Are our children part of the "dumbest generation"

A disturbing article in this week's Newsweek that unfortunately confirms what I've discovered about many of my youngest daughter's friends, yet I'm convinced the blame lies more with the parents than society. It's entitled, The Dumbest Generation? Don’t Be Dumb. Some of the information listed is hard to refute:

For those born from 1980 to 1997, Bauerlein lamented to us, "there is no memory of the past, just like when the Khmer Rouge said 'this is day zero.' Historical memory is essential to a free people. If you don't know which rights are protected in the First Amendment, how can you think critically about rights in the U.S.?" Fair enough, but we suspect that if young people don't know the Bill of Rights or the import of old COLORED ENTRANCE signs—and they absolutely should—it reflects not stupidity but a failure of the school system and of society (which is run by grown-ups) to require them to know it. Drawing on our own historical memory also compels us to note that philosopher George Santayana, too, despaired of a generation's historical ignorance, warning that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." That was in 1905.

Too many parents out there have been quick to use electronic media as way to babysit and entertain their children rather than making sure that if their school is not providing the type of educational material that we want our children to know, that we teach them...

It's true that IQ's are on the rise, but we can't blame this particular generation for not knowing what they have not been taught...