On Stupidity, Part 2 Exactly how should we teach the 'digital natives'?

AN ACADEMIC IN AMERICA

On Stupidity, Part 2
Exactly how should we teach the 'digital natives'?
By THOMAS H. BENTON

Last month I reviewed a collection of recent books (The Chronicle, August 1) arguing that Americans, particularly those now entering college, have been rendered "stupid" by a convergence of factors including traditional anti-intellectualism, consumer culture, the entertainment industry, political correctness, religious fundamentalism, and postmodern relativism, just to name some of the usual suspects.

Of course the anticipated consequences of the "stupidity crisis" seem dire enough — the end of democracy, the economic decline of the United States, the extinction of humanity as we know it — that one feels compelled to register opposition to the "Age of Unreason" by buying a few books.

I bought seven of them. And I am convinced — as if I ever doubted it — that, over the past several decades, we have become less knowledgeable, more apathetic, more reliant on others to think for us, more susceptible to simple answers, and more easily exploited.
The Link to the article is :

http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2008/09/2008090501c.htm