Dumbing Down?

I have heard this phrase used a lot in some circles, talking about our society and current culture here in the U.S. I tend to agree that in many ways this is happening. When neither school children nor college students can name past presidents, state capitals, world leaders, or recognize foreign countries there is a problem. But I think that a couple of nights ago as I watched the national news on TV I heard and saw for myself the epitome of a dumbed down person. Now I do not know this person or anything about him except what I heard him say, but I was flabbergasted when this person, when asked by the interviewer why he had registered to vote 73 times instead of just once (speaking of the ACORN scandal), said "I did not know I was doing anything wrong."

Come oooooonnnnnn! Was he dumbed down or just plain stupid? Or something else? Has our society become so dumbed down that we cannot tell right from wrong? I strongly suspect so, much to my regret.

I am afraid I have digressed from my original intent, which was to comment on a report I read about recently concerning the effect of the presence of BOOKS in a home. Seems that a study showed that students who came from homes where BOOKS were present, no matter what educational background of the parents or economic status of the home, those students tend to do better on test scores than those with no BOOKS.

It made me especially pleased to be providing a "home away from home" for our students... one filled with... you got it... BOOKS!