Because video games and porn are a terrible thing? Such biases.
I don't think previous generations had it any better. They had some terrible problems this generation doesn't have to worry much about.
I also really dislike items like "only 10 percent of kids can find New York on a map" and shit like that, as if knowledge of what, in practical terms, is a single piece of trivia was an indicator of education. I've said it before and I'll keep on saying it: kids I get to observe very frequently seem willing to learn and have many more resources available to them than I did growing up in the 80s and 90s. Hell, back then, 'nerd' and 'geek' were not terms of endearment, much less demographics in the mainstream markets.
I think a large part of the problem with education is that it's 2012, yet our approach to teaching kids is still rooted firmly in the 1950s: stick 30 kids in a classroom with one teacher with outdated books and materials and basically stuff them with information they'll be tested on later. Education today is not about learning but about being guided to a career path. It's about gaining marketable talents. I bet there are brain surgeons and physicists who can't find Iraq on a map, if you cared to poll a bunch of them.
I don't think previous generations had it any better. They had some terrible problems this generation doesn't have to worry much about.
I also really dislike items like "only 10 percent of kids can find New York on a map" and shit like that, as if knowledge of what, in practical terms, is a single piece of trivia was an indicator of education. I've said it before and I'll keep on saying it: kids I get to observe very frequently seem willing to learn and have many more resources available to them than I did growing up in the 80s and 90s. Hell, back then, 'nerd' and 'geek' were not terms of endearment, much less demographics in the mainstream markets.
I think a large part of the problem with education is that it's 2012, yet our approach to teaching kids is still rooted firmly in the 1950s: stick 30 kids in a classroom with one teacher with outdated books and materials and basically stuff them with information they'll be tested on later. Education today is not about learning but about being guided to a career path. It's about gaining marketable talents. I bet there are brain surgeons and physicists who can't find Iraq on a map, if you cared to poll a bunch of them.
