The Intellectual Incuriosity of the Student

A certain sort of older person, addicted to the use of phrases like "Back in my day," commonly acts as if no want of what they regard as virtue ever appeared before the current crop of young people. As attitudes go it is as stupid as it is false and nasty, and in considering the incuriosity of young people more interested in their pleasures than in their schoolwork, or simply learning about the world around them--as has quite naturally always been the case--Sinclair raises the matter in The Goslings. Citing the answers turned in by young people to a contest quizzing them on such things as prominent public figures of the day the participants showed themselves generally ignorant of such things as the name of the governor of their state, but very knowledgeable about sports stars. (Thus did they all know who "Babe" Ruth was.) What makes Sinclair's recitation of what can seem a pedestrian enough sampling of youthful ignorance and disinterest worth noting (at least, to those who already understood that things were no different from what they are today a century ago) is that he sees it not as a matter of some failure of the "younger generation," but of the society around them, not least the schools that do so little to feed and encourage their curiosity, and so much to stultify it instead.