Teens losing touch: Oh, (big) brother…
I was reading the USA Today yesterday and found an article entitled “Teens losing touch with historical references.” Greg Toppo began this article with a lead that is, to say the least, not very fact-laden: “Big Brother. McCarthyism. The patience of Job.” He explains further on that these are references that are going unrecognized more and more as today’s teens find other interests besides their parents’ pop culture, but it takes a little reading before he actually gets to the meat of his article.
Apparently, a recent study of 1,200 high schoolers indicates that overall, they were capable of earning a C in history and an F in literature, according to the article. There were some areas where students learned more than others- specifically, civil-rights-era American history took precedence over classic literature, perhaps a side effect of encouraging (or more accurately, requiring) teachers to focus on math and reading skills during classroom time that used to be reserved for liberal arts education.
He obviously didn’t follow the inverted pyramid style, but for this article, I think that’s ok. He mentions a few statistics that contextualize what teens are and aren’t learning around the middle of the article, and uses pretty hefty quotes from people like Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute and Chester Finn of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, yet only a one-line quote is credited to Trevor Packer of The College Board. This article could have been better-rounded if he included quotes from students, perhaps, such as those who don’t know Winston Smith from Joseph McCarthy.
Oh, (big) brother. If teens don’t even know 1984 these days, maybe we were better off with you watching us…
