Endangered Minds
Much has been written recently on the "dumbing down" of American education. Our textbooks are easier, lectures are shorter, worksheets have replaced term papers and, although standardized tests have become easier, test scores have dropped or showed only slight improvements. Homeschoolers and critics of public education are not the only ones to notice. Teachers have been lamenting this trend for years. In her book, Endangered Minds, Dr. Jane M. Healy shares comments from the hundreds of educators she has spoken with.
I used to be able to teach Scarlet Letter to my juniors; now that amount of reading is a real chore for them and they have more trouble following the plot.And then comes the ominous warning:
Ten years ago I gave my students materials and they were able to figure out the experiment. Now I have to walk them through the activities step by step. I don't do as much science because of their frustration level.
I've been hoping someone would notice! I've been worried about this for some time. Kids' abilities are certainly different--I use with gifted sixth graders a lot of what I did with the average fifth graders in '65-66. They complain of the workload.
Teachers of the youngest children, claiming they see more pronounced changes every year, warned that we haven't seen anything yet.It is clear that graduates today are not capable of the same kinds of higher-order thinking tasks as graduates of decades past. But is this a direct result of the "dumbing down" of the curriculum, or is the "dumbing down" of the curriculum a reaction to the decreased abilities of today's students? And why is it that kindergarteners are already showing decreased attention spans and lower reasoning capabilities?
I'll give you a hint: PBS Kids, Nick, jr., and Cartoon Network, just for starters. According to the American Time Use Survey, the average American spends 2 1/2 hours per day watching television. Preschoolers actually watch more...a staggering four hours per day. The sex and violence regularly presented to these developing minds is only half the concern. Within 30 seconds of turning on the television, the viewer's critical reasoning turns off.How much of an effect is our media driven culture having on our youth? Take a look inside any high school and the effects become apparent. And the future? I shudder to think about it, but doesn't it look eerily like Fahrenheit 451?
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Related Tags: education, television, parenting, homeschooling, students, teaching, learning
12 comments:
Dana,
I know you can't cover everything in one post! :o) But, I do want to get on my soapbox one more time. This will be short ~
We can not underestimate the role of chemical dependency on children's performance. Exposure of the fetal brain to alcohol causes cell death. Experts in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) estimate that 1 in 100 children are affected by FASD. There are some communities where the incidence is even higher.
I hope you don't mind my talking about this here. FASD is rarely diagnosed at birth so, despite being the most common birth defect, most people have not ever heard of it. Many pregnant women continue to drink alcohol oblivious to the fact that alcohol kills fetal brain cells and can result in learning and behavioral problems.
Oh...that could be a blog in and of itself. When I worked with a foster care agency, I worked with a little boy who had fetal alcohol syndrome. The more I read about it, the more it sounded like every kid I worked with. Of course, there are attachment issues and all that going on, but a lot of the kids had alcoholic parents or parents who "partied" a lot. And while they did not have the obvious signs of FAS, they definitely exhibited some of the behaviors of Fetal Alcohol Effect.
The fact that alcohol is more detrimental to the developing fetus than meth really struck me. I suppose it is because the alcoholic tends to be continually under the influence, but I guess the alcohol is so readily absorbed that the unborn child can actually have a blood alcohol level HIGHER than the parent.
That is scary.
And you are welcome to your soapbox here, anytime. Maybe I should get a little picture of one for my sidebar, just for you!
(and see...you get me started, too!)
I'm in the roll of grandparent now, a chance to toss in my two cents worth when my grandkids come over to share some time with us. I see them as dependent on cartoons and so I offer them alternatives such as playing classical music or just plain talking with them. I fear that they are being permitted to become zombies at home where they see parents hooked on video games and other mind numbing exercises. I am worried when I see no book shelves filled with books; the opportunity to visit thoughts and ideas of others via the printed medium which offer cerebral challenges. There is something important about a book, the simple transfer of information which requires effort; that is missed through the medium of television. Our young people are not exercising their minds.
The eternal laws, those which have been in force since before the foundations of this world, are such that what ever intelligence we obtain, those disciplines which we master make us eligible for the blessings associated with each law. It would be a shame if we do not prepare, and that includes each of us, young and old alike, to reach our fullest potential. When we are reminded of our celestial ties, that we are children of our Father in Heaven, that we are heirs to all that He has, that we are made in His image; then we might take a more serious approach to learning all that we can in order to fulfill that which He would have us do. I fear that one of the purposes of the state run public school systems is to remove God from the equation and in so doing, remove mankind from the knowledge of that celestial link.
