Read the following article from Philly Magazine and respond to its content. Are kids really stupid, as the author purports? 200 word minimum, due by Wednesday at midnight.
In her document, Sandy Hingston proves a point: The world is changing; but not in the way that she is saying. Her whole essay is about how stupid kids are becoming; she says that the world is changing because children use technology for stupid things, but, here, she is wrong. The world is changing because twenty years ago, a mother wouldn’t write a titanic essay, about how stupid her kid is, and post it online for millions of people to see. Sandy has many psychological problems, as seen by how she speaks in her essay, and it’s not surprising how stupid her son is. There is a famous saying: An apple doesn’t fall far from the tree; Hingston proves this cliché true; she says, “What in the world is going on with our kids?” As a parent, it is Sandy’s job to find out what is “going on” with her kid, and asking the computer this question won’t help her find out. Not only is it her job, as a parent, to know this, but this excerpt also shows us that Ms. Hingston is writing without knowing anything about what she is writing about. But let’s ignore the fact that Sandy’s stupid and knows nothing for now and focus on the impact that parenting has on a child. Hingston says, “…our kids…[perform] time consuming tasks (including the average 3,339 text messages they send and receive each month—or more than a hundred per day).” The solution to this problem is so easy to find out, I’d bet even Sandy’s son could figure it out: TAKE AWAY THE PHONE! Now that we know that Sandy is a sorry-excuse-for-a-parent, we can now focus on her stupidity. In the text, she states, “Call me old-fashioned, but the fact that he doesn’t concerns me.” I can’t call her old fashioned because a.) old-fashioned people don’t post essays on the internet, b.) old-fashioned people don’t use the word “facebook” thirteen times in an essay, and c.) an old-fashioned person would teach their kid the days of the week, not wine about it on the internet. Please, Sandy, don’t flatter yourself by calling yourself old-fashioned. Ms. Hingston proves her stupidity at least two more times in the passage when she says, “I need to believe they won’t be swept into a Kool-Aid colored whirlpool…” (Kool-Aid can be many different colors) and when she gingerly states, “They spend an average of eight and a half hours in front of screens…Add in eight hours of sleep and seven of school, and that leaves half an hour when their senses aren’t under siege—just enough time for a shower.” I have two things to say to that: Experts say that high schoolers need nine and a quarter hours of sleep, maybe, since her son is sleep-deprived, that’s why he is stupid, and if a half an hour is “just enough time for a shower” then, not only is the stupid lady capable of calling her son stupid, but also capable of killing the Earth as well.
Sandy, in addition to making stupid remarks, also makes many pathetic attempts to prove her point that ultimately fail. “Last January, a young Florida mother was trying to play FarmVille on Facebook, but her three-month old son kept crying. So she shook him to death.” That quote has everything to do with stupid teenagers. “Jake can look at his cell phone to see what day it is,” Ms. Hingston says, “but where can he go online to find out what being human means?” The question, “What does it mean to be human?” has been asked for centuries; and if Homer and Aristotle couldn’t figure it out, I doubt her stupid son could, even if he obliterated his phone. If this Sandy Hingston is too stupid to make decent remarks and not sound like a complete moron, then why listen to her? (Some of Hingston’s other articles include one titled “Men Are Toast. No They’re Not. Discuss.” and one titled “Why You Want To Eat Your Friend’s Adorable Baby”; if Sandy’s not serious enough to give her articles names that make it sound like an educated person wrote them, and not a cannibalistic sexist freak, then why take her seriously?) Forget everything that I said for a moment; let’s pretend that Ms. Hingston is an intelligent woman that genuinely cares for her kid and knows what she’s talking about. Maybe the problem lies not with her, or the new generation of humans, but with her son himself. In her article, the mother says that in her son’s English 101 class, they didn’t read books. “They watched movies instead. Jake got an A- in the course.” If the boy’s job in the class is to watch movies, not comprehend books, and he still gets only an A- in it, something isn’t right; I get As in Advanced Language Arts, and we do read books in that class. The mother, that cares so much about her child that she insults him again, also says, “They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week.” I’m younger than her high school son and I know that Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Japan—the Axis Powers—fought the United Kingdom, United States, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics—the Allies—in World War II (and the only reason she knows this is because she’s older than dirt), that there are two pints in a quart, and that the days are Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; so it is not the whole generation of kids that don’t know it, just her stupid son that follows after his stupid mother. Finally, in his article on Esquire, Chuck Klosterman says, “It’s the rock-throwers that get things done.” This means that if Sandy wants something done about her son’s education, she should stop typing away at her keyboard and do something about it. I don’t believe that the next generation of kids is full of the stupid, but, since their parents aren’t able to do anything about their child’s education, even if they think that their children are stupid, then the stupidity falls onto them.
Alexis Sprenger 10/8/13 I don't believe us teenagers are stupid. Sandy has a point that the world is changing and I believe her but she makes it sound that the next generation is going to be full of stupidity. We all have some type technology these days that we spend too much time on, but we all find time to do our homework and study. You have stated “ They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week. (He’s shaky on the months, too.) This is the reflection on you. He is a junior in high school and he doesn’t know the days of the week or the months of the year. We are teenagers; we have cellphones, computers, and iPods if you think as a parent that we he is spending too much time on these devices then take it away from him! Just remember since technology came out it has been growing rapidly and in the next 20 years there are going to be more advanced items. As us teenagers we want all the newest devices. Not because we are stupid or to learn the months of the year, but to engage in new things and expand our brains to new things. Yes we could do that by reading a 300 page book and learning things from there but our generation isn’t about reading it’s about technology. Stupid isn’t the word to describe us teenagers. We learn from our parents and what our parents do and follow in their footsteps and by you saying that your son doesn’t know the months of the year are a reflection on you because you’re the one who should have taught him that.
