Barbara,

I love the "education so you can be used" slogan. It hits the nail right 
on the head. I teach in a state college system, and the emphasis is more 
and more on college as purely workforce preparation; there is heavy 
emphasis on "throughput" (getting students out in the minimum time 
possible) and "accountability" in terms of measurable, quantifiable 
behaviors. In other words, just teach 'em to be willing cogs in the 
machine, not to question anything.

As to "what REALLY works to fill in those gaps" in the prior education 
of students at every level above primary school, I'm a pessimist on this 
count, I'm afraid. I see in my students such a profound difference in 
_mindset_ about what it means to be educated ... such a profound lack of 
the habit of deep thinking, and a circumscription of their curiousity 
about the world -- I sincerely believe that in all but exceptional 
cases, the barrier is almost too great to be overcome. It requires a 
commitment of energy and time that may well be impossible for young 
adults. The energy has to come from a sincere commitment to put in 
mental work that is going to be very demanding and unaccustomed (such as 
thinking a problem through in sustained fashion, even if it takes an 
hour, or making the effort of improving one's reading level dramatically 
by starting with slow, careful reading and then slowly speeding up). I 
think the cause of this problem is that a young adult is more conscious 
of how hard hard work is; a child who still has that natural curiosity 
may work very hard, but have fun doing it, because it serves the goal of 
satisfying the curiosity. A toddler will work very hard to manipulate 
toy blocks that won't cooperate; it takes a lot of failure before they 
give up. Children who hate to work hard usually hate it because their 
curiosity in the subject is naturally missing or has been killed, or 
because they don't have a goal that the work serves.

As to time, clearly young adults have a lot less leisure time than 
children. Most have jobs as well as school and have to start taking 
charge of the paperwork and errands of adult life themselves. Some have 
children of their own to look after.

If we're to believe a lot of the new information coming out about the 
brain, the information-loaded, channel-surfing world of young people 
today is literally handicapping the brain in regard to tasks that 
require sustained attention.

I don't remember where I heard this anecdote, but there was a 
primary-school classroom in which the day was started with meditation. 
After the meditation, the children were far better able to concentrate 
and sustain their attention than children in classrooms where the 
meditation was not being done.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Associate Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-2596
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •      Home page: 
http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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