by Abbi Sharp

Created on: June 27, 2010   Last Updated: June 28, 2010

Intellectual Decline in America

This topic can be approached in many ways, but I'd like to focus on two issues. First in comparison to the quality and accessibility of education now in relationship to the past, and second I'd like to discuss how education in America compares to education worldwide.

Equal education for all people has only recently been available compared to even as recent as 50 years ago, when desegregation laws required that a Free and Appropriate Public Education be available to every person. Even students who were labeled "unteachable" or "learning disabled" are now mainstreamed into classes and given more opportunities to have the same quality education as their "gifted" peers. Compare today's education to education 200 years ago or more. This education produced intellectuals such as Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo da Vinci, and other renaissance "men". A man of European decent could get an education and obtain vast amounts of knowledge, arguably more than what the average college bachelor's degree can provide today, but education was not meant for everyone. Many could not access such education. So, is America getting dumber, or is the fact that education must be provided for everyone equally just make it appear that way.

Compared to other countries, America, at first glance, appears to be inferior. Our test scores look lower, and Americans are put in the spotlight when they say things that sound stupid, for example, when Miss South Carolina couldn't answer a simple question about the neglect of geography in American schools. However, education in America differs from education everywhere else in the world. Nowhere else do we make certain, through laws, that all people, including those with learning difficulties, have access to equal opportunities for learning. Children with learning disabilities are offered Individual Education Plans, ensuring that even students who struggle with learning are given every opportunity to succeed. In other countries, such as Japan, China, etc., quality education is reserved for the gifted. Educating the masses is not a priority in countries that don't have the kind of laws that protect people from other races, intellectual abilities, the economically disadvantaged, and those not speaking the language of their country.

On the surface, it may appear that America is getting dumber, but take a look; education is available to everyone. When you educate the masses it might seem that intellect as a whole is on the decline, but I believe that because America educates the masses, those who would be pushed into the lowest class of society are, instead, being put in more visible occupational positions.

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