Dumb and Dumber
da Chipster
Are We Dumber Off Than We Were 4 Years Ago?
The other day, my homeostatic tranquility was shattered by an article by Greta Van Sustern. She is a FAUX News “personality,” a huge Palin friend and booster, and a Scientologist. (So, basically, a triple crown loon.) The article that made my blood to boil, my breathing to accelerate, and my heart to race faster than Chris Christie after a jelly doughnut was entitled, “Will We Ever Have a President Who Went to Community College?”
Frankly, I hope not. I’ve got nothing against Community College students – heck, I’m married to one – but the world is a very complicated place, and getting more so. I want really, really smart people to run things, people like… Democrats.
But it starts before college, even. It starts with going to high school and learning the true basic science behind cosmology, climatology, evolution and paleontology. Then some logic, math and reading comprehension skills. Then a true understanding of how religion is an unprovable, untestable, inconsistent philosophy and not, you know, real, as in a “let’s-rule-the-world” type of reality.
If we can accomplish that through public education, then Democrats will rule the world, because facts and logic are to Republicans what holy water spritzers with garlic garnish are to vampires.
I’m not taking gratuitous shots here, either; I have data! Just check out the difference between the First Lady’s speech and that of her wannabe. Based on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test, Michelle’s speech graded out at a 12th grade level, while Ann’s was more at the Lovie Howell level, 5th grade. This says almost as much about their respective spouses and audiences as it does about themselves. But it doesn’t end there.
A few months ago, someone applied the same test to the floor speeches of Congresscritters, and discovered this was the Dumbest. Congress. Ever. The bottom 10 IQ curve wreckers were all Republicans and hailed from South Carolina, Kentucky, Arkansas, Arizona and two each from Georgia, Wisconsin and Missouri. Anyone see a pattern?
Now, I had my doubts then as to whether sentence and word complexity were adequate predictors of intelligence, until I went back today and noticed that #6 on the list was Todd Akin.
Yep, America is exactly as she needs to be for Mitt Romney to have a hope in Hades of becoming President: dumber off than we were 4 years ago.
I am so with you, Juanita, and I am happy that What Happens in Texas introduced me to your blog. It really scares me that we would appreciate and honor ignorance today, and seem to wish it on the children of tomorrow.
1There has been a long steady decline in the intelligence level of our country. How else could we have elected to the presidency a B-level movie actor? Even the right wing nuts had to swallow hard on that one, he was also divorced and had dumped his first wife for his second wife. But his economics were what they wanted. Unfortunately, this time around the right wing Christians are willing to forgive a Mormon his heresy, because his economics support their theories. Give the rich more tax hikes and we will all get rich. NOT!!! Primitive tribes never berated the chief having multiple wives and the best living space….after all if the chief is rich and happy we are all rich and happy. It is a sad day for anyone with a brain that the middle class sheep will follow someone ready to slaughter them.
2I wonder how Texas missed being on the list. Oh well, maybe next year. Listen guys, get kids to read. Go to the library. Write a book. Get your own column in the newspaper. Or blog. Or whatever. If you live in Austin, maybe you want to be a volunteer with AUSTIN PARTNERS IN EDUCATION, one of the best programs I’ve ever worked with. They help kids at certain levels, starting with second grade, with reading and math, as well as being good friends to the kids. It only takes 45 minutes a week and you will be SO PROUD of yourself and the kids.
3Former Tx Gov Bill Clements was a 7th grade dropout and barely literate.
4Well written and scary as hell, daChipster.
5Average IQ in Texas goes up every time Perry leaves.
6And a huge number of Americans are downright proud of being dunces and making us the laughingstock of the civilized world! No pointy-headed perfessers for them, no, sir!
7They are happy to rail against libruls trying to take God out of the Constitution, unaware, apparently, that the word “God” appears NOWHERE in that document. You’d think they’d be embarrassed to harrangue us about a document they’ve never read, but you’d be wrong.
And don’t get me started on the civic education we don’t have in most of our schools.
On behalf of teachers everywhere, thanks da Chipster.
There is a reason that Republicans try so hard to use vouchers (which drain scarce resources from public schools), why they come up with laws like NCLB (which takes money away from teaching and diverts it to testing – and testing poorly), and to getting members appointed to State Boards of Education (where they eradicate evolution and Thomas Jefferson from the curriculum). They can not afford a smart electorate.
