3 ms·

Like so many other things, I see this often in the op-ed-osphere and r/teachers, but have a hard time determining how much is doomerism/alarmism, and how much i

by RickS 3y ago

Like so many other things, I see this often in the op-ed-osphere and r/teachers, but have a hard time determining how much is doomerism/alarmism, and how much is quantifiable/credible worsening. There are few topics where one can't find a slurry of opeds lamenting the erosion of the youth, the commons, and the world at large, complete with questionably narrow and nuanceless visualizations. I am torn between two reactions: 1. This seems like a real trend but damn, so much dramatization derived mostly from anecdotes. 2. But holy crap, there sure are a lottttt of anecdotes, and they're consistent in direction and outlook. So who are some trustworthy authorities on this topic? Where's a good place to get a neutral take (both politically and emotionally) on these trends? Who's the 538-circa-2015 of educational stats? For HN users in the education world, is there broad consensus among your peers that this is a catastrophe? Is it recoverable? Is it reversing or improving in any areas? How's the latest cohort (eg 2nd graders) doing compared to genz at the same stage? In other words, can someone with more context suggest how much, if at all, to be existentially worried about this?

avery17 3y ago
Times change and the world keeps turning.
cafard 3y ago
I don't claim to have much more context. But in my college days, I decided that there was an effect, which I thought of as foreshortening. Professors remembering their own college days naturally remember their peer group, which is to say people similar to those who would go on to be professors. Professors evaluate the present by their students, who are from a much wider range of interests and ability. Having said that, I have heard and read credible claims made against my generation (in college in the mid-1970s). You could look at John Lukacs's memoir Confessions of an Original Sinner, chapter "Teaching", on the need he found to reduce reading lists over the years. I suspect that the high school class of 2017 will arrive at college better prepared than my class was, at least in the areas of math, science, and foreign languages.

by RickS 3y ago

avery17 3y ago

Times change and the world keeps turning.

cafard 3y ago

I don't claim to have much more context. But in my college days, I decided that there was an effect, which I thought of as foreshortening. Professors remembering their own college days naturally remember their peer group, which is to say people similar to those who would go on to be professors. Professors evaluate the present by their students, who are from a much wider range of interests and ability. Having said that, I have heard and read credible claims made against my generation (in college in the mid-1970s). You could look at John Lukacs's memoir Confessions of an Original Sinner, chapter "Teaching", on the need he found to reduce reading lists over the years. I suspect that the high school class of 2017 will arrive at college better prepared than my class was, at least in the areas of math, science, and foreign languages.