THE FEDERALIST:
Unsurprisingly, average SAT scores dipped for 2019’s high school graduates, according to results in September. Many observers were quick to note, however, that nationwide, more students are taking the college admission exam because of publicly funded testing during the school day, which may explain the decline.
Not so fast, unfortunately. A growing body of research shows that IQs and intellectual abilities have steadily been decreasing among people born after 1975. Ten years after the publishing of “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future,” a best-seller by then-Emory professor Mark Bauerlein, evidence suggests we are only getting stupider. Bauerlein discussed with me where America stands on the one-decade anniversary of his book.
Bauerlein’s book begins with a review of American students’ embarrassing knowledge deficits, skewering academia’s over-emphasis on what it calls “critical thinking,” its misguided promotion of screen time in school, and its short-sighted undermining of the role of older, experienced mentors.
Citing a number of objective studies — the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the National Survey of Student Engagement, the Kaiser Family Foundation Program for the Study of Entertainment Media and Health, the American Time Use Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts — Bauerlein highlights the disparagingly dismal knowledge of our American students. The poor results span many disciplines: history, civics, math, science, technology, and fine arts.
