Just a thought: In terms of general knowledge, each generation seems to be testing lower
than those that preceded it. (Although IQs are testing higher; go figure.)
That's probably an unavoidable progression. "General knowledge" increases exponentially, but our memory capacities don't. Kids today have so much more history to study, so many more English "classics" to read, that they can only fit in about half of what you and I absorbed as "general knowledge" when we were in school. Heck, when I was in school there were no home computers, Microsoft and Apple didn't exist--now general knowledge has to encompass the whole electronic revolution. I didn't have to learn anything about the
Vietnam war in school, nothing about space travel (except early Heinlein and Browne and HG Wells), there were only a few countries in Africa and they didn't much matter, China was ignored, nobody even knew DNA existed, we didn't have to spend time on sex education, Aids, VD, how to date without committing date rape or harrassment, etc., etc. In order for kids today to master today's "general knowledge" they can only cover about half of what I learned in school. So I complain that my kids aren't learning as much as I did. Actually, they're probably learning more, but they have to learn what I learned in school PLUS stuff I've picked up during 35 years since, which they have to pack into just school. Right now, for example, my HS girls are studying physics, gram atomic weight and mass; I didn't even start physics until my junior year in college. Their 20th Century American History class is at least 50% stuff that happened since I left school. Their text gives one paragraph to the Berlin airlift (a defining event of my childhood), and when they read (as they did two days ago) Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech they wonder what all the fuss was about.
In the time of DaVinci it was actually possible in one lifetime to read everything of value in philosophy, mathematics, science, history, religion, literature, politics, law, art, poetry, etc. Even Winston Churchill was able to read most of the significant works of many fields during his schooling. Today, it's hard to keep up with just one part of one field. (The half life of scientific writing used to be measured in centuries. Today, it's been said that the half life of scientific information is less than 7 years, and in some fields such as biotech it's probably closer to 7 months.)
It is impossible today for there to be a true renaissance person, literate in every important field. Can't be done. A great loss. But makes it hard to blame students for not being as broadly educated as we were or our parents were. |
