Baby Boomer Book Report...

“Postman contrasted George Orwell’s 1984 nightmare, in which totalitarian power is imposed from without, to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, in which people enjoy so many mechanisms of pleasure that they “adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” Bradbury and Postman form high points in a tradition of media commentary that claims the screen “atomizes” individuals, isolating and pacifying them while purveying illusions of worldly contact.”

The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future, Screen Time, pages 103-104, paperback edition.



I began reading Dr. Mark Bauerlein’s book due to its mention in Dr. Diane Ravitch’s Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and School Choice Undermines Education. In combination, both books were cathartic.

As a means to an end, I took and passed a certification exam for teaching math and physics at the high school level. There were no high-tech firms hiring at the time in my field. Both schools I worked at seemed interested in my background, and thought my years in the semiconductor industry as an engineer and a web master for my youngest son’s basketball booster club would provide a bridge that kids could cross; I’d give “real world” experiences to problems in Algebra, Pre-Calculus and Science. I could, and I did.

I found myself witness to the “entertainment-industrial-complex,” the notion that for education to have value, it must be a performance. At a few Saturday teacher trainings, I heard just that: “as a teacher, you must have ‘stage presence.’” Or the other one I’m fond of: “it’s important that the kids get to know things about you…that they like you.”

"Like" became a relative term. Since I was from the tech industry, mastery was my goal and objective every day that I stood to teach. Confiscating cell phones, disrupting an argument that started the night before on Facebook; explaining a concept I’d lectured on in class DURING an exam was not.

Two of my college engineering professors from a generation ago:

“Good morning! Sixty-three percent of you will FLUNK this course!”

“My name is __________. EVERYTHING you’ve heard about me is true. I will take drop slips at this time!”

In a classroom of 200+ kids, neither of these gentlemen were the least interested in being “friends” with me. The second prof went from 250 students to 7: I as physics major and the other six chemistry majors. He flunked the chemistry majors. The former essentially announced proudly a failure rate that would get you fired in secondary education (1st high school: 10% or less, 2nd: 15% or less). No, in the previous generation, they challenged me and my classmates: “you want this? Come and GET it!” Any student had a right to major in science and engineering; it was a privilege to actually acquire a degree. That is what these gentlemen communicated. Mind you, I did have professors that were more approachable and had a sense of humor. They were no less strict in their dictum: MASTERY. Your goal was to become her/his colleague, a living, breathing representation of what they could transfer into another; possibly a graduate student if you showed you had “the chops,” and knew your way around the Dewey Decimal System at the school library. That took sacrifice, dedication and concentration.

That was before “the Google,” and phone apps.

Dr. Bauerlein has accomplished a literary anthropological study of what is wrong with America, education and the future of our nation.

“… people enjoy so many mechanisms of pleasure that they ‘adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.’”

CNN published an article on the web titled: Does life online give you ‘popcorn brain’?

Quoting the article: “…constant stimulation can activate dopamine cells in the nucleus accumbens, a main pleasure center of the brain.

“Over time, and with enough Internet usage, the structure of our brains can actually physically change, according to a new study. Researchers in China did MRIs on the brains of 18 college students who spent about 10 hours a day online.”

This is apparently becoming a health concern, especially in developing minds and the full-embrace of technology in the classroom. As one teacher put it to me "we’re kind of like television," she said. "The kids either tune us in or tune us out."

Her statement reminded me of the book “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business,” by Neil Postman (deceased). His commentary centered on the advent of 24-hour news in the 1980s: CNN was the first such network that has since spawned others. Children that used to stay up to watch the "snow" on TV as stations signed off now have 24-hour entertainment, hundreds of cable channels to surf and an Internet to post information to Facebook, Myspace and Twitter.

I saw kids with phones that have apps I could only envy. Everyone could seem to afford an I-phone, yet no one seemed to have the cash-on-hand for a TI-83/84 calculator. Taking a cell phone from a child was almost oxymoron when his mother was texting him at the time you confiscated it. A $15 fine is the only sanction a teacher can levy: providers have fought technologies that would block cell phone signals because of the bottom-line: the kids are making them a truckload of cash for every tweet, text and social network update while you discuss: series and parallel circuits (that they promptly flunk on the next exam). The same child will follow you to the office and pay the fine; everyday if necessary. You eventually succumb to the shear pressure of policing, classroom management and drill-drill-drill the vaunted standardized exam for the school’s rating (and your job).

"We're kind of like television": we can be tuned in or tuned out at will. It's never the child's fault if he/she fails. The teacher obviously didn't connect, control their class or wasn't "entertaining enough." I'd personally gotten emails asking me to "bond" with the parent's child. (Even typing that was creepy!) The replied suggestion to another parent to take the cell phone from her child herself got this response: "I just read what you said. It wouldn't have occurred to me to do that."

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States Ranks 15th in Reading Literacy, 19th in Mathematical Literacy and 14th in Scientific Literacy, see: Who's No. 1? Finland, Japan and Korea, Says OECD.

So quietly, subtlety we've become a nation of entertainment addicts, I-phones with apps, games, texting and academic distractions. The development of young minds used to be simple before levels of video games were invented. Now we compete with them and with what the latest "reality show" is (I believe the kids I previously taught were viewing "What Chili Wants" from TLC fame).

And if I was not entertaining, be it Algebra 1, Pre-Calculus or Math Lab, I was TLC would have crooned: a "scrub."

*****

I am out of secondary teaching, thankfully back in the semiconductor industry, something I understand and I think appreciates me, my skillsets and the dilemma our country is in.

Alas, our students are not prepared for college, civic responsibilities, critical thinking, problem-solving skills or life. That justifies outsourcing, hurts our nation financially and puts us on a troubling course.

I suggested a documentary be done on Dr. Ravitch’s book. I think that much of The Dumbest Generation as well, but my suggestion for Dr. Bauerlein’s excellent read is a game show:

“Who’s Smarter than a Baby Boomer?”

Limitations: no Internet, no phone apps, no phones, no life lines.

Weapons: memorized times tables, slide rules, Encyclopedia Britannica and/or Dewey Decimal System, pencils and/or chalk.

The contest would take place in a notable library, moderated by college professors and AP teachers for respective categories. It could make a valid point.

En Garde!