Here we go again, yet another television program intended to destroy the minds of the young. And it is working. The cast of MTV’s hit reality show, “Jersey Shore,” went to Italy for its fourth season. How disturbing.

In America, we attend school for twelve years trying to acquire an education. We are told about the importance of an education and where it will take us. We could be the next Bill Gates or Barbara Walters. But instead, we will just, “Get crazy. Get wild…” Oh wait, that’s right, or is it so that we (as Americans) can become the next Snooki!? She is, honestly, the only person in the “Jersey Shore” house with any bit of sense; and that should say a little too much.

Our generation is going to fall flat because we allow ourselves to desire the ‘Guido’ or ‘Meatball’ lifestyles. In watching a show like “Jersey Shore,” you will fall into a comatose state and drop twenty IQ points. It is a true stress reliever because you do not need a brain to enjoy or understand it.

The United States is currently ranked fourteenth in education, out of seventy countries. Our education has fallen to just “average,” according to the Huffington Post. So, in comparison to our big nation counterparts, the United States is beginning to look increasingly under educated. However, The United States is one of, if not the only country, that mandates education to all citizens. So, technically speaking, the scores may be a misrepresentation.

Sending the cast of “Jersey Shore” to Italy pushes the image of terrible education in the United States. They make other countries believe that they are somehow above us because we allow those who did not take advantage of their education to lead and represent us. In a society where education is mandatory or every youth, why are we idolizing blatant idiocy? We are wasting the stream of almost limitless knowledge available to us. To ‘GTL,’ or filling your time with sex, alcohol, and partying is not living. It really appears to just be an existence leading us to the end.

In the fourth season of “Jersey Shore” Snooki referred to a carousel as a Ferris wheel. No one corrected the girl, as if not one of them knew the difference. I’m sorry, but you live in Jersey for a few months out of the year and you don’t know the difference? The best part though, came later when Snooki’s boyfriend came to Italy and left because she pulled her dress up over her head at a club. That’s exactly who we should model our lives after, is it not?

Students at Rutgers University paid Snooki $32,000 to speak. There she decided to give them the advice of “study hard, but party harder,” according to NBC news. On the flip side, Rutgers University only paid Maya Angelou, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and poet, $30,000 to speak the same year.

We all have our little guilty pleasures. And as shameful as I find it to say, I have watched “Jersey Shore.” Honestly, I am also ashamed to be grouped in with a generation that aspires to be like Snooki. In response to their adoring fans, the “Jersey Shore” cast is making $100,000 an episode, according to NBC Washington. How much does a doctor make a year, or a lawyer? I am guessing it is less than Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino. With all of the obsession over “Jersey Shore” the U.S. is not succeeding, but rather spoiling its potential.

Why is it okay for American society to become less educated than in past generations? This is simply unacceptable to me.

Luckily, I’m not the only one. Law makers and Representatives of New York and New Jersey find their behavior to be in bad taste. Companies like Abercrombie are offering the cast members money just to stop wearing their products. They are eight people that many groups, such as the National Italian American Foundation, see as a “disgrace” and find their behavior to be “outrageous,” according to the NY Daily News. So why is our generation obsessing over them? More than eight million people tuned in to watch the premier of “Jersey Shore’s” third season, according to The Huffington Post.

How could we send the cast to another country, will they not be seen as representing America? We did it to our selves. We give them their popularity, their celebrity.

Do not allow yourselves to become the next ‘Guido’ or the next ‘Meatball,’ I beg you.

Discount what you see on MTV, and do not waste your potential. Make yourself worth more because you only have one chance to make a good impression.n