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.........What scares me is my students don't know a good answer from a bad one or a half answer from an intelligent one. Of course they're high school students but I'm bothered by how quickly they accept what they find on line and how little thought they put into it........
Reminds me of "ST II: The Wrath of Khan" where Kirk is telling Saavik that "You have to learn why things work the way they do on a starship, not just how." (or words to that effect)
To me, that movie had a good learning point or two, such as getting familiar with your vehicle before you take off. But a movie, any movie, as a learning device is time relative and some don't do as well as others. That is, to use that movie as training device now would probably invite disaster between the theater version being serious but the director's cut being comedy and what the star trek universe and Shatner were like then....and now.
As things go, I tend to use movie examples, as I can, a lot when I teach scuba; I usually use Bond. As things go, when I am writing my diary, I use images from movies to visually index a point on this page or that. I say this as an example of learning......but the picture on that page or this may have a meaning, a reference which only makes sense to me.
But let's get back to books and reading for that is what the topic is. As a teen, I read a great many books turned into movies. Back then, in many cases, the book was far better than the movie, so that might be a great supporting point for reading.
But on the other hand, I've also read "ST II: TWOK"......and that book is very much like the director's cut in that it has too much human feeling in it, too much emotionalism. It takes an action theater release and turns it into a tear filled, but not a tearful, soup.
So suggesting that people read the book behind the movie is something of a crap shoot. As it is, I've read all of Fleming's Bond and they are excellent.......and I've read the novelization of "The Spy Who Loved Me" and it was blah. Not a book Bond like Fleming but not a movie action Bond either.
As I said, having someone read the book behind a movie is a crap shoot.
The "elite who rule over us"? The people that make the rules are politicians that we the people voted in to office.
Honestly, if you think the politicians we vote into office (and yes, I do vote) are at the top of the power structure, then I don't know what to say. There's really no point in going any further if it isn't obvious to you that they aren't.
A few more examples on how one might teach people this concept of "why"?
In high school, I was part of the JROTC Rangers. On one exercise, I saw birds scattering in the woods and I had learned....from the movie "Genesis II", something causes animals to scatter. I had my patrol get down and sure enough, along came the enemy patrol through the woods.
As an adult in the Navy, we were doing a table top exercise about how to find an opposing Soviet task force while still remaining hidden. I posed the question of whether or not we put our electronic counter measures on automatic. The immediate answer might be "Of course! If we have a missile coming, then he knows where we are!"......but does he, really? If he has a missile he can afford to waste, he might shoot it down a suspected axis with the hope that if we are on that axis, we will make so much noise to confirm his suspicion. (and after that, I was directed to go find out if was a possibility and that answer is secret) That kind of tactic..........I learned from the Dr. Who book, "Warrior's Gate" where the border patrol (they weren't part of the televised story) uses a wide radar beam that gives insufficient returns to flush the Privateer.
Finally, a simple exercise one of my marine biology profs suggested to us in a few minutes in class. How do you find out if a certain shell contains carbonate? Run a sample of it through an experiment where carbonate is released as a gas. If it bubbles, there is one's answer. (or something like that, that lecture was back in 1995, I'd have to go back to those notes) It might not be a precise answer, there are always those confounding variables, but at the very least, it could be a go/no go of whether or not further investigation is necessary.
Like the movie said, learn why things work the way they do.
I am in the process of fixing and upgrading a wifi system at a high school and have spoken to several teachers about other subjects. So far I have not found a teacher that knew about Project Gutenberg before I mentioned it.
Also, most books are CRAP. I suspect a lot of people gave up on reading to find solutions to problems long before you met them.
I have an above average IQ and a graduate degree and i detest reading. I'm guessing it's some sort of visual processing problem.
It is so MUCH easier for me to HEAR directions and process the info that way. I think it's one less step in the brain or something.
I've gone so far as to avoid reading the lyrics on TV on "Guitar Hero" and sing "LA LA LA" to the tune instead. Prompting frustrating from many people and them yelling, "THE LYRICS ARE RIGHT ON THE SCREEN! "
But that's just me.
In general, reading requires 1. Sustained attention which I think is getting less and less daily (myself included.) and 2. Retaining info which we don't really need to do as much nowadays with smartphones and such.
As a former librarian, this issue drove me crazy. But, OP, I think the explanation for the issue you are describing is that people have different learning styles that work with the way their brains are configured.
For OP and me, we learn visually - by reading and seeing. Many people, though, can only learn kinetically (by physically doing things). Adults in particular tend to learn best experientially - by doing things which they can relate to other information which they have gained over their lifetime. Some people learn aurally - by hearing information. Most of our schools and universities base their teaching on aural learning - but the fewest people in the world can learn this way. (I'm so completely non-aural that you can tell me how to do anything under the sun, but if I can't read instructions or see something done in front of me, I won't remember or understand what you've said.)