In an article written by Sandy Hingston she asks, “Is it just us, or are our kids getting really stupid?” The answer is, it’s just you. I’m utterly offended by this piece of trash you wrote about students. She rudely wrote, “Children today seem, well, dumber than they used to. They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week. (He’s shaky on the months, too.)” Now, you’re son who is a junior in high school may be the one who is really stupid, but not all the students. Considering you are the mother to Jake and helped him learn the days of the week or the months of the year show that you weren’t such a smart mother. You say that we are all dumb, but every student and child are different. I and plenty other students know how to use the ruler and know that Friday comes before Saturday and after Thursday and that in one quart there is two pints. In this article you talk to about three students and already assume you know the inside of a teenage brain when you obviously don’t. When you stated, “Junior year was bad for him and me — we never seemed to have anything nice to say to one another.” If you can’t even hold a conversation with your son without getting mad at him or vice versa shows that you don’t know teens. Technology ruined us all, as a whole. Not just me or just all the students, everybody. You said it yourself, “And I’m trying my damnedest to ignore the bouncing symbol, to get my important work done … and I. Just. Can’t. I have to click. I have to see. I have to bite the apple.” Yet, you continue to put my self esteem down about how we overuse technology when you do the same. Now, you wouldn’t appreciate it if I wrote an article about how stupid adults are getting. If adults alike to you can spend time in front of technology screens, students can’t? Using spell check or google for answers doesn’t mean you are dumb, it means you are smart enough to use your resources.
The article, Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?” by Sandy Hingston is just plain horrible. First, she’s talking about teenage stereotypes, not actual people. I refuse to believe that anyone of this generation is that dumb. If her son really doesn’t know the days of the week, then he needs help, and is most definitely not an accurate representation of the mondern teenager’s intelligence. SHe needs to spend more time educating her son instead of writing off his whole generation. While we are not highly articulate, or spend as much time in a library, but we are not a doomed generation of idiots. I do admit that we spend too much time online, especially myself, but that doesn’t make us idiots. Also, reading classic novels does not make you a genius, and not reading them does not make you an idiot. They might increase language skills, but they’re not going to do a whole lot for us in our practical lifetime.I will say that we are lazier, but those of us who do apply ourselves or just enjoy learning, are just as intelligent, if not more so, than the last generation. The rest of us can at least use a ruler. So Sandy, yes, it is just you.
What Sandy Hingston's article consists of is false accusation against our generation, however she bases these assumptions on her own son. “They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week. (He’s shaky on the months, too.)” This rubbish she calls an article is solely based on her son’s lack of knowledge. To state that our generation is becoming "dumber" because her son does not know the days of the week seems like an excuse for her lack of parenting. A question for Hingston is that, how were you not aware of the fact that your son did not know the days of week? “Junior year was bad for him and me — we never seemed to have anything nice to say to one another.” Was your relationship with him so distant that you did not realize he didn’t know Thursday came after Wednesday and before Friday? She blames the rapidly growing use of technology for the cause of our generation becoming stupid, when in reality it is her ignorance and stupidity that has caused her son to be that way.
This editorial is in fact true! Well, most of it. The fact that kids are dumb, period? I don't think so! But, Sandy Hingston is definitely right about how technology makes us stupid. And she mentions that it is supposed to be our new future, and how it was supposed to pave the way and help, but she says it has all gone sour. Like Hingston said, "So the tech stuff isn’t benign, though kids think it is. And it’s been deliberately developed to make it hard for them to turn away." And with that, we don't get our homework or chores done and we have a huge tendency to procrastinate.
I also agree with her on the fact that instead of watching the movie, they should read the book (and maybe watch the movie to compare the two)! I've seen countless movies that were about a book and EVERYTIME they leave something important or enjoyable out of the movie version. Hingston then states,"...the couple tried to read his essays and to listen to his work on audiotape, but it was only after watching a DVD about Emerson that they began to understand him." She starts talking about how this is just how our brains work now, visualizing and watching a movie. And I don't completely agree because everyone has a different learning style, and mine is audio. I like to hear things, so I would read an audio book and everything would just stick.
Although this is not all she says in her editorial, I believe some of her reasons for us being stupid have the same concept. I leave you at this, kids are in fact dumb, but not in a way you would think. And it's because of technology.
