Subject: Re: [LPNY DISCUSS] Greg's youth
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 12:28:32 -0400
To:        <lpny_discuss@yahoogroups.com>
From:     Bob Armstrong <bob@cosy.com>
On Mon, 15 Sep 2003 09:33:55 -0400, Gary Popkin wrote:
>
>=A0James S. Leming, in his article "Ignorant Activists" collected=
 in the little
>=A0book "Where Did Social Studies Go Wrong?" and published by the=
 Thomas B.
>=A0Fordham Foundation, argues that young people are not =A0capable=
 of the
>=A0higher-order thinking required for policy analysis, and that=
 they cannot get
>=A0beyond an initial unreflective view of things. 

 While I very much empathize with this notion , I think it=
 disrespects
 the intelligence and plasticity of youth . If ( some of ) the=
 young can
 assimilate the abstractions of mathematics and physics , indeed=
 all
 fields of knowledge , to create the fresh syntheses which they=
 often
 seem to have a monopoly on , eg , Newton , Einstein , Jame=
 Watson ,
 John Lennon , they ( some of them ) are equally capable to do so=
 in
 Political Science .  David Nolan was fresh from MIT Poli Sci=
 when he
 created the Nolan chart , and co-founded the LP .

>=A0The point of Leming's argument is that it is useless to try to=
 teach
>=A0high-school students to think about solving the world's=
 problems. =A0They
>=A0should instead be taught how to find the Mississippi River on a=
 map and the
>=A0year of the Battle of Hastings, and of course the tradition and=
 history of
>=A0the US founding (libertarianism). =A0Then when they are old=
 enough to think
>=A0about policy, they will have this massive amount of accurate=
 data to draw
>=A0upon.

 I had an old German gestaltist experimental psych prof who not=
 only
 believed that teaching the FACTs was the only useful goal of a=
 teacher
 because almost none of the students , especially at a second=
 tier
 school like Miami of Ohio , were capable of concept generation ,=
 one
 of his standard laboratory exercises proved it . He had=
 conducted this
 ( verbal learning ) experiment for many years and had=
 accumulated a
 scatter plot of a couple of thousand students over the years .=
 They all
 formed a big oval except for one outlying cluster of 4 or 5 .
 It's memorable to me because I had finished the task long before=
 any
 one else in our class and was one of that distinct separate=
 cluster .
 
 Bottom line , I don't think it's purely an age thing .

--=A0
=A0Bob Armstrong -- http://CoSy.com -- 212-285-1864
Return our Right to Relax :
=A0http://ny.lp.org/cgi-bin/petition.cgi?Against_the_Smoking_Ban
Liberty : http://CoSy.com/Liberty.htm
=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A02003/09/15 11:58:34 AM