For Wednesday's assignment, read the article from the Boston Globe, entitled "8 reasons why this is the dumbest generation" and leave comments on the article. State one reaction and then look at the other comments and respond to at least two other comments.
It works best if you leave comments under your myprowler.org google address.
If fewer kids are reading, how does that explain the popularity of "The Hunger Games," "The Twilight" series, and, of course, "Harry Potter." Yes TV and video games and social media compete for reading time, but it's not like if you went back in time 60 years and walked into your average home of the 1950's you'd find the entire family huddled around the fire place reading. Fewer than half the kids graduated high school then. So you're telling me reading levels were higher than today?
ReplyDeleteI mostly agree with this. I think they're right about some kids not reading at all; some of my friends admit to not reading a book since when they were in middle school. Although, the majority of us still read. The popularity of those series is a great example, and those are just a few of the books that I know have been popular among high school students.
DeleteYoung adult literature is a fairly new genre when you consider the grand scheme of things. And while I am clearly a fan (comes with the job!), I'll be the first to admit that it's, for the most part, easy reading. Even though the novels are entertaining, there's nothing difficult about the diction, or even terribly complicated about the plots -- that was quite a generalization, but you get my point.
DeleteI would maintain that the kids who read, read a lot. But those who don't are quick to state, "I don't read" like it's a badge of honor or something. It's sad, really; one shouldn't take pride in such a statement.
Other than the "Sports" section of the newspaper, the only time I read was when I had an assignment in my English class. We didn't have "Grand Theft Auto," but I'll tell you we did have "Super Tecmo Bowl," and I can guarantee you I spent just as much with that then you all do with COD (I always thought this was a fish? =)
ReplyDeleteHow do I post a comment? How do I reply?
ReplyDeleteIf we don't store information how is it that more students are graduating from high school? Back in the fifties and sixties less than half of students earned high school degrees, but today just about everyone earns a high school degree and goes to college. Yes we use the internet, but it is mostly for chatting on facebook and such. If we relied on the internet for everything there is no way we could pass classes to graduate. Granite Bauerlein has a point when he says we don't retain information we just use the internet. We still need to be able to comprehend and understand the material in front of us in order to pass classes. So how do we not store information?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that higher graduation rates, or more students going to college is a good measurement for students being smarter, or dumber than the past. As for "passing classes to graduate" schools today are constantly battling the problem of grade inflation. Is an "A" today the same as an "A" in my grandmother's time?
DeleteI have to agree with Mr. Powers on the idea of grade inflation. I came across a comic that rang pretty true awhile back: http://www.kushari.org/2010/07/08/these-grades-are-terrible-cartoon/ There is a lot of pressure on teachers and schools to pass kids or give them better grades than they deserve so they can maintain their GPAs. I'm not sure that an A today IS the same as an A in the past.
DeleteI don't think, however, that any of this stuff is indicative of kids being dumber OR smarter than previous generations. This generation has the same spectrum of learners as any other. Some kids excel; some do not.
When Bauerlein says, "Digital natives, however, go to the Internet not to store knowledge in their minds, but to retrieve material and pass it along. The Internet is just a delivery system.''
ReplyDeleteHe is relatively right. When you go to look something up on the internet you will in no doubt find the answer. Wether you remember it or not is up to your interests. If i go and find something that is current and relevant to my life i will remember it. If i go and look for the number of casualties in a ware, I wont remember the number 20 minutes from then. It really all depends on the subject of which you are getting information on rather than what your are getting information from.
I don't see how looking something up on "Google" as different than looking something up in the encyclopedia. Do we have to waste our time remembering a bunch of facts now that we can look them up quickly? It's what we do with that information that will determine our worth.
DeleteI agree with Megan's comment about us "Millenials" retaining information. When Megan said that we still need to be able to comprehend the materials and information infront of us she is exactly right. No matter where we get the information from, a book or the computer, wether or not we comprehend it us completely up to us. If we choose to, we will, and if not, we wont. The source if information means nothing of our ability to retain it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Nick stated. When you say it depends on the subject you are looking at there is some relevance to that. Say you googled something about a past war or something important from history. If it were me I would forget it relatively quickly because it is unimportant to my life today. However I still remember the important wars and dates of history without googling them. So it goes both ways it just depends on how well you remember things and what your interests are.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with the statement "they don't read books." Maybe it is the culture that we have created in TRF Schools but I see students reading all the time, and not just in school when they are forced to.
