| Is there a real threat to intellectual freedom in the | | | | Guide and Readers Digest with the largest circulation |
| United States? Is there a threat to independence and | | | | in the world has a reading level of only 9th grade. |
| the worth of the human personality? And to that | | | | The same holds true for the largest circulated |
| add, a threat to the very meaning of life? | | | | newspaper, The Sun. In 2005 (the most recent |
| Admittedly there is little that threatens one's | | | | figures available) the reading score of 12th graders |
| freedom and meaning of life more than debilitating | | | | was 6 points lower than back in 1992. |
| disease, war and now in our world, terrorism. We | | | | Besides the reading issue another related danger of |
| have, however, been warned of other dangers, | | | | the stupefaction of America is the whole area of |
| perhaps slightly more remote, which need our | | | | public education itself. I have written about this in the |
| attention and are of equal importance. | | | | past and it still holds true. Excessive standardization |
| The singular and most obvious threat is the deliberate | | | | which extends to the very teaching processes |
| stupefaction of America. This is being accomplished | | | | themselves. Even the curricula of our schools has not |
| by an intentional and commercially motivated lowering | | | | escaped this massive effort of standardization. This is |
| of the intellectual levels of communicative content. | | | | especially true in literature, history, and civics (if it's |
| According to the National Assessment of Adult | | | | still taught in some schools). We have become not |
| Literacy the reading level of the average adult in the | | | | just the products of such standardization but also its |
| United States is 8th grade. Two publications, TV | | | | victims. You bet-cha. |