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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > April > 24 > Entry
Americans not deep thinkers?
Probably my favorite non-education blog is SciGuy written by Eric Berger, a really bright science writer at the Houston Chronicle. Eric is really well read and always finds interesting new studies, reports and surveys that say something important about Americans.
Last week, he spotted two fascinating education-related tidbits.
First, Eric notes a survey that says a majority of Americans are not “intellectually curious” about important issues like politics, science and the arts. Just 40 percent of respondents said they kept up with these matters regularly by reading about them or following them in other media.
Eric speculates that Americans are perhaps too busy to pay attention. But if the survey is a true reflection of American attitudes, this also indicates a failure of education. Why are young American learners not inspired by history, democracy and art? It always makes me cringe to hear young people say how much they detest taking history, for instance. If this feeling is widespread, it suggests we are doing something wrong when we teach kids these subjects which should be exciting and inspiring.
Also, check out Eric’s post about another study that shows a direct link between how much television kids watch and how much they eat. The more they watch, the more they eat. One more reason to shut of TV and send the kids outside to play.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Comments
By Kicker
April 27, 2006 3:18 PM | Link to this
I would suggest that one of the primary causes is the recent trends away from fact-based education. As more and more children are taught to “explore their feelings” and “search for themselves”, they are failing to acquire the basic facts and skills needed to place the importance of things like history, science, and politics into context. And what we don’t understand, we rarely pay attention to. And while NCLB is helping to address this issue somewhat, the attitude of educators and parents needs to change as well. While “touchy-feely” is nice, and has it’s place, failing to master tough academics is placing America at risk of losing our technological and economic leadership and, ultimately, our high standard of living. I also agree with the commenter who noted that those lacking the ability to understand complex political or scientific issues are easily mislead by politicians. The recent demagoguery on gas prices proves that.By Kate
April 27, 2006 12:54 PM | Link to this
Why restrict that accusation to Americans? People in general are not particularly deep thinkers. Probably only about 20% of the American population has the capacity for deep thought and those that are capable of it willfully blind themselves on certain issues because their emotional biases and comfort zone considerations will override rational inquiry, nine times out of ten.By Oldprof
April 24, 2006 3:44 PM | Link to this
I might point out that being an intellectual in today’s American, and acting like it or admitting it, is bound to draw disparagement. Fifty years ago, the opposite was true; the previous generation respected erudition and intellect and aspired to it. Want to turn things around? Let the DDN be the first media outlet to swear off blaming the failures of education on “bad teachers”, and if any politician says “the schools can’t even fire bad teachers” then the DDN should immediately insert an editorial comment that goes (of course, this statement is untrue). Further progress could be made by getting someone more academic than Ron Rollins to review music. Also begin to vet your editorial columnists by keeping track of predictions they make and cancelling any who are not reliable (whoops, there goes Krauthammer!). Take the plank out of thine own eye first, DDN.By Mary
April 24, 2006 7:35 AM | Link to this
We have institutionalized the lack of intellectual curiosity and discouraged intellectual curiosity. Living for the momment, short term gratification, not long term interest, have been encouraged by our schools, businesses and society. Greed, celebrity, power, money, and material possessions have become the golden chalices and obsessions, not knowledge. What is sad, is I think the root causes for the lack of intellectual curiosity are ingrained, or at least fertilized, in our educational institutions - which are supposed to be our main way to encourage and suport intellectual curiosity. I see the examples all the time and have observed how my intellectually curious children were adversely impacted. I hear it from other parents as well, particularly from those with highly gifted children. They feel embattled in the system to protect their child’s intellectual curiosity. Another idea, some conspiracy theorists point out, people who lack intellectual curiosity are more easily manipulated and controlled.