***Revised Blog***Reasoning/Decision-Making

“Reasoning draws a conclusion, but does not make the conclusion, unless the mind discovers it by the path of experience.” (Roger Bacon) Reasoning skills/decision-making skills are one of the most important skills that need to be developed at a young age. This gives the child more time to connect the reasoning skills they have learned to the many experiences they will encounter. On the other hand, if we chose not to teach these fundamental concepts in Elementary/primary School then we are asking our youth to figure things out for themselves as they are in the most vulnerable stage of their lives. Therefore it is imperative that we introduce these skills early in order to give our youth the chance to be socially successful as well as successful in their respective lives.

Reasoning / decision-making is the process of considering the possible consequences of different choices. There are many other things that go along with reasoning and decision making, which I will provide in the link. (Basic Reason Skills Elaboration) Basically this process helps us categorize, match patterns, see similarities in different objects, develop logic, infer information, problem solve and create new information to express an idea. As you can see these are all things that we commonly use throughout our lives, but what if we haven’t been taught these things until middle school or high school? How far behind in the learning curve are we in life? These are questions we must ask ourselves if we do not teach these basic skills to children in Elementary/primary School. 

The first question that usually comes to mind when people think about this subject is : Why does it matter whether they learn it now or later, as long as they are taught it eventually? We must understand that at this age (5 -11) children learn how to interact with others and start to build their perceptions, or at least their foundation, of the world. The next stage after this is the teen stage,which is critical as well. " The choices teens make may drastically affect not only their own lives, but the lives of others as well (Ganzel, 1999). Some of these choices may include which career to pursue, whether or not to have sex or use contraceptives, whether or not to use alcohol, cigarettes, or other drugs, or whether or not to engage in violent or risky behaviors (Fischhoff et al., 1999; Ganzel, 1999)."( http://cals-cf.calsnet.arizona.edu/fcs/bpy/content.cfm?content=decision_making).The next stage after the teen stage is the adult stage where we must make decisions in the real world on our own. So, as you can see from the information provided getting an early start on reasoning/decision-making can make a big difference in someone's life. It can mean the difference between someone having the knowledge to look at the facts of smoking before jumping into it because of peer pressure. If one does not have the ability to make a serious decision about such a matter it could lead to health problems that could have been prevented. All in all, the earlier we can get the ideas of reasoning and decision -making into the minds of our youth the more time they have to build connections with their experiences and the skills they have been taught.

On the other hand some of the objectors of teaching critical thinking/reasoning skills believe that teaching these skills is near impossible or a terribly difficult task. As I read one article about teaching these skills it was stated that, " Students do not come to us as blank slates". It continues to state that we students have biases and when trying to be taught about subjects we reject things that go against our original beliefs. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=QvVQqNuiKzAC&oi=fnd&pg=PA181&dq=Objections+to+teaching+reasoning+skills&ots=XmQ6Bu6G8X&sig=5iSw7hddr6tBF8O47depAHzK-I0#v=onepage&q=Objections%20to%20teaching%20reasoning%20skills&f=false . I believe that some students do come as a blank slate. Personally I walk into every class trying to rid my mind of the ideas that I've been taught. At this stage in my life I have found out that most of the things I was taught early on were a lie ( i.e story of Christopher Columbus). Therefore children in primary school are "blank slates" because most of them have yet to be in a real school other than kindergarten.  

 

In conclusion there is no question that reasoning/ decision-makings skills need to be taught in primary/elementary school. The positives definitely outweigh the negatives in this situation.In my opinion it is true that reasoning does draw conclusions even though it does not make them, but if we do not learn the ability to draw conclusions then where do we start?

Digital World

Times change; and as time changes so do people. The developments and instruments introduced to people during a certain era do not define how or why people think the way they do, it only allows people to expand their knowledge. Can television and the Internet destroy Americans ability to read and think critically? Can technology replace reading and critical thinking in society? Yes, to both questions, but like everything else in the world it depends on how these instruments are used.

