Since 1989, Mark Bauerlein has been a professor of English at Emory University, after receiving his doctorate from UCLA in 1988. He served as the Director, Office of Research and Analysis, at the National Endowment for the Arts in 2003-05. In the “Dumbest Generation”, he begins with a volume of studies and reports on the drop in standardized test scores of the U.S. youth. He seems to believe the generation under age 30 does not read enough, study art enough, ponder the important issues, or even have the vocabulary to discuss them if they did. He proposes that technology, particularly TV, social networks, gaming, and
the internet may be depriving these people of the time needed to learn important knowledge. He may well be correct, especially if we consider what should be required of a responsible, educated voter in our democracy.
In reading this third book, I find it an interesting follow to our first two. Where Anderegg surmises the decline in STEM subjects is due to disengaging our Nerds and Geeks, and Prensky proposes a cure for disengaging our youth in more encouragement of the technology they have grown up with, Bauerlein does not believe that effective learning can take place through the internet on a scale to make a difference. If he is correct, we may be indeed doomed as a society.
I derive from all 3 books a need for appropriate education, and a balanced use of technology as we know it today. What is considered appropriate and balanced will be in the hands, and minds, and capabilities of the parents, teachers, administrators, politicians, pocket books, and no less, the students themselves. Can we afford to spend millions of dollars per school district on
hardware and software when much of it will be outdated next year? If as Bauerlein suggests, the cons of knowledge retention is so poor it will not produce the desired results, how can we rationalize spending valuable time and resources building curricula which may be no more than another version of a social network?
Private dollars flow to social and gaming technology companies that invest in those products. However, in other industries with cash strapped bottom lines, there is always a reluctance to invest in new methods of training if they can just get by with the old. The old paradigms of learning persist in the world of cost effective training. It is not what is the best method, but cheapest short
term route to production. With the current federal and state budget crisis, the occasional school board buying millions of dollars of computers for their students may be short lived. I hope, in order to engage each student in an appropriate manner, we can develop active and rewarding platforms for learning. I can appreciate Bauerlein’s view of art appreciation, the classics, and involvement of all areas of our society, and hope he will embrace the technology when it is shown successful. For now, we have a duty to engage in innovative ways, but don’t throw out the pen and paper yet; or as John Dewey said about appropriate education:
“We always live at the time we live and not at some other time, and only by extracting at the present time the full meaning of each present experience are we prepared for doing the same in the future. This is the only preparation which in the long run amounts to anything”. (“Experience of Education”, 1938).
Bauerlein, M. (2009). The dumbest generation: How the digital age stupefies young Americans and jeopardizes our future (Or, don’t trust anyone under 30). New York: Tarcher.
ISBN: 978-1585427123
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