Posted on 05/15/2009 7:20:03 AM PDT by BBell
Author Mark Bauerlein aims to provoke in his new book, "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future" (Tarcher/Penguin). Do you agree? Take a look at eight reasons the Emory University English professor gives to ''not trust anyone under 30'' -- see which you think is the best. Disagree, or have your own spin? Have your say on this message board. Or see if Bauerlein answered your question directly in a chat from Wednesday, May 14.
1. They make excellent "Jaywalking'' targets
Bauerlein writes: "The ignorance is hard to believe ... It isn't enough to say that these young people are uninterested in world realities. They are actively cut off from them. ... They are encased in more immediate realities that shut out conditions beyond -- friends, work, clothes, cars, pop music, sitcoms, Facebook.''
2. They don't read books -- and don't want to, either
"It's a new attitude, this brazen disregard of books and reading. Earlier generations resented homework assignments, of course, and only a small segment of each dove into the intellectual currents of the time, but no generation trumpeted aliteracy ... as a valid behavior of their peers.''
3. They can't spell
Lack of capitalization and IM codes dominate online writing. Without spellcheck, folks are toast.
4. They get ridiculed for original thought, good writing
"On MySpace, if you write clearly and compose coherent paragraphs with informed observations on history and current events, 'buddies' will make fun of you,'' Bauerlein says. Wikipedia writing is clean and factual, but colorless and judgment-free. Often the most clever students, with flashes of disorganized brilliance on MySpace, switch to dull Wiki-writing formats for school papers, he says. "If we could combine the style and imagination of MySpace with the content of Wikipedia, we might get good stuff."
5. Grand
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
it is my mission to make sure you can feel superior to me in this small way, so long as possible. others are not so considerate of you, i realize, but being nasty to them only gets you suspended, so please, take care....
Which generation are you talking about?
The information currently in existence has been created by folks like you and I, who grew up in the days where information came through three broadcast networks and the local paper.
For all of the data available, we still tend to approach the world from that perspective.
For the younger folks who are just now coming into their own -- 25 and under, say -- they're the ones who will have grown up in the context of all of that information. In terms of information, their worldview is entirely different from ours. The ways in which they access and process information will be far different from how we think about it.
All that to say: I think we're at one of those points where it's not possible to predict the shape of society in the next 10-20 years. The ground-rules have changed too much.
Whether it's for good or ill, I don't know. But I think it will be far different from anything we've seen up to now, and society will be dramatically altered by it.
That is wonderful - we know a local girl who has been studying astronomy for a few years and as a 17 year old, is helping a local college write up the curriculum for a class -
Yeah well he hid behind a fake name too.... ;^)
Dunno. To me it seems that every few hundred years, some nation or culture fails to survive “the worst generation ever.”
Can you refute it? Since when is the Census Bureau, the state of California, Rasmussen, and Colin Powell's organization being "highly selective?" It is certainly better and more reliable than your anecdotal information about kids in the neighborhood.
No. I am not at all pollyannish about the difficulties coming our way. But I am also not in thrall to selective statistics. I know that attitudes are more important than just about anything else, and what I have observed gives me hope.
Good luck. We have the "hope and change" President who is bankrupting this country for generations. Hope your way out of that.
If McCain had won 60% of the white vote instead of 55%, he would be President today.
You’re determined to be a grumpy little fella....
Excellent!!! I wish I had this cartoon when I was tutoring some students from China in an English as Second Language program.
Whut?
I have a relative who is a school librarian in an urban school. Her library was gifted with a large number of hardback Harry Potter books. She noticed that the students (5th-6th graders) proudly carried the books around the campus like status symbols. But she wondered if the students were actually reading the books. So she placed coupons for a free ice cream cone from a fast food place down the block. At the end of the school year only two coupons had been taken.
Your mathematics need a little work. Do you median?
let’s pretend there was a class of ten students that took a quiz, they scored a 50, 60, 65, 70, 85, 95, 96, 40, 55 and a 20
what is the average test score?
what is the median test score?
what percent of students scored above average?
what percent of students scored below average?
Are you grading on a curve? :-)
or how about this?
100 people have an IQ of 100
50 have an IQ of 90
50 have an IQ of 80
50 have an IQ of 70
50 have an IQ of 60
what is the average IQ of the group?
how many were above average?
how many are below average?
The only way to stop the decay is to reinstitute discipline in the classroom. I'm thinking spankings. I'll handle the sororities.
Pretty big word, dontchathink?
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