I have fond memories of encountering “Fahrenheit 451” in high school. Our instructor showed us a limited edition she’d bought that had been printed on asbestos-coated paper. These days the school would have been placed on lockdown and a hazmat team summoned. 🙂
It’s sad when you think about it. We live in a society where more advanced degrees are needed for the simplest jobs. Yet, as you illustrate, less and less is required of students to reach these goals. It was bad enough when schools stopped teaching cursive handwriting. (Most kids still can’t write… they depend on their computers to do that for them)
Shazbut! Now I can see what my parents/grandparents meant when the referred to the good ol’ days. I wish I was there again.
Too true, but smart phones are the real problem. Some students write drafts on them. Social media has produced students who write unindented, three-sentence paragraphs or just one long paragraph. There is no sustained, structured thought. (These are the worst examples.)
Sometimes economic issues are involved. A given student can afford a smart phone or a computer—not both. (Meanwhile, wealthy parents bribe colleges to admit their kids with doctored applications!)
I fondly remember Fahrenheit 451 from High School.
Sadly at one time one needed a High School Diploma to get a decent job. Students learned things then in stead of being pushed through.
Not too much later one needed an Associates Degree since now those graduates at least have the education of what they should have had in H.S.
Now it is a B.A. or B.S. or B.T. since at least those graduates should know as much a H.S. graduate from decades ago and an Associates from the 70s.
What really amazes me now is the high number of technical jobs that are requiring a Masters Degree for what used to only require an Associates!
I won’t get started on the dumbing down of education. I’ve been on a soapbox about this ever since I was in High School.
The problem is that many of the attempts to address this problem are making matters worse. Rather than investing in smaller classrooms and solid fundamentals—which is what worked in the past—the system is investing in tech and online shortcuts based on trumped up studies. The elite continue to get a good education (if they want it), but everyone else is being sold a false solution.
The world is different today. When I attended high school in the 1970s I remember our combined history classes watching a documentary about the Holocaust. When the film showed footage of emaciated prisoners being liberated from death camps, murdered prisoners in mass graves, and pails of gold teeth extracted prior to gassing, we were stunned. Some students appeared to be in shock and others left the auditorium in tears. I wonder what the student reaction is these days when we see newly discovered German footage almost weekly on the Shary & Hitler Channel.
Welcome to the world of trigger warnings, which is part of a larger culture of coddling; and to what extant have we, by being so overprotective of youth, in fact made matters worse? The inability to confront and process anxiety, confusion, and pain increases the likelihood that these will cause greater damage later on. Really, people who can cope with suffering are more likely to be happy in the end. That’s my two cents.
The Untimely Typewriter:Daily Writings Against the Tides of Distraction 
I have fond memories of encountering “Fahrenheit 451” in high school. Our instructor showed us a limited edition she’d bought that had been printed on asbestos-coated paper. These days the school would have been placed on lockdown and a hazmat team summoned. 🙂
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That’s hilarious.
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It’s sad when you think about it. We live in a society where more advanced degrees are needed for the simplest jobs. Yet, as you illustrate, less and less is required of students to reach these goals. It was bad enough when schools stopped teaching cursive handwriting. (Most kids still can’t write… they depend on their computers to do that for them)
Shazbut! Now I can see what my parents/grandparents meant when the referred to the good ol’ days. I wish I was there again.
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Too true, but smart phones are the real problem. Some students write drafts on them. Social media has produced students who write unindented, three-sentence paragraphs or just one long paragraph. There is no sustained, structured thought. (These are the worst examples.)
Sometimes economic issues are involved. A given student can afford a smart phone or a computer—not both. (Meanwhile, wealthy parents bribe colleges to admit their kids with doctored applications!)
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Oh please, don’t get me started.
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I fondly remember Fahrenheit 451 from High School.
Sadly at one time one needed a High School Diploma to get a decent job. Students learned things then in stead of being pushed through.
Not too much later one needed an Associates Degree since now those graduates at least have the education of what they should have had in H.S.
Now it is a B.A. or B.S. or B.T. since at least those graduates should know as much a H.S. graduate from decades ago and an Associates from the 70s.
What really amazes me now is the high number of technical jobs that are requiring a Masters Degree for what used to only require an Associates!
I won’t get started on the dumbing down of education. I’ve been on a soapbox about this ever since I was in High School.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The problem is that many of the attempts to address this problem are making matters worse. Rather than investing in smaller classrooms and solid fundamentals—which is what worked in the past—the system is investing in tech and online shortcuts based on trumped up studies. The elite continue to get a good education (if they want it), but everyone else is being sold a false solution.
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Sigh! Let’s keep fighting the good fight.
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The world is different today. When I attended high school in the 1970s I remember our combined history classes watching a documentary about the Holocaust. When the film showed footage of emaciated prisoners being liberated from death camps, murdered prisoners in mass graves, and pails of gold teeth extracted prior to gassing, we were stunned. Some students appeared to be in shock and others left the auditorium in tears. I wonder what the student reaction is these days when we see newly discovered German footage almost weekly on the Shary & Hitler Channel.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Welcome to the world of trigger warnings, which is part of a larger culture of coddling; and to what extant have we, by being so overprotective of youth, in fact made matters worse? The inability to confront and process anxiety, confusion, and pain increases the likelihood that these will cause greater damage later on. Really, people who can cope with suffering are more likely to be happy in the end. That’s my two cents.
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Please make that “Shark & Hitler Channel.”
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