There is actually ample reason to talk about the "Know-Nothing Generation", for it is proven that intelligence (especially social and emotional intelligence) have gravely shifted and changed over the last decade.
But first I have to say something about the "genetics argument". There are endogenous and exogenous factors that play a role in the development of a child's intelligence. Every behavioural scientist and psychologist knows that. You can't just say 'genetics plays no role', but saying 'genetics is all there is' is equally wrong.
So, what are the factors that lead to the "Know-Nothing Generation"? One is surely the parents, voluntarily or involuntarily:
It's a sociological fact that in most post-modern societies like Britain, the US or (especially) Japan and Germany the higher your education and the harder your career, the lesser are the chances of you producing offspring. It's a result of the posttransformative phase in the demographic development of capitalist societies. That development has been proven for every country with an economic and social system like the ones in Germany, Japan, Britain, the US or France. Only few countries that are bordering said development have managed through political and economical reform to prevent it or at least handle it. Prominent example is Norway.
Thus, smart, socially adept or intelligent parents not producing any offspring is certainly one reason for the decline in intelligence among the current and the coming generations in industrialized and post-industrialized countries.
Than there is the grave lack of second chances and socially tolerated moratoria for young people in many societies (especially Japan) which makes it harder for many young people to find their way and develop their full potential, which again leaves many intelligent young people behind, whereas kids with more ability to assert themselves are punching through. Sadly, on most occasions that only favors the bullies, not the brainies.
Also there is the "media problem". Social networking like facebook or other internet activity is educating children equally as or even more powerful than their own parents (for several reasons). The main problem is that these new social networks don't communicate or convey social skills or emotional intelligence. Children that develop intelligence through interaction ergo have a predisposition to underdevelopment under those circumstances. Same thing goes for children who can always do as they please or are raised by a TV. German and Japanese psychologists call this process "Verwöhnungsverwahrlosung" (spoiling through neglect and waywardness). Intelligence is formed through neglect and through morally and intellectually void self acquirement and adoption instead of purposeful and directed learning or skill-acquirement.
Another factor, which is strongly interwoven with the previous mentoined one, is the development of many schools especially in the US or Japan (even though Japan manages to keep it somewhat under control, which in return again causes problems like hikikomori). The school as purely spatial construct for the purpose of education has been transformed into a Lebensraum/living space since the 1970s. The problem is that most schools only poorly adapted to those new conditions. For example: Authority figures in schools are becoming less influential because they are constantly undermined by parents, politicians and students. But at them same time children are spening at least as much time with these powerless authority figures as they spend with their parents, who still might have a certain amount of influence. Or: Schoolyards are becoming "law and moral free" zones, because students don't have to be concerned with consequences.
Thus, the development of social skills and intelligence makes halt at the pre-conventional level or at the early stages of the conventional level on Kohlbergs scale of moral development and moral reasoning and are unable to conquer the second and third Piaget (the "Adaptive Model of Intellectual Development", which triggers intellectual growth, and the "Logical Model of Intellectual Development", in which intellectual development becomes an upward expanding spiral in which children must constantly reconstruct the ideas formed at earlier levels with new, higher order concepts acquired at the next level).
But first I have to say something about the "genetics argument". There are endogenous and exogenous factors that play a role in the development of a child's intelligence. Every behavioural scientist and psychologist knows that. You can't just say 'genetics plays no role', but saying 'genetics is all there is' is equally wrong.
So, what are the factors that lead to the "Know-Nothing Generation"? One is surely the parents, voluntarily or involuntarily:
It's a sociological fact that in most post-modern societies like Britain, the US or (especially) Japan and Germany the higher your education and the harder your career, the lesser are the chances of you producing offspring. It's a result of the posttransformative phase in the demographic development of capitalist societies. That development has been proven for every country with an economic and social system like the ones in Germany, Japan, Britain, the US or France. Only few countries that are bordering said development have managed through political and economical reform to prevent it or at least handle it. Prominent example is Norway.
Thus, smart, socially adept or intelligent parents not producing any offspring is certainly one reason for the decline in intelligence among the current and the coming generations in industrialized and post-industrialized countries.
Than there is the grave lack of second chances and socially tolerated moratoria for young people in many societies (especially Japan) which makes it harder for many young people to find their way and develop their full potential, which again leaves many intelligent young people behind, whereas kids with more ability to assert themselves are punching through. Sadly, on most occasions that only favors the bullies, not the brainies.
Also there is the "media problem". Social networking like facebook or other internet activity is educating children equally as or even more powerful than their own parents (for several reasons). The main problem is that these new social networks don't communicate or convey social skills or emotional intelligence. Children that develop intelligence through interaction ergo have a predisposition to underdevelopment under those circumstances. Same thing goes for children who can always do as they please or are raised by a TV. German and Japanese psychologists call this process "Verwöhnungsverwahrlosung" (spoiling through neglect and waywardness). Intelligence is formed through neglect and through morally and intellectually void self acquirement and adoption instead of purposeful and directed learning or skill-acquirement.
Another factor, which is strongly interwoven with the previous mentoined one, is the development of many schools especially in the US or Japan (even though Japan manages to keep it somewhat under control, which in return again causes problems like hikikomori). The school as purely spatial construct for the purpose of education has been transformed into a Lebensraum/living space since the 1970s. The problem is that most schools only poorly adapted to those new conditions. For example: Authority figures in schools are becoming less influential because they are constantly undermined by parents, politicians and students. But at them same time children are spening at least as much time with these powerless authority figures as they spend with their parents, who still might have a certain amount of influence. Or: Schoolyards are becoming "law and moral free" zones, because students don't have to be concerned with consequences.
Thus, the development of social skills and intelligence makes halt at the pre-conventional level or at the early stages of the conventional level on Kohlbergs scale of moral development and moral reasoning and are unable to conquer the second and third Piaget (the "Adaptive Model of Intellectual Development", which triggers intellectual growth, and the "Logical Model of Intellectual Development", in which intellectual development becomes an upward expanding spiral in which children must constantly reconstruct the ideas formed at earlier levels with new, higher order concepts acquired at the next level).