Sorry this was past twelve I had to read the article which took a little longer than expected but I had to read and type this on my phone so... I hope it's okay :/
How the author portrays kids these days is not true. Some people may think we are brain dead, but we really do have a lot of knowledge they haven’t seen. When the author said her son doesn’t know the days of the week, that’s just a little sad, but that’s not his fault if his teachers never taught it in Kindergarten. Another thing she mentioned was that we use too much technology and that is what is killing our brains. I do also agree that we do use too much technology and would much rather hang out with someone or talk over the phone instead of text, but to say we spend every second of our lives on technology is a little extreme. Some technology is okay, but she is making it seem like we shouldn’t be using technology at all almost. I think it’s time for her to maybe update into this century and not say in the past where there wasn’t all that much technology. Another thing she mentioned is that the teachers are showing movies and not making the kids read books anymore. This just shows ONE school out of thousands in the country. I have been to many different schools and not one teacher has made us watch the movie before we read the book or just watch the movie. Sometimes we didn’t even watch the movie after a book because our teachers wanted us to focus on imagery. I’ve actually been told all my school life that the movies are never as good as the books and usually the movies are way off from the books. Maybe the author should realize she’s most likely sending her child to a very bad school district and should transfer him to a better school district. Keeping kids from technology is not going to happen completely because it’s the 21st century now and things have changed. Maybe if she tried seeing what it’s like to be a part of this then maybe her opinion would change.
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I am a freshman in high school and I know my days of the week. Congratulations to me, now where’s my sticker? In the editorial, “Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?” the author, Sandy Hingston, states it clearly and bluntly. She thinks kids are stupid. Sandy even goes as far as to insult her own son, who is her flesh and blood, just to try and back up her poorly constructed opinion. I completely disagree with her. Generalizing all teens into one stereotypical category is not the way to form an idea. She writes, “Junior year was bad for him and me — we never seemed to have anything nice to say to one another.” Afterwards, Hingston states, “They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week.” Who is “they”? Sandy is somehow convinced that just because her son is stupid, every other kid in America is stupid as well. And I hate to break to you Sandy, but there are parents who can communicate with their kids and make sure they know that there are two pints in a quart. If Sandy is so appalled by her son’s stupidity, then it would be best if she herself taught him, or took him somewhere to get taught. I’m sure there are many people willing to teach a junior in high school the days of the week. Ask a second grader in the street, even. I bet they would know! It’s clear that Sandy Hingston’s son is stupid because of his lack of a good education and a rapport with his mother. But somehow, Sandy has the idea that technology makes kids stupid. And this is where the lines get blurred. What is technology making us do? Technology allows us to have access to information with a click of a button. Technology allows us to stay connected with others without ever leaving the house. Technology allows us to draw things and read things on a screen. To put it briefly, technology makes kids lazy. We no longer need to visit the library. We no longer need to talk face to face. But technology does not make kids stupid. With technology, we are actually learning more, and at a faster rate. Hingston says, “What is Jake learning when he spends six hours a day on his computer, playing World of Warcraft?” The answer is: nothing. At least nothing that can be graded. By playing World of Warcraft instead of learning the days of the week, Jake is just being lazy. Playing his video games did not make him stupid. He was already stupid beforehand. All in all, Sandy Hingston’s opinion is irrelevant and Sandy Hingston should re-evaluate how she disciplines her son. Technology is the root of Jake’s laziness. Technology is not the cause of his stupidity. And just because Jake is stupid, it doesn’t mean that I, and all the other kids that Sandy called out in her article, are stupid as well.
The article "Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?", in a sense is offending and realistic. Kids now spend too much time on the internet or texting. Since there time is being spent doing other things they don't find the time to read or study. "THE INTERNET WORLD is big and brash and colorful and infinitely engaging, and books are black and white and just sit there." This quote is on point 100% right. Books are boring. Nobody wants to read a boring book when they could go on there phone or computer and actually not be bored while doing so. "They don't know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week. " This statement was the only thing that I could pull out of the article that I didn't agree with. You learn the days of the week in kindergarten.. well at least I did. Its something that you always have to remember so why wouldn't kids know this information? We know basic stuff, we just don't know alot of the complex stuff that requires a lot of thinking. “Take literacy,” she says. “There’s not really less reading. Kids are just reading in smaller chunks. They’re not digging deeply into texts, but they’re reading from a lot of different sources.” I agreed with this like many others because I often don't feel like writing notes on the book that I'm reading. Taking notes though does help understand the book better than if you didn't take notes. Everything makes more sense when you think about it. All in all though the author, Sandy Hinston, of this article is right but wrong in some areas. Kids are stupid but not exactly as stupid as she thinks. Kids still learn their times table, days of the week and they read books in reading class. I don't think technology is to completely blame for this matter. It could just be the fact that kids just don't feel like learning because they don't care what grades they get. Not all the kids are the same. Many are happy to wake up and go to school and learn everyday. Then there are some who could care less. Either way the author did make some good points but maybe over exaggerated a little.
Kids are not stupid, or dumb. We have diffrent brains then the last generation. How many of the adults in this world could hack the schools computer system and shut things down, erase things. Not many. You know how many kids can, a lot. In fact a child with a mental disorder did it just last year at Davies. Other kids were bullying him and he took action cause the teachers would just watch it happen. If adults are so smart why are they letting kids watch movies instead of reading books. If they are so worried about the future generation why are they just sitting by watching it happen. Maybe it's the adults that are stupid because there not doing anything to stop the issue. They say we have short attention spans but when you go to school for six hours a day sometimes you get bored. Not to mention the fact that most of us come home to two hours or more of homework and studying. Yet most of us still manage to do all our homework play sports hang out with friends for hours, and get up before the sun rises in the morning. How hard it must be for the average adult to get up with the sun and go to work. At least for most adults work doesn't follow them home. School is constantly nipping at our heals and we are able to deal with it. If half the adults if the last generation had all this pressure that we have now to do well they would need therapy. Guess who doesn't. The stupors kids. Even though we have become more dependent on technology it dose not make us dumb. The curriculum we have is ten times harder then it was thirty years ago. My mom can't even help my brother, who is in fifth grade, with his homework. She was a teacher! She taught children, but she has no idea what we are doing because it is so different. Kids are stupid? I think not.
