Last night AJM brought up an interesting article he'd heard on All Things Considered on his way home from work. The gist of it is that video games boost visual skills. The speculation is that the "simulated tension and danger" in video games makes them good teaching tools. You learn better when you're in fear for your life...even a virtual video game life.
I always wonder how I can apply a new theory to my never-ending study of Japanese. But then I began thinking, maybe this is why students don't appear to learn as much as they did generations ago; schools have gone soft. Discounting the tension and danger of social failure, where's the fear factor? Now that the rod and the paddle are gone, what provides negative reinforcement for failing intellectually?
I studied to be a teacher in those rainbow days of the 1970s when it was more important that everyone feel good about themselves than actually be able to produce good work. I can't abandon my training entirely. But I do wonder whether taking away the pressure means fewer people excel. In retooling our educational techniques to help those that need the most help, are we ignoring the needs of average students, thinking they'll get by on their own? Do we learn more from the Professor Snapes of the world because they make sure we're afraid to fail?
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
May 29, 2003
Comments
My favorite teachers were the strict ones--mainly because they effectively managed thirty kids and we were actually able to get something done. Although I love kind people, they usually are better with children one on one. No order in a classroom means the obnoxious kids rule it. I also heard the video game news, to which you refer, on CNN--when I switched channels to more news, they were reporting the dangers of video games (i.e. obesity in children, etc.). I'd like to think that D&S are getting something beneficial out of the hours they spend on Game Cube, but (me) growing up on an acre with plenty of dogs to romp with tells me otherwise. Depending on the parents, I'm still an advocate of homeschooling as an alternative. I wouldn't want D&S to learn out of fear at all--rather, I would hope that they would crave knowledge, love reading, want to learn because it's not work, but pleasure. When they were 3, we started looking at private schools. The "best" one in town had a class ranking on every door beginning with Kindergarten. I asked the principal if she thought that was too much pressure on five-year olds. She stoutly responsed, "they have to learn that this life is about competition!" Well, I think that some folks with the paddle in their hands are just sadistic a**holes. Since then, we have both homeschooled and sent the twins to public school when they requested to try it. Every situation has had it's good and bad points, but I stress to D&S that I prefer they learn and enjoy learning than manipulate their way to straight A's, as some students do. I learned to hate school in the first grade. I observed the 'best' student--the teacher's favorite-- cheating her way to the top. Meanwhile, I would be admonished for asking questions or taking my time on a proiect--I hadn't learned to jump through the hoops that school expects you to. For some, like me, school is the opposite of education. The fear of failure freezes you like a deer in the headlights. No, touchy-feely love-fests aren't an incentive to get work done, and I realize that learning can be tedious, as anything worthwhile is usually at least a bit painful. (it's good for you!) But instead of weeding out kids that a teacher has no use for, how about understanding that their success will eventually do more for everyone than if they were left behind?...in other words, growth through cooperation, not competition.
Comment by: Katherine. Posted May 30, 2003 10:52 AM.
I think discipline is extremely important for kids. It seems to me that the idea of "growth through cooperation" is a naive ideal, ungrounded in history... It's pretty clear that we experience progress mostly through competition, and that without external pressures, we don't ever get anything done. We can try to learn on our own, but how often is that learning really thorough and rigorous without external pressure? It's clear that U.S. schools have thrown discipline out the window, and have suffered greatly for it. Why are people so afraid of disciplining children? It seems really weird to me... they turn out worse (spoiled, obnoxious, undisciplined)... I myself was spoiled in a way because I was always allowed to follow my interests. I read voraciously and learned quite a lot, but when it came to actually getting anything done, I was a complete failure. I couldn't concentrate on anything I didn't have an immediate interest in... I've had to really work hard to overcome that.
Comment by: Trevor Hill. Posted June 10, 2003 07:27 AM.
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Factoring in fear.