Dr. Jill Biden, is speaking now. I loved how she looked at the student who introduced her. She is a teacher and my guess is a good one. You will never see her or someone like her at the podium of a Republican Convention.
8The readability tests have been largely discredited (we all are using simpler and simpler language), but here’s something else to think about: Michelle kept her language professional but absolutely clear and understandable, with a message that rang out loud and clear.
Ann’s used simple language and sounded like a Barbie doll.
Akin could have used a string of $4 words and still would have sounded like an idiot.
9Dummer ‘n Louie and Michelle! IQ’s go down into the negative numbers?
10Well said, daChipster, well and truly said. It was a post I will remember. Thank you.
Your third paragraph bears repeating often and widely. Thank you.
11I have maintained for some time that the right is interested in training the masses for high turnover low level (entry) positions. Graduates of our system, in their eyes, are a product, a fungible asset to borrow a phrase from Don Rumsfeld. Big business is the customer. Small business (SB) and entrepreneurial endeavors (EE) need educated, adaptable employees who will be in it for the long haul. Those (SB & EE), as much as an educated electorate, are a danger to the 1% who, in spite of their avowed devotion to the market, don’t want fair competition, but rather a game rigged in their favor.
12Anyone want to grade this one.
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.)
Not that it’s not a good idea to give students loans; it certainly is a good idea to give them loans,” Bartlett said. “But if you can ignore the Constitution to do something good today, tomorrow you will be ignoring the Constitution to do something bad. You could. There are more people in our, in America today of German ancestry than any other [inaudible]. The Holocaust that occurred in Germany — how in the heck could that happen? And when you start down the wrong road, it can be a very slippery slope
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/maryland-politics/post/bartlett-calls-federal-student-loans-unconstitutional-invokes-holocaust/2012/09/06/70dd2974-f842-11e1-8253-3f495ae70650_blog.html#pagebreak
13I keep saying that Idiocracy is a documentary.
14Well, I kind of resent this.
I did go to a 2 year college in the NY state system. Maybe not a community college, but we left with the same degree.
I received an excellent education that prepared me to work.
It was also an excellent and inexpensive way to further my education and get a 4 year degree.
But I understand what you mean. Lyin Ryan, the rights, great thinker and policy wonk? The right is pushing his brilliance?
He only has a 4 year degree in economics and went immediately to work in Congress. No advance degree. Learned everything he has to know at the hands of republicans, no wonder they love him!
The worst example of a supposed educated person with a 4 year degree? Sarah Palin. Our almost VP. Doesn’t that make you cringe?
15The wife of our Vice President, (Dr. Jill Biden,) teaches at a Community College.
Does that count?
16It isn’t necessarily the school, so much as the curriculum.
Most of the Masters of Industry (business owners/majors) that the Rebugs keep touting as the ideal POTUS are very skilled. In very limited areas. They presumably know a balance sheet, they presumably know their particular industry. GW didn’t actually know either, but well, whaddya expect?
The job of POTUS requires a broad and diverse education, as well as the ability to learn unfamiliar territory almost instantly. This requires logical thought, analysis, philosophy – skills that higher education is supposed to supply. Unfortunately, more limited programs are designed to teach only a specific job. And even the better programs can’t force somebody to take advantage of the opportunity. GW always reminded me of a favorite Calvin and Hobbes quote. “They can present the material, but they can’t make me care.”
It’s called a Liberal Arts education for a reason. It can be self taught, but I suspect dear Greta doesn’t have that (or anything else) in mind………
17I would love if they would rate any of Sarah Palin’s speeches.
Part of the rating system included long vs short sentences. Sarah had VERY long sentences – unfortunately, they didn’t make any sense.
18One last thought, a very dear friend of our family, one of the smartest people I have ever known and one of the most principled, never went to college. It was an opportunity he was denied for financial reasons and the war got in the way. He read voraciously, surrounded himself with smart people and listened to them and in general did his best to provide himself with an education outside of the school house. You may have heard of him, his name was Harry Truman and he accomplished a few things even minus a college education.
