After reading Bauerlein's video and review, I didn't really know how to feel. I think it's a bit rash to call an entire generation "dumb." One thing he said in the video was that he tells his students that they "are not busy," simply because they watch 2 hours and 41 minutes of television a week. I'm gonna be completely honest: I think he's full of crap. For the most part, the only television I watch is a half an hour of the Golden Girls before I go to bed. And I can't even make it through a whole episode before I fall asleep. Five days of that and you have 2 hours and 30 minutes of television. One half hour of my day watching television is not enough to qualify me as stupid, in my opinion. From the time I wake up until the time I watch the Golden Girls, I am constantly on the go. Given the day, I am usually at work and back-to-back classes, accompanied by one or two meetings. In the time outside of that, I am completing homework or extracurricular requirements. I guess I need to sleep and eat, too. Yes, I check my Facebook. Big woop. Haven't you ever heard of a brain break, Mark Bauerlein?
Ok, I've had my fun bashing him. On a more serious note, yes, I agree with him to some extent. I can't say I am fully committed to his argument just yet. I notice much more now after reading Feed and watching his video that most teenagers find it difficult to hold a conversation if it isn't about the latest break-up on Facebook or what happened on tv last night. Let's remember something: we are teenagers. Even though Bauerlein didn't have Facebook back in his day, I find it hard to believe that his generation spent 100% of their time scouring museums and reading the Encyclopedia all day. He must remember that his generation didn't have access to all this technology, either. So doing those things (going to museums, parks, etc) were the norm. Now, we don't need to spend $25 on an aquarium ticket when we can look up videos or pictures of fish on the Internet.
In terms of teaching, Bauerlein's philosophy/argument scares me. I already know how my age group is today and was in high school. If Bauerlein is accurate in his prophecy, then we have quite a job ahead of us. I am already envisioning extensive problems with cell phones, iPods, portable game systems, etc. Maybe I'm not giving my future students enough credit, but generally speaking, that's what I see. Bauerlein obviously isn't giving the rest of us enough credit. Furthermore, he blames "his colleagues" -- the teachers and educators, "mentors" of these students. Does this include him? Of course not. Even though he is an educator, he very carefully leaves himself out of that equation.
As teachers, it is our responsibility to get our students thinking. I know for myself, I want my students discovering new worlds through literature, developing critical thinking skills, relating past stories to present issues, etc. We have to remember that the Internet is a learning tool, not a crutch. We can utilize it when necessary, but shouldn't submit to its every command.
You say "Let's remember something: we are teenagers. Even though Bauerlein didn't have Facebook back in his day, I find it hard to believe that his generation spent 100% of their time scouring museums and reading the Encyclopedia all day. He must remember that his generation didn't have access to all this technology, either. So doing those things (going to museums, parks, etc) were the norm. Now, we don't need to spend $25 on an aquarium ticket when we can look up videos or pictures of fish on the Internet."
ReplyDeleteAh, there is so much I want to respond to in just that one brief section!! Maybe some of my responses are fueled by the fact that I am not a teenager, but am in fact double the age of a teenager. I am of a different generation than many of my peers at Shippensburg, and surely this affects my attitude. In fact, it's crazy how you become - even without kids - put off by things you vowed you would always be open to! I listen to Rihanna's "Rude Boy" lyrics, and I am honestly appalled and frightened by the possibility of having children in this world! And then I am appalled and frightened that I have become THAT person. And I am very socially liberal!
But so it is. I look back on my own teenage years and am thankful that we had to sit still for hours every day with nothing but the fine art of note-passing to distract us during hours of computer-free classes. I am glad that I attended Catholic school for some portion of my education, where discipline was ultra-strict. I fear not only the mad growth of technology in the lives of our teens, but the combination of that with the child-centric culture we have become, where kids are free to pursue what they want to pursue and seem to lack discipline on every front. It is the combination of the two that frightens me.
And I think it might be the combination that frightens Bauerlein as well. It is not solely an appreciation of reading that we wish to teach our students; it is, perhaps moreover, an ability to sit still, to focus, to contemplate and inquire; it is the act of committing oneself to a task - whether a chosen one or an imposed one - because THAT lesson goes beyond the literature classroom and into the classroom of life. We are responsible for teaching our students to exist in the world, to be responsible and contributing citizens, and they are going to need those skills. Their brains are being shaped in a way that needs constant screen-stimulated stimulation, and if they create our future, then our future will surely be FEED, and well, I am honestly and extremely scared of that.
You yourself are older than the current high schoolers, of course, and it is evident in the way you describe your use of technology. If your usage were the norm, we'd be very well off. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be so.
By the way, I am a HUGE Golden Girls fan. I also watch at night, like every night.
" I find it hard to believe that his generation spent 100% of their time scouring museums and reading the Encyclopedia all day."
ReplyDeleteI loved your title by the way. But I agree with you statement about his generation. I feel that he has plenty of time to bash our generation because he's older and more wise looking at it. If he could go back into his teen years, I can't imagine what he'd observe because he wasn't paying much attention to the "dumbest generation" at that time.
I have a little bit of an issue with people calling Bauerlein out for not including himself. If he was part of the problem, would he be drawing attention to the problem? That doesn't make much sense.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think he's right. Maybe the kids from his generation didn't spend all day reading encyclopedias, but they at least knew which "your" to use. I know plenty of English majors who don't. They know how to do long division. I know plenty of math majors who don't. Yeah, we've got new tools, don't need to know, blah blah blah. Remember how they taught us how to do long division by hand before letting us do it on the calculator? How they made us do multiplication on paper before on a calculator? Bauerlein has a point, many of us are just too busy trying to justify our indignation to acknowledge it.
When you showed us pictures of both students' and parents' bedrooms I kept thinking of how the parents may not have much technology in their bedrooms in comparison to the students. I would not have as much technology in my bedroom if I had more than one room to live in. I have to keep all my electronics in my room, whereas my parents keep their electronics all over the house. I think that fact adds an interesting contrasting opinion to Bauerlein's thoughts. If he was our age right now, would he not fall prey to what he considers the dumbest generation?
ReplyDeleteWho is Bauerlein to stereotype any generation? I think his approach needs to be altered. When a group of people are attacked they don't usually listen to the attacker.
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