So this kind of explains why many older adults have a hard time figuring out computer stuff - they basically lack context (which helps people to learn). As people age kinetic teaching becomes the best style for them.
Whoo, I read the above and think that I explained it so badly! But it is an interesing topic, for those of you who are interested. There are a lot of books and websites about learning styles. Here's a website I found quickly on-line: Overview of learning styles. Many years ago I came to discover Learning Styles by finding books by one of the godfathers of adult education, Malcolm Knowles.
There's a whole other side to people not reading, and it is related to class differences in America. Some people from low education level families tend to despise or feel intimidated by others who they believe feel "better than" them, so they claim pride in their own lifestyles. It is these people who are proud to say "I don't read", or "I don't have time to read." I was a librarian in a very blue collar community and it was SO common to hear kids say "I don't like to read" and their parents would just laugh, and would not make the slightest effort to take advantage of free activities at the library. They'd just come in to play on the computers or check out videos/dvds. So depressing.
All good points. I never read as a kid and was actually ENCOURAGED to watch TV daily when I said I was bored. (Pre Internet days.)
Childhood is the best time to develop these skills and in some people, they don't develop at all.
Well, Utopian, you are a natural aural learner - which is why you did well enough in school to obtain a graduate degree. It's just the way your brain is wired. I'll bet you learned more from attending lectures than from any texts you had to read.
"brain is wired" is a very unscientific thing to say. Is there a better or more thorough way to express that? I don't know - I'll have to read up on the subject. Just don't try explaining it to me orally! I'm not an aural learner!
It is nearly impossible to explain those types of disabilities to someone who wants to scream "the words are right on the screen!". My son had an expressive writing disorder - called something more official in medical terms. It took me FOREVER to understand and if I try to explain it at all (rarely) I get things like "oh, my penmanship was horrible, too"
People do not fit into the cookie-cutter mold that our public education system has designed in their one-size-fits-all strategy. I think the more intelligent ones do not.
Last edited by hunterseat; 02-02-2015 at 05:24 AM..
Location: In Thy presence is fulness of joy... Psa 16:11
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Having home schooled 3 children who have varied gifts and learning styles, I think that the key is still: Most people read if they don't have continual visual media to entertain and pacify them. Yes, there are some who are simply "doers" rather than "readers." But, before visual media took over, even most "doers" liked to be read to (audio learners).
We got rid of our TV twice while our children were growing up. First time was when our 30-odd year old son was 5. Though we restricted what he watched and when, he had nightmares from some of the commercials (a movie with the title like "Something Wicked This Way Comes" was popular that year, and there were frequent commercials for that--even on children's programming!). When we got rid of the TV, the nightmares left, and his abilities soared. He was still an auditory learner in somethings, but became a voracious reader and researcher as he grew older.
Our two daughters came along several years later, because of health issues. When the older of the two was about 5, we allowed the TV with video player back in, for extremely limited use (including school nature videos: "Life of Birds" etc.). When older daughter was about 12, we got rid of it again. Within 2 weeks, both daughters' abilities were soaring in their studies and personal hobbies (drawing, etc.).
Studies show that when the TV, movie, etc. come on, the mind goes into "dumb mode" (my term! I think it is "Alpha" wave)...the mode that is like half-asleep, where one can be easily hypnotized, etc.
Yes, there are a few things that can be learned by visual media. But if they are given preference, they dull one's desire for reading.
And it is true, many books shouldn't even be bothered with. But...if you don't read much, you won't write either! Find good books for your children. Read to your children. Read together as a family. Write together as family (we wrote a sequel to the Peanuts gang comic series one summer--it was fun, and educational to our children).
......(a movie with the title like "Something Wicked This Way Comes" was popular that year, and there were frequent commercials for that--even on children's programming!)..........
Studies show that when the TV, movie, etc. come on, the mind goes into "dumb mode" (my term! I think it is "Alpha" wave)...the mode that is like half-asleep, where one can be easily hypnotized, etc.
.........
Yes, I remember that flick. Jason Robards, I believe. It had some rather terrifying twists to it.
I rather wonder about that study bit, though, be it who they had as subjects......or is it a product of the current generation.
One thing I love picking up on are the subthemes in movies. Such as in the original "Star Wars", the wives "trading recipes" in the background when the storm troopers march by on the way to stop the Em Falcon from taking off. Or the various concepts in the original Star Trek such as Kirk saying, "I believe regulations require me to check my phaser." in "Dagger of the Mind". Or being able to see the undisclosed backgrounds in a spy movie as I noted in //www.city-data.com/forum/movie...after-all.html
I go into a movie and I often come out dreaming of the possibilities. Do not others do that as well.
Further, if one looks at the critics of this movie or that, who tear apart a movie because there is a situation there that doesn't fit their view of "reality", then it makes one wonder again how accurate such a study is.
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