SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 26, 2008
Don't Know Much About History…
Kids These Days — Are 17-Year-Olds Losing Touch With Cultural References?
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Play CBS Video Video Generation Out Of Touch? Many U.S. teenagers are unable to name historic figures or dates leading many to decry the distractions of the Internet. Others say that today's kids are smart in a new way. Ben Tracy reports.
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(AP / CBS)
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A new survey of 17-year-olds found that when asked which year Columbus sailed the ocean blue, 26 percent did not say 1492, CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy reports.
And a whopping 57 percent did not know the Civil War happened in the last half of the 19th Century.
At one high school in Oakland, Calif., the students were pretty sharp.
Tracy asked one, "Which American poet wrote Leaves of Grass?"
"I want to say Walt Whitman," the student said. And was correct.
But other historical names, like anti-Communist crusader Sen. Joseph McCarthy, have been, well, blacklisted.
"What was the big controversy that surrounded him?" Tracy asked.
"Is he the Senator that did the bathroom stint?" one student said.
The author of a new book, "The Dumbest Generation," says teenagers are too distracted by computers and social networking.
"They don't care! That doesn’t' touch them" said Mark Bauerlein from Emory University. "There's no reason for them to care."
He added: "This is what is crowding out the materials of history, civics and so on."
But a lot of educators say all this talk about the dumbest generation is really quite stupid. They say high school is more demanding than it's ever been, and students don't need to know a litany of dates because they can just Google them.
"You helped teach this generation - do you take any offense to any of this?" Tracy asked Bishop O'Dowd High School's Steve Phelps.
"I know that this generation is the smartest we've had," he said.
Phelps teaches at the Oakland high school. He says students are expected to analyze events and concepts rather than recite dates.
"People think that not knowing the old information means you're not educated," he said. "But they don't look at what this generation knows today."
Closing that gap between teens and their parents may be the real test.
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See all 47 CommentsIt is perhaps a sad prediction of things to come...
Posted by ozilot
The first 5 minutes or so unfortunately seems to exlain it pretty well.
Yes I''m still ranting about women and indiscriminate breeding because in my line of work I''m confronted daily with more examples of young women toting little big eyed babies around with no man on the horizon. It''s an unending spectacle. The over sixty women didn''t breed with any man that came down the street. They tried to find one with some prospect. No wonder IQ''s are frending down.
Yes, people can get really high grades in school and yet have no common sense. Just because you can memorize a lot of stuff doesn''t make you intelligent. If you don''t have common sense, you don''t have nothing. They say you are either born with common sense or you''re not. Some will say that you can learn common sense to a certain degree. I disagree.
Posted by kennergirl at 12:49 PM : Feb 27, 2008
Main Entry: ig7no7rant
Pronunciation: ''ig-n(?-)r?nt
Function: adjective
Date: 14th century
1 a: destitute of knowledge or education an ignorant society ; also : lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified parents ignorant of modern mathematics b: resulting from or showing lack of knowledge or intelligence
kennergirl - with respect I disagree. They are in a large way, ignorant of what made this world the way it is, They are very intelligent about clothes, music, state-of-the-art electronics and cars, but if you ask them what Descartes meant by the statement "Cogito Ergo Sum" (even if you tranlate it for them).they don''t have a clue. It is uaually the geeky looking (outcast) that learns the deeper meanings of life, but by the time they have matured they have "tuned out and turned on" as Leary wanted them too. Yes there are those that avoid the pitfalls and become the major players of today but far too many opt out of responibility and become Moneygrubbers and thieves that prey on the rest because of a lack of caring for anyone but themselves.
I am a 13 year old boy in the eighth grade. My parents are average, middle class citizens. By no means, am I a guiness or prodigy. 30 or 40 years ago, would you have heard of a full (30+ students) taking a college level Algebra II/ Trigonometry class. So that must make me dumb, right? So, students are dumb because we dont know dates and historical figures? Well, I can guarantee if you went and surveyed 500 people on the street (at random), you would find half wouldn''t know the correct dates or someones importance in history?
Then there are people that have a lot of education, but are very limited in common sense. These are the ones that have difficulty adjusting to the world in which they live. Some are absolute failures, thought they may have several college degrees.
Hey! These are quotes from Dwight D. Eisenhower. A very famous and respected Republican President who led our nation and the free world to victory in WWII.
Sorry he still isn''t up to your NeoCon standards.
Do a web search on Eisenhower + Quotes, what you will find will probable make YOU go screaming into the night.
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Posted by gunownerdan at 04:07 PM : Feb 27, 2008
+ report abuse
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and most saudis are...................muslims..if you would had paid attention to what i said..
islam does not discriminate..it will take citizens from all nations..it will take followers of any color..
to say that all muslims are evil is moot..its pretty much like saying all gun owners are redneck inbreeds or all liberals are fa ggots (i use my cyber name to catch attention but do not necessarily mean all liberals are weak minded). there are efforts from all moderate muslims to address the issue at hand..
Posted by libsrweak
Most of the 9/11 hijackers were SAUDIS, you know, from Saudi Arabia. Bush is often seen kissing and holding hands with their leader while we pay them billions and they "educate" the next generation of hateful Islamic terrorist bigots.
+ report abuse
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hunger??cold?? humm what about food stamps..public housing?? in this country you stay hungry or cold because you decided to put yourself in that position.
and in regards to your ''war-mongering'' issue..how far do you want these jihadist to ram that 747 up your arse before you can be convinced that there are people out there that wants to destroy you and your lifestyle.
Eisenhower said some great things, my favorite is...
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
or
In most communities it is illegal to cry "fire" in a crowded assembly. Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political aims?
Dwight D. Eisenhower
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. ONLY AN ALERT AND KNOWLEDGEABLE CITIZENRY can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, January 17, 1961
And this is why those who are in charge will see to it that Americans are as dumb as possible.
Posted by runningralph at 11:07 AM : Feb 27, 2008
I see you''re still ranting about women and welfare with no real basis. Go you!
Christopher Columbus could not find the nose on his face without a mirror. If you leave Spain/England and sail West and do not hit land you have some real problems.
Columbus did not discover anything that was not here already.
Now, my hero Dr. Jonas Salk, he discovered something. Hoe many statues do you see of him? How many Roads, buildings, parks do you see named after him?
Posted by random_radar at 11:55 AM : Feb 27, 2008"
Such as what pray tell.
Those who don''t know history are doomed to repeat it. But it won''t hurt because they don''t know it. And those who do know history can look like genuine prophets since they can anticipate what is coming.
Ignorance is a great tool in the hands of the enlightened. Quit griping about how ignorant the masses are and take advantage of them. Money and power await those willing to seize the day!
Posted by greeneyes222
In England you can now get your "education" from working at McDonald''s(it''s true).
Mark my words, soon in America you will be able to get an "education" from Wal-Mart University.
A dumbed-down population is a cooperative population.
Not saying our kids aren''t bright, but they''re bone ignorant and unable to compete with students from third world countries. Cut out the foo foo programs, spend the money where it will do the most good (attracting good teachers), and return to basics before they all wind up with meaningless degrees and working for WalMart.
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