We've known for a bit now that before the pandemic sent things all kablooey, suicide among teens was already reaching terrifying proportions. There are all sorts of ways to filet the data, all of them alarming (the suicide rate for 13-14 year olds between
I hear what you're saying, and I don't disagree--part of the reason I'm raising my children the way that I am is to side-step these issues. However, Peter Gray is at the forefront of the unschooling movement, or the idea that children should only learn what, when, and how they want to learn something. That school itself is unnecessary. Soooo......I can't help but think that this heavy reliance on him in this piece is, shall we say, Not Great.
I lost the warnings about Gray when I copied this over from the blog and was fixing that just moments ago. You are correct-- Gray brings some baggage of his own to this analysis, but my intent was not to make him the cornerstone of this piece.
The trickle -down effects of what you discuss are even greater at the Elementary level. Standardized curricula, high-stakes testing, and the shift away from knowledge center teaching has caused many children to suffer from anxiety, depression, m aggression, and shame from not being able to read or write at grade level.
I love all of your points. And I think that tech plays as much of a role as all of the other pieces. The initial analysis of the internet may hold true, that it actually gave kids new connections, but we have to look at how the internet has changed along the same lines as schooling and all the pressures of precarity you talk about. The internet now is mainly made up of private surveillance that tracks everything you do and tries to make you buy things or monetize your behavior in some way. Social media is almost entirely dedicated to upsetting people to keep them engaged and responding and interacting. Not to mention that the early proponents of the internet hoped it would revolutionize human interaction in a positive way, bringing free/cheap information and free/cheap communication to many people. We have now achieved that, and are starting to see the hidden costs of corporate capture. So I think everything in your post can be true, and also the internet and its benefits to young people started declining a few years after standardized testing and no child left behind
One other point is that that fear of failure has bled over into an internet culture which used to be full of experimentation and people posting stupid stuff online. Now that most people in the US are online and can see anything you post, people are also afraid that what they do on the internet will prevent them from getting a job in the future. This is a very difficult position to be in for kids who have half of their interactions with friends online. Having all your mistakes and things you used to believe but now know better be permanent record does not make for a good society
Congrats on such a compelling piece, which I just forwarded to several who are complicit in fanning the 'learning loss' hysteria. We have turned education into a high-stakes dog-eat-dog competition driven by tests that reflect no meaningful skills or mindsets, and cause massive collateral damage. The U.S. is sowing the seeds of our democracy's collapse, one failed education priority at a time. Thank you for making this very important point!!
I hear what you're saying, and I don't disagree--part of the reason I'm raising my children the way that I am is to side-step these issues. However, Peter Gray is at the forefront of the unschooling movement, or the idea that children should only learn what, when, and how they want to learn something. That school itself is unnecessary. Soooo......I can't help but think that this heavy reliance on him in this piece is, shall we say, Not Great.
I lost the warnings about Gray when I copied this over from the blog and was fixing that just moments ago. You are correct-- Gray brings some baggage of his own to this analysis, but my intent was not to make him the cornerstone of this piece.
The trickle -down effects of what you discuss are even greater at the Elementary level. Standardized curricula, high-stakes testing, and the shift away from knowledge center teaching has caused many children to suffer from anxiety, depression, m aggression, and shame from not being able to read or write at grade level.
I love all of your points. And I think that tech plays as much of a role as all of the other pieces. The initial analysis of the internet may hold true, that it actually gave kids new connections, but we have to look at how the internet has changed along the same lines as schooling and all the pressures of precarity you talk about. The internet now is mainly made up of private surveillance that tracks everything you do and tries to make you buy things or monetize your behavior in some way. Social media is almost entirely dedicated to upsetting people to keep them engaged and responding and interacting. Not to mention that the early proponents of the internet hoped it would revolutionize human interaction in a positive way, bringing free/cheap information and free/cheap communication to many people. We have now achieved that, and are starting to see the hidden costs of corporate capture. So I think everything in your post can be true, and also the internet and its benefits to young people started declining a few years after standardized testing and no child left behind
One other point is that that fear of failure has bled over into an internet culture which used to be full of experimentation and people posting stupid stuff online. Now that most people in the US are online and can see anything you post, people are also afraid that what they do on the internet will prevent them from getting a job in the future. This is a very difficult position to be in for kids who have half of their interactions with friends online. Having all your mistakes and things you used to believe but now know better be permanent record does not make for a good society
Congrats on such a compelling piece, which I just forwarded to several who are complicit in fanning the 'learning loss' hysteria. We have turned education into a high-stakes dog-eat-dog competition driven by tests that reflect no meaningful skills or mindsets, and cause massive collateral damage. The U.S. is sowing the seeds of our democracy's collapse, one failed education priority at a time. Thank you for making this very important point!!