Although, like Mel, I was bothered by the young lady in the film, in a way I was even more bothered by the young gentleman. As I said in my previous (long) post, I don't have a problem with people going into computer graphics per se; but given the situation that we are in as a nation, and the likelihood that it's going to get worse before it gets better, I sort of have this personal opinion that anyone who is capable of going into math, science, and engineering probably should. Call it patriotism or practicality, I don't care which. The plain fact is that America needs scientists and engineers, and the idea of someone with great potential in those areas going into computer graphics just seems like such a waste. It's like Melville wanting to write fortune cookies. Or perhaps more aptly, like Einstein wanting to do movie special effects. I'm not saying the kid in the film was an Einstein, but if our modern Einsteins all go into computer graphics, we're in trouble.
All that being said, as a scientist I hold an opinion that non-scientists might find perplexing, though they shouldn't. Even some scientists might find it perplexing, though they shouldn't. In my opinion, no society should ever be founded on science as its bedrock. Science is not designed to establish or comment on morals or societal codes of conduct; which is not to say that it should not be restricted by them. On the contrary; since science cannot quantify right and wrong, it has no place discussing them, and absolutely should be restricted by those external codes.
As a scientist, I worry about the sorry state of science education in America, but I actually worry more about the overemphasis of science in our culture at large; about the way that the media, either through ignorance or as willing perpetrators of disingenuousness, treat science almost as a source of Ultimate Truth, and scientists as some sort of Delphic priests of that Truth. Anyone who practices science honestly knows that it is a method of inquiry in which absolute statements are intentionally and inherently limited to disproof. Any logical structure that limits itself to disproof cannot possibly be the ultimate authority on anything, since it can never prove anything. To paraphrase the great American physicist, Professor Richard Feynman, a scientist should always--especially when talking to scientific laypeople--bend over backwards to explain every way in which he could be wrong. Thus, the quasi-reverent attitude with which science is sometimes treated in our modern culture disturbs me.
I absolutely do believe that we need more scientists and engineers; and I absolutely do believe that we need to do everything we can to up the level of science and math in America... tremendously. At the same time, I worry about the pendulum swinging too far; because in my eyes, there are ways in which it already has swung too far. The humanities and the arts are essential to me because without them, with only science, we are left with no way to reasonably deal with societal necessities such as concepts of right and wrong; or with so many other things that are central to the human experience. Yes, we need more scientists and engineers, but they need to be well-rounded scientists and engineers. They need to be well-rounded human beings.
I would especially be interested in the thoughts of my colleagues in the humanities on this subject, so please feel free to post replies!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Self-Confidence
One telling graphic: the only measured quality in which American teens rule the world is self-confidence.
I'll pause while you recall all the other statistics and drink in the rich, hearty irony.
Now, let's muse: should we stop fostering self-confidence in our youth? Or should we try to get our other curricula to mirror our extremely successful self-esteem curriculum?
I'll pause while you recall all the other statistics and drink in the rich, hearty irony.
Now, let's muse: should we stop fostering self-confidence in our youth? Or should we try to get our other curricula to mirror our extremely successful self-esteem curriculum?
I haven't even read the chapter
Yes, I have more to say on the blonde.
We see her in the cafeteria with a couple of her chums stating (without fear?), "I haven't studied for that test. I haven't even read the chapter." We cut to the classroom and the teacher mocks his own test and his own grading procedures. (Obviously, this could be just to set the students at ease and lower the affective filter. Equally obviously, it could be that this particular teacher is telling the truth. )
I have a confession. I hear such statements as those uttered by our future brain surgeon as I wander this very campus. I am sure that, especially as we are in our infamous Moby Dick unit, many of my own dear students arrive with but a cursory reading at best. Only a few look fearful.
Have I made the class too easy? Do I cover too much in class and leave too little for my students themselves to ferret out? Should I eliminate study and reading guides? If so, how should I present the difficult literature I must present?
I NEVER showed up for a test unprepared. NEVER. I don't understand the mindset that would. I don't want to understand the mindset. I just want to eliminate it.
How can we?
We see her in the cafeteria with a couple of her chums stating (without fear?), "I haven't studied for that test. I haven't even read the chapter." We cut to the classroom and the teacher mocks his own test and his own grading procedures. (Obviously, this could be just to set the students at ease and lower the affective filter. Equally obviously, it could be that this particular teacher is telling the truth. )
I have a confession. I hear such statements as those uttered by our future brain surgeon as I wander this very campus. I am sure that, especially as we are in our infamous Moby Dick unit, many of my own dear students arrive with but a cursory reading at best. Only a few look fearful.
