Posts tagged education
cell phones and 8 year olds
May 14th
“Adults — digital natives or not — can’t imagine what a childhood mediated by mobile, social technology that didn’t exist 10 years ago is actually like.” – Senior editor The Atlantic magazine
I admit.
Technology has created a significant new challenge to parenting. I struggle to think of anything since the printing press that would affect parenting as much as technology <smartphones, cell phones, i-pads, etc.> is doing.
Television was different (it’s not portable).
Cars was different (cannot drive until 16).
Anyway.
3rd grade children are, on average, eight years old.
20% of 3rd grade boys and 18% of 3rd grade girls already have a cell phone <2011 Massachusetts study of elementary, middle, and high school students>.
By the time children reach 5th grade, 39% of the kids have cell phones.
More than 83% of the students have a cellular device by middle school.
I have mixed feelings.
And frankly its not because of kids having access to this technology at too young an age … its more because of the quote I began with … we <older folk> cannot imagine a childhood mediated by technology.
And because we cannot imagine it … we have a propensity to limit it.
We all focus on ‘my kid is attached to their cell phone’ or ‘all they do is text’ or <fill in the blank>.
Is that wrong?
Geez. Parts of it doesn’t sound wrong and yet parts of it does sound wrong … because they are already living in a world I struggle to even imagine.
And <to increase the challenge> I cannot even come close to imagining what their adult world will look like.
Part of me thinks it is silly to restrict their usage of something that is already integral to today’s world.
Another part of me understands that we adults <including teachers and the overall education system> are not set up to manage their usage (unless we use guidelines from our own youth … which seems unbelievably silly).
Regardless.
I have another post where I will note the increasing % of children below the age of 5 using computers <there are even kindergartens that have this now> to learn.
I have had multiple debates with other TED participants with regard to the ultimate effect on cognitive learning <I am on technology’s side and I am in a minority>.
It is a whole new world.
And while we older folk may try and keep up with the technology we run the risk of not keeping up with our children’s’ world.
No. I don’t have an answer.
Yes. I do believe we adults need to come up with an entirely new set of ‘rules’ that will make us feel incredibly uncomfortable in dealing with our children.
Here is what I do know.
It will not be long before that 83% having cellular devices will be at the 3rd grade level.
It will not be long before over 80% of ALL children (any age … including less than 5) will have access to the internet.
We either need to accept it and do something to take advantage of it or we run the risk of creating the largest generational gap <and ensuing friction> since maybe age of the printing press.
Oh.
One day after I published the first version of this post I received the new Economist and had to add the following letter to the editor to my post:
SIR – Your special report <the third industrial revolution> is a warning bell for America’s outdated education system. Digital technology surrounds every facet of our lives. But when children walk into school they are usually told to give up the tools that power this new digital revolution and travel back in time to the days of Henry Ford’s factories. Indeed, classrooms in 2012 would seem normal to students in 1912: a teacher at the front, a board behind her to write on, two dozen children lined in rows who come and go as the proverbial steam whistle lets them know their shift is over.
We left that world a long time ago, and the customised and innovative tools of digital learning are long overdue in our education system. The disruptive nature of the digital revolution may bring more prosperity than either of its predecessors, but if the West cannot change its 19th-century model of education we will cede this wealth to others.
ADAM PESHEK
American Legislative Exchange Council
Washington, DC
True, so true. We need to leave a world behind and need to make the changes that will make us feel uncomfortable … but needed.
travels of reading part 1
Sep 7th
So.
This is part a rant about people who don’t take advantage of reading and part simply a plea for people to read as often as they can.
Let me begin with the traveling ‘thing’ I mention upfront.
I have been extremely fortunate in my life to have had the opportunity to travel the globe. And experience lots of things. And see a lot of different things.
But even with that.
I tend to believe books and reading have offered the best travels I have ever experienced. Yeah. I do love reading and I believe reading books really is like traveling.
Traveling to places. To thoughts. To others minds. To other types of thinking. To fresh ideas.
