Dumbth and 81 Ways to Make Americans Smarter

📖 The Scoop

"Steve Allen addresses a social problem so pervasive that it apparently lies behind all others. The author's thesis started as a personal hunch when he began to observe, in the early 1960s, a sharp increase in instances of inefficiency. Assuming that shoddy workmanship, poor service, and growing incompetence were at least partly caused by a breakdown in the capacity to reason, Allen proceeded to the stage of formal research. What he discovered was incompetence on a scale more vast than anything envisioned by Laurence J. Peter, who has amusingly but persuasively argued that people tend to be elevated to the level of their personal incompetence--the "Peter Principle." Allen coined the word dumbth as a shorthand term for the sort of muddle-headedness that, he asserts, has become characteristic of our society. Allen approaches the problem of the collapse of intelligence in the United States on the same no-laughing-matter basis that made his earlier books ... so instructive. After sketching out the dimensions of the problem, the author, like all good social reformers, points to a solution. First, he recommends that we add a fourth "R"--Reasoning---to the traditional reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic of the process of formal education, beginning in kindergarten and first grade. Second, he offers the reader a full 81 "rules" for good thinking, arguing that since there are rules-of-the-game for piano-playing, marriage, science, nutrition, and thousands of other activities, it is absurd to suppose that thinking well is so natural a gift that its practitioners require no instruction whatever. Although Steve Allen is best known for his creative work in music and comedy, he has also written thirty-two books and several thousand songs. He has hosted numerous television shows and was the creator of the original "Tonight" show."--Jacket.

Genre: Education / Philosophy, Theory & Social Aspects (fancy, right?)