Did College Make You Dumb?
Take this quiz.Newsweek is reporting that many entering freshmen in the nation's college fail on civics and history lessons. And, interestingly, there is some suggestion that college actually makes you dumber as in many cases the entering freshmen out-performed the graduating seniors.
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
I took the quiz and I am elated to be able to tell you that I only got one question wrong, putting me in the 88% correct category. I didn't find the quiz particularly difficult, though I was careful about reading the questions.
Sadly, the average freshman scored a 51.7%. That is tragic! How are they getting out of high school?
It beats me.
The article makes some suggestion about "negative learning" and seems to claim that seniors have forgotten their high school civics by the time they get to that point. Me? I'm a bit unimpressed with their conclusions.
I personally feel that not enough emphasis is placed on this in high school. Furthermore, I think that most Liberal Arts programs work to "de-program" high school students of their lessons learned.
Too many college professors teach their own twisted world views (coughWardChurchillcough), placing the USA in the crosshairs as the root of all evil, and this eventually takes a toll on the brains of impressionable college students.
I'm not saying that they can't think for themselves. I suspect many of them can. I simply think that for survival they have to adapt. If the guy determining your grade is an aging hippie who believes the entire world has been run by the boards of directors of major multinational corporations since JFK was shot, you have to espouse those same views to excel in school. To graduate, you have to drink the koolaid and spew it back out on command. You don't win points with many for taking a more conservative approach. You don't get kudos for finding fact. You get an "A" if you blame some shady secret government cabal and link it to the professor's pet conspiracy theory.
I know. I've been there.
It doesn't surprise me in the least that some of the students become converts.
Still, you should take the quiz.
