Thread: The loss of basic skills in school

Originally Posted by tekbow

recent riots in the uk... ...

Sorry. I should have been more clear.
I meant has any study been done to show causation? I do believe that kids today are more ignorant about a lot of things (and things they shouldn't be ignorant about). I don't believe that they are dumber, and I don't believe technology is the cause of their ignorance.
It's easy to say: Kids are ignorant. Kids use technology more. Therefore, technology causes ignorance.
That is bad logic.

Originally Posted by Sailor

Not many seriously believe that youngsters would be dumber than previous generations but obviously computers really change the human behavior a bit. We had to learn to use our memory to store all kinds of important and less important information, but nowadays it is so easy to store it in your laptop or phone memory. Not a big change, maybe, but how many of us really remembers that much of phone numbers or birthdays than we did before computers and laptops? This is just another example.

Now there's huge lot of scientific researches telling that your memory gets weaker if you don't use it frequently. Poor memory means certain difficulties in logical thinking and learning.
For what i think, younger generation doesn't really use it as much as we did (or they use it more selectively). Nowadays even schools doesn't force you to use your memory as much. You don't need to remember all the flowers and plants there is as you can always search it from the net. And so on.
Of course we dinosaurs do this too but kids of today have done it since they were born.

I'm not that sure about Einstein but that is a thing we can never know.

So kids today aren't memorizing the names of flowers and plants. I would say their memory is getting exercised in other ways though. It's impossible to use all this technology without remembering LOTS of things about it. Just ask a senior citizen that's learning to use a computer.

Originally Posted by Goggles

I'd say at least one other thing: scope. Even the smartest kid will still be ignorant if you only teach a narrow cross-section of the world... [stuff supporting this idea] ...

I fully agree with that. I just don't believe technology is to blame for it. In fact, I think technology makes it easy for motivated people to be less ignorant.


I used to teach adults. I did some education at a college, where the typical audience was 18-25 years old. I did teaching outside the college where the typical audience was 25-55 years old. IN GENERAL, students at the college definitely had more of an attitude of entitlement and lack of personal responsibility about learning than those outside the college.
I can only speculate about the cause of that difference - I have a few ideas, and none of them involve technology having rotted the brains of the youth.

Originally Posted by HNSB

I fully agree with that. I just don't believe technology is to blame for it.

Me neither, meant to imply the opposite. The number of different things I can learn about in a single sleepless night thanks to the internet is fantastic.

Originally Posted by HNSB

I used to teach adults. I did some education at a college, where the typical audience was 18-25 years old. I did teaching outside the college where the typical audience was 25-55 years old. IN GENERAL, students at the college definitely had more of an attitude of entitlement and lack of personal responsibility about learning than those outside the college.
I can only speculate about the cause of that difference - I have a few ideas, and none of them involve technology having rotted the brains of the youth.

My Freshman year of college started when I was 30 years old. And while most of my classes were night school on the base, by the time I reached my Junior and Senior years, I ended up having to attend classes on campus at lunch time. In my case most of these classes were at McMurray University in Abilene, Texas. My classmates were typically of a very different demographic there. Young kids mostly, while many were clearly very intelligent people, it was clear that lots of them were there simply to party while Mommy and Daddy paid tuition and gave them spending money. They'd show up for a class or two, never do any of the work and then complain to the professor when they got a bad grade in the class. I think the difference between them and older students (like me) was that the older students understood the value and importance of what they were doing. For many of the younger kids college was just a four year party break on Mommy and Daddy's dime. This fact was evidenced by their academic performance (or lack thereof). I'm sure many of my classmates may have been smarter and/or more talented than I but there was absolutely no one that wanted a degree worse than me.

PS: Speaking of errosion of basic skills...OMG!

Can anyone show a link between technology and moroniliness or is this thread just about blowing off steam about the younger generation?

I am betting if Einstein had an iPhone when he was a kid, he would still have been a genius.

Imagine what Stephen Hawking could have done if no one had made the mistake of giving him one of those mind numbing devices.
Oh... wait.

Originally Posted by HNSB

Can anyone show a link between technology and moroniliness or is this thread just about blowing off steam about the younger generation?

recent riots in the uk. We can talk to anyone anywhere on the planet instantly, we have the ability to roughly understand what anyone speaking mostly any language is saying through online translators. We can convert and understand idea's in unfamiliar unit systems and express oursleves in a million amazing and wonderful ways. And what do we chose to do with this gift?

Ram raid a dixons and nick a hi def telly..

Not many seriously believe that youngsters would be dumber than previous generations but obviously computers really change the human behavior a bit. We had to learn to use our memory to store all kinds of important and less important information, but nowadays it is so easy to store it in your laptop or phone memory. Not a big change, maybe, but how many of us really remembers that much of phone numbers or birthdays than we did before computers and laptops? This is just another example.

Now there's huge lot of scientific researches telling that your memory gets weaker if you don't use it frequently. Poor memory means certain difficulties in logical thinking and learning.
For what i think, younger generation doesn't really use it as much as we did (or they use it more selectively). Nowadays even schools doesn't force you to use your memory as much. You don't need to remember all the flowers and plants there is as you can always search it from the net. And so on.
Of course we dinosaurs do this too but kids of today have done it since they were born.

I'm not that sure about Einstein but that is a thing we can never know.

Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.

I have no idea why i still remember that, but i quite like that i do.

Anyone remember their equations of motion?

Originally Posted by tekbow

Anyone remember their equations of motion?

Lagrangian, or Hamiltonian?

Originally Posted by tekbow

recent riots in the uk. We can talk to anyone anywhere on the planet instantly, we have the ability to roughly understand what anyone speaking mostly any language is saying through online translators. We can convert and understand idea's in unfamiliar unit systems and express oursleves in a million amazing and wonderful ways. And what do we chose to do with this gift?

Ram raid a dixons and nick a hi def telly..

Or, you know, organize an epic revolution.

well yeah, i think there's a good difference between the government in those countries and the uk, but that's a different thread..