Somebody needed to say this.
And I will. It’s the truth.
I know all parents think their kids and grandkids are
brilliant. They see their kids or
grandkids use a tablet or text on a smartphone and are amazed.
I’m not.
Want to see how smart those kids and grandkids really are?
Ask them to do simple math without a calculator, tablet, smartphone,
or computer – nothing complex like finding a square root; just basic addition,
multiplication or division. What’s 25
plus 17, for example. What’s 7 times
8? Divide 85 by 5? Again, no cheating by using a separate device
besides paper and pencil. For the bonus
round, ask them what 15% of 300 is.
These are not tough questions; ordinary run-of-the-mill
third graders used to be able to answer these. Now some college grads can’t.
Some of them can’t even figure out how to make change if the cost of something
is $2.08 and you hand them $2.25.
Okay, you’ll say, they’ve never been good with math. Neither
were you, you’ll say. So let’s skip math for a moment and move on. Let’s ask
about the country where they live.
You know, the United States of America. That one.
Ask them what happened in 1776. Ask them how many states
there are. How many branches of the
Federal government there are and what each is called? Ask them how many members there are in the US
House of Representatives, and how many US Senators there are. How many Justices are there on the US Supreme
Court? I bet a lot of recent college grads can’t get every one of these
right.
Knowing how to use a calculator, a tablet, a smartphone, or
how to do a search on the Internet does not qualify anyone as brilliant, any
more than knowing how to use a toaster does. A lot of what parents perceive as super
intelligence in their kids is just knowing which buttons to push.
Let’s be honest. Without a lot of electronic help your kids
and grandkids are fundamentally stupid. At least when it comes to what every citizen
over the age of 12 should know.
And as far as your kids and grandkids under 12, and
especially your budding geniuses under 6 you’re so proud of, you need to
realize that tapping on a picture icon is not a mark of genius.
You can train
rats and even pigeons to do that; does that make rats and pigeons as smart as
your kids? Perhaps not.
But in terms of common sense, my money’s on the
rats and pigeons. They know how to survive on their own; they know how to
adapt. I’m not so sure your kids and
grandkids can.
Now, I’m not saying your kids and grandkids don’t have the
innate ability to learn. They do. But
they have to be taught. By you. By competent, honest teachers. Within a
structure and curriculum that challenges them and forces them to master what
they actually need to know.
Not simply which buttons to push. Or what to parrot back to please a teacher.
When they are young, they need to be taught facts, not
opinion, or “experimented” on with the latest teaching theory du jour. They
need to be taught to be skeptical, to ask questions without fear of offending
someone or being held up to public ridicule by their teacher or their
peers. They need to learn to value
knowledge over blind conformity.
They need to learn to think, question, and discover what’s
real, in other words.
They also need to learn to read more than a tweet.
And most of all, they need to stop buying what’s really shameless
propaganda promoted by some teachers about science, American history, and our
culture.
That’s where you – parents and grandparents – come in. Take
a peek sometime at what your kids are being taught. Don’t just presume that all
teachers are honest and doing a great job. Some are and a lot aren’t,
anymore. Some still have their jobs only
because their union protects them. Some see their job less as teaching actual
facts than converting students to their point of view.
When you find one off the rails, spewing nonsense, call them
out. When you find one bullying students into accepting their opinions as fact,
expose them and move for their dismissal.
If your kids are stupid it’s partially your fault if you
don’t
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