News Cut: March 31, 2008 Archive

Are we dumb?

Posted at 10:26 AM on March 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (83 Comments)

Kerri Miller talked today to Susan Jacoby, author of "The Age of American Unreason." What follows is the live blog of the Midmorning. Here's the archived audio (sorry, it's RealPlayer).

According to her Web site:

America's endemic anti-intellectual tendencies have been exacerbated by a new species of semiconscious anti-rationalism, feeding on and fed by a popular culture of video images and unremitting noise that leaves no room for contemplation or logic.

Back in the day, we would've said all that in two words: "you're stupid."

Jacoby insists that our culture carries with it a disdain for logic and she cites as evidence the focus on infotainment from TV and the Web.

OK, that's easy. On the other hand, I see access to information being at an all-time high; I see YouTube offering college lectures for free, and I see people being required to know more information now than at any time in history. Oh, and public radio's popularity is at an all-time high.

Jacoby says, "..a lazy and credulous public increasingly unwilling or unable to distinguish between fact and opinion." I'm wondering which she thinks that is.

The trick in all this is to avoid the anecdotal. We can always find reasons to conclude that the culture has been dumbed down, or even -- as I've indicated -- that's it's not. Clearly the future of the country requires an informed -- and intelligent -- citizenry.

10:07 - We're off and running with Kerri playing a sound byte of Robert Kennedy quoting a poem by Escalus (damn you, Shakespeare!) Aeschylus.

"In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

Kennedy was speaking following the death of Martin Luther King Jr.

Kerri quotes Jacoby as indicating the use of Aeschylus as him assuming the audience would have known who Aeschylus was. She also says nobody today would quote an Aeschylus. Jacoby says even our public leaders today would be afraid of being branded elitist. So much for the hope this isn't a political discussion; she criticizes Bush for saying Obama "talks too good."

Ronald Reagan quoted John Gillespie Magee when he delivered his famous eulogy at the space shuttle Challenger memorial service. Does that count?

10:11 -" We have just gotten lazier," Jacoby says. "Only about half of America read a book last year." Confession time: I didn't read a book last year, at least the kind Jacoby is talking about. I did read a manual on electrical wiring and its principles. Does that make me dumber than someone who bought and read a book on Amazon?

10:13 - "Folks." It's a bad word, according to Jacoby. "It was not a word that was considered suitable for presidential speeches."

10:22 - Following up on above. This is an interesting question, whether the evolution of the English language is an example of dumbing down.

Consider this:

Thus much, gentlemen, I have thought it incumbent on me to observe to you, to show upon what principles I opposed the irregular and hasty meeting which was proposed to have been held on Tuesday last - and not because I wanted a disposition to give you every opportunity consistent with your own honor, and the dignity of the army, to make known your grievances. If my conduct heretofore has not evinced to you that I have been a faithful friend to the army, my declaration of it at this time would be equally unavailing and improper

Is that really more intelligent merely because it uses an older form of the English language? It came from George Washington.

Several generations later, a -- arguably -- dumbed down form of English resulted in this:

Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad.

Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology -- global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger is poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle -- with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.

That would be Dwight Eisenhower's warning about the military-industrial complex.

10:26 - We're into the full Bush bashing over Iraq and I won't get into that debate. "The question is why is are we so willing to be lied to." Well, no, we're not willing to be lied to, nor is being lied to by a government a product of our current media age. Gulf of Tonkin anyone?

And does the lie of the treaties with Native Americans indicate a previous level of intelligence?

Secondly, I would submit the analysis of the run-up to the Iraq war may be the most researched, documented, and widely available investigation of an event ever made available.

10:30 - We're now into criticizing Wikipedia "and its online errors." This is an old argument (she's actually arguing encyclopedias in general are not a proper reference for term papers but that's beside the point). In 2005, a study was conducted of Encyclopedia Britannica (once considered the bible of encyclopedias), and it found Wikipedia was just as accurate.

10:33 - Jacoby touches on an interesting point -- one that I often gassed on about when I wrote Polinaut: the tendency to seek out the news (and assume as "truth") that which mirrors what a person already believes. I believe, obviously, she's write about this and this is clearly a side effect of the increase in choice that Americans (and others) have in information. But I also wonder whether people are equally quick to label as "dumb" or "uninformed," that with which they disagree. And does that poison the climate for intellectual discussion in this country that the two guests in today's first hour of Midmorning touched on?

10:37 - Question: How many of you have been in a school recently?

