Plan B: Reason and Philosphy

I'd so much rather teach the children reason and philosophy.

The following is a link to a 5 min piece about why it is so useful for kids....

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/ockhamsrazor/stories/2010/2975629.htm#transcript

Peter Ellerton:
As it happens, after a career of teaching Mathematics and Science, I now teach a subject in Queensland schools called Philosophy and Reason. I was quite struck by how the three strands of the course, Deductive Logic, Critical Thinking and Philosophy, manage to get across just about every thinking skill I have come to believe is essential for good citizenship. Not only that, but state-wide testing shows these students performing at the very highest level across all scientific, numeracy and literacy arenas. As they come from both humanities and science backgrounds and are often unaware in choosing it of the exact nature of the subject, there may be some justification in labelling the subject matter itself as the cause of this worthy effect.

It's not rocket science and it doesn't take a lot to resource a course like this. As one of the cheapest, demonstrably beneficial and most demanded curriculum elements, perhaps we may yet see critical thinking take up its proper place on the national stage, alongside numeracy and literacy. Then again, this argument is over 2,000 years old. I wonder what we've been waiting for ...?

NY Times article on the effects of computer use on the developing brain

First of a series of three articles published earlier this year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=your%20brain%20on%20computers&st=cse

Mr. Nass at Stanford thinks the ultimate risk of heavy technology use is that it diminishes empathy by limiting how much people engage with one another, even in the same room.

“The way we become more human is by paying attention to each other,” he said. “It shows how much you care.”

That empathy, Mr. Nass said, is essential to the human condition. “We are at an inflection point,” he said. “A significant fraction of people’s experiences are now fragmented.”

Screen Time and Brain Development

I would like to commence the discussion with a bit of screen time for adults

Here is a link to a 55 minute video of Baroness Susan Greenfield from the Sydney Festival of Dangerous ideas in which she explains very well the current thinking around why we have to be very conscous of the amount of screen time we allow growing brains to indulge in.

'Between a child's 11th and 12th birthday in the UK they will spend 900hrs in the classroom, 1277 hrs with their family and 1934 hours in front of a screen. I think that's grounds for investigation at least'

http://www.apo.org.au/video/baroness-susan-greenfield-dangers-social-networking
MKW