It is an absolute fact that everyone has the opportunity to see so many things through reading.
And imagine things with limitless boundaries.
And experience thinking and ideas and combinations of words that energize the mind and the heart and the soul.
Reading just gets you … well … thinking. Just thinking about things.
We all have found those moments in books when reading.
There are those moments when you actually traveled through a slice of someone ‘else’s life living it word by word.
As I typed that I remember I was fortunate to be given a proofers copy of The Horse Whisperer and asked my opinion. I know I gave it a great review.
And I believe it made me cry in the first 50 pages (which may be one of the most heart wrenching tangled emotional ‘stepping into a moment’ sections of a book I have ever encountered).
That is an example of traveling through someone else’s life experience.
You travel through their experience and feel it. In your gut. You live it. You get so close to the moment through the words you feel like you have traveled there.
I find the same (but different) feeling when I read The Economist.
Anyway.
Anyone who reads knows about the moments when you come across a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things that you’d thought and it was lurking in your own mind and it appears on a page articulated by by someone else, someone you’ve never met, maybe even someone long passed.
It’s as if someone has heard your thought and knew you couldn’t figure out a way to put it in words and has traveled to say “here it is, worry no more, for now you know what it is.”
And, of course, (because I am consistent on this issue and I am who I am) reading an easy path to knowledge.
Of course you can gain knowledge through experience, or discussion, or other paths … but reading is so freely available and simple that it can only be deemed a great failure to anyone who doesn’t encourage it as a core activity … if not privilege.
I do know I would like to see America become a place that’s proud of intellectual curiosity. But I fear too often intellectual curiosity is belittled by people whose idea of culture is determined by television or People-type magazines or internet blogs.
You would like to think that knowledge should be a lifelong goal and not something satisfied by high school mandatory reading lists or four years of college … but rather a lifetime of reading.
Here is the issue (ok. some issues).
Okay. Some statistics.
From bookstatistics.com:
- 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.
- 42% of college graduates never read another book.
- 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.
- 70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
Ok.
Did you know that there are approximately 30 million adults in the U.S. who can’t read?
Yikes.
THAT last one sends a shiver down my spine.
While I would like to think most people would like to read (like I do) but I guess I also assume they can actually read.
But.
Look at number 2 on the list. 80% of families did not buy or read a book. 80 frickin’ percent.
Whew.
What happens to us (from childhood where we seem to have endless supplies of books to read)?
I do know that one of my favorite childhood memories is “reading” The Hobbit.
Ok. I didn’t read it. Our teacher read it to us in installments in elementary school in ‘reading time.’
Afterwards? I couldn’t wait to get my own hands on it.
Since then I have read it and the entire Lord of the Rings maybe 10 times. I have no idea at what age was my first time but it has to be very young. I remember being fascinated, excited and impatient waiting for the next chapter to unfold. I created pictures in my mind at each reading and the next day another picture would be drawn.
So.
I am not suggesting everyone love reading as much as I do.
But understanding what reading has to offer is important.
Not everyone can physically travel and books not only give someone an opportunity to travel anywhere in the ‘now’ but they give you an opportunity to travel through time … and see ideas past, present and future.
Look. I know reading books certainly doesn’t have a monopoly on becoming “smart.”
I’ve read some amazing stuff online, and I’ve read amazingly thought provoking newspaper articles (not in local papers but the NY Times or The Guardian). And I do think staying open to new media is a key sign of intellectual curiosity.
I don’t know.
In any case, I don’t know if people who don’t read lack intellectual curiosity. I think there can be other ways to satisfy intellectual curiosity (particularly in today’s web crazy world).
But I do think if you don’t read you can find yourself with a lack of ability to think in the abstract and the potential.
You may have heard the term “lifelong learning.”
Though learning begins when we are children education is truly a never ending process (and reading can play an important part of learning for everyone). Reading not only keeps us informed about the world around us but also provides intellectual stimulation and helps keep us mentally sharp.
