Drop Down Thinking
She began by mentioning that there seem to be many people, especially today's younger population, who seem to lack any notion of a creative way of thinking. That is, she recognized that many kids nowadays are being taught what to think, as opposed to how to think, which seems to be giving rise to a population of people who seem to struggle when problem solving alone, and sometimes even in groups. I was very excited that this woman, who I had never met before, had brought up a topic so relevant to my work with IDEA upon our first meeting. June and I were quick to agree that the ways in which we educate youth right now seem rather unfitting, at least for the most part.
June next brought up the idea of drop down menus. You know, the kind of menu that drops down when one clicks something like the 'File' or 'Edit' button at the top of a Microsoft Word document. She explained to me that it seems like our youth's thought processes operate on something similar to a drop down menu, programmed with a limited amount options to choose from when making responses, decisions, or choosing actions to take. The issue, as she brought it to attention, is that there are people being taught what to think and not how to think. Therefore when a person is perplexed by a situation in which none of their drop down menu options can appropriately be applied, that person makes a poor decision or cannot act appropriately in the heat of a situation. I couldn't help but be fascinated by June's take on the current thought processing abilities of our nation's youth.
Though June's analogy of drop down menus does not illuminate a new concern, it does shed a different sort of light on our nation's current educational epidemic of teaching kids what to think, and not how. June's problem made me think of mathematics, or algorithms. Mathematics in the sense that, if we could equip people with formulas as the options in their drop down menus, in which different variables could be the inputs relative to each different situation, then perhaps people would end up with more according and appropriate outputs for different and individual situations.
I felt like that my conversation with June was something worth sharing with folks like you. What's funny is that our first couple of exchanges regarded my philosophy studies at ASU; she then questioned me about what my philosophy was. I replied, "Do your best to define good, and live up to those standards." Though my words instigated a pearly white smile from June, it also brought attention to how that philosophy may work for some, but not all, considering that there seem to be many folks nowadays who seem to be victims of poor educating standards in our nation.
How funny that finding a person in the Phoenix/Tempe area who seems to agree with the principles of democratic education is a very rare occurrence, but the one new person I spoke with yesterday just happened to initiate a conversation regarding those principles. And how intriguing it is that just by engaging in a conversation with a perfect stranger, you can sometimes learn so much.
Posted in Philosophy of Education on Jun 21, 2010 - 04:28 PM
Yesterday afternoon, I had a conversation with a rather pleasant woman named June about our nation's current population of youth, and the ways in which our youth seems to process thoughts. June provoked the conversation after we had discussed that I study philosophy at ASU.She began by mentioning that there seem to be many people, especially today's younger population, who seem to lack any notion of a creative way of thinking. That is, she recognized that many kids nowadays are being taught what to think, as opposed to how to think, which seems to be giving rise to a population of people who seem to struggle when problem solving alone, and sometimes even in groups. I was very excited that this woman, who I had never met before, had brought up a topic so relevant to my work with IDEA upon our first meeting. June and I were quick to agree that the ways in which we educate youth right now seem rather unfitting, at least for the most part.
June next brought up the idea of drop down menus. You know, the kind of menu that drops down when one clicks something like the 'File' or 'Edit' button at the top of a Microsoft Word document. She explained to me that it seems like our youth's thought processes operate on something similar to a drop down menu, programmed with a limited amount options to choose from when making responses, decisions, or choosing actions to take. The issue, as she brought it to attention, is that there are people being taught what to think and not how to think. Therefore when a person is perplexed by a situation in which none of their drop down menu options can appropriately be applied, that person makes a poor decision or cannot act appropriately in the heat of a situation. I couldn't help but be fascinated by June's take on the current thought processing abilities of our nation's youth.
Though June's analogy of drop down menus does not illuminate a new concern, it does shed a different sort of light on our nation's current educational epidemic of teaching kids what to think, and not how. June's problem made me think of mathematics, or algorithms. Mathematics in the sense that, if we could equip people with formulas as the options in their drop down menus, in which different variables could be the inputs relative to each different situation, then perhaps people would end up with more according and appropriate outputs for different and individual situations.
I felt like that my conversation with June was something worth sharing with folks like you. What's funny is that our first couple of exchanges regarded my philosophy studies at ASU; she then questioned me about what my philosophy was. I replied, "Do your best to define good, and live up to those standards." Though my words instigated a pearly white smile from June, it also brought attention to how that philosophy may work for some, but not all, considering that there seem to be many folks nowadays who seem to be victims of poor educating standards in our nation.
How funny that finding a person in the Phoenix/Tempe area who seems to agree with the principles of democratic education is a very rare occurrence, but the one new person I spoke with yesterday just happened to initiate a conversation regarding those principles. And how intriguing it is that just by engaging in a conversation with a perfect stranger, you can sometimes learn so much.
Tags for this entry:
education,
teaching,
democratic schooling,
intelligence
