Are we headed for the "dumbing down" of America?

Question

A friend was telling me that her professor said with teenage pregnancy and kids dropping out of school as a result; in combination with our government not wanting to give immigrants (legal or otherwise) a public education, that we are headed for the "dumbing down" of America. In 20 years, some of these people will be the leading our country.

What are your thoughts on this?

Answer 1

The Yale grad types will still be leading the country. Fewer of the elite college grads will be scholarship students; more will be legacy admissions. There will be an even greater gap between the rich and the poor, much of the middle class, the working class to be more precise, will have been forced into poverty. Public education will be about as bad as it is now, can it get any worse? There won't be a problem with too many immigrants, our economy will have collapsed, and people from other countries simply won't want to live here.

Answer 2

We've been heading that way for years. Compare classic art forms (Dickens, Chaucer, Vivaldi, Rembrandt, Renoir...) to art now. How about movies? I prefer movies made before the late 60s, myself. Most movies since then seem to serve only to either shock a person with gratuitous sex or profanity, or awe a person with special effects. What about the old actors and actresses? Remember:
Clark Gable. Maximilian Schell. Audrey Hepburn. Katherine Hepburn. Boris Karloff. Spencer Tracy. Judy Garland. Vivien Leigh. Richard Burton. Bela Lugosi. Rex Harrison. James Dean. Burt Lancaster.

We don't have too many actors or actresses that now compare to ANY of those. Not even close. And there are so many more, whose names I can't even think of right now...
And then the music of now. Let's see, how much truly GOOD music is out now? Heh, not much.
People don't know history anymore.
They don't READ.
Our schools require less and less.
THIS is leading to the "dumbing down" of America. And it's only getting worse.

Answer 3

WOW!! You sure opened a can of worms! The "dumbing-down" process has been going on for a lot of years. BUT our self-esteem is still high.("WHOOPEE")

We feel good about being dumb. The kids in Japan, and kids in other countries, continue to eat our lunch. What the hel l. Let's cut classes and go to the mall. There's always welfare.

Tell your friend to tell her professor that some of the "kids" who were "dumbed down" years ago are now leading our country. She might also ask him what lessons we can learn from the history of other countries that have fallen by the wayside.

Answer 4

The dumbing down began over 25 years ago...

We encourage our children to home school as a co-op with other families. The kids still get sports, music lessons, dancing lessons and play time with children in the neighborhood.

Home taught children are learning massive amounts of information in shorter time. 3 hours of home schooling 5 times a week gives them more than the 6 or 7 hours in school.

For the past several years it has been home schooled children who have won the national spelling bee.

We are not giving enough of the strong basics...and because of the illegal immigration issues...teachers are spending the majority of their time with the children struggling just to learn the language.

So...because of the impact on our schools by illegals, by "no child left behind"(which teaches at the lowest possible level to reach and include the slow children) and the feminizing of our schools...so now we have bright or exceptional children who have had the focus taken from them and are just simmering on the back burner.

Answer 5

The dumbing down has already started. The political correctness, lowering morals, appeasement, lack of discipline in schools, SAT and other like tests, resistance to grading progress in schools, resistance to acknowledging superiority in a given field in the schools, and resistance to competition are definite indications of this. Look at our political leaders now. They have less moral values, lack of desire to do what is right instead of doing what is best for themselves, taking bribes and generally disdaining the laws they are sworn to protect.Look at some of the spelling and wording of sentences on this site and tell me the kids are being taught anything. Look at some of the questions asked.

Answer 6

America would not "heading" for a dumbing-down of it's young people, if the people raising kids today had some vision for their children. Raise your children with the desire to get more out of life than what you, their mother or father did (keep in mind this is not necessarily a reference to material things), and they will always strive to succeed. My parents are both blue collar people (which is great...they have both busted their butts to put me, my brother and sister through college, because they wanted us to be able to live happier lives than they did, scrapping-by, with barely enough money in their bank accounts to pay the bills.

Answer 7

I feel we've been getting dumber and dumber for the last 30 years, I don't know or actually want to know what the end result will be.

There will always be an educated person running the country and anything else that really matters.

Answer 8

Sadly, I agree with the other two responses you have received so far. I am 55 and there has been a gradual decline since I was able to understand the concept of "dumbing down". Your professor is right on the nose.

Answer 9

We are already there! Consider the geniuses of the last century. Know any Einsteins? How bout a Mark Twain? Met any Edisons lately? Frank Lloyd Wright?

Nope. Me either.

We give our kids too much, and they don't have to earn anything. That's even scarier than the 'immigrant' situation! If you've never had to do anything to get what you want, what are you going to do when the supply dies of old age? (empirical you, not you personally!)

Answer 10

I think not much has changed in the last 20 years. Look at the people running this country now.