The Dumbing Down of America
Andrey Kessler at the Wall Street Journal accurately notes Mediocrity Is Now Mandatory
- In January the College Board announced it would eliminate the essay portion of the SAT, as well as all of the separate SAT subject tests. Their stated purpose was “reducing and simplifying demands on students.” Such a burden.
- When the University of California system did away with racial preferences in 1996, it moved to holistic admissions. Grades are only a suggestion—and SAT scores are biased, supposedly.
- Virtually all universities and now many companies have D&I departments, for diversity and inclusion. Sounds worthy. But as far as I can tell, the No. 1 job of a D&I department is to hire more people into the D&I department. No one ever mentions excellence.
- Many schools, like Hampshire College, Antioch University and Reed College, don’t even bother with meaningful grades—feelings might get hurt.
- The Biden administration constantly points out “firsts”—its gender and racially selected cabinet, vice president and other appointments. Great, but why not say “best” rather than first?
- An avowed socialist, mittens and all, is now chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, in whose hands merit will burn while mediocrity flourishes.
Political Correctness
A week ago I noted Politically Correct Educators Vote to Rename 44 SF Schools Including Washington and Lincoln.
The San Francisco school board is leading the surge in political correctness by voting to rename 44 schools.
Washington, Jefferson, McKinley, Monroe, John Muir, Robert Louis Stevenson, Daniel Webster, Herbert Hoover, Francis Scott Key, Mission, and Paul Revere are among the names targeted.
The stated cost is $10,000 per school. That’s $440,000 just for new signs.
By the time they finish replacing all the statues, stationary, murals, and uniforms, I expect the board will waste double that.
A Few Politically Incorrect Points
- Changing the name on an building will not change anything going on inside.
- Eliminating the essay portion of the SAT will not improve reading ability.
- Eliminating grades does not make people smarter, nor does giving everyone an A, nor does letting students grade themselves.
- Diversity for diversity’s sake does not benefit blacks or anyone else.
- It’s not just black lives that matter.
- Sheltering kids does not prepare them for the real world.
Why People Voted For Trump
If you are looking for a reason why millions of people voted for Trump, look no further.
Every bit of this is a complete outrage. It is exactly why Trump got elected in 2016 and had he toned things down a bit in 2020 he probably would have gotten reelected.
Biden needs to speak out against this. But he won’t. Instead he has embraced it. The dumbing down of the USA will accelerate.
Mish
My tutor at university kept on saying that she didn’t give a fig about whether you had gone yak farming in Peru, or had done a yogurt weaving course while meditating in up some mountain, what she wanted to know of me and my fellow new arrivals was what we had read, and what we thought about the argument – and not feelings, but reasoned debatable points. How quaint that now seems…sadly
Mass Orwellian Enforcement of Political Correctness is not a Bug of the Biden Administration, it is a desired Feature. Those who voted for Big Brother will get their desire, the rest shall be collateral damage.
Have you ever looked up the ppl who write the SAT? Why does such a small homogenous group of charlatans control the fate of the young? A good portion of the test has nothing to do with the real world and Im sure if any one of the SAT creators stumbled into the real world they couldn’t hold a job for 24hours. Academic Wonks.
Rotten Apples: GI distress as SAT creators: neuronal demyelination
As a parent who just got through this SAT nonsense 2 years, I will say it’s a racket. The test doesn’t teach you anything, nevermind how to write better. I support it’s elimination. Some schools will ask for your “best” schoolwork-that can be a recorded music session, a best essay, a theatric recording, your research paper and so on. It’s how you choose to represent yourself. The SAT is a lowest common denominator hoop to jump through. It’s lazy admissions checking off a hoop box. It doesn’t help your overall commitment to your classes. The tutors cost around $1000 by its all said and done-it IS classist and racist
What did you expect when the “dumb” crowd voted for Biden. Helicopter money next. and US Troops in all the hot spots. For what. Just defend our freedoms.
This is part of their narrative. To get enough “dumbed” down so they can get elected every year. They are pretty close to achieving their goal its even bleeding over into some of the supposedly undumb.
Hmmm if they could only pay them that might do the trick and give them citizenship even though they broke the law to get here……Yes I think they are onto something.
This is nothing new. Remeber “No child left behind” from Bush.
The problem with the narrative about how everything in unfair to the disadvantaged is asians destroying the myth. In 1975, the US had a lot of war refugees from Vietnam. They arrived in the US with nothing and didn’t even speak english. Yet somehow a few years later, they had homes and cars. And their kids excelled academically.