ReplyDeleteIn number seven when Bauerlein says, "It's the era or child-centered classrooms and self-esteem grading."
ReplyDeleteI do agree with that for the most part in high school, but when hasn't high school been like that? If anything high school has gotten harder over the years and the graduation rates have gone up which means that we aren't the ones to blame. If there is anyone to blame about the "child-centered classrooms" or the "self-esteem grading" it would be the teachers, not the "dumbest generation".
I'm not sure I agree or disagree, but it's a bold statement. "If anything high school has gotten harder over the years..." I'm not sure that's true. And graduation rates being higher might be more because of the wealth of our country.
DeleteHas high school gotten harder? That's an interesting question. I bet if you were to poll your parents (Gen Xers and Baby Boomers) to see what math and science classes they took, we'd be surprised. I found this out when I was trying to help KoKo with some math homework. Good luck. I never had that in high school.
DeleteBut, on the other hand, the reading material certainly isn't more difficult. I read "Of Mice and Men" in tenth grade. Now that's part of College Comp I. I bet if you looked at the books that were taught in 7-10th grade from 40 years ago (I'm thinking "The Jungle," "The Scarlett Letter," "The Great Gatsby" and plenty of Shakespeare), we'd all be surprised.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with what nick commented completely. The internet is a great resource for us to find the information that we need or want quickly. If it is not in your interests, just like anything else, you will not remember it as much as something that really does interest you.
ReplyDeleteGreat point. Schools today need to do a better job of proving to your generation that the information we offer up is relevant. I think your generation demands that more than any other generation. When I went to class, I just was expected to be an empty vessel and had no real expectations of being engaged. I just showed up and expected the teacher to dump the knowledge on me (which would be regurgitated later on a test). I think a lot of passive learning took place. Gen Xers grew up on a minimum of 24 hours of TV a week, so we were used to being passively entertained. The Millennials, though, spend less than that watching TV and, instead, spend a ton of time on the internet, which is interactive and anything but passive. So your expectations are different.
DeleteSteven Johnson, in his book "Where Good Ideas Come From," makes an excellent point about the internet as a great resource. He said that in 1988, if you wanted to learn about a concept, say global warming, you would have gone to your set of encyclopedias. Now you'd need a current edition of Britannica to have info on global warming. But odds are your family's set of encyclopedias were actually from the 1970's. So you're out of luck. And you could try watching the news, but the odds of you seeing the actually segment on the new science of global warming would be slim. Furthermore, it's not like you could tivo it and watch it when you wanted to or even do a search for it (other than TV Guide). If you read the paper, you'd have to scan through various sections until you caught the proper article.
Now, contrast that with finding information on global warming today. I just Googled it and found 338 million hits. And those range from respected articles (the first one up is from the New York Times) and I can also search books, images, and videos. There is an absolute plethora of knowledge at your fingertips.
But there's doubt as to how this generation uses that knowledge, especially to become well informed citizens.
But I believe my generation had the charge leveled at it too.
I absolutely agree with Mr. Reynolds. When he states that books are competing with the media now he is right. But he is also correct when he says that there are popular books out there that almost every individual has read. I have read all three series of the books he listed and they were great. Bauerlein is making it seem like we don't read at all anymore, but we do. Whether it be magazines, newspapers, books, etc. Like Reynolds said if you were to go back in time or even ask your parents if they read at home all the time there answer would likely be no. So Bauerlein can't say that we don't read at all because we do. For instance here at Lincoln we set aside fifteen minutes everyday to read our books. And Bauerlein says read don't ever day? Okay then.
ReplyDeleteIn number one, Bauerlain says that we are easy Jaywalking targets. This is one reason why we are the dumbest generation. How do a few people answering wrong on Jaywalking make us the dumbest generation? There are just as many older people answering wrong, so shouldn't that make them the dumbest generation? Besides the only people they show on Jaywalking are the ones that answer wrong, not the people who answer correctly.
