by Nuri Rhines

Created on: October 02, 2010

“Putting Our Brains on Hold”

In Bob Herbert's article Putting Our Brain on Hold he talks about how the United States' “leadership qualities” are beginning to dwindle away.  Herbert says that the College Board said that the number of “young people” that are graduating with their degrees “has fallen to 12th among 36 developed nations.” Bob says that we as a nation use to be so competitive but now are society is worried about idiotic aspects like “Lindsey Lohan” rather than what is going in our government and economy. He brings up questions like “why are there so many jobless Americans?” Herbert wonders why the problem with the United States is not being expressed more and how if they were it would bring about new “creative ideas.” He goes on to say how as the older people start to decline it is up to the younger generation to take over but we are way behind. Bob blames everyone—television, the school system, parents, and even news. He exclaims that not one of these things is helping the young in today’s society. Herbert towards the end of the article asks an abundance of questions about what has happen to the American dream and how “we can say goodbye to the kind of cultural scientific and economic achievements that combine to make a great nation.” Bob states that young people make “heroes” out of people like Lady Gaga and Snooki. He says that we know longer want to have our young people work and that according to the Harvard Economists Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, education was “rapid and continuous for the first three quarters of the 20th century.”  “Then foolishly, we applied the brakes. All that’s left is our future,” Bob ends his article with this bold but true statement.

I hate to admit it but Bob Herbert is 100% right in his article Putting Our Brains on Hold. Young people today are not as focused on education as they use to be. I do believe that the belief of the American dream has gone down the drain. We were once a country that was in competition with other nations when it came to our education but now it seems like we are mostly a joke. If I were to go around and ask people what July 4th means to them, I bet a number of people would say something along the lines of fireworks and drinking beer. This is actually really pathetic because the fourth of July is one of the most important historical event for the United States. People do not know anything about history and important information on what is in the news but they know about what Lady Gaga was wearing at the Music video Awards or what is the latest news on Snooki’s new tan. Why is stupid stuff like this so much more important to us than education? We do not even know these people and they are definitely not people to look up too. I completely agree with Bob Herbert, American has gone downhill and unless something or someone changes how education is done in all states, we can only expect worse to come.

 Source: 

Herbert, Bob. “Putting Out Brains on Hold.” New York Times. 6 August 2010. 1 October 2010.

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