Not dumb
by Michael Maiello

Okay, okay, we're dumb. People my age are dumb. People under 23 are dumb. Teenagers are really dumb and more interested in shooting up their schools than learning. With all our technology, all our advantanges, we're dumb. Other countries beat us on standardized tests. We're stupid. That's what the pundits (especially the right wingers) say.

Wait a minute. How can this be a left wing/right wing issue? If you're dumb, you're dumb, right? As is the case with most information given in this country, the "we're dumb" data is heavily politicized. An example: Willim F. Buckley's recent column about our dumbosity.

Buckley got a letter from an unnamed professor in some unnamed midwestern religious college who gave his art history students a pop quiz the first day of class. The class was comrpised mostly of freshman, but included some upper classmen. The quiz asked questions of "general knowledge" and the students did poorly.

They couldn't name a 20th century architect famous for desining public buildings. One named Frank Lloyd Wright, the rest had no answer. They couldn't name a composer of classical music in the 20th century. Buckley got a laugh when one student named Beethoven. They couldn't name recent Nobel Prize Winners. But they could name a Spice Girl.

Well, gee. Dumb? Aside from Frank Lloyd Wright, which does seem like an easy answer, I can't name any 20th century architects. It seems like specialized knowledge to me. if you like architecture, study it on your own or in school, you'll know a ton of names and dates. But if you like literature and theatre, architectural names don't come easily. On the other hand, I store more facts more about Eugene Ionesco or Antonin Artaud than you can shake an Art Deco building at. Am I dumb? I like to think my knowledge reflects my passions. I like to think that if I were thrust into a cocktail party with the greats of theatre or literature that I could make lively conversation, but if I were at an architects party I would have to shut up and hide behind the onion dip. But it doesn't make me feel dumb.

A classical composer in the 20h century? Buckley suggests Gerswhin. Fine. But I don't listen to Gerswhin. The question troubles me. I think of classical music as being old music which has endured the test of time and been deemed classic. In the 20th century, I would choose jazz artists as the composers most likely to endure the test of time. Miles Davis is my classic. Philip Glass, maybe? I think his compositions sound like planeterium music, and whenever I hear one of his songs, I want to hear some deep voice overlayed telling me we're "moving backward at the speed of thought, to when the universe was a singularity..."

I can name some literary and scientific Nobel Laureates, and a couple of Peace prize winners. But, those things interest me. I like science, literature, and politics. I can understand, given the general lack of news coverage how people might miss these major awards. Same for the Pultizer prize, another question students missed in the quiz. The Oscars get four hours of television coverage every year, while the Pulitzer and Nobel get a segment at the end of the national news every year. In four years I never had a professor say, "guess who just won the Pulitzer prize for best play?" If I wanted to know, I had to find, or bump into, the information. So the educational and news establishments, in my experience, don't treat these as important subjects. You're going to call people dumb becuse they don't have Nobel and Pulitzer stats as ready information for a quiz?

There is such a thing as general knowledge, but this little quiz was an attempt by a professor to make his interests general knowledge, and, since he sent the information to Buckley who published it in a column, I can only assume that this represents what right wingers think we ought to know.

I don't disgaree with knowing these facts. I know some of them, and not others. It's all good information, but I still don't care much about architects. It is good to keep in mind that this "data" doesn't prove anything. I could write a quiz like, "Name a rock artist in the 1970's whose experimentation with musical form and convention influenced the development of 90's music, paving the way for artists such as Trent Reznor and Beck." I could send the question to Buckley and call him stupid because he didn't say "David Bowie." But that wouldn't prove anything, except that he doesn't much like pop music.

I'm not saying education is fine. I'm not saying our students don't need to do better. But I am tired of people like Buckley looking for any excuse, however flimsy, to mock the intellects of people my age.

Michael Maiello is still kicking himself for not answering his musical question with "Alan Vega" instead of the divine Ziggy.

return to the Shut up, I'm talking page
return to the LIES home page
return to the A&A home page