Why I'm smarter than most fifth graders

A student raised his hand (no, really!) and asked, "What about animals on the Titanic. Were there any dogs?"

It was ages ago that I'd read A Night to Remember and so I'd forgotten all but the most basic material.

"I don't remember, but we can find out." I jumped to a computer and in 10 seconds time I had the answer. Poor Lady Astor!

So now we’re not only spending all this time in school making kids memorize stuff that literally can be found in mere seconds, we’re actually making game shows out of it (like we’ve always done) and framing it in such a way so that grown-ups feel stupid if they don’t remember information that most adults never need to keep in their heads. Let’s be honest here: when is the last time you really needed to know the names of all five Great Lakes, whether or not animal cells have cell walls, or who invented peanut butter?

Scott McLeod (Dangerously Irrelevant - Ruminations on technology, leadership, and the future of our schools) gets righteous as he skewers the faulty reasoning for a pedagogic tenet made largely irrelevant by technology. Based on this entry alone (this is my first visit to his blog site), I'm planning a thorough excursion into the mind of Scott McLeod.

Update - Got home this afternoon and found time to read the comments to Scott's post. Upon reading all, I found particular delight in this one. Unfortunately, my nodding and smirking betray an elitist attitude... one which I most certainly do not deserve. (And, for that very reason, I keep well hidden.)

Comments

[Scott McLeod]

As you delve into my mind, let me know what you think! Here's a good place to start:

www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/top_posts.html

[Jeffrey Field - he who marvels]

I'll do you one better, Scott. I'll provide a working (clickable) link to your top posts for those good folks new to the world wide web.

http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/top_posts.html

As for myself, I'm there.