news-record.com

Sometimes our assumptions and perspectives need to be shaken up and tested lest they become stale and irrelevant. One result can be, to use behavioral science jargon, a “reframing of our paradigms.”

At a time when we are struggling to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps from economic meltdown and when our latent social ferment is manifested by people “occupying” the streets of Greensboro, we need all the help we can get. 

Rethinking our basic assumptions and beliefs is bound to cause discomfort and can feel a bit heretical, but it’s a healthy process that can be stimulated through reading a provocative book or engaging in a discussion with someone with a unique perspective. Emory University professor Mark Bauerlein provided both Nov. 2 when he made appearances at GTCC and the Greensboro Central Library. 

Bauerlein’s book: “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future, or Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30,” is an example of a thoughtful, well-researched work, marred by a shallow title that depreciates the message and can make the very people who should read it defensive.

The picture that emerges, once you get past the title, is of a generation of bright, self-absorbed, narcissistic, social network-savvy young Americans who scoff at books, relegate conceptual foundations to “factoids” that can be Googled and discarded, lack a historical cultural rudder, and are geopolitically illiterate.

This is a harsh judgment and one that is at odds with the paradigm that tells us that because young adults are “good with computers” they possess the requisite skills to be successful in the digital age. But Bauerlein presents some powerful and compelling data that we need to think about.

One doesn’t have to look very far to find evidence of the paradoxical relationship between social networking and self-absorption. At an upscale Greensboro restaurant, I recently observed two couples at the same table. For the majority of the time, two were texting, one was playing a video game and the fourth was talking on the phone. They could have been thousands of miles away from each other, sitting alone, eating TV dinners. 

Bauerlein uses talk show host Jay Leno’s “Jaywalking” segments as an example of the knowledge deficits of young adults. I watch it occasionally, and when I initially saw young college graduates, some of whom were teachers, unable to name the country on our northern border, identify the combatants in World War II, or specify the three branches of our government, I was appalled but thought the sample was edited and not representative. However, after reading Bauerlein’s book and reflecting on my own experiences, I’m not so sure anymore.

If there is one sentence that sums up Bauerlein’s perspective on the problem and points a way for some solutions, it’s this one: “The autonomy has a cost: the more they attend to themselves, the less they remember the past and envision a future.”

There are three things we can do to break the self-absorption cycle and help unleash the innate creativity and responsibility of young adults:

Better parenting.

We need to turn off our TV sets, computers and cell phones, declare a time out, and engage in face-to-face human interaction.  We need to be better role models and work on our own critical thinking and interpersonal communication skills. This isn’t easy, but unless we make the effort, we will be doomed to reap what we sow, and it will be a very lean harvest. 

Relevant teaching.

Our public schools have some outstanding teachers who are paradoxically whipsawed between excessive bureaucracy and severe budget cuts. We can’t let them shut down because of burnout. We need to pay the price, even if it involves more taxes, to help them do their jobs. Our Triad region is blessed with many excellent colleges and universities. Leading-edge research, such as the current efforts in nanotechnology, is important but not sufficient.  We also need to support a solid grounding in liberal arts and encourage even more hands-on service learning.

Courageous reading.

We need to muster up the fortitude to test our own assumptions. In addition to Bauerlein’s book, Peter Wood’s indictment of the cult of diversity, “Diversity: The Invention of a Concept,” and Diane Ravitch’s expose of the way politically correct language censorship harms learning, “The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn,” are two good examples. Agreement isn’t necessary, but discussion and reflection are.


David Noer (dnoer@elon.edu) writes a monthly column on leadership, organizational behavior and community issues.