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Students Searching for Universal Data

I love looking at the cellular data network coverage maps showing where your phone will be able to connect to the Internet. Every carrier has their own version, spangled in the company colors so you know who to thank. But in a way, these maps aren’t just advertorial: they show the edge of modern civilization. After all, mobile data is quickly becoming the new standard for Internet access; smart devices are the preferred platform for everyone from doctors and nurses to college students and presidents. It is like a systemic paraphrasing of The Lion King: “Everything the data map covers …

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Disengaged Students, Part 14: Educational Technology – Intellectual or Anti?

In this 20-part series, I explore the root causes and effects of academic disengagement in K-12 learners and explore the factors driving American society ever closer to being a nation that lacks intellectualism, or the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. Technology penetrates every aspect of society – even our K-12 classrooms. The way knowledge is delivered today takes the shape of tablets, and computer screens, and even in-class projectors. Does all the flash and glamor of the fancy gear take away from the basic pursuit of knowledge, though? It Starts in Infancy Early childhood educational technology targets children from …

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Disengaged Students, Part 13: Athletes as Heroes

In this 20-part series, I explore the root causes and effects of academic disengagement in K-12 learners and explore the factors driving American society ever closer to being a nation that lacks intellectualism, or the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. The worship of celebrities and athletes in contemporary culture perpetuates the devaluation of intellectual thought. Particularly when it comes to impressionable children, the way certain Americans (and not others, often equally worthy) are placed on pedestals steals some validity from intellectual pursuits. The Legend that Michael Built Those learning to become teachers today may not quite remember the phrase …

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Disengaged Students, Part 12: A Call to Revive Middlebrow Culture

In this 20-part series, I explore the root causes and effects of academic disengagement in K-12 learners and explore the factors driving American society ever closer to being a nation that lacks intellectualism, or the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. In her book The Age of American Unreason Susan Jacoby discusses “middlebrow” culture, the product of the early and mid-20th century push for middle-class people to attain higher levels of sophistication through easily accessible literature, art and music. As the name implies, middlebrow leanings are an intermediary between highbrow and lowbrow cultures. Middlebrow pursuits, such as purchasing expensive encyclopedias …

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Disengaged Students, Part 11: The Irrationality of Modern Politics

In this 20-part series, I explore the root causes and effects of academic disengagement in K-12 learners and explore the factors driving American society ever closer to being a nation that lacks intellectualism, or the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. The anti-intellectualist tendencies in K-12 education in America have not arisen in a vacuum.  Schools have always been profoundly affected by the fears and political divisions of the broader culture.   This was true during the 1950s and early 1960s when elementary students regularly cowered underneath their desks during mandated bomb drills. It was true when metal detectors first started …

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Disengaged Students, Part 10: Paranoia and the Pressure to be Anti-Intellectual

In this 20-part series, I explore the root causes and effects of academic disengagement in K-12 learners and explore the factors driving American society ever closer to being a nation that lacks intellectualism, or the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. It is not only traditional authoritative bodies, like government and religion, which have promoted anti-intellectual thought. Widespread beliefs fueled by the people can be just as dangerous to intellectual progress. Consider the paranoia that erupts when a particular group is associated with a crime, or with anything that threatens the American way of life. Anti-Muslim thought ran rampant in …

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Disengaged Students, Part 9: How Religion Can Discourage Rational Thought

In this 20-part series, I explore the root causes and effects of academic disengagement in K-12 learners and explore the factors driving American society ever closer to being a nation that lacks intellectualism, or the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. Americans with differing religious convictions disagree on the severity of the risk to intellectualism posed by religious control. For atheists, any person who believes in a non-tangible “god” and takes orders on how to live a life of faith from another mortal is simply being bamboozled. For those who choose to incorporate faith as part of a larger life, …

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Disengaged Students, Part 8: Anti-Intellectualism in Government, Then and Now

In this 20-part series, I explore the root causes and effects of academic disengagement in K-12 learners and explore the factors driving American society ever closer to being a nation that lacks intellectualism, or the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake.  If the main purpose of intellectualism is to reveal truths, it is no wonder that governments throughout history have opposed free thinkers. Power attained through deceitful or heavy-handed tactics is always in jeopardy of exposure. In contemporary culture, conservative politicians are often viewed as being at odds with progressive ideas or rational thought. The truth is that all politicians …

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Disengaged Students, Part 7: Too Much Information Access?

In this 20-part series, I explore the root causes and effects of academic disengagement in K-12 learners and explore the factors driving American society ever closer to being a nation that lacks intellectualism, or the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. It’s no secret that we are living in an information age, one that has lifted data barriers across the world and opened up access to knowledge like never before seen in the history of modern humankind. On the surface, this access to information appears to be a democratization of knowledge – a way that more people can learn about …

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Time to Reboot the Safety Lecture

When we play the perennial favorite game of Blaming Other Generations, we tend to focus on relative merits and deficiencies: which generation is more or less polite, hard-working, civic-minded, etc. One thing we don’t always talk about is what different generations are afraid of. In terms of everyday fears and how we manage them, current and future generations have some reasonable fears that no previous generation is equipped to allay. Digital Bogeymen Just a few years ago, cyber threats barely made the list of the biggest concerns industry experts had about the biggest risks faced by corporations. Now, in 2017, …

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