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.
There are two reasons why this little fact is not surprising. This may sounds stereotypical; however, when I think about extremely wealthy families, I think of nannies raising the kids and the parents only being consumed with their priorities and never being around. Because there is less of a family structure, less emphasis could be placed on education and possibly little attention is paid to what the kids are actually doing. Throughout my childhood, a lot of emphasis was placed on my academics and grades. I did not grow up in a wealthy, high-class family so I am unaware if this is actually true. Is this actually what happens in wealthy families or is it only stereotypical because this is how mainstream media portrays it?
One thing that I have recently begun to appreciate is the power of money in society. There are so many beneficial things that come from generous donations and caring individuals; however, money controls a lot of aspects of society. Related to Bauerlen’s comment about education, the more money you have, the more opportunity you have to buy new/more technology and the less time you spend reading or doing school work. The idea of more technology could be advantageous, providing more opportunities to learn and making learning easier and faster. On the other hand, new technology could be a distraction from reading/schoolwork, becoming a hindrance.
Is the advancement of technology affecting test scores and reading rates, or is it the amount of time we spend using the technology causing the problem? Are parents responsible for controlling the volume on the technology used by their children? More importantly, do parents understand how much time their child is spending with technology and multitasking?
Comments (1)
I think that you pose a very interesting question. In fact, we have been discussing what it means to control the volume all semester. I think that the bottom line is that the amount of time we spend using technology for things outside of education and knowledge is the problem. The idea of class that you mention is very interesting I think because it raises questions about how kids are encountering technology, which is the problem. While the parents are working for the majority of the day to provide a better life for their children than they originally had, the children are using technology leisurely are unaware that technology may be utitilized as efficient models of learning. The disheartening part of all of this is that the majority of parents are so busy that they do not even notice.
Posted by Justin | April 7, 2009 1:23 PM
Posted on April 7, 2009 13:23