There have been countless times in history, and even in today’s society, when people have resorted to scapegoating to lesson the burden of their own problems. A recurring problem in American society is education, and the question if our youth are truly being educated well enough to positively contribute to society. With this responsibility on the shoulders of many Americans, it is no surprise that scapegoating is being used to cover up the real issues.
So what do I mean by the “real issues,” and what is being used as a scapegoat for educational disparities?
To explain, in Joel Best’s The Stupidity Epidemic: Worrying About Students, Schools, and America’s Future, he highlights how critics are contending that the younger generations, Generation Z and Millennials, are the “dumbest generation,” due to the impact of digital technology. This statement has been contradicted by the fact that critics have been saying this about younger generations for over 150 years. Best also builds his argument around the phrase Stupidity Epidemic, which are “nostalgic claims, in that they imagine a better past, a time when teachers really taught and students really learned…”
Therefore, the scapegoat is the Stupidity Epidemic, and it’s being used to avoid confronting consistent inequalities in our education system.
Scapegoating Is the Real Issue
Those that believe that today’s youngest generation is the dumbest, due to digital technology, fail to recognize that class inequality is the largest contributor to educational disparities between students. We want to believe that schools provide equal opportunities for students of all backgrounds; and that the curriculum being taught is catered to every student in the U.S. education system, but it’s not.
Schools that are being labeled as “failing,” or that have “shortcomings,” undoubtedly have either a low socioeconomic status or a large student of color population. There has been a correlation between low academic success and the socioeconomic status of students for centuries; but when new research is done that correlates digital technology habits to the lack of critical thinking skills, suddenly improving education is an urgent matter! The issue that our youth aren’t getting the most that they can out of our school system, has always been an urgent matter!
The Stupidity Epidemic and digital technology are being used as scapegoats to detract from the educational disparities that are proven to be correlated to race and class.
Anxiety is another real issue
I believe another contributor to the Stupidity Epidemic is anxiety. Our nation is becoming more anxious, with over 40% of Americans having more anxieties than they had last year. Worrying about the education the younger generation is receiving is a way for people to project that anxiety. I began to realize this while reading how the media constantly compares our education system and success to that of other countries. Best shows this when he points out that after the invention of the first artificial satellite in Russia (1957), Life magazine published a cover story “with photographs contrasting the lives of two high school juniors: Alexi (from Moscow) was shown doing science experiments; while Stephen (from Chicago) was seen clustered with friends, who were trying to choose selections on a jukebox.”
The way Americans continually compare their success to other countries is a way to ensure that our nation is a dominant worldly power; but when we start to feel like we lag in certain areas compared to other countries, we began to feel anxious. Hence which is why fear and anxiety stimulating from the U.S. not being able to compete with rival countries, is contributing to the Stupidity Epidemic. It’s problematic to compare the U.S.’s education system to other nations because there are other underlying problems that are impacting our education. No other nation enslaved a group of people for over 400 years, leaving them at an economic, educational, and social disadvantage for the years to come, but we don’t compare that to other countries…do we?
I think it’s safe to say that we have to evaluate our own insecurities and anxieties before we place a label on a whole generation. We also have to think about the underlying problems that may be impacting our perceptions on education.
Blaming digital technology for our educational inconsistencies is an easier pill to swallow than talking about our current racially biased and classist education system.
In Black and Write 