Gotham Diary:
Knowledge Inequality
10 April 2013
ΒΆ In The Atlantic, Robert Pondiscio reports that only two-thirds of Americans can pass the (very basic) examination faced by applicants for US citizenship.
When the alarm is sounded over the poor performance of our schools, we usually hear about children’s baleful performance in reading, math, and science. On the most recent round of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, for example, only one in three U.S. 8th graders scored “proficient” or higher in those three essential subjects. But if that’s a crisis, our performance in history and civics is near collapse: a mere 22 percent of 8th graders score proficient or higher in civics; in history, only 18 percent.
Many progressive people argue that this information inequality stems from income inequality, but it is just as arguably the cause. High achievers necessarily look past the junky popular culture in order to fasten on some body of solid knowledge. Low achievers are literally stupefied by what’s on TV.
Lowest-common-denominator culture will inevitably kill off democratic culture, by destroying its defenses against the culture of selfishness espoused by Ayn Rand, Margaret Thatcher, and others guilty of the mortal sin of smug self-satisfaction.