The Dumbest Generation? Don't be Dumb.

My initial thought upon reading the introductions to the article was apprehension. The writers have many statistics throw out statistics left and right making my generation seem plainly stupid. But where are they getting these statistics? At first, I began to become angry because I felt as though I was not being represented at the fullest potential. Were the kids they questioned really dumb? No, not at all.
After reading further into the article, the writers explain that they believe that it is not the fault of our generation, but out lack of knowledge of historical facts should be blamed on our teachers; the elders. Ironically, our elders are the generation before us, whom which are the ones that had higher correct answer percentages than the current generation. The article states, “First, IQ scores in every country that measures them, including the United States, have been rising since
the 1930s. Since the tests measure not knowledge but pure thinking capacity—what cognitive scientists call fluid intelligence, in that it can be applied to problems in any domain—then Gen Y's ignorance of facts (or of facts that older people think are important) reflects not dumbness but choice.” Gen Y now has the choice as to what information we want to learn and retain.
After reading the article, the content of it somewhat made me think back to “On Studying” by Ortega. In that piece of reading, Ortega stated that although studying must be done by all students, Gen-Y, it is not a necessity to them because one does not need it. In “the Dumbest Generation” article, it declares that my generation chooses what we want to learn and study, which is why we might not know historical facts.
“The Dumbest Generation? Don’t Be Dumb” was a very misleading title for the article. Although it started out blaming my generation for being simply stupid, we truly are not. We are using technological advancements that our grandparents never had. We are progressing forward and certainly are not “dumb”.