When there is no understanding of our potential it isn’t so bad settling for mediocre. We halt our own progression by not taking the time to discipline our minds and in so doing, cheat ourselves of blessing which could have been ours, if only…
Just the other day I heard the story of a Law professor who would assign his 1st-year students the reading of "The Federalist Papers". They would invariably return saying, "This stuff is too hard to understand." And the professor would reply, in a sympathetic way, "Yes, of course. This wasn't written for the 1st year law student of today. It was written for the common farmers of the 18th century."
Thought provoking and well said. I've visited you before but haven't been by in quite a while. I've enjoyed reading your blog today. I need to visit more often. Thanks for shining a light into the dark world concerning education. It seems to me that the voice of true reason is very seldom heard anymore...
Thanks for stopping by mine and leaving a comment.
I would love to get rid of all our electronics (except the computer!). TV and video games are too much a part of our world today.
Awesome post - true and scary..
for all the advances and for all the technology we have, the kids just cannot focus and cannot absorb and cannot think. It does have much to do with what's in our food (additives and other chemicals) as well as the mindless crap they are getting through TV and other "entertainment".
The whole issue is very disheartening.
t.f. stern: I agree. We don't have an antennae, so any television viewing here is a bit more intentional (we have to get a video). I don't bar it entirely, but the limitation is good. And my children aren't prone to hanging around complaining about being bored when the tv isn't going.
Stan: It does stop to make you think about it, doesn't it? No one reads the Federalist Papers anymore. I certainly was never required to, although I'm reading them now. It is considered too hard to expect students to read, but it was read and discussed by the common man back in its day. And the sermons of the time? Either they were far more intelligent, or they were in the habit of thinking. I vote for the latter.
Sunydazy: Thanks for stopping by! And thank you! I think I need to update the blogroll with your new address...hopefully I will have time tonight.
Karen: I agree. I don't have a problem with tv and all that in moderation, but when I read experts talking about replacing a child's viewing with more educational television. Four hours a day for a 4yo is ok, so long as it is educational? And their world is so concrete?
Judy: There are so many issues, it is hard to isolate any one thing...food, chemicals, television, drug and alcohol use in the mother, the power of certain lobbies trying to force their agendas through the schools...where do we even begin? (Ok, so homeschooling is a good start...)
Thank you everyone, for your kind comments!
What a great post!
It took me three years of lobbying with my husband (who grew up in an all-TV, all-day household), but I finally started a no-tv Monday through Friday rule at our house. What did we do instead? Read together, play games, paint, dance... My dad didn't call it the "idiot box" for nothing!
Wow! And congratulations! We do have appropriately descriptive words to describe America's favorite pass time, don't we?
But we usually end up staring at it, anyway. I have a great cartoon and conversation by a German cartoonist...maybe I'll search around and see if I can find it online (I don't want to violate copyright laws, but it really is quite appropriate.)
As a future educator in Texas i want to say that at my University, Stephen F. Austin State University, we are learning how to educate children by letting them explore it on there own through Learning Centers. I think this is a great way to learn however, it would be hard to do in a homeschooled environment because there just isnt the resources for it. So in my future classroom there will be little mind numming excerises.
I learned about learning centers in my teacher prep, as well. The mind numbing unfortunately comes predominantly from the home, although schools get into it, as well.
I'm not quite sure why you think learning centers wouldn't work in the homeschool environment. In a lot of ways, that is how homeschools are set up. My home isn't a school, and I don't set up the environment quite as formally as my classroom was, but my daughter has what amounts to a writing center, reading center and math center (not to mention a fully stocked kitchen as a "family life center.")
Actually, I've always kind of viewed the learning center as the schools' adaptation of the greatest benefit of home learning...that of contextualized and self-directed learning...and I believe it was inspired by the same movement as Holt who had a tremendous impact on homeschooling. I may be wrong there...it has been a LONG time since I was in my ed classes.
Anyway, good luck in your classes! Teaching is a tough job and y'all have my respect.
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