The Dumbing Down of America
Last year, in one of Victor Davis Hanson’s lectures, he told the audience that elite colleges will eventually lose their reputations. They’ve watered down the curriculum, and it’s DEI.
A guy in Silicon Valley walked up to Hanson and said, ‘Where have you been, Victor,’ he said. ‘In the last three years, Stanford University let in 20% of white students. We don’t care what color they are, but to get that ratio, they had to exclude people [who] were brilliant. So they rejected 70% of those [with] a perfect SAT even though it was all … a choice. …it’s like only 0.11% of [those who take the] SAT get perfect scores. Stanford refused 60 or 70% of them that applied.’
So, then he said, ‘And then you have the therapeutic culture.’
Hanson then said, “What are you getting at?” He responded, ‘When we’re in Silicon Valley, and we have a choice now in 2023 to hire somebody from Stanford, whether it’s public relations or coding or Texas A&M, Georgia Tech, we will take them any day.’
Are You Serious?
Hanson was stunned and asked him if he was serious.
‘Yes, because of two things. They’re better trained. And the first thing they do is go to our HR department and complain.’
The man told Victor, “The faculty, to accommodate the new student body, had to either water down the courses, inflate the grades to accommodate the fact that they are letting in students by their own admission did not fit the requirements that they used to preach to us were absolutely necessary. Or, as he put it, ‘In 1998, these guys would come up to us and say, you know what, it’s a very rare person they can get into Stanford University, and once they get in here, we give them the toughest classes, and when we go out to where they go out there, these guys are brilliant, and they’re trained.’
Then he said, “Well, if that was true and now they admit that they’ve thrown out the SAT, then they were admitting they’re letting people in that can’t do the curriculum on the books. …So, why would we trust them anymore?”
-
The Importance of Prayer: How a Christian Gold Company Stands Out by Defending Americans’ Retirement
“That’s what’s happening to Harvard, yet 80% of the grades at Yale were As,” Hanson said.
As a Result
Hanson said, “So I think what you’re saying is not only is the demographic shrinking, there fewer students, but the costs are going up above the rate of inflation, the students are not getting any means to pay back the loans, and the universities are no longer meritocratic, and that’s even going into medical school, law school, business school. And so, a lot of people are saying, I want my child to go get skills. I want him to go to a trade school, I want him to go to Community College, and I, the elite now, believe it or not,” I get a call twice a week.” Parents won’t send their kid to Harvard, or Yale, or Stanford. They want to know where to send them – Pepperdine, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Oklahoma State.
Hanson said he’s “confident that there is a revolutionary movement in education to get rid of this toxic, ‘I have a bunch of letters after my name. Therefore, I’m educated. Therefore, I can, I’m an expert.
It’s Criminal
“What the universities have done is really is almost criminal to put us, the taxpayers on $1.7 trillion exposure so they can raise their rates of inflation tuition above the rate of inflation. And they’re not accountable. Their students are not getting they’re not competitive compared to other universities. The problem is not with the middle and upper middle classes. It’s with the credentialed elite. I’m not confident about them, but I think we have to hold them to account.
“Republicans have a lot of problems, too, but we’ll see. It’s not so much about Trump or Harris. It’s more or less after 233 years, we’re not going to call the country a failure, and it’s racist systematically, unfair, it’s exploitive, and we’re going to tear it apart. We’re not going to do that, sorry. That’s the way it’s going to be. In November, we’re going to vote.”
Let’s hope he is right.