The article "Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?" seriously offended me and probably many other kids my age. Hingston basically sums up in her long article that us kids are just stupid which is far from the truth. Yes technology has become a big part of the everyday life of a teenager but they haven't taken over our lives. Hingston states "they don't read. they can't spell." I totally disagree with that opinion. Teenagers are still going off to college, becoming doctors, going far in life. Most of us know how to count, know the days of the week, know how to write essays, etc. Back in the days smart could have had a different definition as it does now in 2013. Sandy talks about how stupid her own kid is. She even says "I'd like some basic knowledge to be inside his head." If she feels that Jake doesn't have any basic knowledge, which he probably does, she should teach him herself. Teachers work extremely hard to teach us kids successful ways and all Sandy does is talk bad about kids, our knowledge, and what we are learning. We still have History, English, World Languages, and Math and most students pass these classes. I will totally say that in some of our classes we learn pointless information but we are still grasping main idea and points. We aren't stupid and it saddens me that an adult with a child of her own says this. My mom will sometimes stress that us teenagers are on our cell phones or computers too much but being a teacher herself, she knows that students still work hard. Technology can even be a plus in school, sometimes. Taking notes, researching, etc. is so much easier and faster on a smart phone. So no, us kids aren't stupid, maybe some kids make stupid decisions now-a-days but we are the next generation and the strongest and smartest of us will bring up a decent generation.
Sandy HIngston's article had very good points. Yes teens in this generation are very lazy and rely on our devices to do things for us, but I have to say she did over exaggerate a bit on how kids are so stupid. Sandy made it seem as though every single teenager in this world and in this generation are incompetent and soo dumb that we cant even say the days of the week. To me that is a huge insult. I understand that yes most kids spend time on Instagram or Facebook but it doesn't mean were incapable of taking care responsibilities that need to be done. She mentioned that her son doesn't know the days of the week of his 9's times table honestly that's would be her fault. Because I'm pretty sure that me along with other millions of teenagers know there times table, maybe her son should get that fixed. Sandy also mentioned that "young people have always rebelled against their elders." Yes we do but if you think about it what makes our rebelling different from teens rebelling in the past cause honestly if you rebel you rebel it has nothing to do with your generation cause kids will always rebel. You tell them to go left they go right. the author was once a kid once right? So is it safe to say that she could have possibly once been stupid to?
This mother obviously has a very strong opinion and it seems that not much-if anything-will be able to change her mind. But I am on the total opposite side, in ways technology is very good for the average teen. One argument that I love is that you can take life improving skills out of these “video games”. As Yasmin Kafai stated in the article, “Over so many hours he’s learned how to master an incredibly complex system. These multi-person games that involve intra-functional teams organize their entrants the way some workplaces do. These are skills that corporate employers are very interested in.” Not that I am anyone’s superior but I think that you need to have a great amount of knowledge to comprehend how this works. I especially don’t think that the average parent could understand-I have self-experiences with this. I have tried several times to defend this argument with my parents, but like most would say, “You are rotting your brain with this violence”, they don’t look in-between all of that. Although I don’t think technology is bad, I also do not think that it is good to use for so long at a time. To prove my point that technology is not making kids stupid and is putting them not on a better course than older ones, but an equally sufficient course, it could be possible that what our elders may think is “stupid” may be the new “smart”.
Well to start off, don’t use the word stupid. It is a slightly offensive term and it would be more appropriate to use the word: Ignorant. Ignorance is bliss as they say, and it is easily recognized that Sandy is having a delightful time living her wonderful, blissful life. Sandy proclaims, “Children today seem, well, dumber than they used to.” What does she know about “Today’s Generation” anyway? Things were a lot different when dinosaurs existed, and when they first discovered fire: Ugah! Ugah! Moreover, Hingston states, “They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart and in Jake’s case, the days of the week.” That right there is unfortunately true, kids aren’t well versed in some basic areas. However, Hingston is not complaining about that, specifically. She is blabbering about “stupidity”. In today’s generation my dear Watson, brilliance is not commonly found amongst those who “know who fought against whom in World War II,” but amidst those who can solve the most/largest problems that the world faces today. I’m not talking about the idiot who made “Pizza Scissors” or the lonely revolutionary who created the “Hug Me” pillow. No, I’m talking about a genius like; Jack Andraka, age 16, who invented a new quicker method to detect pancreatic cancer. With this, he can and will save millions of lives, truly brilliant. If Mrs. Hing-whatever still believes that the 21st generation is “stupid”, I’d actually like to see her make something useful with her life, instead of complaining about a generation that can create a better future.