Have I made the class too easy? Do I cover too much in class and leave too little for my students themselves to ferret out? Should I eliminate study and reading guides? If so, how should I present the difficult literature I must present?
I NEVER showed up for a test unprepared. NEVER. I don't understand the mindset that would. I don't want to understand the mindset. I just want to eliminate it.
How can we?
Awesome Motivation!
All of the characters in our little documentary struck some chord with me. The blonde from Indianapolis struck a sour one. The fact that her favorite word seemed to be "awesome," annoying enough, proved to be just the start of it.
As she rattled on about what an awesome feeling it is to "help people," I couldn't help but recall the words of a friend of mine, a man who is an M.D. When he interviewed for med school, the professors asked him one question, "Why do you want to be a doctor?" He said, "I like to cut stuff open and figure out how things work." That was one of the two right answers. The other was, "I want to make a lot of money."
The professors saw a desire to "help people" as a rather flimsy motivation--but greed and curiosity can be counted on.
Greed is a human given. My question is, are we seeing curiosity in our students? How can we foster such a motivation?
(My question also dovetails nicely into the riddle we encountered with last summer's reading, namely, how do we teach/ foster creativity?)
As she rattled on about what an awesome feeling it is to "help people," I couldn't help but recall the words of a friend of mine, a man who is an M.D. When he interviewed for med school, the professors asked him one question, "Why do you want to be a doctor?" He said, "I like to cut stuff open and figure out how things work." That was one of the two right answers. The other was, "I want to make a lot of money."
The professors saw a desire to "help people" as a rather flimsy motivation--but greed and curiosity can be counted on.
Greed is a human given. My question is, are we seeing curiosity in our students? How can we foster such a motivation?
(My question also dovetails nicely into the riddle we encountered with last summer's reading, namely, how do we teach/ foster creativity?)
Calisthenics
There are rare occasions, I must confess, when I drop my daughter off across the street at Heritage a few moments late and find the student body engaged in jumping jacks or some such calisthenic program. I had to smile to myself when I saw Shanghai High engaged in just such an activity near the beginning of our documentary.
I have long debated the merits and purpose of this kind of educational adjunct. I know that my day goes better if I am able to swim or run before work. It puts my mind in the right place (somehow, I don't know how). I think, of course, if all of our students got a good amount of exercise that this would improve our culture.
It's the regimented nature of the communal jumping jack which gives me pause. I wonder why it must be regimented. The radical anti-authoritarian inside of me chafes at this sort of quasi-militant display. My open-minded nature, however, wants to understand it and to try it if we think it will work.
Maybe fifteen minutes of tai chi would make us a better campus.
I have long debated the merits and purpose of this kind of educational adjunct. I know that my day goes better if I am able to swim or run before work. It puts my mind in the right place (somehow, I don't know how). I think, of course, if all of our students got a good amount of exercise that this would improve our culture.
It's the regimented nature of the communal jumping jack which gives me pause. I wonder why it must be regimented. The radical anti-authoritarian inside of me chafes at this sort of quasi-militant display. My open-minded nature, however, wants to understand it and to try it if we think it will work.
Maybe fifteen minutes of tai chi would make us a better campus.
Monday, April 21, 2008
How do priorities in American culture affect education and the coming crisis?
After watching the 2 Million Minutes documentary, which mirrors the themes of The World is Flat (if you haven't read it, you should; as should every American), I was struck by several things. I will only address one of them here, because it resonated with something that has been bothering me for a while.
There can be little question that there are problems with the American education system, to say the least. But what struck me while watching the film was the glaring deficiency not of the American education system per se; but of the culture of complacent entitlement that has infected the minds of young modern Americans. As broken as American education might be, it would be difficult for any educational system to deal with young people who believe they deserve whatever they want whenever they want it, and that they shouldn't have to do anything to get it. Obviously, not all American students have fully bought into such attitudes; and most of the students in my classes certainly haven't. But this is really the first whole generation of Americans who are going to have to seriously compete with peers from around the world who are better-educated, willing to work harder...and for smaller wages. What struck me as I watched the film was the difference in focus and priorities between the students from the US and the other countries. Albeit mere case studies and not full ones at that, the two American students in the video come off less than favorably (to be charitable) compared to their Indian and Chinese counterparts.
