Gary Earl Ross Choosing To Be Stupid Summary
Gary Earl Ross's article "Choosing not to read is choosing to be stupid" discusses the debatable topic that the nation is becoming less intelligent due to the decrease of people reading novels, poems and plays. As a University at Buffalo Professor Ross argues that he sees first hand "Slowly but inexorably we, as a nation, are getting dumber." I agree that the nation as a whole is becoming dumber, however it was not the article that persuaded me of this is was my former outside knowledge of this topic. Although I agree with the topic that the nation is becoming dumber I do not support the article because not only is it very harsh, but it also very biased towards his own feelings. I had previously heard talk of the nation becoming dumber
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either through the media or through my parents, tutors and teacher's personal opinions. Not only opinions convinced me of this but also statistics. For example in 2012 the nations average SAT scores on the reading section was the lowest since 1972, 40 years ago.
Also media is constantly expressing how the United States in general is falling behind other nations in core subjects such as math and reading. The Forbes article "Are New York City Students Getting Smarter Or Are Regents Exams Getting Easier?" by James Marshall Crotty, expresses how accredits a confidential source saying that New York State has been steadily lowering the difficulty of its standardized testing in order for more students to receive a state-certified high school diploma. Although these statistics and speculations support the fact that the nation is becoming increasingly dumber it is not explicitly due to a lack of reading. I do not support this article because Gary Earl Ross harshly blames the nations dumbness on their laziness to not read a book as he states "Lack of time is no excuse." The mere title of the article is a harsh accusation. Personally I think that Ross is too confident in his own opinion. He says "The principal reason for our collective stupidity is that we choose not to read, especially literature---novels, poems and plays." expressing that he believes since he is a professor he can undoubtably pin point the nations increased dumbness to a laziness
to not read. Although I do not agree with his rash and extremely biased approach to the subject he does point out many good points. For example he discusses the No Child Left Behind Program. This program reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and set out the improve teaching in schools. This essentially put blame on teachers of the schools and not the actual students. Ross describes this program as doomed to failure and expresses that the answer to these problems lie within the students themselves and the ability to pick up a book and read it. I also believe that this article is extremely well written as it gets straight to the point and Ross is confident of his opinion. "Choosing not to read is choosing to be stupid" by Gary Earl Ross discusses the highly controversial topic on the nation's decrease in its level of intelligence. I agree with the statement that the nation is becoming dumber but I do not necessarily believe that it is due to the laziness of Americans to pick up a book and read it---such as Ross believes. In general I believe that the article had good structure and content however, I believe that it was too harsh and biased.
either through the media or through my parents, tutors and teacher's personal opinions. Not only opinions convinced me of this but also statistics. For example in 2012 the nations average SAT scores on the reading section was the lowest since 1972, 40 years ago.
Also media is constantly expressing how the United States in general is falling behind other nations in core subjects such as math and reading. The Forbes article "Are New York City Students Getting Smarter Or Are Regents Exams Getting Easier?" by James Marshall Crotty, expresses how accredits a confidential source saying that New York State has been steadily lowering the difficulty of its standardized testing in order for more students to receive a state-certified high school diploma. Although these statistics and speculations support the fact that the nation is becoming increasingly dumber it is not explicitly due to a lack of reading. I do not support this article because Gary Earl Ross harshly blames the nations dumbness on their laziness to not read a book as he states "Lack of time is no excuse." The mere title of the article is a harsh accusation. Personally I think that Ross is too confident in his own opinion. He says "The principal reason for our collective stupidity is that we choose not to read, especially literature---novels, poems and plays." expressing that he believes since he is a professor he can undoubtably pin point the nations increased dumbness to a laziness
to not read. Although I do not agree with his rash and extremely biased approach to the subject he does point out many good points. For example he discusses the No Child Left Behind Program. This program reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and set out the improve teaching in schools. This essentially put blame on teachers of the schools and not the actual students. Ross describes this program as doomed to failure and expresses that the answer to these problems lie within the students themselves and the ability to pick up a book and read it. I also believe that this article is extremely well written as it gets straight to the point and Ross is confident of his opinion. "Choosing not to read is choosing to be stupid" by Gary Earl Ross discusses the highly controversial topic on the nation's decrease in its level of intelligence. I agree with the statement that the nation is becoming dumber but I do not necessarily believe that it is due to the laziness of Americans to pick up a book and read it---such as Ross believes. In general I believe that the article had good structure and content however, I believe that it was too harsh and biased.