1. American kids, dumber than dirt: Warning: The next generation might just be the biggest pile of idiots in U.S. history

Comment #82116 by Mags on October 25, 2007 at 5:33 pm

As a student in American public schools, I can personally and sadly attest to the validity of this article.

I'm native-born and I've gone through public education my entire life, only to have myself constantly surrounded by the utter dregs human intelligence. At the risk of sounding smug, I'll state that I minimize my contact with these people and remove myself from the entry-level classes in which they participate, opting instead to take the more advanced courses which more aptly suit my abilities. Even in these areas, where children and young adults of supposedly vastly superior intelligence are supposed to congregate and learn in a fashion that's more advanced, I am besieged by ignorance, unintelligence, and a genuine lack of common sense.

I do not, however, participate in Honors English (even though I should), and as such I am forced to take the base level required for all students in my grade. The collective IQ of that classroom would barely melt ice in Kelvin. The sheer... nothingness that is that class should attest to my point. We recently had to write paragraph essays (yes, they had to be no longer than a paragraph, as sad as it may seem) and I was the -only- student in the entire class of roughly 25 students to get above a 90% on the written assignment. If it weren't so tragic, I would find it hilarious.

It's not even the lack of intelligence that's so intolerable; it's the lack of intelligence coupled with a palpable lack of ambition. Students today have no drive, no will to succeed and are all too pleased with average or even below average grades if it means they don't have to do any work. Hard work and determination are not virtues that most parents espouse anymore, rendering children of my generation lazy, morally bankrupt, and completely incapable of functioning on an intellectual level.

That's not to say that I'm the pinnacle of all that is diligent or intelligent... I've said for quite some time now that the worst thing about myself is that I'm above average, simply because that means average must be truly awful indeed.