Please be careful not to generalize and blame the symptoms of a disease. There are plenty of people in the "turnip" generation, inside and outside of college, who are just as dismayed with the video gamers and the mindless drug addicts as you are. We didn't choose the methods our parents' generation employed in raising us. We also didn't invent the video games or the drugs that many of our peers fall victim to. If your students are stupid then what does that say about educators? But alas, blaming either side of academia, the student or the teacher, doesn't really work when you're starting to deal with the dimsal repercussions of no child left behind. You're starting to see the effect of bad policy on the minds of young people, and we have your generation to thank for that.
Dan: I appreciate your reader-ship, but I think you take this far too seriously. It's only a blog (or "Tlog") post and clearly done tongue in cheek. And to degrade its importance even more, it's on the internet! If you notice, even my generation comes in for a hit. So, in the words of what I suspect is your generation, ... chill out! And, unfortunately, yes, my students are on the whole (with a minority of exceptions) quite un-intelligent, quite un-read, and functionally illiterate--whatever the reason!
Complaining about the education of the next generation is also a trans-generational pastime. In Adler's "How To Read A Book" (1940) he spends a long chapter on it, and much of that referring back to Dewey (1910).
Oh, and thanks for the proper use of I in that sentence, it has long been a peeve of mine in conversation.
Sorry. That rant/attack was unwarranted. The end of semester blues are hitting hard here as well. The negativity fueling my comment mostly came from that and not your post. My apologies.
Please be careful not to generalize and blame the symptoms of a disease. There are plenty of people in the "turnip" generation, inside and outside of college, who are just as dismayed with the video gamers and the mindless drug addicts as you are. We didn't choose the methods our parents' generation employed in raising us. We also didn't invent the video games or the drugs that many of our peers fall victim to. If your students are stupid then what does that say about educators? But alas, blaming either side of academia, the student or the teacher, doesn't really work when you're starting to deal with the dimsal repercussions of no child left behind. You're starting to see the effect of bad policy on the minds of young people, and we have your generation to thank for that.
ReplyDeleteDan: I appreciate your reader-ship, but I think you take this far too seriously. It's only a blog (or "Tlog") post and clearly done tongue in cheek. And to degrade its importance even more, it's on the internet! If you notice, even my generation comes in for a hit. So, in the words of what I suspect is your generation, ... chill out! And, unfortunately, yes, my students are on the whole (with a minority of exceptions) quite un-intelligent, quite un-read, and functionally illiterate--whatever the reason!
ReplyDelete--Marty
Complaining about the education of the next generation is also a trans-generational pastime. In Adler's "How To Read A Book" (1940) he spends a long chapter on it, and much of that referring back to Dewey (1910).
ReplyDeleteOh, and thanks for the proper use of I in that sentence, it has long been a peeve of mine in conversation.
Sorry. That rant/attack was unwarranted. The end of semester blues are hitting hard here as well. The negativity fueling my comment mostly came from that and not your post. My apologies.
ReplyDeleteDan: Apology, of course, accepted. I'm quite thick skinned when it comes to criticism, so don't let it worry you! I do hope your semester ends well!
ReplyDelete--Marty