Thanks for the link Raul, it does get me to thinking. I disagree with the authors interviewed on NPR [1] that parents of children with autism are less likely to vaccinate their second child because of a threat to (the parents') self esteem. It seems more likely to me that although the medical community can make a good case for vaccines not being the cause, they have also been unable to identify what does cause autism. A few days ago, the CDC released the rates of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as 1 in 42 for boys and 1 in 189 for girls for an average in 1 in 68 [2]; and I think that this prevalence along with the vacuum of knowledge of the true cause, makes parents distrustful, even when they may accept the evidence that vaccines do not play a role.
I believe this same reasoning is flawed when it comes to teaching with alternative tools as described in the Computing Education Blog [3]. The author seems to think that the students rebel because their self esteem is threatened by learning programming languages that are unaccepted by the mainstream (in this case Squeak). I think it is more likely that the students are faced with the same sort of vacuum that the parents of children with autism face. The students may not be seeing examples of how the alternative can actually outperform the status quo, but may instead be reacting to a balance of power in the classroom with the professor telling them what they should be learning. If the students can be given proof that the new tools work effectively and be given access to these tools, I think that resistance would soon evaporate. In fact, I think it unlikely that new generations would prefer old tools over new ones, once trust in the new tools is established. I consider both these stories as examples of good critical thinking, with students and parents taking the 'show me' approach in the face of uncertainty, and not just accepting what they are being told. For the students, let's show them some tools of thought and then see how long much longer they would like to work with traditional languages. As for the parents, anything that can be done to find out what is causing the rates of autism to rise would be welcome, but that solution is beyond the scope of this forum. Cheers, bob [1] http://www.npr.org/2014/03/04/285580969/when-it-comes-to-vaccines-science-can-run-into-a-brick-wall [2] http://www.autismspeaks.org/news/news-item/prevalence-autism-rises [3] http://computinged.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/facts-that-conflict-with-identity-can-lead-to-rejection-trying-to-teach-with-different-tools/ On Mar 30, 2014, at 10:27 PM, Raul Miller <[email protected]> wrote: > Food for thought: > > http://computinged.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/facts-that-conflict-with-identity-can-lead-to-rejection-trying-to-teach-with-different-tools/ > > -- > Raul > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
