Are They Really Dumb?

Reading a review of a book about how dumb this generation is got me thinking. The reviewer complains that kids today are lazy and all they care about is twittering and facebooking with their friends. Hello? Even without twitter and facebook all kids ever wanted to do (after forced schooling) was socialize. This is no different.

This reviewer blames the parents, the kids, but not the schools. I was wondering why no one thinks that maybe if kids were able to learn something meaningful (to them), they might appear to be a little smarter? I suppose it depends on your definition of smart. If we accept that smart means they can parrot back facts to a teacher without a genuine understanding of the subject matter, well, we are doomed.

The other problem is that we take away our kids’ time and freedom with school so they have so little time and freedom left – would you want to sit and read after you've done your time in school? Particularly when it is accepted by society that you should sit for hours in a classroom learning stuff you don’t care about? No – you find something to do that you DO care about. For many, it’s socializing. Funny, if we allowed kids “normal” socialization either through school (no, folks, current socialization in school in not “normal”) or in some other way, they might not reject the education that is consuming their time (then again, I'm not saying they should ever accept what is currently taught as a requirement for leading a meaningful life).

Anyone think that maybe this generation is a huge untapped resource of creativity? Anyone think that maybe by forcing them to be in school for hours learning little that is “useful” in the real world (unless they want to be teachers) we are creating generation after generation of non-thinkers? We don’t require them to think creatively or even LET them think creatively – that’s why they’re dumb. And they’re really not – they’re just dumb by this reviewer-teacher’s standards - what they may be is LOST.

It still amazes me that we continue to lament to failures of our education system, but we never blame the schools. To my great dismay, even President Obama suggests extending school hours to try to make kids smarter (I was wholeheartedly disappointed to read this snippet of his education plan quite by accident in a book store – I turned right to that page, and this was no small volume).

To his credit, this reviewer did say (at least) that schools should teach technology and how to use it – simple MS Office applications like Excel and Word that have been around for years - are we really not even teaching this as part of a “curriculum” yet? And by the way, if we do, let's not forget to tell the kids why it's useful.

School is so ingrained into our society that there seems to be no way to collectively extract ourselves from it completely enough to step back and say “wait – we’re doing what??” I realize that my perspective is my own and don’t expect others to agree. With school as one of the out of control mighty monsters of our society, you have to have a certain resolve to step back and say “no, thanks, I think I’ll try something else for my kids.”