As I was reading the article “Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Really Getting Stupid” I was actually getting a little offended! She’s comparing us to the dumbest of the dumb, AKA her son. He’s a junior in high school and still doesn’t know the days of the week, or his 9 times tables! I mean if there’s a kid who is asking his parents “Is it day two or day three” then he has lost too many brain cells hitting his head against the wall. Well I really can’t blame Jake for his stupidity because you know what they say, like mother like son. Sandy Hingston isn’t the brightest color in a rainbow and she definitely shows this throughout the article. “Add in eight hours of sleep and seven of school, and that leaves half an hour when their senses aren’t under siege — just enough time for a shower.” Anyone with an I.Q. over 4 should know their basic addition. Or maybe she just doesn’t know there’s 24 hours in a day; her dumb as a doornail son sure doesn’t! Sandy point that kids are stupid doesn’t even make sense because smart parents make sure their kids are smart and doing good in school. They don’t let their kid get an A- in a class that only watches movies. So just to disprove Sandy’s article and make publishing it a waste of her time, it’s really half the parents job to make sure their kid is doing what they need to do. If a parent doesn’t care about their grades then why should the kid?
In the article written by Sandy Hingston, she asks, “Is it just us, or are our kids getting really stupid?” Ummm...no I think it’s just you and that dim-wit son of yours. Not only have you insulted us kids with your rude comments, but also your own son. I completely disagree with you, and the fact that you are labeling all kids “STUPID.” You stated, “ They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War 2, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week.” First of all, who is “they”? Every child is different. Almost all freshmen including myself know that Thursday comes before Friday and after Wednesday, or that there are two pints in a quart. I mean come on, this isn’t 2nd grade! So rather than asking are Kids stupid, you should ask yourself … “Is it just ME, or is MY SON really stupid?” Unlike you, most parents communicate with their children, and actually make sure their child knows their days of the week, conversions, etc. So that goes to show that you weren’t playing the role of a good mother. Because a good mother, unlike you, would have made sure their child was meeting the learning requirements. And if you are so appalled by your son’s stupidity, go hire a tutor! I mean… I’m sure they won’t have a problem teaching a junior in high school the days of the week.
“They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week.” Sandy Hingston son must be incredibly stupid because I’m pretty sure a fourth grader could know all that if they wanted let alone a junior in high school. Hingston had really good points that made sense and that I could relate to like about reading and not really taking in the information like we should but, that shouldn't make us stupid. Technology is a main part of our lives that should be benefiting us for education. Some people go extreme with it like video games which Jake, Sandy’s son, clearly must be addicted to if he doesn't know the days of the week. Social networking can be distracting but if you manage your time on them it shouldn't affect you so much to the point where you get distracted when you’re learning. Like I said before, Hingston does have a good amount of reasons and statistics that kids now a days are “stupid”. Who is she basing this article off of? Her son who seems to be the stupid one. She shouldn't take it out and reflect it on us because she’s wrong. Yes, everyone has their differences and leaning and our generation happens to use technology fortunately. There was many reasonable points made but referring to us as stupid, is totally uncalled for.
Of course kids aren’t stupid. A select few are, but not all of them. Even if they were stupid, it’s a parent’s job to insure that students don’t grow up writing “papers that are pastiches of plagiarism” because how your child acts is a reflection on you. Sandy Hingston is blaming students for being ‘stupid’ when students are taught how to act, read, and write. The quote from the passage, “I want to believe my kids aren’t like this — that I’ve taught them how to be discerning, how to stand up for themselves and think critically,” proves that children are brought up on different perspectives on what stupid is or isn’t or what critical thinking really is. How do we know that the way Hingston taught her kids the way to stand up for themselves wasn’t violent? That might be her definition of what’s right. There are other things to know besides “who fought against whom in World War II…”. Kids aren’t stupid because we make ourselves stupid, we don’t. We act based off of the people we look up to. I was always taught to never take stupidity because it was a waste of time, because that’s the way I was raised. And if your teenage son doesn’t know the months of the year or days of the week Sandy Hingston, maybe you should have thought of another way to teach critical thinking.
Although many kids are offended and should be after reading “Is It Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?” written by Sandy Hingston, Mrs. Hingston does make many valid points. Many of my classmates are freaking out by what Mrs. Hingston is saying because the truth hurts. As Mrs.Hingston wrote, “They may be taking every AP and Honors course their schools offer, but they can’t tell you who invented pasteurization.” or when she wrote, “They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints in a quart...” many kids do not know the answer to those questions. For one thing, students only know what they were taught in class, students no longer have “time” to learn other things because they use their time stupidly. Technology has been a big obstacle in kid’s learning, in 2004 there were 1 million Facebook users, in March of 2013 there were around 1.11 billion users. In 2012 ninety-four percent of teens who used social networking had a facebook. In addition, Mrs.Hingston wrote, “Isn’t it self-evident my son would be a better student, better future employee, better human being, if he spent six hours a day reading Tolstoy and listening to Bach instead of playing WoW?” Although many will disagree and say they do read and don’t play video games, statistics show that from ages 8-12 play around thirteen hours of video games and ages 13-18 play fourteen hours a week. Overall, I may be the only one but I do agree with Mrs. Hingston, technology should be benefiting us however for many it is becoming a huge obstacle in their success in learning.