Our archetypal "best and brightest," as presented in the documentary, believe that going to college is about learning responsibility; and that responsibility means knowing "how to balance fun with studies and other activities." The young lady in the film is going pre-med; and one of her biggest priorities is to join a sorority. If and when she becomes a doctor one day, I hope she tells her patients that she will be very responsibly balancing her obligations to them with "fun." And then we have the young gentleman, who decides that computer graphics (to work on video games, I am guessing) is a better career choice than math, science, or engineering, even when he has obvious potential in those areas. I forget the young man's exact words; but the gist of it was that he wanted to do something that wasn't boring. (I think he was actually referring to a "desk job" as the boring thing there; but clearly he had not even considered science and math.)
Now, I'm not saying this to knock computer graphics as a career choice. I know that it takes bright, talented and creative people to do what some of those computer graphic artists and technicians can do. And I know next to nothing about it, so in addition to clarifying that my intent is not to denigrate those who choose that field, let me point out that I am speaking in near-total ignorance of what it actually takes to be successful in computer graphics. What I think this young man's choice does reflect, though, is what our modern American culture holds most dear: entertainment.
Think about the aspiring doctor who holds "fun" as such a high value that she has set actual responsibility alongside "fun" and redefined responsibility as a balancing act between the two. And the young gentleman's number one criterion for academic pursuit and future career choice? It isn't improving himself or the world around him; and it isn't even getting rich, necessarily. His lofty goal is to not be bored. I would argue that this is a result of growing up in a culture that is saturated with entertainment and places it on the highest of pedestals.
I will be happy to elaborate/expand/discuss/debate this claim in further posts; but for now I simply state my opinion: that the number one cultural priority of Americans today is to be entertained. Hence, our "best and brightest" believe that responsibility is balancing fun with other activities, since "fun" is such an obvious must; and designing video games is a better choice than...I don't know...anything of significance.
Now let me clarify that I have nothing against entertainment in and of itself. I have been known to play the occasional video game over the summer; and I am an admitted addict of LOST and The Office. As an avowed Trekker of the most refined taste, every summer (yes, this is really true) I watch the entire series Deep Space Nine. My performance as air band judge "Paul Abdul" no longer allows me to deny that I even watch that pillar of our modern culture, American Idol. (Ever notice that the "American Idol" is an entertainer?) For that matter, some of you may know that I do a little thing called Saxon Day every year, and that I run a little movie-making club on campus. Entertainment is a wonderful thing, in the right context; and I think that the human mind even needs some of it in order to remain healthy.
But when entertainment takes priority over anything, or everything, then said entertainment is in an inherently inappropriate context. I actually suspect that entertainment has been shoving things off center stage in America for a while now, though its usurpation of more important considerations has occasionally been slowed by such inconveniences as wars or civil unrest. But this current generation has not only grown up with entertainment as the number one priority; they have come to expect that they should always have lots of it, and it should always be as new and as immediate as possible. (A cell phone that only plays music? Where'd you get that...three years ago?) They feel entitled to be entertained; and that worse evils than boredom probably exist, but they are even less entertaining.
Is it any surprise that they view the ultimate career as designing video games? Or that they believe responsibility means balancing your personal fun with actual responsibility?
America is heading for a national crisis, and it seems that one of our biggest challenges as a nation is to open our eyes and realize that it is upon us. Our challenge as American educators has to be to figure out not only how to get the young Americans in our classrooms to understand the very anti-entertaining proposition that we are heading for a crisis, but how to prepare them to get themselves and the rest of our nation through this crisis.
I welcome your thoughts, opinions, discussion, and debate. This should be entertaining.
There can be little question that there are problems with the American education system, to say the least. But what struck me while watching the film was the glaring deficiency not of the American education system per se; but of the culture of complacent entitlement that has infected the minds of young modern Americans. As broken as American education might be, it would be difficult for any educational system to deal with young people who believe they deserve whatever they want whenever they want it, and that they shouldn't have to do anything to get it. Obviously, not all American students have fully bought into such attitudes; and most of the students in my classes certainly haven't. But this is really the first whole generation of Americans who are going to have to seriously compete with peers from around the world who are better-educated, willing to work harder...and for smaller wages. What struck me as I watched the film was the difference in focus and priorities between the students from the US and the other countries. Albeit mere case studies and not full ones at that, the two American students in the video come off less than favorably (to be charitable) compared to their Indian and Chinese counterparts.