Reading offers benefits not found in more “passive” media.
It gives the brain a much better workout than does watching television. When we watch TV, we take in the information in a passive way. But reading allows the mind to:
- pause, reflect, think
- operate more actively
- use intellect and emotion together
- develop a longer attention span.
Oh.
And on that last bullet point. To those of you who may say “I don’t have the attention span to read.” Well. There ain’t anyone out there who has a shorter attention span than I do. I have the attention span of a gnat. And still a book can suck me in to a place where it doesn’t become about ‘attention’ any more but rather ‘involvement.’
Ok.
Regardless of all my own personal ramblings on the greatness of reading there are some actual studies (if you doubt that this whole reading is traveling thing is really for you).
- Carnegie Mellon scientists discovered that the volume of brain white matter in the language area of the brain increased after study participants followed a six-month daily reading program. The Carnegie Mellon study proved that the brain structure can be improved by training poor readers to become better readers.
- In 2009, Mayo Clinic conducted a Study of Aging that offered some good news for middle-aged and senior adults. Reading a book and other cognitive activities could decrease the risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). MCI is associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
This says we should assume the brain is like a muscle. Studies prove that exercising it and stimulating it makes it stronger. Reading stimulates brain activity. Reading a variety of “things” (blogs, books, newspapers, etc.) challenges the brain to think in new directions and absorb new concepts and information.
And children?
Children benefit from reading on many levels. Parents actively stimulate their child’s brain by sharing a reading time with them. Interactive reading time creates a shared bond between parent and child along with provoking a child’s natural curiosity about the world and environment.
Giving a child a chance to ask questions, express an interest in a particular topic, and hear new vocabulary and ideas forms a positive impression on a child that lasts a lifetime. Children with poor reading skills have a tendency to feel more anxious and sad (that comes from a study but I lost the source).
Reading also means we are in more control of how we learn and absorb different ideas. We can skim over portions that interest us less, move backwards and forwards, reread and, as in my case, make notes or write spectacularly articulated things down.
Reading helps keep us oriented and engaged.
Science, history, biographies, self help, religion, philosophy … the list is really endless … all make our ‘world’ a little more ‘full’ (but it is a glass that can never actually be completely filled) with each book we read.
I left this to the end because people who haven’t really figured out how to enjoy reading don’t “get” this. But there is an amazing pleasure to sitting down with a good book. It’s kind of like traveling to anywhere in the world (imagined or real) without leaving the comfort of our own chair. We can visit a fantasy realm with JRR Tolkien, or the American West with Louis L’Amour, or solve a mystery with Sherlock Holmes or see the intricacies of war with Tom Clancy. (that list could truly go on and on)
So.
In the end.
Some people will never ever be interested in learning unless dragged, kicking and screaming.
My biggest hope is that we adults (the ones who don’t like reading) don’t hinder our kids natural curiosity about the world and still encourage them to read (it is unfortunate that kids typically do as they see … so … if you don’t read they don’t feel compelled to do so).
I do know that I will never quit trying to give everyone the opportunity to love reading and knowledge and encouraging curiosity.
Why?
Because not all of us have the privilege to travel.
And books give everyone the privilege to travel.
Doesn’t get much simpler than that.
travels of reading part 2
Sep 7th
“You get a little moody sometimes but I think that’s because you like to read. People that like to read
are always a little fucked up.” Pat Conroy
This is a follow up to my reading part 1 (which was serious about the importance of reading).
This is more a rant (and a warning) on how people who love to read abuse their joy of reading.
This possibly provides a counterbalance to my disdain for people who waste the opportunity to permit their minds to travel through reading … which is a luxury everyone can afford and has access to regardless of budget.
So.
Readers can take things to absurd levels (simply because they read).
Pretentious.
Pompous.
Treating people who don’t read (or are not “well read”) as lesser beings (and they can do it overtly or in sneaky but still pompous ways).
Oh.