"Children today seem, well, dumber than they used to. They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week." I would love to know where you are getting this information from. I can guarantee you more than 95% of honor students in high school know all of this. Don't take your bad parenting out on all the kids who you think are "stupid" because your son is a dumbass. If he can't restate the days of the week or months, he simply should not be in high school. Are there stupid kids? Of course there are, and most of them don't care what they get grade wise or where they go in life. However, a majority of the students have plans on going and doing something productive in their life time. Sandy doesn't need to bash children as a whole because there are kids who are intelligent. Certainly more intelligent then you! This editorial is very poorly written. She puts us children in a group that is very stereotypical and spits on us in our grave. Sandy's son is mentally impaired because of his poorly educated mother. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree and it clearly shows in this piece of garbage editorial.
In this reading the author, Sandy Hingston, uses a small percentage of kids and relates them to our whole generation. If you son, who is a high school grad, does not know his nine times tables or his days of the week there is a problem. I am certain that I know mine. She states that kids go home and spend 8 hours watching television or playing video games, another 8 sleeping, leaving half an hour to take a shower. I get home at 6 o'clock every night if I'm lucky. The most I have watched television this year has been on the weekends. Our generation consists of kids who choose not to apply themselves to do better. But that is not all of us so we should not be titled as "dumb". One of the many reasons why some students get so distracted is because kids are put under a ton of pressure and deal with stress. Additionally, we're often accused of being obsessed with technology. I do not think that we are obsessed, it's just the way we grew up and it's what were used to dealing with all the time. It is absurd that we are always titled and known because of the kids who do not apply themselves. We are never recognized by the students that spend 6 hours on their homework, or the ones that read above their grade level. Many people say we are judge mental. In reality they only see the bad in us.
Jasmine Newsome The author of this article clearly doesn’t understand the new age that we have entered. She’s saying that kids are completely dumb because of how we depend on technology for everything (which is wrong). Technology was made for people to use it, to help make things easier so why not use it. I agree that some kids are more stupid than others because of the constant use of technology and depending on it as crutch to get them through the day. But I also have to say that using technology is a great thing. Some of the smartest people in the world today use technology on an everyday bases. In the century we’re in, technology is needed for everyday tasks. The author of this story actually uses her son as an example of how stupid kids really are. She mentions that her son doesn’t even know the days of the week. Now come on that’s just pathetic. Honestly if a child in high school doesn’t know the days of the week than something is going on in that brain of his. I don’t think the author can call every kid in the world stupid just based on her son. Just because your son is not the brightest it doesn’t give you a reason to assume everyone else is. I think it’s time that the author stops holding on to the past ways and except that were moving into a technology driven society. The learning style is different than in the past and it’s time we start moving on. Technology is actually making us smarter in ways you could never imagine.
This article written by Sandy Kingston really surprised me since she, herself , has a child. Saying that kids are dumb really affected me in a negative way. There is no sides to her argument that I agree with. In some cases I can see where the author is coming from. In this article however there is nothing I can understand. I would never call one of the kids I go to school with dumb. Now do some make poor decisions to make them come off as dumb, of coarse. Sandy states, “children today seem, well, dumber than they used to.” just because we know the benefits of the new technology does not mean she can rag on us for using it. If Sandy were a kid in this day in age she would be doing exactly what we are. We have the answers at the tips of our fingers. Sandy also makes it sound like we never read a book in our life. I have no clue where that came from because the way I was taught how to read was with a book. To be completely honest I do not know what kid would not be offended by this. Maybe having a child of her own was not the best idea if she thinks kids are dumb. Sandy Kingston needs to come into my Honors English class and ask my teacher how many books do we read during the year and I guarantee the answer will not be none.
In Sandy Hingston’s absurd article “Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?” she makes some very honest points about kids in this generation. On the other hand, I was truly disgusted with how stupid she made students today sound. Although she was correct about how much time we spend on our phones and laptops, she did not have to make us out to be a bunch of idiots with the IQ’s of doorknobs. How dumb does this lady think we are? I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason her son is so stupid is because she doesn’t know how to be a parent and tell him to get off of world of war craft. What makes Sandy and other parents think that technology makes us dumber and they’re so much smarter than us? Yes, we do get most of our information on the internet but, we are still taught the same curriculum just in different ways. We still have to pass exams and state tests that prove we have learned up to the same requirements as Sandy once did. Sandy tells us how kids are so dumb that they don’t know how to use rulers. “Children today seem, well, dumber than they used to. They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week. (He’s shaky on the months, too.)” I don’t know how much different her son’s school is than mine but, I can honestly say that everyone in my grade knows how to use a ruler and knows the days of the week. I also don’t understand why she thinks old fashioned is so much better than new technology. Yes, it is much harder to find the answer to a question by going to the library and looking it up but, that doesn’t mean that children today aren’t learning by researching information on the internet. Just because information comes easier to us today, doesn’t mean that we are slackers who aren’t as educated as past generations. It is only human nature to use our resources and the internet just happens to be one of them. I’m sure if Sandy had the opportunity to use the internet in school she would've. I do not agree with Sandy’s point of view because she barely even has her facts straight. Students today are not dumb because of technology. Maybe Sandy is just dumb for thinking that.