ReplyDeleteI agree with #6, that we are not retaining the information we are being exposed to. Now days, students are rarely using books as sources of research or information unless it is a requirement for the class. Instead, we hop on the computer, get the needed information to complete the assignment, and turn it in without totally understanding it. I recently did this for a history assignment about Thomas Jefferson. We have such easy access to information that we somewhat take advantage of it, and don't have much of an interest in trying to remember it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this completely. Instead of reading through books to find exactly what information we need, we can simply google the one question that we need answered, re-word it, and we're done. When we had to find information for our research paper in College Comp, I learned a lot more by using books from the library than I ever have using the internet for a project. Books force us to read more into what we're looking for, and it helps us remember the information in the future.
DeleteI agree with Morgan when she states that it isn't our fault for the system of which teachers grade us on. I believe that when you have a relative caring teacher you will receive only the grades that you deserve rather than grades if worry on self-esteem. If anything i think that most teachers these days will frade you on your work rather than you as a person. Therefore meaning that they don't base grading levels on one's self-esteem.
ReplyDeleteI will default to Mr. "It all comes back to math" Froiland here. What constitutes an A? Mastery. End of discussion. No self-esteem in that equation (great, now Mr. Froiland has me using more math terminology now . . .)
DeleteI agree with Josh's statement. To make good T.V. they use the people that answer the questions wrong because it's funnier. If they only show the younger people getting the questions wrong, obviously people are going to call us the dumbest generations when in reality older people get the questions wrong too.
ReplyDeleteI think you and Josh are right on with your analysis of "Jay Walking." Yes, they don't put the people that answer correctly on the air. Also, people answering know that if they answer in a ridiculous way, they might get on TV. We reward the most stupid!
Delete"Jay Walking" harms the image of education in the USA. I find it extremely offensive.
I also agree with Mr. Reynolds comment. There are kids reading all the time in school. Again, there are many book series that are hugely popular with the kids in this generation. I have read quite few books in my free time, and know many other kids who read as well. My parents tell me that they did not read as much as me when they were my age. How can Bauerlain then say that we don't read?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Josh's statement on how they only publicize the examples that make us look dumb and incorrect. It appears funny to them and then they have evidence so that they can call us the dumbest generation. Also by exposing our stupidity, it makes adults seem much smarter, but the ironic thing is that many of them also wouldn't be able to answer the questions correctly.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Morgan stated about how it is not our generations fault. it has gotten to the point where High School teachers have a hard time being truthful if a student's work is terrible. They worry about their feelings, which is a good thing to a point, but they should also care that the student is learning the correct way. Teachers also have a hard time failing students, and give them multiple chances to re-take a test or hand in a late assignment.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Lindsey makes a good point as well. Some kids are not retaining the info we are being taught. It has become habit to just Google the answers to questions, and right it down. Fewer of us are actually learning the info we are being taught.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I think this 'actually learning the info we are being taught' discussion can be linked to (and Mr. Powers will love this) our country's fascination with high stakes testing. There is a push, like it or not, in this district as well as others across the country, to cram, cram, cram skills into our students to boost those scores.
DeleteI've been in a million department, curriculum, and technology meetings. Testing always comes up. As does our scores and how to keep us off AYP. But I've never heard the question posed, "How do we use our classes to create well informed citizens." And that's what Bauerlein is suggesting we are lacking. If it's true, those high-stakes tests are partly to blame.
Want an interesting discussion? Millennials, be honest, and tell us what you 'really' think of those tests and how hard you actually try on them.
We are viewed as the "Dumbest Generation" because of how we present ourselves to the public. For example, in Jaywalking we are exposing ourselves as though we do not care about the topics that are important to other generations. Also, on the internet we do not use proper grammar or reasoning, therefore other viewers see us as not intelligent.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Josh. It seems like the older generation is setting us up for failure.
ReplyDeleteChris, how is the previous generation setting your generation up for failure? I feel about youths the same way my parents thought about me and my friends... (damn kids). I'm sure the same way my grandparents felt about them. However, I don't think it's the previous generations fault. Or is it?
