tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870038576818664268.post6398131978584005604..comments2024-03-28T00:31:08.805-07:00Comments on The American Human: Are Economists Dumber than Average Americans?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11899483218291241507noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870038576818664268.post-82269925122528259872013-01-14T05:59:04.107-08:002013-01-14T05:59:04.107-08:00I agree, Joyce, that our culture seems to have got...I agree, Joyce, that our culture seems to have gotten crude, crass, and coarse, but there's still a lot of good intellectual life being supported online, on blogs of all stripes. So it's possible to live a public life that is full of curiosity and wonder about the world around us. What I've felt about Americans is that we are, for the most part, ignorant of the rest of the world and how people around the globe think, feel, act and process their own lives in their own cultures. It's this ignorance that shapes our narrow American views on so many issues. One of course is education. I spent years as a teacher in the California system, but I mostly worked in jobs teaching, in technology, marketing, digital media, writing, and language. I focused almost all my teaching on critical thinking, leaving a lot of what students were to discover dependent on their own investigation. It worked for the most part. I also pushed self-expression through writing and digital art. I was able to teach in a special alternative small-school setting focused on interdisciplinary collaboration and project-based learning. So I was lucky, and so, I believe, were the students who passed through our courses. Thus, perhaps, I'm more optimistic about our future, especially if bright and aware people like you keep fighting the good fight in our schools.<br /><br />But, yes, I'm deeply disturbed by anti-science and anti-intellectual movements led by conservative politicians, religious leaders, and, frankly, parochial forces in the public sphere, especially in rural areas, southern and plains states. We behind now, but we're breaking out. That's why I write my blog, to spread the idea that we don't have to limit ourselves by being self-absorbed in our own mythologies. The world is big and full of diversity and wonder. Let's investigate and share it while preserving it for those to come after us.<br /><br />Best of luck in the world of education. It's a great place to be and thrive while helping others.It's vital to our civic life. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11899483218291241507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870038576818664268.post-8801586055306366892013-01-13T17:20:48.013-08:002013-01-13T17:20:48.013-08:00Unfortunately the Bush years saw a rise in the cel...Unfortunately the Bush years saw a rise in the celebration of ignorance and anti-intellectualism. No Child Left Behind did a lot more damage than good, and now our schools are just trying to pick themselves back up. With the fall of education came a media culture that glorifies hot air and shouting vs facts (24 hour news networks for example,) and stupidity vs brains (like the Kardashians and Jersey Shore) over intelligence. You put those two factors together, and you have a population that worships air-headed tv personalities and pop culture icons instead of understanding the importance of being smart. In some cases now, intelligence has even been vilified (which continues to disgust me). I'm not sure how we can once again put smarts on the high pedestal while taking the "reality" shows down a peg, but our culture as a whole needs to undergo a dramatic shift. Myself being in training to be a secondary school English teacher, and knowing other future teachers in various subjects, it seems like the system is undergoing a massive overhaul. Hopefully with it we'll see a change in the media, and people once again trusting experts instead of their guts.Joycenoreply@blogger.com