Dumbest Generation Numero Uno

Chapter one of The Dumbest Generation is called Knowledge Deficits. It talks about how our generation is increasingly growing dumber and dumber. Seeing as I am a part of this so called "Dumbest Generation", I am initially offended by this statement. However, after reading this chapter I am somewhat ashamed of myself. This chapter talked about many tests that current high school seniors were given and how they scored compared to seniors in the past. When seeing the scores at first I figured that I was going to be an exception to this statement because I come from such a great school system with very qualified teachers. Then I read some of the questions. At that point my self confidence was shattered. At first I was laughing at some of the questions that kids were getting wrong. Students were naming Japan, Germany, and Italy as our allies in World War II instead of the Soviet Union. Others couldn't explain why some doorways were marked COLORED ENTRANCE. I thought those kids had to be entirely uneducated to not be able to answer such simple questions. Then came this fact: "only one-third recognized the American general at Yorktown, and less than one-fourth identified James Madison as the 'father of the Constitution'". My laughter was gone. Who is the general at Yorktown and wasn't Thomas Jefferson the guy who created the Constitution? From that point on I fully took responsibility for being part of this Dumbest Generation. Mark Bauerlein, the author, explains our stupidity as coming from "their games, their socializing, and their spending." Our dependency on the Internet and on our cell phones and iPods and other technologies has kept us entertained enough to not worry about things that our parents may have thought as important when they were in high school.