My initial thoughts on these guys:
On Bauerlein:
There is a part of me that does not want to like Bauerlein's train of thought. He seems to be cut from the E.D. Hirsch, Jr. school of thought, that you have to know certain canonical or core subjects and texts in order to be literate. I just think that leads to a sort of snobbery. Do you really need to read The Federalist Papers in order to be a productive citizen? (I haven't). Or several plays of Shakespeare? (I have). Do we all need to have certain shared cultural knowledge in order to relate, interact, and be successful? I am not sure. If anything, it seems to me that there is so much knowledge right now that it is difficult to ascertain just which parts are most important to know. Sure, some seem to get you into more clubs, like honor societies and colleges, but how much of that is living in the past or looking at a set of skills and knowledge that are becoming less relevant every day?
I do take his point that we do not know the repercussions of what all this peer-to-peer networking will be in the long run, and I do wonder about the disconnections that can be occurring that may short circuit traditional mentor/mentee relationships.
On Howe:
I wonder: Are millenials smarter than everyone who came before them - or do they think differently and have access to way more data that ever before?
The measures he cites seem to be random and maybe unhelpful: IQ scores? homework hours? TV-watching hours? I am not sure if these things and the behaviors he mentions mean that students in the past were worse off or better off now. Just because tests scores range up may mean that teachers are doing a better job preparing their teachers for the tests.
I do like his point about how we are constantly measuring the youth of today according to the past, when we have no way to measure those past youth to today's standards. There is a part of me that suspects strongly that there are no really big differences between youth then or now, and that the differences lay in the technologies and affordances we have. Of course children in the 1950s read more. TVs were scarce; there were no video games, and if you wanted entertainment you had to go out to the movies or hang out with your friends. Nowadays you can log on and hang out as much as you want (or are allowed) and see all kinds of sites worth of games and entertainments (videos and music, etc).
On this entire debate:
I also feel there is a danger of trying to characterize an entire generation. How alike or cohensive can they be? Are there outliers who excel (e.g. the spelling bee and science fair winners and Ivy League students) and skew things up? Is Howe cherry-picking these examples, like Bauerlein implied? I do not know if the examples he cites are representative on the whole. Likewise, I do not know if the basic skills and general cultural knowledge Bauerlein seems to want would be all that helpful in the end either.
I feel the answer lies somewhere between these two authors and their books. Students have access to more information and texts and technology but that does not necessarily mean they are smarter or dumber. They actually have to do something with all the (dis)advantages they have. And the jury is still out there. What I take from this debate is that we have to do school differently and take into account this current generation, which has to deal with transformational change way more than anyone else has had to. But then we are all in that boat, only we have not necessarily always been in it at the same time until now...
Are they smarter or just different?
One last thing that gets my goat:
Lots of people like to cite this 2004 NEA study that cites how much people are not reading any more. What about this 2008 NEA study done a couple of years later that says exactly the opposite? Is it chopped liver?
I think that you and I have a similar understanding growing up as generation X. Don't you think that to a certain degree we experience similar issues the millennial kids do, but we are just going through it later in life? It makes you think for sure, but I also think it makes you a better teacher to understand the demands and experiences these kids will continue to see.
ReplyDeleteI think we do experience similar things, but we come from different backgrounds and knew what things were like without the technology. I wonder how these younger folks' brains and ways of thinking going forward will be affected by that different jumping off point...
DeleteI also have a concern about social network and the decrease of face to face interaction. I myself social network and catch myself checking it more than I should. People do not just sit down and talk anymore. They text, message, email, or maybe call. And yes each generation is different and we change as times change. I am a millennial but I do not think I am "dumber" because of that. It is amazing the advancements in technology since I was in high school. More and more information is right at your fingertips.
ReplyDeleteYes, we know more about each other than ever before, even if we do not get to interact in traditional ways. I don't wonder about intelligence as much as I do things like empathy and etiquette....
DeleteIt does bother me that kids don't read as much for leisurely anymore. There's more extra-curricular activities and kids have all kinds of access to technology and TV that does the creativity for them. I've heard kids say many times, "I have nothing to do!" This irritates me because when I was a kid I stayed home, only had 1 TV that only showed cartoons on Saturday, and I couldn't even call my friends on the phone because it was long distance (even though I lived in the same county!) I actually wrote to my friends in the summer! I truly had NOTHING to do so my brother and I would always get creative.. When I hear kids say they are bored I just want to scream, "Go make some mud pies, catch lightening bugs, climb a tree, ride a bike, or read a book!" It's little things like this kids remember. Not how many 'likes' they have on instagram. I guess I'm a little old school. I want my kids to put down the technology every now and then and just play! They need to interact, laugh, and make memories.
ReplyDeleteAnother funny thing that shows my age is I could only talk on the phone for a little while because it would tie up the phone line. What was even worse was that the phone was right in the middle of the kitchen so everybody could hear what you were saying! Now kids think they have to text all the time....about NOTHING! It's driving me crazy;-) Just a different world that I lived in.