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August 25, 2008
Politics, Information and Stupidity
Now that we are finished with both the Democratic and Republican Conventions we can get down to the serious process of finding out where our presidential candidates stand on the major issues and base our votes according to what is best for our country, right? Read Rick Shenkman's book Just How Stupid Are We? and you may have to think again about this idea.
According to Shenkman there are 5 basic types of stupidity that can be identified in the American public:
1. Sheer ignorance
2. Bone-headedness
3. Wooden-headedness
4. Shortsightedness
5. Negligence
Ignorance needs no explanation. There have been many studies and polls, cited by Shenkman which demonstrate just how much Americans are able to retain or answer about their government, world situations, public policy, our leaders and their positions on issues.
Bone-headedness and wooden-headedness would seem to be the same issue but according to Shenkman bone-headedness is all about our susceptibility to manipulation by politicians, whether it be through the use of stereotyping or biases in speeches and ads or if it's appealing to our fears, our hopes, or our patriotism by targeting our emotions. Wooden-headedness, on the other hand is simply the stubborn way we American people can hold on to certain beliefs, regardless of the facts.
Shortsightedness comes into play when the American public switches gears on a long term goal because the short term goal, or policy, or bill being passed, etc. looks much more attractive. Sure I want a balanced federal budget but my retirement savings are being stretched and I certainly don't want my taxes to go up so a tax cut sounds good right about now.
The final type of stupidity defined by Shenkman, negligence is an interesting thing to consider for those of us involved in providing information. The negligent voter is the voter who either doesn't take the time or doesn't know how to find reliable sources of government and political information. Negligent stupidity means a person can't figure out what constitutes a reliable source of information or doesn't have the ability to challenge information found on candidates and issues.
We have access to more information than ever before and we can get to this information faster and easier than any time in history but are we using it?. The level of education for Americans is much higher than any other time in this country's history, yet the American public is no better educated when it comes to politics and government, Shenkman wrote in a recent Washington Post article. Groups like to blame each other. Liberals think Conservatives are dumb and vice versa but in reality voters on each side are about equal in intelligence.
Shenkman, founder of History News Network believes public schools should stress civics and require that students be tested on it, the same as they are currently tested on reading and math skills.
Take advantage of the library this election year. Don't be stupid. Try using the Government Document Center election site. Challenge what the candidates are saying by going to factcheck.org and read, read, READ!
Posted by swortman at 05:17 PM | Comments (1)
Social Networking Going to the Dogs, and Cats, and Hampsters, and ...
We humans have myspace, facebook, linkedin, and all sorts of social networking opportunities so why shouldn't our furry friends have them, too? Well, they do have these opportunities. Between the Beijing Olympics and the Democratic Convention there must have not been much news this summer. Both CNN and Time covered Doggyspace.com in recent articles.
Evidently this is not a new phenomenon. Facebook has had a dogbook application for a couple of years. (Okay, I admit it, my dog is on dogbook...Don't blame me. My daughers started it! She has 26 friends, thank you very much.)
Did you know there is also catbook, horsebook, ferretbook(?), rodentbook, fishbook, and for some odd reason in the same list babybook? People are just too odd. According to the article in Time some people find it safer to social network as an animal and make up a personality for their pet, rather than revealing private information about themselves online. I think some people have just too much time on their hands!
Remember Friendster as a social networking site? Now there are dogster, catster; there used to be a hamsterer.com but not anymore, fortunately but there's petbrags.com. There's even a social network for gnomes. Okay, the gnomes site is more of a blog,but still...
There's mydogspace.com, mycatspace.com, fuzzster.comand petster.com. There is also a dating service for animal lovers to get together datemypet.com, eh, creepy!
Posted by swortman at 03:18 PM | Comments (0)
August 20, 2008
The Evolution of a Teacher
When I first started working at a reference desk my worst fear was that I might not be able to answer someone's question. I was worried I would come across as not knowing what I was doing or fumbling for information. I had this image that the people behind the desk should be the experts, that they should have everything at their finger tips and immediately be able to retrieve the perfect manageable set of citations which answered even the most difficult question. In short, it was all about me. I was on the hot seat and I was responsible for knowing it all.
As I evolved as a reference librarian I struggled to keep up this image by telling patrons they could alleviate all this messy process at the desk by giving me their email or phone number. That way they wouldn't have to waste time waiting for me to find what they needed (or watch me fumble if I had no idea what I was doing!)and I could contact them later with some suggestions. This was just a sneakier way of being all about me. They didn't have to know if it took me four hours or four minutes to find the information. I was off the hook and not "performing" in front of them.
These issues of performance also spill into classroom instruction. That's why librarians come up with canned searches, so they don't have to struggle in front of students and appear as if they don't know what they're doing if a search brings up inappropriate results. Parker Palmer writes about the fear in teaching this way:
After thirty years of teaching, my own fear remains close at hand. It is there when I enter a classroom and feel the undertow into which I have jumped. It is there when I ask a question - and my students keep a silence as stony as if I had asked them to betray their friends. It is there whenever it feels I have lost control: a mind-boggling question is asked, an irrational conflict emerges, or students get lost in my lecture because I myself am lost. When a class that has gone badly comes to an end, I am fearful long after it is over - fearful that I am not just a bad teacher but a bad person, so closely is my sense of self tied to the work I do. (1)
Some fear can be good, it means you care but too much fear is debilitating and does not lead to learning or critical thinking. Palmer goes on to say students would just as soon not engage in learning with a teacher. "Don't ask me how to think about this stuff - just give me the facts."(2) Often that's just what librarians do. We concentrate on feeding students too much information and don't allow them to think for themselves.
In her article "Finding Ourselves as Teachers", Susan Byrnes Whyte suggests librarians step back from feeding students just the facts but instead concentrate on making the students think for themselves by getting into the "whys" of research.(3)
* Why did that search fail?
* Why is this an inappropriate web site?
* Why do I need to be able to evaluate a resource, anyway?
Getting into the whys of research is a messier way of teaching and may not always work but it's more practical and more useful. Students won't remember a librarian's perfect search at 2:00 am the night before their paper is due but if they remember the process involved in getting to that perfect search they can apply that wherever they are and whenever they need it.
Notes
1. Palmer,Parker J. The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 1998. 36.
2. Ibid., 38.
3. Whyte,Susan Byrnes. "Finding Ourselves as Teachers." Information Literacy Instruction Handbook. Ed. Christopher Cox and Elizabeth Blakesley Lindsay. Chicago : Association of College and Research Libraries, 2008. 55.
Posted by swortman at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)