Dumbest Generation Analysis
AP Language Summer Assignment
Chapter 1:
1. In chapter one of The Dumbest Generation, Mike Bauerlein makes several statements about our generation and comes to a conclusion that helps set the groundwork for the entire book. His analysis of today’s youth states that the current generation is lacking when it comes to intellectual knowledge. He provides evidence that states that today’s under-thirty population in the United States does not have adequate knowledge, and their lack of knowledge with affect them greatly in their adulthood years.
2. As with most of this book, the main supports that Bauerlein uses for his conclusion come in the form of statistics. As chapter 1 progresses, he cites more and more surveys, polls, and studies showing test scores of youth in America and their dismalness. This strategy effectively lends a good amount of credit to his opinion that a large amount of today’s youth population is, in a word, stupid. The statistics and proof of the author’s conclusion are from credible sources and based on reading these surveys, etc. one would think that the generation that the author is writing about is the dumbest generation.
A. History-“The American Council of trustees and Alumni, Losing America’s Memory: History illiteracy in the 21st century (2000) reported the findings of a commissioned survey aimed at measuring the factual history knowledge of seniors at the top 55 colleges in the country (Includes Harvard, Yale, Columbia University, MIT, Stanford etc.) Many of the questions were drawn from the NAEP high school exam. -Only 19% of the subjects scored a grade of C or higher. -29% knew what “Reconstruction” refers to. -Only one-third recognized the American general at Yorktown. -Less than one-fourth indentified James Madison as the “father of the Constitution”.”
B. Civics-“In a 2003 survey on the First Amendment commissioned by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, only one in 50 colleges students named the first
Chapter 1:
1. In chapter one of The Dumbest Generation, Mike Bauerlein makes several statements about our generation and comes to a conclusion that helps set the groundwork for the entire book. His analysis of today’s youth states that the current generation is lacking when it comes to intellectual knowledge. He provides evidence that states that today’s under-thirty population in the United States does not have adequate knowledge, and their lack of knowledge with affect them greatly in their adulthood years.
2. As with most of this book, the main supports that Bauerlein uses for his conclusion come in the form of statistics. As chapter 1 progresses, he cites more and more surveys, polls, and studies showing test scores of youth in America and their dismalness. This strategy effectively lends a good amount of credit to his opinion that a large amount of today’s youth population is, in a word, stupid. The statistics and proof of the author’s conclusion are from credible sources and based on reading these surveys, etc. one would think that the generation that the author is writing about is the dumbest generation.
A. History-“The American Council of trustees and Alumni, Losing America’s Memory: History illiteracy in the 21st century (2000) reported the findings of a commissioned survey aimed at measuring the factual history knowledge of seniors at the top 55 colleges in the country (Includes Harvard, Yale, Columbia University, MIT, Stanford etc.) Many of the questions were drawn from the NAEP high school exam. -Only 19% of the subjects scored a grade of C or higher. -29% knew what “Reconstruction” refers to. -Only one-third recognized the American general at Yorktown. -Less than one-fourth indentified James Madison as the “father of the Constitution”.”
B. Civics-“In a 2003 survey on the First Amendment commissioned by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, only one in 50 colleges students named the first