Americans Have Never Been Dumber

[Lucille]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-03/americans-have-never-been-dumber

Three years ago, we noted the dumbification of America was accelerating as SAT scores hit record lows. It appears the need for the Derek Zoolander Center For Kids Who Can't Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too has never been greater as Bloomberg reports that students in the high school class of 2015 turned in the lowest critical reading score on the SAT college entrance exam in more than 40 years, with all three sections declining from the previous year.

The mean score on the math portion of the SAT, 511, is the lowest since 1999. The highest possible score on each section is 800.

The reading score of 495 is the worst since 1972, according to data provided by the College Board.

The test administrator reported the lowest score for the SAT's writing section since it began in 2005.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Ugly stats, but schooled =/=intelligent.

 

[Influenza]

I doubt that it is due to Americans becoming stupider. It is probably because of a wider audience of students taking the tests. In the past, only the better students would take the standardized college entrance exams, while today, just about any mouth-breathing knuckle-dragger will take them.

 

[Henry Rogue]

I'm not saying anything, my spelling is atrocious.

 

[specsaregood]

Didn't they significantly change the SAT tests a couple of times during the timespan covered by those graphs?

 

[Dianne]

Who is Joe Biden?

 

[HVACTech]

Ugly stats, but schooled =/=intelligent.

those ARE the "schooled" results.

dimwit. ~hugz~

 

[Anti Federalist]

What's the problem 'scro?

Lots of 'tards lead kickass lives.

 

[Qdog]

I have noticed just anecdotally from young kids from high school to college age seem a whole hell of a lot dumber than 10 years ago. I think it has to do with cell phones. A lot of these kids can barely write a paragraph with correct grammar and spelling if their life depended upon it. A little too much "zomg lolz YOLO" in my opinion. They aren't as good communicating face to face either... subtle things like making eye contact, having good posture, dressing up for job interviews.

I don't know. Maybe its fluoride in the water, or the mercury in the vaccines, or the goddamn radiation from the phones frying their brains. But I think at least part of it is all the mindless texting and candy crush.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

I have noticed just anecdotally from young kids from high school to college age seem a whole hell of a lot dumber than 10 years ago. I think it has to do with cell phones. A lot of these kids can barely write a paragraph with correct grammar and spelling if their life depended upon it. A little too much "zomg lolz YOLO" in my opinion. They aren't as good communicating face to face either... subtle things like making eye contact, having good posture, dressing up for job interviews.

I don't know. Maybe its fluoride in the water, or the mercury in the vaccines, or the goddamn radiation from the phones frying their brains. But I think at least part of it is all the mindless texting and candy crush.

There are some linguists who believe that text-speak has become a "dialect" of English and treat is as a legitimate language. I personally am not a believer in that. I have heard a number of other arguments in defense of "txtspk" too, but it amounts to bullshit, IMHO. "txtspk" is not the same as Latin "morphing" into French over time. It's just not.

 

[nayjevin]

I doubt that it is due to Americans becoming stupider. It is probably because of a wider audience of students taking the tests. In the past, only the better students would take the standardized college entrance exams, while today, just about any mouth-breathing knuckle-dragger will take them.

This, I seem to notice young people are amazing at right brain stuff.

 

[Ronin Truth]

A centry of gubmn't skoolin will do dat to ya. DUH!

 

[georgiaboy]

Well, then, my proposed $1Trillion "Get Ejumacated" federal program will have plenty of co-sponsors.

 

[Ronin Truth]

http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/MomsPDFs/DDDoA.sml.pdf

 

[PaulConventionWV]

I have noticed just anecdotally from young kids from high school to college age seem a whole hell of a lot dumber than 10 years ago. I think it has to do with cell phones. A lot of these kids can barely write a paragraph with correct grammar and spelling if their life depended upon it. A little too much "zomg lolz YOLO" in my opinion. They aren't as good communicating face to face either... subtle things like making eye contact, having good posture, dressing up for job interviews.

I don't know. Maybe its fluoride in the water, or the mercury in the vaccines, or the goddamn radiation from the phones frying their brains. But I think at least part of it is all the mindless texting and candy crush.

I don't think texting really encourages bad spelling. Think about it, that's writing practice that they otherwise would have done by mouth instead. The fact that they can understand shortened variations of words doesn't really hinder their ability to write those words any more than it would for someone who doesn't text.

 

[PaulConventionWV]

There are some linguists who believe that text-speak has become a "dialect" of English and treat is as a legitimate language. I personally am not a believer in that. I have heard a number of other arguments in defense of "txtspk" too, but it amounts to bullshit, IMHO. "txtspk" is not the same as Latin "morphing" into French over time. It's just not.

Can you think of any good reason why txtspk would actually cause kids to be worse at spelling? Did having handwritten notes somehow encourage kids to use correct grammar and spelling when communicating with their peers? If you really think about it, texting has allowed them to do more writing than they normally would, so more opportunities to learn, not less.

 

[Occam's Banana]

I have heard a number of other arguments in defense of "txtspk" too, but it amounts to bullshit, IMHO.

 

[Ronin Truth]

I'm not saying anything, my spelling is atrocious.

For just such situations, spell checker programs have been invented.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en...0...1ac.1.34.heirloom-hp..3.3.657.lA5scqkk-Mo

 

[GunnyFreedom]

I doubt that it is due to Americans becoming stupider. It is probably because of a wider audience of students taking the tests. In the past, only the better students would take the standardized college entrance exams, while today, just about any mouth-breathing knuckle-dragger will take them.

At my high school, at least during 1989-1992, every student with a pulse took the SATs

 

[acptulsa]

Democrats: If you're against the Department of Education just because since it was created U.S. schools went from the top five internationally to about number fifty, you're against education.

Republicans in 2000: If you don't support Dubya because he says he will be the education president, and support his common core idea too, even though when he was governor of Texas it slid to third from the worst of the fifty states, you're against education.

I don't know if we're getting dumber or not. But I know we sure ain't getting educated no more. And how could we?