And the perpetual idiotic rephrasing or quoting of literature (rather than seek their own words).
Using quotes can be lazy.
Just as using any words of others can be lazy.
For reading is only good if you are using it to increase your own intellectual thinking.
And to come up with your own ideas.
And to express your own thoughts and ideas better,
Reading is traveling.
Traveling through other people’s thoughts and ideas.
And, sure, it is okay to show pictures of your trips and travels but you don’t want to read from the guidebooks as you tell everyone about the trip … they want to hear your thoughts and experience it through your eyes and words.
Yeah.
I am certainly a lover of a well crafted written thought. That poetic turn of phrase. Even that full chapter of prose that when it ends you finally exhale. And then only to turn back upon on some pages and reread something because the way the words have been put together it stirs something inside you … it could be your soul … it could be your mind … it could just be ‘something’ but those words have created an imprint upon you.
But.
The imprint is often best used in your own words when shared.
Do I use quotes or literary references? Sure. You bet I do.
Do I use them to replace my own words? Rarely.
I use someone else’s words to either emphasize my own thoughts or introduce my thoughts or (in a business environment) to honestly “steal a moment.”
(note: ‘stealing a moment definition: that would be when the meeting is spinning in a direction and you cannot seem to stem the stream of unfocused idiocy spewing forth and you grab an appropriate quote out of your memory banks – because frankly your own words haven’t done shit to steer everyone away from whatever the hell it is they are saying – and you grandly toss someone else’s words out into the air. That, my friends, is the art of stealing a moment with a quote.).
Anyway.
Reading is useful only when … well .. you make it useful.
Reading and learning and saying nothing is a waste.
Reading so you don’t have to do your own thinking is a waste.
Reading to solely use other people words is a waste.
Reading to simply say things to show you are better and smarter (well, maybe more ‘well read’) is a waste.
Oh.
And not reading is the worst waste.
Beyond my quote/using others words rant.
If you are a reader and love books?
Don’t abuse your love for reading. Don’t just talk but listen.
And share after listening.
Your attitude with what you have gained from reading can either encourage someone to pick up a book or discourage some from reading.
If you love to read, you are an ambassador for reading and need to think of yourself as such.
Think of yourself as a curiosity fulfillment teacher. Think of it as your own personal “no person left behind” program.
Advocate reading don’t belittle someone who doesn’t.
And if you struggle to figure out how to encourage someone to read?
Maybe steal someone else’s words … Charles Schultz (Peanuts author):
“This is my report on the importance of knowing how to read. If you can’t read and you get a love letter, you won’t know what it says. That would be very sad. Although in the long run, it also could save you a lot of trouble.”
- Charles Schultz
national program to support Childhood Curiosity
Jul 27th
So I saw a TV commercial encouraging maintaining arts/music in schools curriculum the other day. I didn’t pay much attention to the details and I am not really a government program gwonk (whatever that is) but I assume someone in their infinite wisdom is cutting money supporting these things in schools.
Well, in general, I would say I would jump on this soapbox.
But.
I won’t because of ignorance with regard to the choice. Huh? If I support this, does funding get cut from some other children’s education program? As I stated I am not a policy gwonk so I don’t really know how these things work.
But.
Here is what I do know.
Every child is born curious.
And every child has an unopened box of curiosity which has a key to open it.
And I do know every child needs a different key to open it.
For me it was words. Words in songs. Words in books. Whatever. I listened to the radio music incessantly and read every Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy book I could get my hands on. Somewhere in elementary school a teacher read us Tolkien’s The Hobbit during reading hour. (I couldn’t wait to be able to read it on my own.)
For others I assume it’s something else.
The stars and planets and space.
Playing an instrument.
Understanding what makes things run and go.
How do things live.
Why is the grass green and the sky blue.
Crap like that.
Frankly I don’t care about any individual program (music, math, social studies, chemistry, etc.).