Our archetypal "best and brightest," as presented in the documentary, believe that going to college is about learning responsibility; and that responsibility means knowing "how to balance fun with studies and other activities." The young lady in the film is going pre-med; and one of her biggest priorities is to join a sorority. If and when she becomes a doctor one day, I hope she tells her patients that she will be very responsibly balancing her obligations to them with "fun." And then we have the young gentleman, who decides that computer graphics (to work on video games, I am guessing) is a better career choice than math, science, or engineering, even when he has obvious potential in those areas. I forget the young man's exact words; but the gist of it was that he wanted to do something that wasn't boring. (I think he was actually referring to a "desk job" as the boring thing there; but clearly he had not even considered science and math.)
Now, I'm not saying this to knock computer graphics as a career choice. I know that it takes bright, talented and creative people to do what some of those computer graphic artists and technicians can do. And I know next to nothing about it, so in addition to clarifying that my intent is not to denigrate those who choose that field, let me point out that I am speaking in near-total ignorance of what it actually takes to be successful in computer graphics. What I think this young man's choice does reflect, though, is what our modern American culture holds most dear: entertainment.
Think about the aspiring doctor who holds "fun" as such a high value that she has set actual responsibility alongside "fun" and redefined responsibility as a balancing act between the two. And the young gentleman's number one criterion for academic pursuit and future career choice? It isn't improving himself or the world around him; and it isn't even getting rich, necessarily. His lofty goal is to not be bored. I would argue that this is a result of growing up in a culture that is saturated with entertainment and places it on the highest of pedestals.
I will be happy to elaborate/expand/discuss/debate this claim in further posts; but for now I simply state my opinion: that the number one cultural priority of Americans today is to be entertained. Hence, our "best and brightest" believe that responsibility is balancing fun with other activities, since "fun" is such an obvious must; and designing video games is a better choice than...I don't know...anything of significance.
Now let me clarify that I have nothing against entertainment in and of itself. I have been known to play the occasional video game over the summer; and I am an admitted addict of LOST and The Office. As an avowed Trekker of the most refined taste, every summer (yes, this is really true) I watch the entire series Deep Space Nine. My performance as air band judge "Paul Abdul" no longer allows me to deny that I even watch that pillar of our modern culture, American Idol. (Ever notice that the "American Idol" is an entertainer?) For that matter, some of you may know that I do a little thing called Saxon Day every year, and that I run a little movie-making club on campus. Entertainment is a wonderful thing, in the right context; and I think that the human mind even needs some of it in order to remain healthy.
But when entertainment takes priority over anything, or everything, then said entertainment is in an inherently inappropriate context. I actually suspect that entertainment has been shoving things off center stage in America for a while now, though its usurpation of more important considerations has occasionally been slowed by such inconveniences as wars or civil unrest. But this current generation has not only grown up with entertainment as the number one priority; they have come to expect that they should always have lots of it, and it should always be as new and as immediate as possible. (A cell phone that only plays music? Where'd you get that...three years ago?) They feel entitled to be entertained; and that worse evils than boredom probably exist, but they are even less entertaining.
Is it any surprise that they view the ultimate career as designing video games? Or that they believe responsibility means balancing your personal fun with actual responsibility?
America is heading for a national crisis, and it seems that one of our biggest challenges as a nation is to open our eyes and realize that it is upon us. Our challenge as American educators has to be to figure out not only how to get the young Americans in our classrooms to understand the very anti-entertaining proposition that we are heading for a crisis, but how to prepare them to get themselves and the rest of our nation through this crisis.
I welcome your thoughts, opinions, discussion, and debate. This should be entertaining.
Greetings!
Fellow Teachers,
Our beloved program director has asked me to set up this blog as a repository of our thoughts regarding the film 2 Million Minutes. I shall post my reaction to this film and ask a few pointed questions. Feel free to respond to what I've said or contact me and I will add you to the blog as an author--and you can post your own "top tier" response and questions.
Electronically yours,
Mel
Our beloved program director has asked me to set up this blog as a repository of our thoughts regarding the film 2 Million Minutes. I shall post my reaction to this film and ask a few pointed questions. Feel free to respond to what I've said or contact me and I will add you to the blog as an author--and you can post your own "top tier" response and questions.
Electronically yours,
Mel
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