Super Summarizer pages 1-38
Chapter 1: Knowledge Deficits
This chapter starts out discussing "Jaywalking" on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. This segment on Leno is where he asks random questions to people on the street about supposed general knowledge. The participant of course makes a fool of themselves on how little they do know. The author states that this is the life world of some people who do not know basic information.
The author then goes into the various ways that we chart the intellectual traits of young Americans. The most prevalent are the ACT and SAT. Then there is the NAEP, NSSE, ATUS, the SPPA just to name a few ( found on pages 14-15).
The author then breaks down each discipline and the information that is presented to us as far as how students score on these tests and really how much they do not even know. The scores have been steadily falling and in 2001 57 percent of seniors scored "below basic" on the history exam. 52% thought that Germany, Japan, or Italy was the U.S. ally in WW II.
The topic of Civics really isn't much better. In 1998 41% of teenagers could even name the 3 branches of government. In 2004 1/4 of the teens could not identify the Vice President of the U.S. As the reading goes on, it states that it really doesn't matter what university you go to. If you enroll in Harvard, Yale or UCLA the scores are just as pathetic.
Math/ Science/ Technology: These aren't really much better. It doesn't matter if Congress has passed umpteen bills on the subject, students don't answer the call. The numbers of students that are looking at going into engineering has been less than stellar. In 2002, those student who took, the ACT and were thinking about engineering was less than 6%.
Twelfth graders on the NAEP are sliding down the scale for their scores at a rapid pace. Most 12th graders cannot even score basic.
The current generation has a very distinct advantage. It enjoys first-rate culture and many more opportunities than students did 30 years ago. The spend more time in school. College enrollment alone rose 17% from 1984 to 1994 and in following 10 years jumped 21%. In 1994, 20% of adults had earned a bachelors degree or higher. In 2005, the number increased to 27.6%.
The current generation also has many cultural institutions available. Institutions such as libraries, museums, bookstores and galleries are open and all over.
Young Americans also have more money than they used to. Not many 20 yr olds had a credit card in 1965, but they do now.
The author states that all this is a paradox of the Dumbest Generation. They have life wonderful and have good so plentiful and liberties so copious that they should be above and beyond all.
The last thought that the author has on page 37 sums up most of the ideas in the first chapter.
"We must identify and describe the particular routines of the members of the Dumbest Generation that freeze their likings in adolescence despite more occasions for high culture, that harden their minds to historical and civic facts despite more coursework, that shut out current events and political matters despite all the information streams."
"The unique failings of the Dumbest Generation don't originate in the classroom, this only amounts to one-eleventh of their day. They stem from home, social and leisure lives of young Americans, and if changes in their out of school habits entail a progressive disengagement from intellectual matters, then we should expect their minds to exhibit some consequences in spite of what goes on in school.
This chapter for me was kind of a downer. It doesn't give much hope for those that are under 30yrs old.
I agree that this was a bit of a downer to start the book out with. I feel as if I have such little control over how students are using technology, and how little they are actually learning about basic stuff. We seem to be impressed by how "techy" they are, but we don't see how little they actually know about life in general. The only highlight was that it does take some of the pressure off of the educators, as the book states that by the time a child is 18, he or she has only spent about 11% of their time in school. At least we aren't entirely to blame!
ReplyDeleteI am an eternal optimist. I tend to argue against negative statements made about children, and tend to give them the benefit of the doubt. That being said, this section was very negative in terms of the picture it painted of our students. I'm 52, and I remember being a senior in high school and our government teacher being outraged that over half the class could not name the vice president or the representatives from our state. I think that there is so much information out there in these modern times, and it's like an overload. We need to teach students what the important information is - how to filter. I think that's always been important, but even more now with so much information at students' fingertips.
ReplyDeleteI asked some of my students today if they knew the vice president, Speaker of the House etc, and their response was, "We aren't old enough to vote, why should we care?"
ReplyDeleteIf it isn't important to them, or if they see no reason to know it, they won't. It's our job to make it relevant to them.
I was also a bit bummed by this chapter in the book. There is so much information out there. There being the “world wide web” that today students have access to that we no longer teach rote memorization of “historical or any other fact”. We tell ourselves well if they know how to get access to it then they in effect “know” it. Now students can simply do a search on a computer or even their own phone of any historical or other fact and have the information in seconds. Are pen and paper or bubble tests the only reliable way to tests students’ knowledge? I bet if given an assignment to create a representation of the Civil War a lot of students given the technology advances we have today and time would do an awesome job.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this chapter was a little bit of a "downer" regarding today's generation. I am a person considered to be part of the dumbest generation. After reading this chapter, I am not sure what Bauerlein means when he says the "dumbest" generation. I believe that if he means "memorizing the most information" he has a point. I believe that today's generation cares less about knowing information than knowing where to find information. I don't think that today's generation is lacking cognitive ability to think logically and critically, analyzing, learning or remembering information.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that today's generation's lack of knowledge of facts is based on many different things. First of all, just because the younger generation doesn't know the facts that older people think are important doesn't mean they are dumb. I believe that children are exposed to so much information that they chose what they think is important and what isn't. The younger generation is going to constantly be exposed to more and more information in their lives. If someone wrote a book about the "Dumbest Generation: People that don't know how to use technology" many older generations could be viewed as knowing very little about today's advancements in technology. Another reason the younger generation doesn't know as much about politics is because their lives didn't depend on if they were going to get drafted or not. These are just a few reasons why I believe that the younger generation may be considered "dumb" to the older generations.
At a recent district inservice , we were directed to get into small groups to respond to specific questions. The youngest educator in the group was directed to be the recorder of the answers. This person, a 6th grade teacher, was unable to spell many common words while writing the responses on chart paper. This is a perfect example of what this chapter was talking about. This generation has not been taught the basic skills because they have had the technology devices that have fixed these mistakes. Also through texting, email, and instant messaging slang is understood and acceptable.
ReplyDelete