Dull Dogs

“The idea is to treat all the pupils as though they were equally intelligent. The standard of achievement is set to fit the average, which is fair-to-middling low. The result is a mediocrity which frets and frustrates the more able while it flatters the incompetent. This mediocrity is making Americans increasingly a set of dull dogs, standardized in opinions, fearful of argument, clichéd in conversation” (Bernard Iddings Bell, Crowd Culture, p. 50).