We’ve created a generation of parents and children who seem to freeze up when faced with numbers, especially when those numbers lack context.
Essentially, a shocking statistic is used to instill fear and demand compliance.
It’s effective because we’ve kind of forgotten how to ask, “Compared to what?”
This issue is more than just a theory now.
For instance, at the University of California, San Diego, a significant 12.5% of incoming students need remedial math courses focusing on elementary and middle school topics.
Surprisingly, over 80% of these students struggled with a basic equation. Even more concerning, about 20% couldn’t accurately count coins.
The rise in students needing this kind of help shot up from 32 in the fall of 2020 to 921 by fall 2025—a nearly thirtyfold increase in just five years.
These are students who have made it into selective universities, yet I can’t even give a denominator because I lack the basic math skills.
Think about this: around 100 kids are kidnapped by strangers each year in the U.S.
That number is chilling, isn’t it?
But when you look at the entire population of around 72 million children aged 0 to 17, the odds aren’t as dire—it’s a 1 in 720,000 chance. Honestly, your child is more likely to be hit by lightning.
So how did we respond?
We restricted unsupervised play outside and handed kids smartphones, based on that alarming statistic. There are about 500,000 online criminals active daily, and an astounding 89% of sexual advances toward children happen in online spaces.
We minimized trivial risks while amplifying real ones, all because we heard the numerator without looking at the denominator.
This isn’t merely poor parenting; it’s symptomatic of a whole generation failing to contextualize information.
Strikingly, we used to be more adept at this not too long ago. Now we’ve sort of relinquished our role in guiding children to understand their surroundings.
A few years back, how many parents would have immediately affirmed their child’s feelings about gender dysphoria, without recognizing that adolescent discomfort with body changes is, well, pretty universal?
If grandparents are around—and hopefully you haven’t cut them off during the pandemic—they can provide instant perspective. Your grandma might interject, saying, “I hated my breasts when they first came in, and so did everyone else.”
The same pattern occurs in crime statistics, but here, it gets even trickier.
When headlines proclaim “Crime is declining,” they lump various crimes together. Sure, overall violent crime rates may be down.
But in 40 U.S. cities regularly reporting statistics, aggravated assaults increased by 4% since 2019, gun assaults rose by 5%, and carjackings surged by 25%—that’s quite alarming!
Even more concerning is that the violent crime fatality rate shot up by 31% from 2019 to 2020, remaining 20% higher in 2024 than in 2018.
This suggests that violent incidents are becoming more lethal.
Yet, you wouldn’t know it just from mainstream media headlines since they often blend horrifying crimes with petty theft stats.
During the pandemic, we’ve heard sobering updates like “100,000 dead!” However, actual infection fatality rates that help clarify the situation aren’t often discussed.
We were told that kids would pose a risk to their grandparents, so we kept them away from these vital sources of history and context.
Grandparents hold memories of past pandemics, economic hardships, and societal upheavals. They help remind us that humanity has endured before, and many of today’s crises are not entirely unprecedented.
Lacking their insights, teens might feel they’re facing something entirely new. The ugly duckling, after all, doesn’t know about the swan.
We are morphing into a society that lacks historical perspective, struggles with basic math, and can’t relate current events to past occurrences.
Every issue feels like something new that demands extraordinary solutions.
This is not freedom; it’s a nicely paved path toward authoritarianism.
We’ve lived in what is often termed America’s Golden Age—a time where financial and existential security allowed us to indulge in intellectual laziness and confuse feelings with facts.
Those days, it seems, have passed. Without context, manipulation becomes all too easy.
Our global competitors aren’t teaching kids that math is racist or that history is subjective.
The answer is straightforward. We need to return to genuine education.
Let’s teach math in a way that empowers students to understand rates and percentages.
Teach history so they can see patterns and recognize precedents.
This could help bridge the gap between generations, enabling grandparents and grandchildren to share insights from lived experiences.
We need a generation that instinctively asks, “What’s the denominator here?”
When told “there’s no precedent,” they should think, “Probably not.”
We need individuals who seek context before jumping to conclusions.
Before these lessons are learned the hard way, it’s crucial to restore critical thinking skills now.
We need an urgent refresher on contextual, empirical reasoning—essential tools that distinguish free-thinking individuals from those who are easily manipulated.
Without this grasp, we risk raising a generation poised for domination instead of self-governance. And frankly, that’s perhaps the most concerning statistic of all.
