Argumentative Essay on The Dumbest Generation

I am a student of Ms. Masons’ English 2 class. In our class we are reviewing the work of an author named Mark Bauerlein, The Dumbest Generation, (2008).

According to Bauerlein anyone under the age of thirty from when this book was published, till now, should not be trusted. The book also states that the teachers of our generation are not doing enough to prepare our students for the upcoming challenges of adulthood. Our teachers are not doing enough to prepare us for the future? I disagree strongly, mainly because I feel that my teachers are doing all they can and like it when I ask questions. They help me to the best of their abilities, (yes they might try to connect with us according to our culture). Some of the skills that teachers want us to inherit are: -Critical Thinking and Problem Solving -Collaboration across Networks and Leading by Influence -Agility and Adaptability -Initiative and Entrepreneurialism -Effective Oral and Written Communication -Accessing and Analyzing Information -Curiosity and Imagination (Iyengar) These are all things that we inherit when we are born, but the teaching staff makes it easier to access from our memory, and apply it to real world situations. When you go to an interview for a job or evaluation, you’re going to want an effective oral and written communication.

Now needing to know what it takes to get a good job you need technology to assist in giving you that information. In many countries students are known as “digital natives”, and today’s teachers are known as “digital immigrants” (Digital Nation). Teachers are working with students whose entire lives have been immersed in the 21st century culture. That may help us in many different ways. Technology and the way teachers are teaching give us more of an understanding of what we are learning. Again we are “digital natives”.

I wouldn’t be able to type this paper if I didn’t first understand how to research. Most Important Adapting to and Creating Constant Personal and Social Change, and Lifelong Learning Integrated and Interdisciplinary Relevant, Rigorous and Real-world Project-Based ; Research-Driven 21st Century Skills Technologies ; Multimedia Global Classrooms, Globalization Student-Centered All these teaching curriculum (above) are what we learn to enhance. We learn in so many different ways. We like to use technology and use internet sources, not literature. If it wasn’t for the technologically advanced 21st century, we wouldn’t have a resource to help us in learning.

Schools in the 21st century will be laced with a project-based curriculum for life aimed at engaging students in addressing real-world problems, issues important to humanity, and questions that matter (Reading at risk). This is a dramatic departure from the way education was taught of the past. It is abandonment of textbook-driven, teacher-centered, paper and pencil schooling. It means a new way of understanding the concept of knowledge, a new definition of the educated person (Iyengar). Today we are engulfed in technology and the way the elders learned are what we are trying to stay away from and so are the teachers, in the ways they are teaching. In the past a learner was a young person who went to school, spent a specified amount of time in certain courses, received passing grades and graduated.

Today teachers must see learners in a new way: 1st – They must maintain student interest by helping students see how and what they are learning. This prepares them for life in the real world. 2nd – They must remain curious, which is fundamental to lifelong learning. 3rd – They must be flexible in how they teach. 4th – They must excite the students to become even more resourceful so that they will continue to learn outside of the regular school day. Life as we know it is controlled by technology and our teachers are trying there best to match our needs and wants.

Yes they might not ever be able to get us out of our own ways of learning but they are trying. Teachers have considered making their classes more technologically advanced, and that would make it increasingly easier for them to teach our students and children of the future. Works Cited: Baurlein, Mark. “Online literacy is a lesser kind.” (2011): n. pag.

Web. 25 Mar 2011. ;http://chronicle.com/article/Online-Literacy-Is-a-Lesser/28307;. Bradshaw, Tom, and Bonnie Nichols.

Reading at risk: A survey of literary reading in America. Washington, DC:, 2004. Web. 25 Mar 2011. ;http://www.

nea.gov/pub/ReadingAtRisk.pdf;. Iyengar, Sunil, and Mark Bauerlein. “It’s not just the schools.

” (2011): n. pag. Web. 25 Mar 2011. ;http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/04/18/33iyengar.h26.html;.