28 Oct 2008

Dumbing Down: How the brainpower of today's 14-year-olds has slipped 'radically' in just one generation

Bright teenagers are a disappearing breed, an alarming new study in the UK has revealed.

The intellectual ability of the country's cleverest youngsters has declined radically, almost certainly due to the rise of TV and computer games and over-testing in schools.

The 'high-level thinking' skills of 14-year-olds are now on a par with those of 12-year-olds in 1976.

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The findings contradict national results which have shown a growth in top grades in SATs at 14, GCSEs and A-levels.

The intelligence of Britain's youth is being dumbed down, which experts say is down to television and video games.

But Michael Shayer, the professor of applied psychology who led the study, believes that is the result of exam standards 'edging down'.

His team of researchers at London's King's College tested 800 13 and 14-year-olds and compared the results with a similar exercise in  1976.  Mail Online

Also see Shakespeare dumbed down in comic strips for bored pupils (image above) and Deliberate Dumbing Down of America – Free E Book download by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt.

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