized Martin Luther King, and everybody teaches it, and people are learning it,” says Chester Finn of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank. “What a better thing it would be if people also had the Civil War part and the civil rights part, and the Harriet Tubman part and the Uncle Tom’s Cabin part.”
Better, indeed. More nerds, please!
Speaking of eggheads, check out my review of Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them:
One of the funniest characters in the 1984 movie, Revenge of the Nerds, was the uncoordinated and absent-minded Arnold Poindexter. He wore thick glasses, but still couldn’t see well.
We’ve had plenty of laughs at the expense of the Poindexters of the world, studious fellows with Coke-bottle glasses, wearing pants that are too tight and too short, a pocket protector, and an ever-present social awkwardness. As we mature, we move beyond crude stereotypes and realize we all have a bit of nerdiness, geekishness, or jockishness in us.
Such nerd humor, while harmless for adults, isn’t so harmless for children. In Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them, David Anderegg, a child and family psychologist, declares that the nerd/geek stereotype negatively affects children and contributes to anti-intellectualism in America.
