Fable
of the Lazy Teenager Benjamin Stein
t One day last fall. I ran out of file folders and went to
the drugstore to buy more. I Put a handful of folders on the
counter and asked a teenage salesgirl how much they cost. "1
dont know, "she answered. " But it'
12 cents each
2 I counted the folders " Twenty-three at 12 cents each
year-old h
that makes $2.76 before tax, "I said
You did that in your head? " she asked in amazement
How can you do that
table CD p
c,”I
5“ Really? she asked.
No modestly educated adult can fail to be upset by such
an experience. While our children seem better-natured than
great-granc
so ignoran
ignorant of the
He lives
rance-that they frighten me. In a class of 60 seniors at a
hungry and
private college where I recently taught, not one student could
to read and
Ite a she
paper witho
spellings. Not
z But this is just a tiny slice of the problem. The ability
to perform even the simplest calculations is only a memory
But Hanley
among many students I see, and their knowledge of world
going to s
ory or geography is nonexistent
powerless
s Moreover, there Is a chiling Indifference about all this
ignorance, The attitude was summed up by a friend's bright,
ur
