Awkward Encounters

In Chapter two of his book The Dumbest Generation, Mark Bauerlen states that according to survey responses, higher-income households don’t produce proportionately higher reading rates. To most people this would be surprising. Many people would assume that the more money your family has the more emphasis that your family would put on education. To me, this is not the case.

Chapter two of "The Dumbest Generation" by Mark Bauerlein follows begins with same punch that is found in chapter one and I assume the rest of the text, our generation has been dumbed down by technology. Not only does the author continue with his accusations that our generation is the worst the world has ever seen, but he supports his argument with flawed statistics. The first mistake Bauerlein makes is by overwhelming the readers with numbers. There are statistics from every major firm and agency in the country about the consistently falling educational scores of our generation. Now before diving into the problems with most of these statistics, I do want to say that some of these facts are alarming. The idea that there is a majority of students our age who are more likely to identify Germany or Japan as an ally to the U.S. in World War II is scary, regardless of the sample. With that said, the majority of the statistics presented are flawed or lacking the necessary information to be credible

Mark Bauerlein's book The Dumbest Generation has some interesting findings on student's reading for pleasure. He presents data on how many books college freshman and seniors read for their own enjoyment or as a supplement for course readings. While these numbers are dismally low one has to argue that with the heavy course load students encounter how can you expect them to find the extra time to read for fun? This not only affects college students, but also students in high, middle, and elementary school.

We are in the age of No Child Left Behind, legislation that has set the standard high for students. Kids have to score at a certain level of improvement for their schools to receive funding from the national government. Students are taught how to choose the correct bubble on standardized tests, and are only expected to read enough to get the point of the story - not to actually enjoy what they are reading. Having this constant pressure to perform at an increasingly difficult level could be leading students to become burned out and no longer excited about learning. This could explain why fourth and eighth-graders show improvement, but at the high school level this tapers off. By the time students reach high school they are no longer excited about learning, because it has become just learning to the test.

Bauerlin also has data that states children are no longer reading for fun because they feel it has no benefits at all. But couldn't you argue that children are just engaging in reading different mediums, such as reading magazines, blogs, stories on the internet, etc.? Reading these un-educational books could provide a break from the rigorous work that students are encountering in school. By raising the standards in school and pressuring students to achieve such high test scores are we turning children off from reading or learning?

For my exploring the field entry, I would like to discuss the TED talk by Stuart Brown: Why Play is vital - no matter your age. To briefly give an overview of the video, Stuart Brown talks about the history of play, and its different types such as narrative, bodily, imaginative, etc. These different types of play all help the brain in numerous ways, especially in the learning process. Brown also discusses something called your personal play history. People with a history of play during their childhood have an increased ability to problem solve in creative ways later in their life.

A major part of my methods section of my comp is the creation and presentation of the sales pitches for the products. I will need to create a general script describing the products and the beginning then make sure the script only contains the desired tropes within them. I am debating with the idea of using an actor to deliver the sales pitches. It is still up in the air whether he/she will be delivering them in person or through a prerecorded video. After reading this article, delivery and dialogue are very important in verbal advertisements and I will have to think long and hard about who will be delivering the pitch and what he/she should say.

It is odd to look back at the beginning of this semester when we were presented with the daunting task of selecting a topic for our senior thesis. We all hated the idea of finally having to realize that eventually we would have to complete a senior "comp". Now, the problem is no where close to worrying about a topic, but on how to perfect it. I arrived at the concept of happiness in college students awhile ago , but I am only just starting to realize how my senior thesis may turn out.