Clueless in America
Herbert cites a study showing that American fourth-graders can compete globally in science, while a gap opens up between us and other developed nations as the years go on. I would say that is due in large part to the “just ‘cuz” thinking I blogged about earlier. Up to fourth grade, science is pretty innocuous. By high school, we either have to go deep into “just ‘cuz” territory, or we have to stop. American students will never be able to compete globally in science as long as our schools must tiptoe around anti-science activists. As long as we have to pretend there is any remote possibility that the earth is only a few thousand years old or that animals were created out of thin air or by some supernatural force of “intelligent design,” we intentionally hold our kids back. Let me say that again: We intentionally hold our kids back. Most Americans have no idea how the rest of the developed world sees our ridiculous beliefs—that to Europeans, our respect for creationism looks no different than indulging a primitive insistence that the world is flat and rests on a turtle’s back. Jeeze, even Pope John Paul II embraced evolution.
And when it comes to general critical thinking skills, we tiptoe around those, too. You see, actual critical thinking threatens so much of what parents believe and therefore insist that their children believe “just ‘cuz.” Real critical thinking, the kind that forces people to question authority, common wisdom, and shallow nationalism, is often labeled a “liberal agenda.” You know, that “liberal agenda” for which teachers are reviled in this country. I have news, America. As long as people insist that teachers are wrong and subversive for teaching kids to question, reach, think for themselves and engage in real, honest-to-goodness scientific inquiry, the rest of the world is gonna kick our collective ass, and believing America is number one just ‘cuz that’s what we want to believe won’t help us one little bit.
Hey Paula:
You've hit on only one thread. A bigger one is the lack of curiosity in
children today. Video games have dulled their thinking skills. Up thru
4th grade kids are still curious about the world, but then societal norms
and electronics start to seriously pressure them into expecting everything
be placed in front of them. Afterall, answers are just a google away.
Not only do we teach "just cuz" thinking in the area of science, many
schools -- my own included do the same thing in the area of "sex education"
when they teach abstinence only. My children laughed at the absurdity and
the ignorance. In summary, we teach ignorance as a virtue in many areas.
Mark, I can't agree with you about Google being in this "clueless
category." Google queries often return such broad results, that good
analytical skills are required to evaluate the quality of the sources, etc.
It just makes doing the research more convenient, although I would agree
it's nice to get out of the house and go to the library.
Neal:
As a computer teacher now (I was SS & English for 12), from my perch I have
seen the movement towards cut & paste from Google. My school (parochial)
has worked to comabt this mindless mouse clicking by requiring that
students hand write the information in paraphrase form on many assignments.
You know, Mark, you have a point. There is a lack of intellectual
curiosity in our country, but I see it every bit as much in my own and
older generations as the one I'm teaching. Look at all the dumb emails
people forward without ever checking their accuracy, and I'm more likely to
get those from older people than teenagers, though many teens have my
email. Americans are often intellectually lazy, and when there were plenty
of jobs that didn't require intellectual rigor, that was fine. Now that we
are in a global market, we need to shape our minds up, but we resist (dare
I say "cling"?) to outdated thinking.
One question in my classroom, whether it's literature or history:
Er..."Most other kinds of religion" above should read "Most other kinds of
thinking."