Academic muscles neglected

Recently, the state of Idaho has made national news by having one of the lowest graduation rates in America. Several ideas have been proposed, such as increasing class sizes, handing out laptop computers and going on a “bad teacher” witch hunt.

Idaho is not alone in poor performance. Sweden and South Korea lead the world in academic excellence. At 27th, America is parsecs behind other developed nations. The country that led many into the light is now left in the dark.

We have become a lazy nation. When I was in high school, it was necessary to dig through volumes of reference in order to complete essays and term papers. Now, students simply print out copies of previously written documents from the Internet. The same holds true for higher math. I would be surprised if one in 500 seniors knows what is a differential equation. Television advertisements have stated that it was necessary to import engineers because they couldn’t find anyone who could do the job here. How sad.

To all of you students whose egos I have wounded, I have this to say: Prove me wrong. Quit letting MTV and Facebook do your thinking for you. Stop being a sheep and graduate to shepherd.

Douglas R. Benn

Spokane