I work at a high school. Before we implemented the Accelerated Reader program, due of our abysmal system-wide reading scores, very few students checked books out of the library. Most students did not choose to read for pleasure.
I don't read for pleasure much any more. I find myself "cruising" the Internet at times when I would have read in the past. Like the author of "Is Google Making Us Stupid?," I don't focus well on large blocks of text. I even found myself annoyed when Carr's article went longer than two pages. How long should it take a grown adult to get through John Green's The Fault in Our Stars? I've been at it since early July. On the other hand, I can proudly state that I have broken my personal record at solitaire twice and beaten my friend Kate at Words With Friends (it has taken me MONTHS!) in the same time period.
The evolution of a technology is always fascinating. It was interesting reading about "Taylor-izing" manufacturing, looking for utopia in the process of making things and comparing it to the way the Google originators look at perfecting their search tool. With information at our fingertips, more information than we could ever hope to digest, the world is changing. Although students can find information exponentially faster than when I used the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, they are completely lazy about the information they end up with. Maybe because it was so difficult and annoying to do, I made sure I had the kind of information I needed the first time.
The focus of the Common Core seems to want to bring students back to their pre-computer habits. Close reading, sustained projects, grit, perseverance, rigor... with computers bringing the world to our screens, we don't really experience those inconveniences. I wonder how this will play out...
Reference:
Carr, N. Is the Internet making us stupid? The Atlantic. July 1, 2008.
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