Someone, actually Leonard Read, wrote an essay called “I, Pencil” to illustrate the network of impersonal, voluntary exchanges that result in the production of a simple human artefact through the agency of the market system. Peter Klein noted that many students these days have not seen a simple wooden pencil and he was pleased to promote an alternative – “I, Beer”.
As you would expect, to make the thing easier for the dumbest generation ever, the Beer version is much shorter.
I think children should be shielded from excessive use of digital technology, just as they should be shielded from use of other technologies such as alcoholic beverages and driving cars.
As with those older technologies, just because they can use it doesn’t mean they should. And it’s okay to have one set of rules for adults and another for children.
daddy dave
5 Feb 10 at 5:05 pm
Those annoying little computer games should be kept out of the hands of children. They turn them into lazy zombies. More generally, I think the emphasis on computer literacy is overblown these days, I really do. Now is the time to go hard on traditional subjects, approaches and masteries. Kids need a more solid foundation upon which to build the computer-driven stuff – which is comparatively easy to pick up anyway. A Year 11 kid ought to understand how to use a slide rule and a year 8 kid ought to know how to turn in a report whose bibliography consists of verifiably extant books. Etc etc.
C.L.
5 Feb 10 at 6:51 pm
I agree with the gist but numeracy and a calculator would be better. Can you even buy a slide rule these days?
“A Year 11 kid ought to understand how to use a slide rule”
A what?
Semi Regular Libertarian
5 Feb 10 at 6:53 pm
A what?
LOL
daddy dave
5 Feb 10 at 6:55 pm
I wasn’t proposing slide rules displace calculators, SRL. I’m talking about deepening and broadening young people’s education.
C.L.
5 Feb 10 at 7:03 pm
A slide rule is technology, CL. Using an updated form which is either a calc or a computer is really the same sorta thing.
In any event there are good arguments that computer games actually improve IQ performance. Although I don’t know as I’ve never played one some of these games are quite elaborate from what I hear.
JC
5 Feb 10 at 7:12 pm
In any event there are good arguments that computer games actually improve IQ performance.
.
I call BS on that, quite honestly. I read those reports when they come out in the media, and the research usually looks pretty second rate and flimsy.
.
Look I didn’t say that they should be prevented from playing games completely, just that it should be restricted. I can buy that there are some advantages to some exposure to video games and the internet. I can’t buy that there are advantages to sitting in bedrooms all day twiddling their thumbs. The harsh reality is that we evolved on the savannah, and developing brains need certain kinds of activities and certain kinds of stimuli in regular doses. ie hand-eye skills, tracking objects, climbing, running, and so on.
daddy dave
5 Feb 10 at 8:03 pm
From what I’ve seen, computer games develop kids’ abilities to play computer games and that’s about it.
Yeah, I bought a slide rule a few years ago at a newsagent’s, SRL, and then learned how it’s used. Interesting to think they were used by engineers and NASA dudes on complex problems not too long ago. (I think you see a NASA egghead using one in Appollo 13). As for raw maths, convenience and technology have lessened the cerebral firepower of the general populace, I think. I read Bill Waterhouse’s autobiography a few weeks ago and he remarked on the mathematical abilities that used to be common (indeed necessary) in the betting ring and the race track. Now, your ticket is pumped out by a machine and the authorities changed the expression of odds to an expression of payout because today’s race-goers were too dumb to get their minds around straight out bets at 7s or 10s – let alone at 9/2 or 11/8. In the old days, such bets at such odds were worked out mentally in situ (formerly, in imperial currency) and written out by the hundreds as punters pressed in to get set.
C.L.
5 Feb 10 at 9:16 pm
I believe the phrase you’re all looking for is: “get off my lawn!”
AJ
5 Feb 10 at 9:20 pm
“get off my lawn!”
If you mean that I should let my son who is in kindergarten sit and play xbox all day, then… no, AJ, you can get off my family’s lawn.
.
My point was biological not moral. It’s the same with nutrition. It’s more risky, and has more permanent consequences, to malnourish a child for a week than an adult for a week.
daddy dave
5 Feb 10 at 9:47 pm
I don’t know quite what to think of the “I, beer” thing. Catchy? Or so silly as to lose the point?
daddy dave
5 Feb 10 at 10:59 pm
Students should learn how to program in machine language using hexadecimal / binary. Use of an abacus should be mandatory. Children should show an ability to add, multiply, divide and subtract using roman numerals. Latin should be mandatory. Res ipsa loquitur.
Samuel J
5 Feb 10 at 11:20 pm
Students should learn how to program in machine language using hexadecimal / binary
CS students still do. Or at least I did about 10 years ago.
Yobbo
6 Feb 10 at 7:25 am
I reckon the average smarts and abilities of young folks are better now than ever before, but I worry about the ‘top’ echelon. I don’t think they’re excelling like they used to, and they seem to have little interest in history, the classics, etc.
“a year 8 kid ought to know how to turn in a report whose bibliography consists of verifiably extant books”
Heh. I agree, however having taught plenty of second and third year (bachelor degree) students who failed at this, I’d set my sights lower for starters!
FDB
6 Feb 10 at 9:51 am
FDB
I’d say you’re pretty spot-on there. Below the top echelon, I would say the percentage of the population now being educated and/or performing at a solid/above average (or above median) level would be much higher than say two generations ago.*
After all, two – and even one – generations ago, the majority of high school students (up to 70%, correct me if I’m wrong) left school at the end of Year 10, with many leaving as early as their 15th birthday! OTOH, nowadays only about 30% leave at end of Year 10 or earlier, and recent changes make school or vocational training compulsory until age 17 (or something like that)..