10:40 - I'm ignoring the political talk. Here's an interesting story from late last week in the U.K. about a report that is about to come out on the Internet generation.

Far from being dumbed down by the information age, we are smartening up. Jim Flynn, a New Zealand professor, has charted year-on-year rises in IQ scores across the world, and tests show that Britons' average IQ has risen 27 points since 1942. True, school leavers might know nothing of Clement Attlee or the nine-times table, but that's the fault of our education system. The cognitive labour demanded by games and assimilating detail is linked to better mental dexterity. Our brains have been reprogrammed.

10:41 - "It takes away the space that was reserved for more reflection and introspection," Jacoby said on the information that is now available today. An online commenter said "no wonder we're dumb" because we're bombarded with information. Here's my present problem: we're assuming we are dumb. Prove it.

10:44 - Kerri invokes the wisdom of Stevie Van Zandt. Excellent. He apparently laments that musicians today don't understand the history of their craft. Van Zandt, of course, played a part on the Sopranos, one of the cultural phenomenons of our time.

10:47 -- No one wants to work for their knowledge. Say again: prove it. "Boys and girls should have desk and they shouldn't be allowed to talk to each other," Jacoby said. The caller to whom she was responding said "kids today" (or "folks" if you prefer) are "passive" in their learning. Isn't that "I'll talk, you listen" method of education the definition of passive?

10:53 Says a commenter here:

Instead of picking at culture let's look at all that is happening. I get tired of the criticizing of the culture. Let's look at the powerful stuff that is happening. Kids are so technologically advanced that they leave adults in the dust. Kids are discovering reading through graphic novels and genres we older 'folk' don't get. And on and on and on.....

Smackdown, Jacoby replies to the idea that kids are smarter:

"No they're not. Any kid who can use a computer better than most people. It doesn't tell us anything. The computer is a tool. One of the things that's very wrong. What techies talk about is if the computer and digital universe and the Web is some kind of godlike new way of thinking. The idea that because kids can use a computer means they're smarter than us is ridiculous."

She then says that when we say kids are smarter, we're saying kids can use a computer better. Well, there's a lesson in intellectual dishonesty: change the assertion to a different one and then rebut that one.

In fact, kids are smarter (more knowledgeable) than previous generations. The difference is they're not knowledgeable about the same things. And the computer, by the way, while it is a tool, has also created the environment for creativity that has come from it. The computer is not an entertainment tool. It is a tool that can be used for multiple purposes.

One can use a pen and paper to write a poem or paragraph from Aeschylus, or one can write Mein Kampf.

10:58 -- All in all, the debate pretty much mirrored that of generations past. I'll match this anecdotal evidence with that anecdotal evidence. In a way, it's a shame we think so little of our kids and have so little hope in what they can -- and have -- accomplished.

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Opening day

Posted at 6:40 AM on March 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Baseball has returned. Oh, if only it were 2010 and we could open up -- at night -- in 30 degree weather and 7 inches of snow as the baseball gods had intended.

Here. Pick your poison, sluggers.

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Job market 2009

Posted at 12:31 PM on March 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

(h/t Philip Greenspun)

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After Beer Pong

Posted at 12:43 PM on March 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

The University of Minnesota Daily has the story today of a "new" drinking game. It used to be called the "Drunken Spelling Bee," but now its title has been changed to the "Grown Up Spelling Bee" because of complaints that the old name glorified binge drinking.

You decide.

Sendall wound up making it to the fifth round. Her first word as contestant number 39 was "autoerotic," followed by "verbatim," "eugenics," and "viscous."

During the fifth round, she crinkled her face, trying to spell "manducatory."

"M-A-N," she said, pausing to find the next letter. "G?"

The judges beeped her out.

Sendall had an 8-ounce Pabst Blue Ribbon beer between each round, plus an extra drink during an intermission, for a final total of six drinks by the time she was eliminated.

One rule in the game: No puking.

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The older worker

Posted at 1:50 PM on March 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

The Census Bureau is launching a series of state-by-state reports on the older worker, defined as 55 or older. Thirty-one states are participating. Minnesota's analysis hasn't been issued yet, but today Wisconsin's report was issued.

Some factoids worth considering:

* Statewide, no individual industry sector employed more than 20 percent of workers who were 55 and older.

* Of all workers in the state 55 and older, 22.7 percent were employed in manufacturing. As our manufacturing base declines, this would suggest (at least to me) that the older worker is particularly vulnerable.

* In non-metropolitan areas, the utility industry was the biggest employer of 55-somethings. It's also the highest paying, with an average $4,461 per month salary.

