we human beings are complex creatures, in fact anything that has
the ability to reason starts on a psychological journey the end of which no one
can predict. it is because of this fact that now more than ever, is
knowledge the ultimate power. another existential question of time is,
what occurs when a being unable to handle power is given it?
the education
system is finding it harder and harder to comply to an increasing list of
demands from the government as well as an ever evolving generation of young
people with more power than they should likely have been exposed to at their
age. call it what you will, but the fact remains that the internet, face
book, and other tech like cell phones and video games are providing to children
a power that some adults and parents cannot comprehend because these things
were not available when they were growing up. some teachers would
state that such things are inconsequential to a child's development, but
they would be dead wrong. when we were younger, the phone was a fantastic
invention that put us in contact with our friends even if they weren't with us
in the room, now children with cell phones can text up and down until
their fingers bleed without ever seeing their friends in the flesh. now,
I'm not saying that technology is evil and it should be thrown out or banned
from schools or have an age limit restriction, what I'm saying is that the
technological generation is something wonderful, that needs to be cared for
like child, there are things the tech generation can do that our parents would
never have dreamed, of, in the same respect there are things the tech
generation is doing now that our parents would be appalled by. there are hundreds
of psychological and psychosocial issues that can be raised on the subject but
I only want to raise one for the moment.
consent and
unfettered connection to one another.
just walking
around campus you can see the majority of students, even students walking in
groups either have a cell phone out, or ear buds in or both, easily ignoring
little things like the world around them, whether or not they are taking up the
entire sidewalk as a group, or where they are going for that matter. this
stifles one of the most important psychological factors of personality
development, personal thought. I know, it sounds preposterous, how can
anyone not have personal thought, we are all individuals aren't we?
as children we
develop personality traits and adapt to the world at large between the ages 9
and 14. this is now around the same time most kids get their first cell
phones. from here they have access to their friends 24/7 they poll
opinions, they talk for hours, they text for more hours, the cell acts as an IV
directly into the child's personality pumping in whatever the social circle has
for them. it even overrides time away from friends invading family time
and direct times of developmental activities, like learning, or reading.
the damage being done is quickly habitual, leading to rebellion or malfeasance
if the connection is removed for more than a few hours. what results are
a generation of individuals with little understanding of the world around them,
remaining in the developmental stage of childhood. this is not the case
for all individuals handed a cell phone at age 10, it is however, a growing
issue and one that is damaging future students. as a teacher in training,
I have already chosen to engage in a NO cell phone, NO mp3 player policy in my
classroom. it is one of many things that can help to break the
developmental lock some students have on their personalities. other
options, include group activities, object and developmental based learning, and
multiple learning style tactics. the few experiments I have conducted
based on these learning techniques have yielded a more effective classroom,
with the students actually learning what they are supposed to, and themselves.
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