The Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerlein | Teen Ink

The Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerlein

March 26, 2010
By Kailey BRONZE, Missoula, Montana
Kailey BRONZE, Missoula, Montana
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

The Dumbest Generation Response


Suppose a teacher told her students to pull out their laptops students and told them to that they will be chatting on Facebook in class. She decided you have no homework for the 20th day this month. She also decided to include details about the previous night’s party. Clearly a teacher would never talk to her students in this manner. Therefore the idea that teachers compromise their knowledge for how the kids want to learn is absurd. Parents feel that teachers do their job, students realize that they are learning something and when a teacher uses technology to teach, it isn’t for personal purposes. Bauerlein states that our generation is the least intelligent of all so far. A general definition of compromise is one giving up their initial drive for something or someone and doesn’t result in meeting in the middle. This information leads one to believe that this generation knows as much, if not, more information then the last generation. If this qualifies as compromise, that’s pathetic.
“Teachers must become comfortable letting students move into domains of knowledge where they themselves lack expertise.” Gilbert Valdez, author of The Critical Issue. Schools don’t have the ability to gain access to computers because they don’t have the funding to buy computers. Lab set ups are more common than classrooms filled with more than one computer. Most classrooms in the U.S. only have one computer because of the funding issue. The one computer in the classroom is used for the purposes of the teacher and for class notes, demonstrations, lessons etc. This gives students the opportunity to learn with a source other than the book and it also gives kids a more fun way to learn so they are more apt to pay attention.
“Overall teachers do their job teaching my children. They seem to come home with new things they have learned most every day. They have learned a lot because they teach my a few things. My kids are able to demonstrate the skills they have acquired.” (Kelley Gaustad, dedicated parent to a high school student and a middle school student.) This is only one parent’s opinion on schooling and how teachers are able to teach our children in their own ways like previous generations did. Parents know when their children learn and when they literally know nothing. Kids have to learn or they wouldn’t have school and they wouldn’t pass state wide exams that a generated specifically for knowledge about student learning.
When asked the question “Do you feel like teachers help you learn? And if so why?”, Kylyn, age 15 replied “Yes, most teachers do teach students in the right way. They know how to relate to the students but be hard and push them to do better. They try to make the kids better.” Students are clearly learning in school. Students would not be able to type on the computer or write or speak or even read without the help of teachers. Teachers push students to do their best in a teaching style that varies by teacher but is still equally helpful to the student.
Students have all the resources to learn and teachers make sure that they use the technology for the right uses. Parents know that their children come home smarter then they started out that morning. Students use their information to improve themselves in life and the teachers are the basis of everything and the very start to this knowledge. Teachers will not and cannot compromise what they teach. They never will.


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