Wow. Never thought in a million years I was “stupid”. Thanks Sandy. I’m literally heart-broken now. In her oh-so-amazing editorial, “Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?” she tells us, without a shame in the world, that kids are basically a disgrace to the human race. Now it’s my turn, without a shame in the world, to say that you, Sandy Hingston, are wrong. We may not be the brightest crayon in the crayon box, but you have to realize—we come from a totally different generation. According to Hingston, “They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week.” All I have to say to that is—where’s your proof, Sandy? I’m sure, as a “smart” person, you’d know that you always back up your reasons. All because Jake’s your son and he doesn’t know a single thing, doesn’t give you the right to assume that all the other millions of kids are like him too. Not trying to brag or anything, but I can tell you EXACTLY who fought against whom in World War II, the CORRECT number of pints are in a quart, AND the days of the week. Am I still stupid? You’re probably thinking, “Oh she’s just a little girl. She doesn’t know anything.” Well I have you know, I’m not alone on this. Professors at Penn’s Graduate School of Education even stated, “And as far as [we’re] concerned, the kids are all right” You may think technology is responsible for our stupidity, but what do you know? You’re wrong again! They only reason why your son—and many other kids out there—are stupid is because of their lack of perseverance. They don’t strive for the goods grade and new knowledge like some do (aka laziness). Or maybe they’re just smart in a different way. Like with art, sports, etc. You don’t necessarily have to be good with books to be classified as a “smart person”. So Sandy Hingston, I’m sorry to say this, but your editorial is out of commission. I mean, after all, we ARE the future of America. We have to have some intelligence in us, right?
Sandy Hingston, your question was, “Is it just us, or are kids getting really stupid?” The answer to that question is that it’s just you Hingston. Now, my question is have you ever met another teenager in your life? I ask that because suddenly, you just made your son the representative of all teenagers in the US. Not every teenager in the US is stupid. Every teenager is different but I could certainly say that we aren’t all dumb. Technology is not making us stupid either because it’s not like during class everybody is on the phone doing whatever. If they do that, then it’s the school’s fault for not caring what students do. From what I read, your son needs help, so don’t compare me to him. You said your son doesn’t know the days of the week and he’s a senior. My sister is in the first grade and she knows the days of the week. Plus, she knows the months; in order. That just proves our generation isn’t dumb. Not knowing the days of the week is like saying you don’t know what two plus two is; or does your son not know that either? Now, enough about your son because I could go on all night about how your son is stupid; let’s talk about you Hingston. You said your son told you he took AP English and they haven’t read one book that whole year; and that all they do is watch movies. Think about that for a second; AP English, no reading, no work, just movies. What kind of school does your son go to!? Hingston, if you were a good mother you would have went to the school and asked what is wrong with their curriculum, or at least taught your son something yourself. However, instead of doing that, you decided to post it on the internet hoping some people would complain with you and take your side like a little teenage girl. And you said we’re the ones with our faces glued to screens; you little hypocrite. How about you stop thinking every teenager is like your son and do something about him because I’m worried about this guy Hingston. Let’s start by letting him study a calendar.
Dumb. This is the word that Mrs. Hingston uses. Dumb, such a strong word, is it not? The definition of dumb is stupid, unintelligent, or foolish. Hingston constantly speaks about how this generation has no knowledge of anything because they can search any answers up on the computer simply by typing in the question. However, why must this generation know all the information that previous generations have learned when there is now the option to search it up on the internet? Why know what 100 times 13 equals when they can get an instant answer? I’m not saying that they shouldn’t learn anything and they should depend on technology for all their knowledge, such as reading or writing, I am implying that we should be allowed to be dependent on technology. Is that not what it’s for, to make our lives easier? This world is adapting making newer and newer devices every day and it’s our jobs as humans to adapt with the world. On the contrary, when it comes to socializing, the 21st century is depending on technology way too much. “Back in the day” teenagers used to have verbal conversations with correct grammar and most people had a bigger variety of friends because they were forced talk to everyone. Today, if we have to contact someone its abbreviations and slang on a text. Not in person, a text. In today’s society if you don’t have a cell-phone or Facebook account it is very difficult to ask people if they want to hang out because now asking someone in person is considered weird. With the constant use of technology to build relationships and connections we can’t forget who we truly are. The Gutenberg Elegies says, “our inwardness, our self-reflectiveness, our orientation to the unknown.” In other words: a soul.” We can’t forget our true souls. Nevertheless, educationally this generation is not getting “dumber”, however social skills is where they lack knowledge.
In 2010, Sandy Hingston decided to publish her pointless and never-ending rant, “Is It Just Us Or Are Kids Really Getting Stupid?’, in The Philly Mag. She believed the new generation of youth was less intelligent than the previous ones, especially because of technology. The whole editorial was garbage. For one thing, she was generalizing one generation off of lets-face-it, a dull pitchfork in the toolshed of knowledge. The rest all know the order of the months and days of the weeks. Moreover, these young adults are learning with different resources than what were available before, emphasis on the word learning. Yasmin Kafai from Penn’s Graduate School of Education explained about video games, “Over so many hours, he’s learned how to master an incredibly complex system. These multi-person games that involve intra-functional teams - ‘guilds’, they call them - organize their entrants the way some workplaces do.” (mentioned in the article on page 3) All people involved in education know everyone discovers lessons differently. While the last generation might have readers, this one has more scenario-type learners. Furthermore, some points demonstrated were more focused on today’s culture instead of the question of intelligence. “Isn’t it self evident that my son could be a better student, a better future employee, better human being, if he spent six hours a day reading Tolstoy and listening to Bach instead of playing WoW?” (page 3) The woman seems as if she’s mad with the whole world, and tried to fit in one writing piece. Until she can back up her point with real evidence and write on point, I cannot respect her as a writer.