Don’t bring up Asians to the poverty and oppression pimps, they are an inconvenient reminder that their ideologically driven ‘facts’ are pure crap.
In order to ensure that no child is left behind- don’t move.
College board eliminates testing. Sounds like a major business opportunity here, for someone a bit younger than I am.
You’ll have to explain how most people when afforded opportunities they cant afford themselves come out doing just as well if not better than those who are given opportunities not through merit the way some have for generations.
Bit of an implication that socialism encourages mediocrity. Hardly a characteristic of Chinese style socialism. Kids are hammered to achieve. More cultural I think. Middle class kids get comfy and lazy. Grades fall. Schools can’t fail everyone. Standards decline.
There’s dumb and then there is dumber.
Gorilla Glue as Hair Spray? ‘Bad, Bad, Bad Idea’
After more than 15 washes, various treatments and a trip to the emergency room, Tessica Brown’s hair still won’t budge. A TikTok explaining her dilemma has drawn a huge following and advice.
Feb. 8, 2021, 8:50 a.m. ET
Social media users have been captivated by the plight of a woman named Tessica Brown, her decision to use Gorilla Glue instead of hair spray and a harrowing, monthlong quest to undo a seemingly permanent hairstyle.
It all started when Ms. Brown ran out of her usual hair spray, Got2b Glued. In a pinch, she opted to use a different product she had on hand to finish off her hair: Gorilla Spray Adhesive, made by Gorilla Glue.
….
worse still: she’s raised about 15k from a gofund me and is considering suing Gorilla glue because the label said not for use with hair.
Of course media is sending heartfelt messages of empathy and compassion for her. You can bet if the same thing happened to Mary-Joe Heartland USA they’d all be calling her a stupid inbred redneck.
I’ll call her stupid if that makes you feel any better.
Using a product on your scalp that specifically says to avoid using on skin – whelp, at least you got the lulz.
Anyone in their right mind would call her stupid. But in the USA it pays to be stupid apparently.
In my part of the world, kids literally kill themselves if they fail to get into a good university.
Grades matter …. a lot – and so does academic excellence.
Asian kids for the most part know how competitive the world is and are very serious about getting on the ladder.
Not sure ‘diversity and inclusion’ come into it at all.
You can see where this is all heading.
The comments here show why political correctness is pushed. At the top nobody really cares about this stuff, but it distracts everybody blow while they bicker.
Not even blaming Mish or any regulars here, most know that the Fed and “interest rate apartheid” is the real story of our time, but even among a crowd like this political correctness is an effective lightning rod. Imagine how well this narrative works among people who don’t know anything about banks or finance!
Correct. It was only uneducated trailer trash white racists that voted for Trump. There could not have been any legitimate reasons for anyone voting for someone other than Hillary in 2016.
what a perfect understanding of the world you must have…
Wrong. People voted for Trump, a failed “businessman” who hired criminals and incompetent people in his cabinet…where was excellence in his administration. There wasn’t any. It’s funny being here in South Georgia…you still see Trump 2020 signs in people’s yards along with their confederate flags. I image you’ll still see Trump signs a hundred years from now. Those same racist will continue to glorify being a lover, losing the Civil War along with worshipping a lover who could care less about them and their trailer home with junk all in the yard. But it’s American, so they can carry on as they please.
I can think of a lot reasons
I have to say that we all rant and rage at today’s world, which was created by tons of elites who aced the SATs and all the other grading mechanisms designed to separate wheat from chaff. That hasn’t worked out so well, has it?
The problem is, no one knows what intelligence is, no one knows how to measure it, and no one knows what intelligence is going to be needed 23 years in the future (K-12 + 4 years of college). For me personally, add on 6 more years of college, so it took 29 years of education to make me employable!
As I work with elementary and middle school students, I tell them that in my years of school, we thought kids were wasting their time with the simple video games that were available then. Now this field is worth hundreds of billions a year. As stated above, we have no idea what skill sets will be critical decades in the future.
We need to teach curiosity, how to learn and adapt, how to think about stuff (I don’t know how to express it, but critical thinking doesn’t cover the entire realm of what I mean here), and how to motivate ourselves to make the changes in our lives to get those new skills to accomplish that new thing.
Who do we have that can do this? These things can’t be measured, but if we look back on our lives, these skills were much more important than learning to design a distillation column in undergrad.
