family today

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Are today’s kids smarter than us? Are today’s toddlers learning more in their (literal) short years than we ever learned in our entire Gen X childhood? When I was but a lad, my reading skills were so abysmal I was relegated to the “yellow” group. This was the group chopped-full of slow, remedial readers, like me. Why yellow? I have no idea, but it stuck and I still seethe with rage. Being labeled as “slow” is something a child (or adult) doesn’t forget. It’s a stigma — it’s one you carry with you throughout your academic career. Sure it was a logical way to divide the kids to accommodate different reading levels and make the most of the time allotted, but once that label is placed on a childs fragile, eggshell mind — it sticks.

The lower the expectations, the lower the bar drops. Public schools and the educators therein do their best to give each child the attention he or she deserves, but there are only some many hours in the day. What results is a completely jaded, sarcastic student that wallow in low self-esteem. Technology was a nominal factor when I was in school. We had clunky machines that offered us bad graphics and pixelated multiple-choice questions. Today’s tale tells a different story. My niece, for instance, is so comfortable with computers it’s awe-inspiring. By two she could manipulate a mouse and left-click on her favorite shows. I’m sure it’ll be on her generation’s watch that teleportation will become ubiquitous.

Full-disclosure: I didn’t have a cellphone until I was twenty-five. I sent my first text message when I was twenty-seven. My first real comprehension of the word technology was slipping quarters into arcade games like DIG DUG. As I get older, I find myself shunning technology in the same grumpy, dismissive way my father used to. Does technology help a child learn vocabulary words, mathematics, and science? I know developmental programs like BABY WORDSWORTH and EINSTEIN are pretty popular with the toddler set, but it still takes a loving parent to facilitate. Can programs make children better learners? Perhaps. Probably. Then again, I never graduated college, so what do I know?

We love gadgets, I get it. I understand how dep our love-affair with technology runs. But, I think that a tool is only as effective as it is used. Flash cards were very effective for me — it’s how I learned vocabulary. Seeing that the world has had paper for about 4,000 years or so, and the mega pixel for only about 20, I’m struck by how quickly we’re eager to move away from fibers to fiberoptics. But having my parents quiz me on my homework was pretty effective. It comes down to time spent. If a child has a parent or a teacher that spends the time to help and teach them, then it doesn’t really matter whether the child is writing with a crayon or typing on a keypad.

But, I have to admit: there could be something to it. If exposure to vocabulary and math from any early age has helped by niece become the four-year-old wonder she is, then bring it on. While we must consider the possibility that humans are emotional learners and that the psychology of learning plays a huge part in our development. My mother told me a story of her first day of school. Her mother told her not to raise her hand up in class unless she was one hundred percent sure that she knew the answer. So my mother kept silent most of her way through grade school. I hope we as a culture can give our kids a more open, less critical environment, where they only have high expectations and a caring adult who helps them whether it be in front of a computer screen or a piece of paper.

Tags: Baby Wordworth, disney, family today