[LM_NET] OT (sort of): The Dumbest Generation? Don't Be Dumb

[edward nizalowski <enizalowski@NVCS.STIER.ORG>]

This was the title of an article from the newest issue of Newsweek (June
2nd).  Here is the opening paragraph:

 

"Really, don't we all know by now that finding examples of teens' and
twentysomethings ignorance is like shooting fish in a barrel?  If you
want to exercise your eye-rolling or hand-wringing muscles, take your
pick.  Two-thirds of high-school seniors in 2006 couldn't explain an old
photo of a sign over a theater door reading COLORED ENTRANCE.  In 2001,
52 percent identified Germany, Japan or Italy, not the Soviet Union, as
America's World War II ally.  One-quarter of the 18- to 24-year-olds in
a 2004 survey drew a blank on Dick Cheney, and 28 percent didn't know
William Rehnquist.  The world's most heavily defended border?  Mexico's
with the United States, according to 30 percent of the same age group.
We doubt that the 30 percent were boastful or delusional Minutemen."

 

            The article focuses heavily on a recent book by Mark
Bauerlein, an English professor at Emory University, entitled "The
Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and
Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30)"

 

            So what is the opinion of the online school media community?
Is this generation dumber in comparison to others?  What's the cause?
Can it be traced to television, computers, video games, the Internet,
the new communication technologies?  What, if anything, can be done
about it?

 

Ed Nizalowski, SMS

Newark Valley High School

Newark Valley, NY

enizalowski@nvcs.stier.org <mailto:enizalowski@nvcs.stier.org> 

 

"For all the chatter about the Age of Information, what we are really
entering is the Age of Biology, and it is bigger than anything we can
imagine. . . . . We didn't invent nature.  Nature invented us.  Nature
bats last, as the saying goes, but even more important, it's her playing
field.  We would be wise to learn the ground rules and how to play them.

 

Ken Ausubel, Ed.  Nature's Operating Instructions.  [from his
Introduction]

Currently reading Soldier X by Don Wulffson

 

 


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