So I am open to trying new stuff and different ways for education. I feel that we will get better, some of the changes won’t work but some will.
I paid for daily tutoring for my children, which paid off in spades. They also all went to a very special summer camp….that my eldest daughter now co-operates, some 30- odd years after she first attended as a camper.
At the time, it was a sacrifice to pay for these things….but we made it a priority. The bottom line is that it is up to parents to motivate their kids…..the school system will never be able to overcome poor learning…..without strong family support. It simply won’t happen no matter how much money you throw at it.
“…the school system will never be able to overcome poor learning…..without strong family support.”
I agree 100%.
Knowing how to create video games isn’t learned by playing video games. It’s lots of math, computer science, logic, etc.
On a more mundane note, I think the dollar might have already bottomed into a DCL….not yet confirmed……but the timing is such that I deemed it wise to sell GLD and SLV and buy the dollar index UUP……when gold and silver topped this morning.
I’m almost back to even on my busted “silver short squeeze” trade. Still down about $30…but it’s only been a week. If the dollar starts falling again, I’ll swing back.
Luckily I did not engage that trade, while reviewing Wallstreetbets realized there was no consensus to long silver since Citadel had a 1% share of SLV. Bit of luck, was killing time waiting for the markets to open
Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho for President in 2024.
We give 36% of the American people a college degree, but only half the country can read at an 8th grade level.
Think about that.
Only 12% of the American public can read at a level of proficiency….and only 2% read at level five (the highest level) …..a category that is rapidly going away altogether due to the fact that almost nobody reads that well anymore.
On the 2105 Assessment of Educational Progress, only 36% of 4th graders were proficient in reading and 40% were proficient in math.
Breaking out black kids….we get 18% reading at proficiency and 19% proficient in math.
The “average” American reads at a level somewhere between 7th and 8th grade level….and has a 6th grade understanding of math and science.
So we have to dumb down the SAT’s……otherwise how are all the mediocre diploma mills going to stay in business. How will they support their fat middle-management layer with all their VP’s of Diversity & Inclusion?
It’s the same problem in France. The levels have fallen across the board in language and math. On TV commentators make the most glaring mistakes in syntax, vocabulary and conjugation and they are never corrected.
It’s a fact – 75% of the population could not read these posts, even if they could get off facebook for an hour.
You are transferring your anger regarding a local issue (renaming schools) and a private issue (College Board removing essay portion of exam) to a national political party. Even if Trump won these two actions could have taken place and there would be nothing that Trump could do about it (except bloviate and try to get more supporters). Yes I agree that both actions are short sighted and probably counterproductive. If they rename the schools after more people then someone will find another problem in the future. But overall it is small potatoes compared to official corruption, denial of facts, and complete falsehoods coming out of the previous administration. And although writing a good essay is an important skill the best will still rise to the top in college and life.
I’m in charge of a crew of about 30 at a mfg. If they get anymore stupid I quit.
Maybe they’re really clever and just want a new boss…or they like winding you up and having a chuckle over it later ?
If America is dumbing down its not due to political corectness but social media. How can we have an intelligent conversation when we don’t even agree on the facts and so much of social media’s energy is in pushing false facts. Sorry I’m not agreeing that social corectness is the problem you make it out to be. If anything what we’re seeing is an attempt solving discrimination and bigotry and the four year have pointed out thi is a huge problem. Such talk received a permission structuere from on one other than the President of the United States who banned transgenders from the military and mocked peeople who weren’t white protestant males
They weren’t banned. Just certain conditions were set forth. The recommendation came from a panel of military and civilian experts who studied the problem. The Joint Chiefs of Staff signed the recommendations. You can read the report here:
What??? And they want to get rid of the SATs???
“If America is dumbing down its not due to political corectness but social media. How can we have an intelligent conversation when we don’t even agree on the facts and so much of social media’s energy is in pushing false facts. Sorry I’m not agreeing that social corectness is the problem you make it out to be. If anything what we’re seeing is an attempt solving discrimination and bigotry and the four year have pointed out thi is a huge problem. Such talk received a permission structuere from on one other than the President of the United States who banned transgenders from the military and mocked peeople who weren’t white protestant males”
Learn to write and spell please.
If America is being dumbed down, it’s not due to political correctness but more about social media. How can we have an intelligent conversation when we don’t even agree on the facts? So much of social media is in pushing false facts.
