American Kids Dumber Than Dirt by Mark Morford

In the article “ American kids dumber than dirt” by Mark Morford is about how kids in today's generation are decreasing in school academics and basic life necessities. In paragraph 1 it states “ He speaks not merely of the sad decline in overall intellectual acumen among students over the years, not merely of the astonishing spread of lazy slacker hood, or the fact that cell phones and iPods and excess TV exposure are, absolutely and without reservation, short-circuiting the minds of the upcoming generations. Of this, he says, there is zero doubt.” (Morford,1).This sentence tries to convince or give the reader an idea that children now are lazy and have minds that are not as well developed because of technology. Also the author says “  bigger picture, the ugly and unavoidable truism about the lack of need among the government and the power elite in this nation to create a truly effective educational system, one that actually generates intelligent, thoughtful, articulate citizens.Hell, why should they? After all, the dumber the populace, the easier it is to rule and control and launch unwinnable wars and pass laws telling them that sex is bad and TV is good and God knows all, so just pipe down and eat your Taco Bell Double-Supremo Burrito and be glad we don't arrest you for posting dirty pictures on your cute little blog.”( Morford,2). These couple of sentences are trying to tell us that in this generation it's not the kids fault for getting trapped with things that make us lose ability to get more educated.It's the government that doesn't do any big things to help education levels get better. They are afraid for generations to get smarter, that way they can control us easier. The author wrote about this to get people to pay more attention to the decrease in the educational side of kids lives today. He feels as though it gets no attention and we are just put to the side , like if it were not a problem.

    In literally any article there are use of rhetorical appeals. In the article Mark Morford wrote “American kids dumber than dirt” there is a lot of use of ethos and pathos. Pathos are an appeal to emotion to try and convince the audience, in the article it says “He says he loves his students, loves education and learning and watching young minds awaken. Problem is, he is seeing much less of it. It's a bit like the melting of the polar ice caps. Sure, there's been alarmist data about it for years, but until you see it for yourself, the deep visceral dread doesn't really hit home.”. These sentences are trying to persuade the reader that the teacher hurts while watching his students fail to complete his tasks, and you wouldn't know how it is to feel that unless you’re a teacher. Wanting the readers to be sympathetic toward the problem. The use of ethos which are to persuade using credibility, shows in these sentences “My friend cites the fact that, of the 6,000 high school students he estimates he's taught over the span of his career, only a small fraction now make it to his grade with a functioning understanding of written English.”. Ethos are being used in this situation because the author is using the fact that he is a teacher and works with kids nearly every day gives him the credibility to talk on the subject if or if not kids are not doing good in school. I think that these rhetorical appeals are effective because Mark uses his friend who is a teacher to support his claim.Readers will most likely believe someone who is good with education and has a first hand view in what is happening. Logos are not being used because it gives no data or statistics on how students decreased and/or how technology affects test scores.

    The assumption the article is making is that if problems where payed more attention to and there were less technology, then we wouldn't have consequences we are facing today. In the article the author says “ iPods and excess TV exposure are, absolutely and without reservation, short-circuiting the minds… he speaks merely of the notion that kids these days are overprotected and wussified and don't spend enough time outdoors and don't get any real