Children are small souls of kindness, so my grandsons would take issue with Mark Bauerlein's book title, The Dumbest Generation. "We don't say 'dumb,' they remind me.

But Professor Bauerlein has statistics to back up his book jacket, though he's not happy with them. When the National Constitution Center surveyed teenagers and discovered only 4 percent could name the three branches of their country's government, Bauerlein began to ask questions.

"What is 'dumbing down' today's kids," he pondered. "Do the digital diversions of the young cut them off from history, civics, literature and fine art?"

Though it is too soon to know the "intellectual impact" of hours spend text messaging and scoring Facebook time, we do know the tools of the Digital Age, (e-mails, blogs, tweets and phones) compete for time to learn more about the world beyond, postures Bauerlein. He is quick to admit his research may sound like another "curmudgeonly riff," yet another academic passing judgment on the Information Age as the work of the Devil. So, Bauerlein does have praise for this young generation as less prejudiced.

It isn't that our coming-to-fruition students aren't interested in world events, it's that they are cut off from them by electronic seduction. Bauerlein is concerned that studies of youthful minds, show a reluctance to wade into "the cultural and civic inheritance" that has grounded this country.

The realities of iPhones, computer games and Facebook entries don't leave time for the arts, perusing the state of foreign and domestic affairs and connecting to history and today's culture.

No surprise, then, that a national test given to high school seniors left them puzzled by the meaning of "Colored Entrance," written on the face of a movie theater door pictured on the test. Two-thirds of the seniors could not explain the message on the door.

More than one-third of our high school students watch three or four hours of television a day, so it follows their exposure to fine arts is at a low ebb.

Educational opportunities for most students far exceed those of the last two generations, yet, Bauerlein writes, their levels of knowledge are half as impressive of those of their parents.

We marvel at 6-year-olds who memorize poetry, but are dismayed to learn only 10 percent of the nation's 15-to-26-year olds can name the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. What happens in those in between years? Why, Prof. Bauerlein asks, "as income and access to information have gone up, has knowledge not followed?"

Certainly, better technology has made learning more fun and given term papers new life, but research on Google does not transfer to a brain trust, called up later as the basis for good test scores in history and civics.

To lay the foundation for academic growth and responsible citizenship, (informed views impacting adult life) everything depends on "oral and written language the infant-toddler-child-teen hears and reads throughout the day," Bauerlein writes.

He cautions us not to lay responsibility for enrichment at the feet of the 8-to-3 school day. To compete with the pull of social networking absorbing young lives, reading and conversation at home, exposure to the theater, libraries and museums, build "language acquisition," a storehouse of words, helping students to grow into a sense of familiarity with life beyond their own realities.

For "education to happen," Bauerlein contends, "people, (students,) must encounter worthwhile things outside their sphere of interest and brain power."

If the pulse of an adolescent beats only in synch with peer approval, if his time is consumed by electronic community, the wider world does not claim his attention.

But Bauerlein is not throwing in the towel. Maturity comes, in part, from relationships with mentors, not only teachers, but parents, clergy and adult role models, who engage young minds in meaningful dialogue and experiences.

We need mentors. Without a foundation of knowledge, begun in younger years, Bauerlein laments, we are fast becoming a nation of "partial citizens."

Judy Elliott is an award-winning columnist from Marietta.