--Dear Bonnie and Others: As an educator and student, I agree that we certainly are experiencing a backlash to anything intellectual that requires critical thinking skills. As a matter of fact, in most workplaces independent thinking is downright discouraged, leaving those who still possess a flare for it feeling alienated and ostracized.
We have acquired a persistent tendency to believe that if results cannot be produced quickly and failure might be an issue, they are not worth the bother. This may be true in certain areas, but when it comes to developing critical thinking skills and acquiring a solid educational foundation, this is certainly not the case. Students in underserved public education situations are no longer allowed the intellectual courtesy of why they should be interested in studying certain concepts and until we approach this problem and link concepts so that relevance can be understood and used to correlate ideas they will not feel the "fire" of true learning and where it can take them. "Teaching to the test" certainly doesn't cut it. Try as we might, we cannot quantify everything with our current mathematical capabilities. In any given class you can see those who have been given this gift, who understand why they are there. They stand out; the student who had that one educator who "linked" ideas together to motivate them and how they use it like rocket fuel to propel them along a path, eating up knowledge because it has become self-relevant. When we give learners a "place" a sense of belonging and a sense of why learning is important to THEM that is when educators do justice to their profession. Maybe then intellectualism might stand a fighting chance once more. So John, I don't think that they are really lazy, I just think that most of them are directionless- take the leash! Excuse the rant, I wish I could sound more like Mad Dog - he certainly burns rocket fuel! Regards, Susan Susan Crane-Sundell [EMAIL PROTECTED] SUCB ---- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > In a message dated 3/16/05 8:29:32 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > > > > > Final note: All this means today's American college and high school > > graduate had best get off their lazy butts and realize what the REAL > > competition is going to do to their job situation. > > -- > > I don't know. I spent three years on all kinds of projects that were to > prepare students, they sort of got defunded. The children don't create the > curriculum or create the ideational scaffolding toward curriculum. They are > the ones > who grew up in the culture of media. > > Seems to me that the reality is that so many people are looking at reality > shows and entertainment > that academics have gone away. Nationally we seem to be making fun of > anything intellectual, challenging or of science. Sputnik got a rise out of > congress > years ago. maybe the Singapore triumph in technology will open the eyes of > the > sleeping. > > You don't get to Mars by reading a book. Thinking is an evolved practice. > Maybe we have some other kind of divide that is anti-intellectual. > > Bonnie Bracey > bbracey at aol.com > > _______________________________________________ > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > [email protected] > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE > in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
