The anti-intellectual environment of American teens: books and ideas have no deep impact.(American Teen)(Movie review)

Something in the achievement of American students doesn't add up. One-quarter of the students graduating from public high schools in 2007 took an Advanced Placement (AP) exam, up from 18 percent for the Class of 2002. College attendance is rising, along with the long-term economic benefits for earning a degree (see "The Education Factor," book review, page 71).

Why, then, do measures of student knowledge and skill, and college graduation rates, show no parallel gains? SAT scores have stagnated, as has the performance of 17-year-olds on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. And only 15 percent of those 2007 graduates had earned a passing grade of 3 or higher on any AP exam. With more challenging class time happening, and more students planning for college, more knowledge and academic success should follow, but they don't.

One explanation appears, of all places, in a high school movie from last summer, American Teen. The documentary film follows four kids through senior year in Warsaw, Indiana, each one a recognizable type. Upper-crust blond cheerleader Megan must get into Notre Dame, working-class basketball star Colin needs to keep his rebounds up if he wants a scholarship, artsy free spirit Hannah aims to make movies in California, and pimply nerd Jake, well, he's just gotta get a girlfriend. They're good kids, minors hooking up and breaking up, to be sure, playing video games and texting puerile messages, but they ponder their futures with dreadful seriousness.

Yes, Colin admits, he never does homework, Megan draws an obscenity on a classmate's window, Hannah can't bear to return to school after a boyfriend dumps her, and Jake gets drunk in Tijuana. Social life is intense, and tribal rituals of adolescence are in play (such as the sly, sadistic circulation of a classmate's nude photo through the web), but they don't hate their parents or curse the Establishment.

Their striving and relative decency make a crucial aspect of their lives all the more disturbing. In 95 minutes of film, not a single book, artwork, historical figure, philosophy, scientific field, or political position comes up. And their teachers might as well be cashiers at McDonald's serving up meals, for all the influence they wield. Seniors spend six hours a day in English, history, ...