When thinking about Bradbury's interview with L.A Weekly, Fahrenheit 451 and the question : Has television and the internet destroyed Americans ability to read and think critically?, only one thing came to mind. These instruments have not destroyed our ability to read and think critically, but they have altered them in a beneficial way that helps us adapt to our surroundings. As stated in the L.A Weekly interview," As early as 1951, Bradbury presaged his fears about TV, in a letter about the dangers of radio...Bradbury wrote that," Radio has contributed to our growing lack of attention. This sort of hopscotching existence makes it almost impossible for people, myself included to sit down and get into a novel again." (Bradbury) Now let's rewind time to the 1950's to see things from Bradbury's perspective. Around the 1950's radio was our version of TV and Internet. It was the dominant source of news and entertainment, which included audio theater.

Now according to Bradbury, radio's "hopscotching existence makes it almost impossible for people to get into a novel again". Audio Theater on the radio is another form of a book. Instead of sitting down and reading with your eyes, people would sit down and read and imagine with their minds while listening to radio. The stories on the radio altered people's imagination thus altering their critical thinking. Now lets fast forward to 2010. The TV and Internet does these exact same thing for Americans today. We have the privilege that everyone in the world can combine their ideas and facts on one plane, the Internet. When one thinks about it the Internet is one of the largest libraries in the world. Our new ability to find out what ideas someone else has or facts that someone else knows allows us to change our critical thinking ways. For example, lets say you can not think of a solution to a certain problem. All it takes is a couple clicks of a button and you can find multiple answers. It is then the choice of one to decipher that information and decide for themselves which would benefit themselves. Television, on the other hand, is the 2010 version of radio. People have now taken their imaginations further and put them onto a screen that people can see.

 

Now on to the question: Could there ever be a time when authorities burn books for our own good? This will never happen. Books will always be apart of human life, but as we see today they will be transformed to adapt with society.Printed books are going out of style. It is now time for the eBook revolution. eBooks are now looking to outsell printed books. http://www.zeta.net/industry-news/ebook-sales-overtake-printed-books.html. In time printed books will be nonexistent, but there will still be eBooks around for people to read. The knowledge that a book brings is valued by all and there are people out there who will not let books be erased from our existence. Even Steven Johnson the author of Everything Bad is Good For You states," The virtues of reading books are "immense ones"."(Johnson 21) That is why books will never be burned, they bring too much value to our society.

In conclusion I do not think Bradbury was right. Americans have adapted their reading and critical thinking styles to the technology that surrounds us. Books only lead down a one way road. Television and Internet allow are minds to take different roads that can lead us to different conclusions. Books will be engraved in our society for centuries, whether they are printed or electronic does not make a difference. The one thing to keep in mind is that these are just opinions, only time will tell if these assumptions will hold true.

***Revised Blog***Reasoning/Decision-Making

“Reasoning draws a conclusion, but does not make the conclusion, unless the mind discovers it by the path of experience.” (Roger Bacon) Reasoning skills/decision-making skills are one of the most important skills that need to be developed at a young age. This gives the child more time to connect the reasoning skills they have learned to the many experiences they will encounter. On the other hand, if we chose not to teach these fundamental concepts in Elementary/primary School then we are asking our youth to figure things out for themselves as they are in the most vulnerable stage of their lives. Therefore it is imperative that we introduce these skills early in order to give our youth the chance to be socially successful as well as successful in their respective lives.

Reasoning / decision-making is the process of considering the possible consequences of different choices. There are many other things that go along with reasoning and decision making, which I will provide in the link. (Basic Reason Skills Elaboration) Basically this process helps us categorize, match patterns, see similarities in different objects, develop logic, infer information, problem solve and create new information to express an idea. As you can see these are all things that we commonly use throughout our lives, but what if we haven’t been taught these things until middle school or high school? How far behind in the learning curve are we in life? These are questions we must ask ourselves if we do not teach these basic skills to children in Elementary/primary School. 