* The Wisconsin part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area breaks down this way in terms of the age and percentage of workers.

45-54 years old: 19.8 percent

55-64 years old: 9.7 percent

55-99 years old: 3 percent

65-99 years old: 12.7 percent

Our area -- St. Croix, Pierce, Polk, and Dunn counties -- has the smallest percentage of "older workers" in the workforce.

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Whatever happened to: General College?

Posted at 5:32 PM on March 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

In putting together a "Whatever Happened To" segment on Mark Yudof last week, I was reminded of the concerns about the closing of the University of Minnesota's General College a few years ago.

General College, its supporters said, was necessary to achieving a racially diverse university. At the time, 48 percent of the General College consisted of students of color, while the university as a whole has only 13 percent students of color as undergrads.

That debate was raging three years ago today. Eventually, the university decided to eliminate the General College, considered a gateway to the university for students who didn't quite meet the academic requirements of the university, and fold it into the College of Education.

So, whatever happened to those students?

I talked to Darlyne Bailey, who was appointed the dean of the new new College of Education and Human Development less than two years ago.

News Cut:: There was concern with the old General College about the low number of students who graduated; I think it was about a 40-percent six-year graduation rate. What has been the experience since the General College was rolled into the College of Education with the students who were there at the time?

Bailey: I've been here about 17 months. We haven't had a whole lot of graduations to be able to talk about graduation rates, per se. But the old General College ... was basically downsized as you know. And it transformed into a department -- the Department of Post Secondary Teaching and Learning. It has been placed as the portal through which all of our first-year, new students will go.

Soon, they'll be moving literally from Applebee into Burton Hall, which is where my office is, so we can have them on the "mother ship." Students, when they first come into the college as first-year students, will go through and be touched by the PSTL faculty and staff in learning communities. We have a whole first-year student experience developed. So a lot of what the General College did in what, I think, was very fine teaching, has now been imported and customized into the new college.

News Cut: The Access to Success Program. How has that worked?

Bailey: Access to Success is the name that our college dubbed "the program" for students whose experiences and high school records showed that basically they would have strong potential. Their high school GPA, ACT, SAT test scores may not ... reach the bar of students who would have been admitted to the old College of Education or any other colleges at the university, but as opposed to having them come to what was then General College or now just be entered into PSTL, Access to Success is the university's way, courtesy of the college, of embracing these students -- students who have fire in the belly, but whose academic accomplishments may not have shown that they can cut the mustard in coming to the University of Minnesota. So Access to Success has its birthplace in the new college, has its roots in our new college, but also going to be at the agriculture school and also in the College of Liberal Arts.

News Cut: So the students who might have attended General College, is this their pathway now?

Bailey: That's one of them. We've also developed a new program I'm particularly excited about, bringing a little bit of New York here, I'm calling it UGo!. UGo! is a fully funded scholarship program that supports high potential students with financial needs, that typically come as first-generation college students, as I did, they come from underrepresented groups, as I am, and they receive financial, academic and basically socio-emotional support over four years, including any aid that closes gaps in tuition, funding, provides them with laptop computers and things like that. They're also given peer mentors and faculty partners to work with to provide them with any of the ancillary supports they may need to succeed in the program.

The difference between the UGo! student and the Access to Success student is largely the financial piece, because I'm fundraising around it and trying to get in enough money to provide these students with the full academic experience so they don't feel that they have to work. They don't have to separate their time between a job and going to class. They can have the luxury of being a full-time student.

News Cut: One of the concerns in closing the General College was that the General College was made up significantly of students of color and that diversity would be lost when the General College as a standalone college ended.

Bailey: I don't know the stats from General College, but I do know that the vast majority of students were students of color, and I can tell you that the profile of the students at the new college, are not 80 to 90 percent students of color. I know we're not half, but I know we're more than 10 percent.

What I can also promise you is people go where they feel comfortable and where they see "like." Like attracts like. I saw this when I was at Case Western Reserve University and I saw this at Teachers College. After awhile, our being here -- my being here -- making sure that everyone understands that one of the core values of this college is embracing multiculturalism, which I define as not only focusing on issues around difference or diversity, but also applauding the things that we share or have in common. Folks will understand and start to apply and feel safe enough to come into this college.

Our numbers have gone up, but I don't have those numbers at this time.

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Photos from the acid spill

Posted at 3:41 PM on March 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Stewart Moyer in Northfield has uploaded to Flickr some of the photos he took of the train derailment there today that resulted in a leak of sulfuric acid.

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