As the youth of America continue to consistently fall behind in global rankings of math, science and reading proficiency, many educators wonder what more can be done.  We have revolutionized the way technology is implemented in the classroom and conducted extensive research into how children learn to better refine our educational techniques. So what’s the problem? Why are our children getting progressively worse?  What if the real problem isn’t the schools, what if it’s everything else going on in their lives outside of school.  What if it’s our society that’s holding them back, replacing the act of learning with the act of being entertained, the concepts of hard work and achievement with the concept of gratuitous self-esteem. In George Orwell’s classic novel 1984, the population is deprived of complex thought by a stripped down version of English called Newspeak. Human beings can’t think of an intricate or multifaceted idea and articulate it to one another without the words to describe it.  They exist in a state of perpetual ignorance, deprived of the right to think critically because they have been robbed of the tools to do so. It has frightening similarities to the generation growing up and the “truths” they’re discovering today.  They are trained in a visual culture that has moved away from the nuances of written language into a world of instant gratification and pretty lights.  Their minds are bombarded on a daily basis by advertisements and entertainment that reinforces self-glorification, sex, violence and the idea that striving for “individualism” through consumption is the only thing that matters, since amassing material wealth is what makes one person superior to others. Parents are so terrified of raising a child with low self-esteem or poor body image they have forgotten that confidence grows out of competence, and have skipped the most basic step.  We’re raising a generation that is all too eager to celebrate the fact that they’re so great, without actually doing something even remotely noteworthy.  Meanwhile, they shrink from responsibility and the consequences of their actions and feel threatened by the notion that they should accomplish anything that involves a challenge. As a society, we have destroyed the language of discourse and engagement and replaced it with catchphrases and product tag lines.  We supplant tangible role models with a revolving door of celebrities, or cheap imitations of real people that pervade our media.  They teach our kids that celebrity, no matter how fleeting or short-lived, is the consummation of success in this world. In light of the mental environment our youth are nurtured in, who could expect them to be anything but self-serving egomaniacs?  They are a reflection of the values we instilled in them.  A petty set of ideals that is the very antithesis of what it once meant to be an American. We are not raising a generation of cultured, intellectually affluent people that can transcend borders and maintain our economic or cultural standards.  We are resigning ourselves to a path of decline and subjugation because we failed to value any aspect of what it means to be a creative, thoughtful society. The future is a globally interdependent economic superstructure that requires a significant amount of knowledge just to understand, let alone participate and succeed in.  Our future is left to the idiotic mob, never looking beyond the lies television feeds them, doomed to fulfill the pathetic role someone else has designed for them.  All followers, no leaders.