Dumbth: The Lost Art of Thinking, by Steve Allen

Any of my readers over the age of 40 will surely recognize the name of Steve Allen. He was one of the first hosts of The Tonight Show, before Johnny Carson took it over and made it his own. He hosted a PBS series called Meeting of the Minds in which people from history met in a round-table to discuss the issues of the present day from their own perspective.

And he wrote several books, one of which was Dumbth. It was first published in 1991, and expanded in 1998. 22 years ago.

The stuff he talks about in 1998 has not changed today. If anything, it's worse.

"In late October 1997 a report was released that showed that only 26 percent of 4th graders and 18 percent of 12th graders could be described as proficient in science, and only 3 percent could be said to have advanced knowledge. 67 percent of Hispanic high school seniors and 77 percent of African-Americans scored below the basic level, which refers to such things as the ability to identify ice as the solid form of water."

In his introduction, he railed against teenagers using "you know" and "like" every other word (I wonder what he'd think of today when they are more likely to use a four letter word every other word.)

Also in his intro, he pointed out a feeature on a Feb 15, 1983 NBC Newscast. A test had been given to a class of students at the University of Miami...(all of them caucasian). 42% of the class of 100 students didn't know where London, England was. Several thoughrt Quebec was in Canada. One student believed the Falkland Islands were off the coast of England. Greenland was mistaken for Iceland. Half of them didn't know where Baja, California was. 8% of the students couldn't place Miami, Florida - where they lived! - on a map.

One could say that it was the American education system failing these students, but really, was it? Every university has a library, every high schoool has a library, every little town (well, most towns) have libraries. Admittedly computers and the nternet weren't really widespread until the 1990s, but libraries certainly were. Anyone who had any curiousity at all could have gone to their library and done some self-educating...



Anyway, Allen presented "101 ways to reason better and improve your mind." I will share one a day. (Just the basics, for anything else, buy the book! Still available at Amazon via kindle or print.)

One thing about this is... do you think you need to reason better and improve your mind? (Or to help your children to do so?) Many people don't realize that they aren't as well educated as they might be, or don't care. I'm blanking on the term...there's a technical phrase for it.... a college had run a study about it.... argghhh. It's gone. And I didn't bookmark the page or write down the phrase (I only found out about it myself a couple of days ago. And there's an illustration for you. I knew I'd forget it if I wrote it down, I've forgotten things in a similar manner a dozen times, but after a dozen times I still make the same mistake....ah me.) If any of my readers can help me out, drop me a line!

Anyway, starting tomorrow, one way a day, to help you reason better and improve your mind.