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8 reasons why this is the dumbest generation
1. They make excellent 'Jaywalking'' targets Bauerlein writes: 'The ignorance is hard to believe ... It isn't enough to say that these young people are uninterested in world realities. They are actively cut off from them. ... They are encased in more immediate realities that shut out conditions beyond -- friends, work, clothes, cars, pop music, sitcoms, Facebook.''
1. They make excellent "Jaywalking'' targets
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2. They don't read books -- and don't want to, either 'It's a new attitude, this brazen disregard of books and reading. Earlier generations resented homework assignments, of course, and only a small segment of each dove into the intellectual currents of the time, but no generation trumpeted aliteracy ... as a valid behavior of their peers.''
2. They don't read books -- and don't want to, either
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3. They can't spell Lack of capitalization and IM codes dominate online writing. Without spellcheck, folks are toast.
3. They can't spell
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4. They get ridiculed for original thought, good writing 'On MySpace, if you write clearly and compose coherent paragraphs with informed observations on history and current events, 'buddies' will make fun of you,'' Bauerlein says. Wikipedia writing is clean and factual, but colorless and judgment-free. Often the most clever students, with flashes of disorganized brilliance on MySpace, switch to dull Wiki-writing formats for school papers, he says. 'If we could combine the style and imagination o
4. They get ridiculed for original thought, good writing
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5. Grand Theft Auto IV, etc. The stats tell the story here. First week's sales: $500 million. The sales of GTA dwarf movie premieres, CD sales, or, Bauerlein notes, book sales. All that video use, Bauerlein says, has hurt in the classroom, too. Thousands of Massachusetts public school graduates are ending up in remedial reading and writing classes in college, according to a Globe story .
5. Grand Theft Auto IV, etc.
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6. They don't store the information 'For digital immigrants, people who are 40 years old who spent their college time in the library acquiring information, the Internet is really a miraculous source of knowledge,'' Bauerlein says. 'Digital natives, however, go to the Internet not to store knowledge in their minds, but to retrieve material and pass it along. The Internet is just a delivery system.''
6. They don't store the information
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7. Because their teachers don't tell them so Or because their parents don't check their bedrooms at midnight to halt the instant messaging...'Kids are drowning in teen stuff delivered 24/7 by the tools, and adult realities can't penetrate,' Bauerlein says. Another factor: 'It's the era of child-centered classrooms and self-esteem grading.''
7. Because their teachers don't tell them so
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8. Because they're young Do you remember how stupid you were when you were a teen-ager? Or all that you didn't know -- and thought you did? And the skills you gained by holding back on foolish comments? Oh, the now-old guy in this picture? He once wrote: 'I was so much older then/I'm younger than that now.''
8. Because they're young

Do you remember how stupid you were when you were a teen-ager? Or all that you didn't know -- and thought you did? And the skills you gained by holding back on foolish comments? Oh, the now-old guy in this picture? He once wrote: "I was so much older then/I'm younger than that now.''