The first question that usually comes to mind when people think about this subject is : Why does it matter whether they learn it now or later, as long as they are taught it eventually? We must understand that at this age (5 -11) children learn how to interact with others and start to build their perceptions, or at least their foundation, of the world. The next stage after this is the teen stage,which is critical as well. " The choices teens make may drastically affect not only their own lives, but the lives of others as well (Ganzel, 1999). Some of these choices may include which career to pursue, whether or not to have sex or use contraceptives, whether or not to use alcohol, cigarettes, or other drugs, or whether or not to engage in violent or risky behaviors (Fischhoff et al., 1999; Ganzel, 1999)."( http://cals-cf.calsnet.arizona.edu/fcs/bpy/content.cfm?content=decision_making).The next stage after the teen stage is the adult stage where we must make decisions in the real world on our own. So, as you can see from the information provided getting an early start on reasoning/decision-making can make a big difference in someone's life. It can mean the difference between someone having the knowledge to look at the facts of smoking before jumping into it because of peer pressure. If one does not have the ability to make a serious decision about such a matter it could lead to health problems that could have been prevented. All in all, the earlier we can get the ideas of reasoning and decision -making into the minds of our youth the more time they have to build connections with their experiences and the skills they have been taught.

On the other hand some of the objectors of teaching critical thinking/reasoning skills believe that teaching these skills is near impossible or a terribly difficult task. As I read one article about teaching these skills it was stated that, " Students do not come to us as blank slates". It continues to state that we students have biases and when trying to be taught about subjects we reject things that go against our original beliefs. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=QvVQqNuiKzAC&oi=fnd&pg=PA181&dq=Objections+to+teaching+reasoning+skills&ots=XmQ6Bu6G8X&sig=5iSw7hddr6tBF8O47depAHzK-I0#v=onepage&q=Objections%20to%20teaching%20reasoning%20skills&f=false . I believe that some students do come as a blank slate. Personally I walk into every class trying to rid my mind of the ideas that I've been taught. At this stage in my life I have found out that most of the things I was taught early on were a lie ( i.e story of Christopher Columbus). Therefore children in primary school are "blank slates" because most of them have yet to be in a real school other than kindergarten.  

 

In conclusion there is no question that reasoning/ decision-makings skills need to be taught in primary/elementary school. The positives definitely outweigh the negatives in this situation.In my opinion it is true that reasoning does draw conclusions even though it does not make them, but if we do not learn the ability to draw conclusions then where do we start?

Social Progress

If there is one thing that technology has done for human society, it’s that it has allowed a new wave of communication and social progress. This new wave of online communication has allowed people from all over the world to connect with one another and meet people they would have never met before. On the flip side, this has also created a dependency as well as a new form of danger that we need to protect ourselves from.

Before we had online communication, also known as social networking sites, communication was limited as well as the speed of news travel. Now that we have sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogger, Tumblr, ect families or acquaintances can connect on the internet.Brothers meet on Facebook . As you can see through the link people who have not seen each other since birth can meet on these sites. Another positive about this is that people can speak to other people from around the world. One of my personal experiences with this is when I took a trip to Europe my junior year in high school. My phone was not able to work so I went into an internet cafe to log onto my email and Myspace. With the help on the internet and online communication, I was able to speak to my mom as well as other family members without the use of my cell phone. Now there are applications such as Skype, Oovoo and other video communication with the help of Wi-Fi in which you can see the counter part you are speaking to.

On the other side the internet and online communication has made us dependent as well as created another form of danger to protect ourselves from. Some people can not go without the use of the internet for more than a day and thus they have named a disorder after those people. http://allpsych.com/journal/internetaddiction.html . We as a society have created a new drug for those to get high on, even though it started out as a useful product. As seen in the movie WALL-E technology has made us dependent upon the items we use. We will eventually turn into people who don't know how to do anything for ourselves. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9s7afoYI-M. When I was in school we learned how to write letters. Now, when i asked my little cousin if they write letters in school, they don't even teach these basic skills. Another negative about the internet is cyberbullying, a danger that we must protect people from. Now people can send others messages without the receiver knowing who it is. This way people can make threats and other unnecessary statements without being found or without the. These actions can lead to depression which has lead to the death of some. Teens Cyberbullying Death.

All in all online communication has been a double edged sword for society. It has many positives that we benefit from heavily as well as many negatives that we must be aware of for the sake of our society. The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people  (Karl Marx). If we as a society can learn to balance the positives and negatives then we continue to produce useful things and not turn into useless people.