DeleteI think the Gen X parents are to blame for a lot of the Millennials' 'problems.' Think of the problem of helicopter parents. Or parents who religiously attend sixth grade basketball tournaments and video tape every second of their child's play time. Or who plan vacations around their child's summer lifting and workout schedule. Or who live vicariously through their kids. Or who coddle them. All of this tells the millennial generation - you are extra special. When they really aren't.
DeleteWhen I first started teaching my dad said, you know what's wrong with kids today (one of my least favorite phrases in the world) and he gave me this scenario. Once he had gotten in trouble on the bus. The bus driver then called my grandfather. As a result, he spanked my father. There was no discussion.
Then my dad said when I got in trouble on the bus and the bus driver called, instead of simply believing the bus driver and spanking me, my mother would cop an excuse and say "my kurt would never do that," thereby undermining the bus driver's authority.
And today the parents would blame the bus driver instead of the kid! They'd say to the bus driver, "Well, you weren't respecting my child. Or maybe they were having a bad day. Or maybe your should put DVD players in the seats so he'll be entertained." Sound familiar?
Look at the examples the Gen X parents have set for our kids. Gen Xers are in more debt, are on average at least 20 pounds heavier, and have larger houses (which many of us can't afford) and have one more vehicle (and buy our kids far nicer vehicles than any youth actually deserves) than the Baby Boomers. I'm not sure that's a healthy example. No wonder the millennials think their lives will be perfect.
I also agree with Mr. Lingen. He points out that all generations are easily conformed to their environments and that our general interests have not changed, just the scale.
ReplyDeleteI agree with reason number 6 that we don't store infromation we recieve from the internet. We find what we need to on the internet to get our work done and as quickly as we find it, its gone. Compared to generations before us, we have so much more information at our fingertips but we aren't getting anything out of it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Morgan. Teachers are at fault just as much as any of us in the "dumbest generation" are. They baby us and want to keep our self esteem high so how is that our fault?
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Lingen. Of course video games and other things compete with reading, but its not like it was any different in earlier generations. They read just as much or less than we do, there are plenty of kids that still read and enjoy reading.
ReplyDeleteI never have agreed with any of the statements that the younger generation is less intelligent than the one that preceded it. They are just different in how they receive their information and their uses of communication. Education at every level is far more structured and the demands are greater on today's students than it ever has been in the past with standardized testing. Students entering kindergarten classes in 2011 are expected to know sight words before they start school and read before they enter first grade.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree. Hit the nail right on the head. Thanks Mr. Leake!
DeleteI agree most with reason six. Bauerlein says, "It's the era of child-centered classrooms and self-esteem grading.'' Our parents and teachers alike are constantly lying to us, and telling us we're doing better than we really are. Like we talked about in class today, more kids receive A's and B's than ever before, and it's not because we're smarter. Teachers feel the pressure to give out good grades, so over time, it takes less work from a student to receive an A, even when we don't deserve it. Our parents are also constantly lying to us. They feel the need to boost our confidence whenever they can, so they do nothing but praise us whether our work is crap or not.
ReplyDeleteAna--
DeleteI think the pendulum is starting to swing back. One good thing about the self-esteem movement is that it forced teachers to consider how they treat students. I don't have the horror stories that some of our later-in-their-career teachers do about how teachers operated when they were in school, and how parents operated at home in their youth. The modus operandi of the past was fear. Learning and respect were accomplished through the instilling of a sense of fear of authority, not through focused practice opportunities, well-crafted means of communicating information, and constructive criticism.
Thankfully, we have rid ourselves of fear as a method of doing business in the classroom and at home. Did we get soft? Perhaps. Are we getting tougher in education? In the age of college and career readiness, we need to, and from the work I see going on, I believe we are.
However, if an 'A' truly means mastery/proficiency, and everyone has the necessary opportunities to practice and refine skills--and, more importantly, everyone takes advantage of those opportunities and DOES master skills and concepts, could we then all agree that a slew of 'A's would be justified? That's my ideal as a teacher.
