Unplug Your Child Before it's too Late!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You guys are extremists. Your children will need good reading and writing skills but they will also have to be able to master technology. Genie is not going back in the bottle. Look up the Flynn Effect.

Which aspect of the Flynn Effect. This one?

"In the United Kingdom, tests carried out in 1980 and again in 2008 show that the IQ score of an average 14-year-old dropped by more than two points over the period. However, children aged between five and 10 saw their IQs increase by up to half a point a year over the three decades. Professor James Flynn, the author of the latest study, believes the abnormal drop in British teenage IQ could be due to youth culture having "stagnated" or even dumbed down." (wikipedia)

You want kids to spend more time with technology why exactly?

[Anonymous]

How much is 2 points of IQ exactly? I mean how much tangible difference does it make? Just wondering... Would most people notice if their IQ dropped 2 points? Would they notice if it was their kids' IQs?

[Anonymous]

I think moderation in all things applies here as well.

[Anonymous]

9:48 beat me to it. Moderation is key. My ds has a Wii, and I can't remember the last time he turned it on. He has a Nintendo DS. He enjoys them both, especially when playing with other kids, but he really is not obsessed in any way. We just got in from a looong flight from the west coast (multiple delays) and he did not play with the Nintendo DS once on the plane. He mostly read books (and watched a little tv). He's 7 and reading chapter books and pretty much has a book in his hand constantly (unless he's playing with legos or playing with his friends). He is reading MUCH better (and enjoys it more) than his friends whose parents won't let them play video games. This is purely anecdotal evidence, and leads me to believe that it really doesn't matter, if you keep it within some bounds. I haven't read these studies, and I wonder how they separate cause from effect?

[Anonymous]

23:43 here again. After helping him tote ten pounds of books through the Chicago airport, I'm thinking that the next electronic device my kid is going to get is going to be a Kindle.

[Anonymous]

This thread is ridiculous. Of course today's kids are going to be less interested in reading Dickens and writing 20-page papers. These skills are not going to be valued in the market place, even if college admissions still care about them.

The ability to interface rapidly with a variety of technologies, and to communicate informally but effectively, are going to be key.

Let's not worry about losing skills that are no longer relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is ridiculous. Of course today's kids are going to be less interested in reading Dickens and writing 20-page papers. These skills are not going to be valued in the market place, even if college admissions still care about them.

The ability to interface rapidly with a variety of technologies, and to communicate informally but effectively, are going to be key.

Let's not worry about losing skills that are no longer relevant.

You are so right, 03:45. The robot lawyer will write the brief and argue the case; the robot surgeon will operate on us; and the kindly robot in the clerical collar will preach to us. We will just have to know how to informally instruct the robots to do our bidding!

[Anonymous]

Critical thinking?

I guess that isn't relevant anymore in your eyes? That is fine, but I would think that such a skill is universal and is foundational to moving our society forward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Critical thinking?

I guess that isn't relevant anymore in your eyes? That is fine, but I would think that such a skill is universal and is foundational to moving our society forward.

Yeah, right. Critical thinking is going to be really helpful under the Palin administration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is ridiculous. Of course today's kids are going to be less interested in reading Dickens and writing 20-page papers. These skills are not going to be valued in the market place, even if college admissions still care about them.

The ability to interface rapidly with a variety of technologies, and to communicate informally but effectively, are going to be key.

Let's not worry about losing skills that are no longer relevant.

You are so right, 03:45. The robot lawyer will write the brief and argue the case; the robot surgeon will operate on us; and the kindly robot in the clerical collar will preach to us. We will just have to know how to informally instruct the robots to do our bidding!

I am reading (actually re-reading) Dickens now. For pleasure. I don't do it because my reading skills are valued in the marketplace, but because Dickens is a great writer who has a lot to teach us about the human condition. I'm less interested in the skills that my kids will develop than in what kind of human beings they will become. Children whose chief source of pleasure is the instant gratification provided by video games, action movies, ipod apps, facebook, music videos, etc., will never develop the patience and depth of understanding to appreciate Dickens, or Austen, or Faulkner, or Mozart, or Beethoven, or to think deeply about how the world works, where we came from, why we're here, etc. Those sorts of "skills" are what separate human beings from animals whose experience is only sensory.

To the PP whose 7 year old always has a book in hand, count your blessings. For those of us whose boys (and it is usually boys) can't get enough of video games, the constant policing that having them in the house requires is very draining. I don't think the games are evil in themselves -- it's the opportunity cost that disturbs me.