Dumbing down of America

My daughter teaches 8th grade science. She, like others in her profession, understand better than most of us that the youth of America today are not as well prepared to move into adult life educationally, as were their parents. Perhaps it's the result of "no child left behind" standardization tests that serve as a prime motivator for teachers and students alike, at the expense of being able to instill a sense of exploration in learning among those sitting before them in often over crowded classrooms. I'm no expert, so I won't go much further. I will say when a young person joins the Army, either in an enlisted or officer capacity, they bring with them a diminished level (compared to the past) of both technical and practical experience which was implanted in them during lower and higher level schooling. In short, it's my view that a new Private or a Second Lieutenant is not as well prepared educationally as they once were. Sure, they enter with degrees and grades that look impressive, but what's behind those statistics. For example, take away a calculator, a computer word processor with built in spell checker, and an infinite amount of data easily available from the internet, a so-called well educated person is left naked, having to rely on "fundamentals" presented to them earlier. If there is a weak foundation in that regard, I say we're well along in the process of the dumbing down of America…and that includes the United States Army.