We as students, especially ones who have worked hard, but didn't necessarily sacrifice learning in favor of grades, are going to disagree with these statements. I actually feel this is an argument that should be focused on the previous generation. How much of your class read regularly? It isn't our fault the previous generation couldn't reach kids in a way that kept their attention. To many of these statements are very broad generalizations.
ReplyDeleteIn the article, number three says my generation can't spell. Okay, call me out if I make any grammatical errors because that is ridiculous. I'm not so much angry that Bauerlein says "they can't spell", rather it's the evidence he used to back it up. Sure we have spell check and all, but he cannot use IM as evidence of this issue. Of course we would become lazy with capitalization and shorten lengthy words or phrases, such as "IDK" or "LOL". It is no different than people using the acronyms "GOP" or "FBI". It's not like we really write college papers using such grammar.
ReplyDeleteAs for number 4, I completely agree with his idea. Even though MySpace has diminished over time, if schools would incorporate, let's say Facebook, into their writing criteria, then it would engage students more and, as Bauerlein states, "...we might get good stuff."
I agree with Loren that our previous generation is not any more intelligent than my generation, we're all just different in how we learn. I think we need to stop comparing and start finding a solution to the problem at hand.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Kirstyn. We do find what we need from the internet and then the knowledge is gone. It's not our fault we can't hold on to every beneficial information, we're just taking advantage of what the previous generations have brought forward.
ReplyDeleteInsipid tripe. There...how's that for a blog post starter? That's my opinion of the article as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI find a certain amount of irony that in this article a lack of understanding is decried, yet the article is delivered in one of those "factoid" formats that provides just enough verbiage to make it appear to be a valid argument to support the cause.
I will agree with some of what was said...here are my responses, "reason" by "reason...
1) It's not that you are cut off from reality, but that your reality has so much attacking your attention span that the development of coherent, sustained thought doesn't happen as fluidly as it once did in previous generations. One cannot ponder on things when one's Facebook page is flashing before one's left eye while one's smart phone is displaying all the tweets of inane activity before one's other eye. That's brain science, not a character judgment. And it does affect your learning.
2) The lack of desire to complete homework, as the author states, has always been a part of the psyche of American youth. But when I see you with your Kindles and your laptops and--wonder of wonders--your paper-and-binding books!, I know you are reading. The issue of the reading interests of youth is another discussion entirely, and not a discussion that I would tie to the level of dumbness (if that can be measured) of a wide swath of people.
3) Lack of correct spelling and grammar is not something that should brand a generation as dumb. what I worry about is if one cannot take the .5 seconds to do the little things right, what does that say about the character skills necessary to perform complex tasks in the work world and in one's personal life to a high level? I don't have a good answer to this question.
To be continued in another post, to allow for better discussion and the possibility of my computer locking up...
Continuing...
ReplyDelete4) Original thought has been ridiculed by school peers long before your generation came along. Social media just makes it easier to do after the fact--or, if your teachers aren't paying attention, then it's easier to do during class for all to see later.
5) Equating video use with higher remediation needs without backing evidence is correlation without causation. That renders the article's validity doubtful, in this mathematician's opinion. Don't believe me? Take a statistics class sometime.
6) This I agree with. Easier delivery of information has made the ever-present desire to not do homework (sorry for splitting the infinitive) easier to give into. One can now rather quickly do as Lindsey Guzek pointed out earlier. We as teachers can do various things to counter this. It does not matter how one receives or accesses information; one still must commit it to memory. Perhaps the wealth of activities this wave of students commits to compounds this problem as much as the competition for attention spans.
Edit to #5: The first sentence should read "Equating video use with higher remediation needs without backing evidence is implying causation where only correlation may exist." Don't know where my brain was last night.
DeleteAnd more...
ReplyDelete7) It's nice to see someone stating that self-esteem grading is the method du jour in our classrooms. I wonder where the author has been the last 35 years. Self-esteem grading has been around since the 70s. This is not a new problem.