I’m a former government teacher and I believe in the importance of education, so did the former President. I even took a few classes at the local community college to brush up when I had to teach a class I had not taught in a long time. I found their instructors to be very knowledgeable and very interested in teaching not just lecturing, publishing, and researching. I think there are places for all of those things, just as I know that the self taught former President who always had time for the little girl down the street remains to this day one of the smartest men I have ever known.
So while I agree that we want the smartest guy for the job and while I know we need an educated electorate. I also know that Diane, Miemaw, and Judith all have a point.
I always counseled my students that it is possible to get a good education almost anywhere, if that was what you wanted. But you have to want it and to be driven to find it. Is there a difference between a great liberal arts education from a Harvard or Stanford and basic education from a community college? Yes, but one of biggest differences is the student. If the pupil is willing….
Having said that da Chipster, like you I resent the anti-intellectual foam of the mouth that constantly spews forth from Faux Noise hosts. Furthermore, as a retired teacher, I DO APPRECIATE your understanding of the importance of education in general and public education in particular – it is the last great egalitarian institution left in this country and when it and voting rights go we are all toast.
19Actually, the dumbing down of America has been going on for a long time and is not purely politically driven. It occurs as our reading resources choose to lower reading level (general population magazines used to publish at 11th grade, then 8th grade, and now 5th grade [if I recall right]). It occurs also as our education system is forced to lower actual standards below so-called reading grade levels. I took a class on business writing that emphasized the need to lower the reading level to be clearer and more direct. This also means to help the reader get the message faster with less brain-work, so they can make time-saving decisions…the almighty $$$ strikes again.
Still, I am enchanted by this entry daChipster…good job.
I also had snarky note of the last line of the article: President Obama, has delivered all three of his state of the union addresses at an eighth grade level.
That is because if he goes any higher the congressvarmints won’t understand even half the speech.
20I have been teaching in higher education for 30 years. What I have seen in those years is not a lowering of intelligence, but a poorer preparation for higher learning. I have taught from Hawai`i to Massachusetts, from Alabama to Nebraska, and back to Texas. I find the Texas students far less prepared than any I have taught. This is not the “fault” of the student, but the result of having those who know nothing about how to educate tell those who DO know what should be done in the classroom. The hardest task I have is in getting students to begin with a fact, so to speak, then take that fact and draw conclusions, make connections to other facts, in order to solve a problem. (i.e. critical thinking!) They are capable because they aren’t stupid, but they sure have to be pushed along in order to “get it.” I love the young people I teach, and I am confident in their ability to lead us into a positive future. But if someone, somewhere, doesn’t wake up and quit messing around with the classroom, those young people will have a much harder task before them.
21Great post, da Chipster. Now if we can just figure out how to get education back into the hands of the educators…
I love your description of Greta as a “triple crown loon”. Brilliant.
22Chip,
Terrific post, thank you. I know some folks who do not have college educations, but they spend a lot of their free time reading, voraciously. People spend way too much time staring at their iPhones instead of reading material. Personally, I’ve always been proud when people call me an “Egghead” or “Bookworm”. Education is a continual process throughout life. I did not realize LyinRyan had a degree in Economics, thought it was in Randian Nonsense. Like I said, education is a continual process and after college LyinRyan and the entirety of the RePiggery just quit learning.
23I work at small, local horse shows. I have been called, by some of the young competitors and their parents a “brain” and a “human computer” because I can do simple arithmetic, including percentages in my head without a calculator. Sometimes I cheat and use a pencil and paper, but please, is this the standard for genius? Being able to multiply 12 by 9 and figure 20%, 15%, and 5%? (108, 21.6, 16.2,10.8, and 5.4). And the look on the kids faces when I count change is truly sad.
24I knew we were in trouble when I learned from our former POTUS that “Our children is learning.”
25Now than instead of then and woman instead of women is common in the comments section of every blog.
As Junior Samples once said, “I might be dumb, but I’m far from smart.”
“Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” ~Plato
26Thirty years ago a friend who taught kindergarten in San Diego arranged with a few of her fellow teachers to employ a short “How to think” session at the beginning of the school year. She would have been fired if anyone had known, but the frustration even then of dealing with the prevalent non attention and distractions of an entire class made learning impossible. I’ve thought often since then of the many children who didn’t have anyone to help them and have become our voting faux news sponges.
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