What I care about is giving children a box of keys and let them figure out what opens their curiosity box. And then making sure that curiosity never grows hungry. That it can be fed for as long as they want to keep eating. Curiosity will never have an obesity issue .. there should be an all-you-can-eat buffet 24-7 for kids.
Is that realistic? Once again, frankly, I don’t care.
This is me being unreasonable. Having music fight for money from sciences who is trying to make sure they have money from machine shop/woodworking is kinda nuts. You are choosing among the children (literally and figuratively).
So while I am okay with a TV commercial fighting for something like music in schools I am not okay that money has to be spent on the fight (versus actually using the money for feeding kid’s curiosity).
This is not “no child left behind” (although I guess if I did some research I could be really sure about that statement).
In fact, I read somewhere that inadvertently the ‘no child left behind’ program kind of created the arts cutback situation because funds had to be diverted to sciences & math to insure the program met its goals (I don’t think anyone planned it to work that way).
Heck. President Obama announced a $250 million initiative to train math and science teachers and help meet his goal of pushing America’s students from the middle to the top of the pack in those subjects in the next decade. Obama said the $250 million in public and private investments for his “Educate to Innovate” campaign will help train more than 100,000 teachers and prepare more than 10,000 new educators in the next five years. I am all for that also. Just not at the expense of other curriculum options students could select.
Why do we have to choose one over the other? (I guess that is where I get stuck on this issue)
So. What would I do? (being the unreasonable guy I am)
Use that 250 million to train Curiosity Fulfillment teachers. Create a Curiosity Fund and go get stuff in front of kids. And keep shoving it at them until they find something they gravitate to. The only reason (in my opinion) kids “give up” in school is because they just don’t find anything relevant to them. I am NOT suggesting we should ignore a well rounded education (they do need to know 2 and 2 is 4 and stuff like that) but give them a “hook.” Something to hold on to. Something that inspires them to want to know more.
There you go – a National Childhood Curiosity Program. Educating to feed Curiosity.
Envisioning A Legacy
Feb 16th
So. Some people when asked cannot say what their dream job is (excluding fireman or Swedish gymnast as options). Interestingly I can. I am very clear on what I would do if given the opportunity and I am very clear on whether I am capable of doing the job. I have thought about it, written about it, identified what would need to be done to accomplish it and I would kill to do the job (or even present how it could be done to someone who could afford to do it). We just posted “A Legacy I Dream of Leaving Behind” under the “About Enlightened Conflict” page.
What is it? Educating a Global Generation. That job is what started me on this whole blogging/site thing. It is the tactical embodiment of “Enlightened Conflict” (or at least the one tactical embodiment that drives the concept. I’m sure others could arrive at additional tactical embodiments).
I will write more detail on the topic (when I am not posting more topical items). But. In the meantime read what we have posted and if you know anyone who wants to hear my thoughts I would pack my bag and go to Gdansk to talk about it if that is what it would take).
why Islam appears to be kicking christianity’s ass
Jan 15th
(note: kicking ass for now)
I am not a theologian nor particularly religiously knowledgeable. However Christianity, and its role around the world, is very important to a number of people I care about and respect. Through work and some friendships I have been on the periphery of the religious discussion and Christianity’s place in today’s world. I have an opinion and this point of view shares it. You will see some numbers which I have used to provide some perspective. I have used as sources a variety of online/USA Today articles and research.
The situation (or challenge)
There is absolutely a decline of Christianity (no matter how you look at the numbers). Suffice it to say within the world’s largest democracies Christianity is a declining portion of the population in all but South Korea and Japan. Conversions away from the faith are the main reason. From 1990 to 2008, the portion of American adults who self-identify as Christians has dropped 10 percentage points (from 86% to 76%), while the portion of those who report no religious affiliation has almost doubled — from 8% to 15%. All the while Atheism and other forms of non-belief have been expanding in the United States.
