Education in America: The Decline of Intellect

The image displays the declining IQ levels throughout the years. Photo courtesy of Fellowship of the Minds
Most men who have lived in Western civilization have premised their thinking upon the presence of a higher reality, dimly perceived yet serving as the basis for all human endeavor. That human endeavor was an attempt to discover and live in consonance with that higher reality through the use of man’s unique capacity to reason. The modern intellectual, applying “scientific” methods and standards to his investigation, finds no evidence of such a higher reality or any higher side of man as reflected in the individual. Thus, man comes to be viewed as nothing more than a creature engaged in the process of adaptation to his environment, a creature possessing neither soul nor mind in the sense in which Western man has developed the concept. The intellect itself, the individual’s very capacity to think, is finally called into question.
Today’s educational framework affords no place for the mind. The concept of mind always demanded discipline on the part of the individual if the fruits of his intellectual processes were to command the attention and respect of his fellows. But in today’s denial of mind, the new keys to man’s personality are assumed to be composed exclusively of emotional factors, psychological “adjustment,” and materialistic creature necessities.
fee.org/articles/education-in-america-4-the-decline-of-intellect/
Modern naturalism, materialism, and scientism hold that only material, physically measurable quantities and values can exist. Thus, all other standards of religion, ethics, and culture, including any accomplishment of the mind, are swept aside. The result is an intellectual and moral vacuum.
This vacuum extends to the most minor and everyday concerns of curriculum. Traditional subjects are being displaced by courses in art appreciation, fly-casting, and other intellectual activities equally insignificant.
State control of society and education can be depended upon to provide systematic indoctrination through the innumerable channels of propaganda opened by the decline of intellect.
Such a system of total control, supposedly relieving the individual of all responsibility and all concerns, must prove fatal in the end.
fee.org/articles/education-in-america-4-the-decline-of-intellect/
The new generation: an age of declining intellect
It seems that quintessential American products of apple pie, baseball and hotdogs have been replaced by the likes of Kim Kardashian and Donald Trump as prominent symbols of American culture.
Americans are obsessed with the self-indulgent and grandiose lives and the antagonistic “tweets” of unintelligent narcissistic personalities. The new generation of youths is more interested in feeding their virtual entertainment appetite than in reading for pleasure.
These changes can be best explained by western society now having increasingly underdeveloped imaginations, lack of critical thinking and analysis skills and a society of declining intellect.
This new age can possibly be explained by an intellectually devolving population.
A Stanford University researcher, Dr. Gerald Crabtree theorized that if a citizen from Athens of 1000 BC were to be brought into modern society, he or she would be considered one of the brightest and most intellectually advanced amongst his colleagues.
highschool.latimes.com/yorba-linda-high-school/the-new-generation-an-age-of-declining-intellect/
The U.S. has dropped from number 1 to number 10 in the world on protection of “patents, related rights and limitations.” This is the first time that the United States has not held the top position.
Meanwhile, the nations of Western Europe, along with Japan and Singapore, have leaped forward in patent protections – we are tied with Hungary, which continues to recover and reform from its days as a Soviet Union puppet state.
Patent applications in China surged 45% in 2016, while in the US they declined .9%.
 
Despite being the third-longest State of the Union in the past 50 years, Trump’s speech barely mentioned schools, students, or learning.
Trump’s only clear mention of the subject was a brief comment about vocational education: “Let us open great vocational schools so our future workers can learn a craft and realize their full potential.”
Trump’s omission could come down to a tendency to take the education system for granted when there are other, more seemingly pressing concerns such as security and the economy. But education experts emphasize that schools do in fact play a central role in these issues, even if their role is less explicitly clear.
www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/01/what-trump-didnt-say-about-education/552023/
Report revealing Australia’s educational decline a ‘real worry’, says Birmingham
Three in 10 year 4 students aren’t meeting minimum maths standards while one in four are below standard in science and one in five are not at the required reading level.
www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/feb/25/report-revealing-australias-educational-decline-a-real-worry-says-birmingham
AC

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2 thoughts on “Education in America: The Decline of Intellect”

  1. “the likes of Kim Kardashian and Donald Trump as prominent symbols of American culture.”
    Oh? Kardashian and tTrump in the same sentence?
    You really hate Trump, don’t you.?
    You must have loved Slick Willie or Obongo, then. Or prefer Hillary as potus, eh?
    At least Trump is trying to fix the crap of the previous clowns. At least Trump is saying “MAG’.

    Reply

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