We don't need no education: did we really think that?

"The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future(Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30)" (Mark Bauerlein)
Mark Bauerlein is Professor of English at Emory University in Atlanta and former director of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts. The thesis of this book is that the digital age is making students "dumb" in both senses of the word. Students can't think and they can't communicate, he argues, because they spend too much time watching tv, playing computer games, and hanging out on Facebook. He does not say that the digital age makes people less intelligent; in fact, he reports that IQ scores have gone up over the last 20 years. But he also points out that scores in standardized tests for numeracy, language skills, and general knowledge have all gone down over the same period of time. It would seem we have a pool of brighter students who know less, can't express themselves, and lack the knowledge we would expect of citizens in a democratic society.

In my opinion, one of his most relevant complaints is that electronic culture promotes narcissism and isolation. Young people can communicate nonstop with their peers. They can reinforce peer values, while rejecting the larger needs and values of society. It is an unchallenging environment that doesn't promote reasoning or analysis. When students confront difficult issues in school or life, they shut down and run back to Myspace.

I share many of Bauerlein's concerns. Young people can be narcissistic and closed minded. I recall the class where several of my students walked out because I played them some Bach. "Our generation doesn't listen to that stuff," one of them told me. But, frankly, he comes across as a bit of an old fogey: someone who seems to see all change as a loss.

Furthermore, he tends to lay too much blame on the young people and not enough on the old people who have allowed this to happen. If you feed a child junk food all of its life, is it surprising that the child doesn't like his/her first taste of mashed turnips?

I would like to have seen more examination of causes and more suggestions for answers. Bauerlein's problem is that he is a neo-conservative caught in a contradiction. While bemoaning the loss of certain traditional skills and values, he cannot bring himself to say that capitalism and consumerism are the main causes of the problem and so he blames the victim.

Technorati Tags: education, internet culture, language

Getting clued in

"Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind" (Professor Gerald Graff)
Gerald Graff is professor of English and Education at the University of Illinois. He is author of several books and articles and a major contributor to cultural debate in the United States. In this book, he looks at the difficulty contemporary students have with academic discourse. Why can't they understand and follow the debates and discussions central to their academic majors? The title sounds like he is laying blame on the students, but in fact, he isn't.

Students are "clueless"  for two reasons: (a) they are not sufficiently challenged in secondary school and tend to shut down when confronted with "difficult" writing and (b) their professors refuse to compromise their language so that neophytes can understand it. Graff sets out to pose solutions to both of these problems in his book.

For students, the answer is an educational system that is more challenging and less concerned that everyone pass. It would be an education system firmly grounded in books and reading as opposed to experiential learning. This will probably never happen; too many entrenched interests would be affected.

For professors, the answer is to get down off their high horses and deign to explain things to their students. Graff offers several practical writing tips for professors, many of them the kind of thing one would tell a freshman class: use examples, occasionally employ colloquial language, consider your audience. That professors should require writing tips is troubling.

I enjoyed this book because Graff puts a lot of energy into proposing solutions without ignoring the problems. I think his a particularly humanities oriented approach that will not find acceptance in other fields.

Technorati Tags: education

Genius and Madness

Creative minds: the links between mental illness and creativity - Features, Health & Wellbeing - The Independent

Can science explain creativity? Does the theory of evolution account for the enduring value people place on literature? Is the brain of a "genius" different in some empirically measurable way from "normal" people's brains?
There is a small, but growing, tendency in the humanities to use certain branches of science, particularly neuroscience and biological evolution, to explain why people create art and why societies value it. This brief article in The Guardian outlines new theories which suggest that creative genius and clinical psychosis  have much in common, and that many famous thinkers were troubled by what we call mental illness. More controversially, it floats the idea that psychosis itself might be a factor in natural selection--that is, the fact that we can trace psychotic behaviour throughout history suggests that it is an evolutionary adaptation that enhances survival.
The idea of a link between madness and genius is not a new one. The article cites Seneca as making the observation and the poet John Dryden, writing in the 1700's observed that:

Great wits are sure to madness near allied,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide.
(from Absolom and Achitophel)

The use of neuroscience to explain art is a new and controversial things. The comments section at the end of the article attests to this.

Technorati Tags: art, education, health, medicine, poetry

El Sistema

This video is incredible! It is from the TED.com web site and features Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Venezuela Youth orchestra. The concert is a tribute to the founder of "El Sistema," a Venezuelan project designed to engage disadvantaged youth in education through music. Dudamel is a graduate of the program, and a world famous conductor, and all of the musicians are enrolled in the program.

According to the wikipedia article on El Sistema, "its greatest achievement are the 250,000 children who attend its music schools around the country, 90 percent of them from poor socio-economic backgrounds."

The video is evidence of the transformative power of art.  As you watch these passionate, engaged kids, remember that without the program they would likely be dropouts, druggies, or dead.

Technorati Tags: art, education, music, TED

How to Wake Up Slumbering Minds - WSJ.com

How to Wake Up Slumbering Minds - WSJ.com

This Wall Street Journal article is a review of "Why Don't Students Like School: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom" (Daniel T. Willingham). Willingham bases his answer to the question on recent research in neuroscience. The main points are

• The human brain does not like abstract thinking. We are more receptive to "doing" learning than to "thinking" learning. This is not new. Socrates engaged his students in debate. He didn't lecture them.
• We learn best by "drilling" and repetition. This goes against current educational theory, but is generally true to my experience. In most cases I can do mental arithmetic more quickly than students can do calculations with a calculator. As a child I had to memorize and repeat the "times" tables. I just can't do it with big numbers
• Getting students to "think like mathematicians" or philosophers or any other trained specialist doesn't work. This, too, goes against contemporary theory. The line is that  if we get them to think like mathematicians, they will be better at math. Not so. First expose them to the knowledge of the discipline (possibly by drilling it into them) and some of them might start to think like workers in the field, eventually.
• Students cannot apply generic critical thinking skills until after they have acquired a considerable amount of knowledge and fact. Until students know something, they cannot analyze it critically
• "Learning styles" are largely a myth. There is no empirical evidence to back the claim that different people have different learning styles. Frankly, this comes as no surprise to me.It has always seemed to me that they represent trivial differences in individuals and should not be used as a basis for educational planning. Now we have scientific data to support that conclusion. The belief that all students are "equal in ability but unique in style" is hokum.
• Placing an emphasis on knowledge and content is the best way to ensure student learning. Again, no surprise. I remember with fondness and admiration the teachers and professors who "knew their stuff". More importantly, I remember much of what they taught me.

Technorati Tags: education

When bad businesses go good

Why Ideals are the New Business Models - Umair Haque - HarvardBusiness.org:
Every once in a while I take a look at the Harvard School of Business blog to see what the other half is doing. By the other half, I mean the people who are interested in making a profit. I was surprised to see this article, which argues that modern business needs "value creation," not "value capture". Apparently, this means it's time for business to base its way of operating upon values instead of chasing after valuables (i.e. profit). The article takes quite a hammering from some of the commenters. Apparently they consult the Harvard Business blog for tips on making money, not for moral advice.
The author, Umair Haque, is described as "Director of the Havas Media Lab, a new kind of strategic advisor that helps investors, entrepreneurs, and firms experiment with, craft, and drive radical management, business model, and strategic innovation." I'm not sure what all this means, but I do like the idea of "radical management."

Technorati Tags: business, education, money