The total number of Muslims is a little more than one fifth of the world’s population, over a billion Muslims in the world, a majority in 50 nations. Just 2% of the world’s Muslims live in the West. The growth rate of the Muslim population, which averaged 1.9 between 2000 and 2006, is also far higher than the world’s population growth rate, which averaged 1.2% in the same period. It is also much faster than any other major religious group.
Nevertheless, even if a Muslim majority is coming it probably will not be soon. Over the last six years the Muslim population has grown only about two thirds of a percentage point a year faster than the world population.
It is interesting to note (and relevant to this writing) that a conference of Muslim leaders in Mecca in 1899 was called to discuss the decline of Islam. From then the second half of the twentieth century has seen a Muslim revival.
Possibly most importantly, Islam is growing in organizational strength, not just numbers. It has undergone massive restructuring in the last five years. Mosques and other institutions are proliferating, and Muslims are exerting their influence in such fields as education, censorship and politics. This is no accident. A document produced by a prominent Muslim leader in the UK in the early 1980s described the Islamic movement in the West as ‘an organized struggle to change the existing society into an Islamic Society with the Qur’an and Sunna as its base’.
Islam is organized and focused and has momentum.
Okay. Let’s not haggle over the exact numbers. Christianity has an issue and Islam is taking advantage.
Attacking the Issue: Separate Religion from Church
I believe Christians need to separate their belief in the religion from their bias toward a particular church. To me religion is the practice of believing in a higher power, or at minimum, subscribing to a particular set of values while the Church is simply a place, or a construct within, you go to learn these things.
I believe church (or churches) are confusing people. Each church seems to have a different set of rules as well as a different interpretation of the bible. Most critically it has become difficult to understand what is unifying between all the different church groups (and I admit .. it may be there .. that unifying aspect .. but the individual church rhetoric is so noisy I cannot hear it). Suffice it to say the current situation has discouraged even some of the faithful.
Let’s get more people to consider Christianity (then offer a specific church group).
Hey. I am not against competition. And I believe every spiritual path has the right to be passionate with regard to their beliefs and their path. What I do believe is troublesome is when the “in fighting” creates confusion and the entire industry suffers in totality.
Every Christian church group should be passionate about their path to God. BUT. It shouldn’t come at the expense of the bigger issue – Christianity.
The best example I can think of at the moment is the US Armed Forces. I am quite sure that behind closed doors the Marines, Army, Air Force and Navy (and maybe the National Guard and Coast Guard and whatever) are pushing and pulling for their own self interest. And each branch has an identity and does whatever it can do to remind people of the difference. But come war the objective is clear, differences put aside and they work together to win. They understand the overall objective is more important than the individual constituents. Is there some chafing? Sure. Is there alignment on doing what is best for US interests? Sure.
There will be debate. There will be arguments. People will get pissed at each other (or whatever version of pissed off Christian leaders are permitted to be). But in the end the whole is stronger than the parts. I am confident no one, and I mean no one, can beat an aligned focused US Armed Forces initiative. And I would argue the same for Christianity.
Discipline. Rules.
One of the people I admire most in the world is a Marine highly decorated from his service in Vietnam. But my admiration and respect has little to do with decorations (although I admit it earns my ultimate respect), but rather with the man himself. He is a master coordinator, organizer and inspirer. As a CEO of a global franchise organization, he put in place the discipline and set of rules that defined who could be on his team and be successful. But that was the basics. He set out a framework of attitudinal “rules” and values as well as defined an organizational attitude. Instilled with these additional parameters, this organization, and others he has been associated with, clearly defined itself in the marketplace, gathered likeminded people and ultimately became globally successful and wealthy. So rules can include attitude as well as “things we have to do.”
Maybe Christianity needs the same discipline and rules as a successful franchise organization.
I apologize to theologians by comparing religion to a global franchise organization but the parallels are too great to ignore by a non-believer such as I. Disparate locations with a common goal and an objective to be more successful than the competition. If a 3000 unit franchise organization can figure out how to remain aligned enough globally to be efficient focused and successful, surely a Christian organization can. Read the rest of this entry »
