Does the Internet make us stoopid?

Or do we accomplish this all by ourselves?

Eighteen-percent of our fellow Americans believe that President Obama is a Muslim according to a report from the Pew Research Center. Not that there would be anything wrong with a Muslim (or a Jew, or a Buddhist, or an atheist) being president, but Obama has publicly proclaimed his Christian faith repeatedly over the past several years. This 18% represents an increase in that belief over the past two years. We also know from the report that beliefs about Obama's religion track people's political assessment of him: 2/3 who think he's a Muslim disapprove of his presidency.

Lest we think stupidity is related to one's political beliefs or the crazy web sites one reads, the Gallup organization polled Americans and came up with the following:
-24% of Americans do not know the country from which America gained independence in 1776;
-18% believe that the sun revolves around the earth (maybe the same 18%?).

Ahhh, this is why we still need schools, with actual sane, smart adults talking with children about history, science, philosophy, thinking, and the evaluation of all the sources of our knowledge.

And why we need small schools in particular, where we have time to talk about these things without worrying about Annual Yearly Progress.