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> I don't believe the situation has improved since then. It sounds trite, but
> I imagine television is much to blame: we no longer have to work to be
> entertained. Young people don't read as much, and they certainly don't play
> music as much as they did thirty years ago. Both activities are critical to
> the ability to think.
When I taught, I always thought of going in front of a class as a
performance. The idea of being an entertainer as well as an imparter
of information didn't bother me, because what counted was getting
the message across. Mind you, it takes very little to keep
attention. Just changing your position in the room can make a class
pay closer attention, and I once held an early morning class'
attention by juggling a piece of chalk in one hand as I talked.
I also don't think that a lack of reading or music as such is the
problem, although both can be important parts of a person's
education. I suspect that the issue is a little larger: it's a lack
of the ability to concentrate, and an inability to read or
appreciate music is a symptom of this larger problem. Television,
consumerism, and conformity encourage passivity and an inability to
focus, so the entire society is geared away from education. Early in
my teaching career, for example, I discovered that a class' reaction
to an assigned reading was directly related to its length: the
shorter the reading, the more the class liked it.
However, to be fair, people do improve as their education advances.
I taught long enough to see a few first year students blossom into
fourth year honour students, and even to welcome one or two into the
ranks of grad students or faculty, and the progress was very
reassuring to see.
--
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
Contributing Editor, Maximum Linux
604.421.7189 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com
"The squire has a piece of paper that says he owns the land,
The bishop has a bible that says our souls are damned,
Mackenzie had a printing press, it's soaking in the bay,
And if Mackenzie comes again, there will be hell to pay."
-Dennis Lee, "Mackenzie"
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