Two generations ago only a small minority went to university. Even after Whitlam, the impact on overall numbers was negligible. And quite contrary to popular mythology, free university did not change the SES mix of universities much at all or increase significantly lower class enrolments.
* Obviously, I am using the notion of “above average” wrt to absolute standards two generations ago.
Peter Patton
6 Feb 10 at 10:17 am
Unfair comparison. Class sizes a generation or two ago could be as high as 40 or 50. Plus, I’m not sure a higher rate of students rated at solid/above average reflects anything more than soft marking. Seen a modern report card? You’ll labour in vain looking for the word ‘fail’.
C.L.
6 Feb 10 at 12:04 pm
I think FDB is on track with the rise in the average and a problem at the top for reasons that I would like to see explored. I think it is something to do with range and depth of reading (that he mentioned) and also the need for a lot of mental toughness to “go it alone” and “make the hard yards” with difficult problems. [soft marking has aggravated that problem for all students]. At uni there is also the need to get one on one with inspiring teachers but classes are too big even at post grad level to get enough of that.
There is also the problem of the (possibly growing) “underclass” or tail of people who come out functionally illiterate even though the classes are smaller today than before as noted by CL.
Rafe
6 Feb 10 at 12:19 pm
There is also the problem of the (possibly growing) “underclass” or tail of people who come out functionally illiterate even though the classes are smaller today than before as noted by CL.
I’m unsure this is a modern day problem though. I can’t accept that there weren’t any illiterates in much earlier days.
JC
6 Feb 10 at 12:28 pm
Yes there were certainly illiterates in earlier days, it is a question of numbers, and how on earth kids can emerge from secondary education as functional illiterates. Classes are smaller, people are aware of the need for remedial teaching, every kind of disability can be identified etc etc.
One of the kids who I played with carved “BESTY” into the butt of his toy rifle. He always struggled in class. Decades later I realised he was most likely dyslexic. He called his rifle Betsy after Davy Crockett’s favorite weapon.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQY/is_1_50/ai_110470560/
Nowadays parents and teachers are supposed to pick up that kind of thing.
Rafe
6 Feb 10 at 1:22 pm
Whoa Rafe – that’s weird. Did your friend end up working in audio recording?
I picked up a vintage studio mic years ago (an AKG C-414 EB for anyone who cares) and it had ‘Besty’ engraved on it.
FDB
6 Feb 10 at 1:48 pm
FDB:
You dolt. It’s not as though Betsy is a new word in the language.
JC
6 Feb 10 at 1:51 pm
Speaking of toy rifles and school, Rafe, have a Captain at the firearm that caused Patrick Timoney, 9, to be busted by school authorities in New York.
Yeah, we’re smarter nowadays.
C.L.
6 Feb 10 at 1:56 pm
Re-read JC.
Alternatively, just shut the fuck up and stay out of other people’s conversations.
FDB
6 Feb 10 at 2:01 pm
No CL, I have said nothing about report cards. My point is that what we would call an ‘average’ kid today, would be performing at the level of kids who would have been described as ‘above average’ a generation or two ago. I think Rafe and FDB nail it by observing that the absolute performance of the ‘average’ has risen significantly, but the very top/superior/elite strata has not, and may have even declined.
The points about the emergence of an underclass strike me as intuitively/observationally sound, but I would like to see more investigation to check whether or not I am a victim of my own selection/confirmation bias.
After all, I – or indeed any of us here – could wax lyrical about instances of this ‘new’ underclass around us today. But how many of us could make reliable comparisons with 1965 or 1980? I have to say, my experiential knowledge of that sociological dynamic from my own youth is very sloppy.
Peter Patton
6 Feb 10 at 2:02 pm
I did, re-read it and can’t believe you think this is some sort of unique spiritual event that has finally connected you to Rafe.
Think before posting, FEB. This isn’t LP. There are much higher standards required.
JC
6 Feb 10 at 2:05 pm
What an odd person.
All the best, Ol’ Joe.
FDB
6 Feb 10 at 2:25 pm
Noting an early comment on slide rules, I threw out a slide rule the other day. I decided I was never going to use it again, though occasionally I used it as a ruler. Rulers are not as common as they used to be. Not to mention a rubber.
A rubber? I said not to mention that!
Today I am about to throw out an 8mm movie projector.
A few random thoughts on the underclass. We went through a period where many kids did not have to learn spelling and grammer so now we have a cohort of teachers who can’t spell or write grammatical sentences. So their students have a problem if the parents don’t know enough to help them.
Then there are Whitlam’s grandchildren, meaning the third generation welfare dependents.
And finally there is the gap identified by Jim Franklin in his book on Australian philosophy – the need for a secular substitute for the moral teaching that used to be done by the churches.
Those of us who have become secular humanists are not looking for a religious revival but there is a need to encourage people to take moral prinicples seriously. As Noel Pearson pointed out, you don’t appreciate the importance of the conventional mores until you see communities like the outback Aboriginal settlements where those principles are missing.
Rafe
6 Feb 10 at 2:41 pm
I’ll never forget when they decided that there would be no scoring at school athletic carnivals. There’s probably not a worse lesson you can teach a child.
Infidel Tiger
6 Feb 10 at 2:52 pm
Yes. They give out these nowadays. No child is allowed to lose. They’re all winners! It’s magic.
C.L.
6 Feb 10 at 2:55 pm
At UWA, hexadecimal and assembler programming have been banished to the school of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
Jacques Chester
6 Feb 10 at 3:20 pm
Come On In, You Wounded Greeklings.
Victor Davis Hanson and John Heath, Who Killed Homer? ‘The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom’ (New York: The Free Press, 1998), p. 166:
C.L.
6 Feb 10 at 9:22 pm
Spammed.
C.L.
6 Feb 10 at 9:23 pm