Sorry, but I’m not agreeing that social correctness is the problem you make it out to be. If anything, what we’re seeing is an attempt to eliminate discrimination and bigotry. In the last four years, this has seemingly become a huge problem. Such talk has received a permission structure (whatever that is) from none other than the president of the United States, who also banned transgenders from the military while also mocking people who aren’t white protestant males.
You miss the point. My kids will get a requirement for excellence FROM THE HOUSE THEY GROW UP IN. They already competitively destroy all of the other kids from the non-competitive liberal families that wont allow scores in their soccer matches.
At some point reality kicks in and competition happens. Until we have a world government, no policy on earth can stop that. Do you think the Chinese kids get graded on excellence? We better hope we can keep hiring them. I was the only American in my incoming Ph.D. class 20 years ago, and I havent hired an American in 8 years. . . since the last disaster. Useless people, that is what we are currently producing from our colleges.
“Every bit of this is a complete outrage. It is exactly why Trump got elected in 2016 and had he toned things down a bit in 2020 he probably would have gotten reelected
Those are your reasons as why he got elected…. The numbers say something else
Maybe we should hire chimps too, male AND female of course, they are our underrated yet ever so intelligent bros after all….Btw, my comment is not intended to be racist, I swear it ain t …. Just in case you thought it was…
“Think how stupid the average American is. Then realize that half are even dumber than that.”
— George Carlin 1998
If you take a poll most people will say they are more intelligent than the average.
Yeah, I don’t know why you would want to introduce subjectivity into an objective test in the first place. Who was even grading the essays? And on what basis?
A few facts about the essay portion of the SAT
…The College Board added the essay to the SAT in 2005. “The reality is that although there was a lot of initial interest in the writing section, it didn’t live up to expectations and as the years went by, colleges became less enthusiastic about it, citing their existing ability to gauge applicants’ writing skills through their own application essays,” said Isaac Botier, executive director of college admissions programs for Kaplan….
You are right!, I hired a really good gal to write my entrance essay, and it worked.
“Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.”
—Karl Marx, “The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon” (1851-52)
“If you are looking for a reason why millions of people voted for Trump, look no further. “
Sad but true.
I’m so sick of the binary nature of our politics, we either accept a racist, narcissist con-man who happens to dislike political correctness, or we accept a system that promotes underqualified college grads in an increasingly globalized economy, but avails a tax/economic policy that isn’t feudalism.
What is more “dumb”?
Renaming a building because the person it was named after had significant flaws?
Or believing in Jewish space lasers and intenational elite of vampires that suck the vital juices out of children. ”She was allowed to believe things that weren’t true.”
Are you saying there are no Jewish space lasers?
Then what has George Soros been doing with the money I send him?
Israel has a very active space program that launces their own satellites. China, the US, Russia and France have tested lasers in space for communication and in certain programs for disabling enemy satellites so one could expect that Israel has done the same so Jewish space lasers are highly likely although I doubt that they use them to set forest fires in California. Likewise a global elite does exist but I don’t think they suck the life forces out of babies but you have to admit some of them are really bizarre.
oy vay zmir!
From Sarah Silverman…”Come on Jews, the space lasers are supposed to be for hair removal only.”
..and here I believed those infomercials that swear that lasers grow hair on bald heads!
I do see where this is a legitimate question to ask. Also, noting in history, the US has a long history of importing engineers and scientists to make advancements. We did after WWII to make great advancements in aeronautics and space exploration, and I am sure we will continue to do so.
Mediocrity seems to be the norm honestly, where we are often fat and happy. Look at our car industry as the example of this where we once ruled the world, fat and happy. Then came the Japanese.
Fortunately, in America we understand how power works.
China’s plan for medical domination
If there’s another pandemic, the West could be dependent on Beijing for vaccine development link to unherd.com
Agreed. I’ve long held that Trump was bad in many ways but would go away after 4 or 8 years. But the intersectional/race dividers, assaults on merits, evidence & reason and on the philosophical pillars of our legal system could destroy this society. My key fear about Biden is that he was too beholden to the dangerous elements within the Dem party to confront them. I have not seen anything thus far that eases those fears.
Are you saying that their anger is justified??
Given what the left is doing to America, of course their anger is justified! But no, this does not justify 200-300 people (out of 74,000,000 Trump voters) charging the Capitol, any more than people’s anger over what happened to George Floyd justified $2 billion of property damage and 25 deaths caused by Antifa and Black Lives Matter in their riots.
Be careful. Seeing both sides is very politically incorrect.