Showing posts with label dumbest generation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dumbest generation. Show all posts

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Reflections on the readings for Feb 11th

I read two very interesting articles today "The Dumbest Generation? Don't be Dumb" and
"Nobel Laureate Says The Internet Makes Us Dumb, We Say: Meh", and disagree with both of them. It's NOT the dumbest generation.

Evolution is smart. It gave us our thumbs, made us attracted the most to the opposite sex during the best reproductive years of our lives, it gave us the ability to fear so that we live longer etc. And generally, what we have to do in our lives is mainly driven by our desire to survive.

This generation is not dumber than the previous one; it just lives in different circumstances and plays by different rules. You do not need to have a broad view on the world to get into college because the width of knowledge you'll be SAT-ed on is limited and known in advance. You do not need a college degree to get a job. In this country, you can work minimum-wage jobs and still be able to afford shelter and food.

In the past, parents taught their children how to hunt, fish and fight. Now they teach them how to touch-type, google and drive. Both approaches give enough information for the kids to survive.