I will say that there is an increased amount of pressure on us as teachers to "give" good grades. I don't really find that pressure coming from all of you, though. Perhaps this is a bigger issue at bigger college-prep schools or on the coasts or something. I don't see it here. More of you are buying into the whole "'A' means mastery" or "'A' means proficiency" argument that forms the basis of my grading philosophy.
Self-esteem is important, though. I will respond to one of Ana's posts shortly to piggyback on that.
8) This is one of the eternal truths!!! Though I don't remember being that stupid...and I don't think I was...but then again, I've never quite fit in with most of my generation. (If you haven't taken the millenial quiz yet, as Mr. Reynolds what a score of 11 means. That's the score I received. 'Nuff said.)
Good comments, everybody. Thanks, Mr. Reynolds, for the invitation to participate!
And finally--if you read through all of my points in one sitting (perhaps with replies) WITHOUT checking "the Twitter" and peeking at "the Facebook," kindly send me your name and I will lobby with Mr. Reynolds for extra credit for you--for that means in my mind that you are doing that which is necessary for critical thinking! :-)
By itself, Brett, it won't. However, if that is just an indicator of the general attention to detail and general desire to "do it right," then that could lead to downfall. (Sorry, Mike Holmes, for borrowing "do it right.")
ReplyDeleteI think the article is typical of older generational fear and misunderstanding of younger generations. This is not a new idea. Varying accounts attribute the following quote to either Aristotle or Socrates by way of Plato:
ReplyDelete"The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority, they show disrespect to their elders.... They no longer
rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents,
chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their
legs, and are tyrants over their teachers."
The authorship places the above quote at around 2500 years ago...The young will always behave differently than their elders and as we age we forget just how we acted when younger. Perhaps today's youth face more opportunity for distraction by way of modern communication and entertainment options but distraction is ever present and is most effective on the youth.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Mr. Hickman the older generation always has a concern that the younger generation isn't doing it right. I also believe it's part of their job to be concerned and us and it is obviously human nature if it has gone on for 2500 years.
ReplyDeleteI think Mr. Hickman brings up a valid point. We are not the first generation to deviate from tradition. Younger generations naturally try to be better than the previous generation, and to do this we have to change.
ReplyDeleteMr. Froiland:
ReplyDeleteI agree that if the students deserve an A, and have truly mastered all the skills required for the class, then they should get an A. I just think there are lots of students who get an A in the class, but will admit that they learned absolutely nothing, so why are they getting such a good grade?
Every generation thinks that the generation below them is not as good as their own or dumber than theirs. The cycle goes keeps going.
ReplyDeleteIt is what it is. I have my opinions about what Bauerlein states and other people have there's. I believe that Bauerlein is wrong. Kids today do have it tough in school. Teachers commented that they just give students grades they don' t deserve in order to keep their GPA up. I disagree with this teachers shouldn't give students grades they don't deserve it's wrong. On top of that there are teachers I have had that grade me fairly such as Mr Froiland and Reynolds. I thank them for that. I would never want to get a grade I don't deserve. In conclusion my generation isn't the dumbest generation. Generations before us were considered the dumbest generation before us and the next generation will probably be considered the dumbest generation. The cycle will continue no matter what, so people shouldn't judge our generation because we have more technology than they did. If they had this technology when they were younger they would be the same way. In my opinion we are smarter than past generations because we know more about technology and such than they do.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Mr. Hickman and Brett. The older generations have always been questioning the younger generation (Even 2500 years ago). Our elders question us, and we will question the younger generation below us.
ReplyDeleteI hope you also question the previous generation. (Just try to do it in a respectful way, we're old and our feelings are easily hurt.)
DeleteI agree with Mr. Froiland's reasoning on all of the 8 statements. I would also like my extra credit points for not checking twitter or facebook while reading the comments :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mr. Froiland all around! didn't check my phone once! extra credit? :)
ReplyDeleteI've said for years, yes the next generation is getting dumber, but I also see some of you getting smarter. I've always seen that some of the kids coming through LHS are AMAZING in what they do. I see many kids at LHS as that are way more amazing than anything from my school in my day. However, I see many kids that are more lazy than anything that came out of my school, too. You see both extremes, and more of them (I'm sure all of you fall into the amazing category).
ReplyDelete