Are children and teens truly becoming dumber, more idiotic and much more egotistical with age? Many would give a resounding “Yes!” to that statement after reading “Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?” by Sandy Hingston however, there’s a more logical stand point to looking at this article and that’s taking a look at the so called research. To refute her opinion that kids are truly becoming idiotic let’s first take a look at whom she uses as her first example, her own son. She says “…my son Jake’s junior year of high school, he took an AP English course. Junior year was bad for him and me — we never seemed to have anything nice to say to one another. But Jake did like to read, and it occurred to me at some point that perhaps I could use his AP English course to connect with him.” Pretty simple, yes? Well in the next few lines her problem begins to appears, “… I was glad when, for his senior year, Jake proposed taking an English course at the local community college. Come September, he and a buddy drove to the college every Monday night and sat for three hours in English 101 — where they never once read a book. They watched movies instead.
Jake got an A- in the course.” This part here is where her point begins, her child never once read a book and received an A- in the course here is where her thoughts start to develop about children today. The belief that kids have becoming dumber over there years is nothing new, parents blame many different things from the start of technology with the same sayings and same ideas that their parents had about their generation. It’s a continuous cycle but, the question is does it really ring true or not? Well Sandy seems to believe it as her article is exactly what it says it’s about. Yet, it’s been repeated and through history we can actually see the quality of education improving greatly and knowledge expanding however, even with the obvious facts to support her opinion she says “In the past decade, the number of college grads who can interpret a food label has fallen from 40 percent to 30 percent. An American child is six times more likely to know who won American Idol than the name of the Speaker of the House. (For more bad news, see the sidebar on page 59.) Reading and writing scores both fell on the 2008 SATs. Not long ago, a high-school teacher in California handed out an assignment that required students to use a ruler — and discovered not a single one of them knew how. “The only example that holds any weight would have to be the 2008 SATs scores the rest is complete and utter nonsense with imaginary weight.
Her examples for simply supporting her reason and to help try to support her reason are like said above nonsense with little weight. She then tries to bring in the internet as a distraction for kids as a point. Which, it honestly is and always has been her opinion on it and then goes into some actually goes into a semi convoluted point about bottom-up and top down attention. The transition from one to the other with her explanation makes little sense for bottom-up attention has to do with inductive reasoning rather than deductive reasoning in top down attention. Each of the ways to reason and break down the information use different ways of taking it in so, why mention them both when she just goes onto say the same thing? Because she uses it to Segway into the fact that deductive reasoning or top down attention is part of what Western civilization is built upon with the literature that comes with it. The fact a person must focus to read and conclude is unnatural because it “…requires us to filter out distractions and focus our attention on a single task.” And the internet can be a distraction for our attention with the bright and colorful and constant stimuli to the brain. Constant input to the one part of the brain where the attention for quick and joyous things is very quickly refreshed while, the part of the brain that we require to read, write and focus on tasks for the long run are very easily tired out and take a long time to recover so, it’s obvious why the internet is very distracting. This is all true the way it’s presented though doesn’t support her point as solid as it could because other points and reasons why information is not ingested properly as much which she doesn’t mention. For instance, the fact many of us, children, teen, and adult alike are not receiving the required sleep needed for proper memory removal and reinforcing in the brain causes the bonds between information to be not as strong. This has had a study done in Scientific American’s 2013’s magazine has a title aptly named “How Sleep Shapes Memory” with its main article “Perchance to Prune” by Giulio Tononi and Chiara Cirelli says “…neurons in the sleeping brain fire neatly as often as they do in a waking state, and they consume almost as much energy. What is the point of this unceasing activity at a time when we are supposedly resting? Why does the conscious mind disconnect so completely from the external environment while the brain keeps nattering on? The brain’s activity during rest likely serves some essential functions. When we are awake, memories form as neurons that get activated together strengthen their links. Sleep researchers have assumed that during sleep, reactivation of these neuronal circuits reinforces the links. But just the opposite may occur: mounting evidence suggests that the spontaneous firing during sleep may weaken synapses, or contact points between neurons in many roused circuits.” This all ultimately means that while we sleep useless contact points or memories seen as neurons in the brain are weakened allowing for stronger more important contact points to have stronger bonds in comparison and allow us to remember such. If we don’t get as much sleep then how are those bonds supposed to weaken so others can be reinforced? Exactly they can’t be and with as much information we are bombarded with means we can’t digest it all.
Moreover, instead of using more fact she takes her son (yet, again) and uses him as an example for the entire generation of teenagers. “We may have an infinite amount of information at our fingertips, Chatterjee says, but “we don’t actually ingest that information in such a way that it gets deeply encoded.” And that explains why my son doesn’t know the days of the week.” She uses the that reason of we can’t deeply encode information as way to say why her son doesn’t know the days of the week and applies this to most if not all other children. However, does that mean a point such as hers is correct in use? No, not all! Just because something is distracting doesn’t explain why her son can’t remember the days of the week. That’s like saying that if you can’t remember how many minutes just passed because you were staring up the sky means that you won’t remember anything at all anymore. And since her son doesn’t the know the days of the week and wants some “…basic knowledge to be inside his head.” That he obviously hasn’t retained why can’t she, herself, unplug him from his internet, his phone and have him sit down with a book? Perhaps the problem with kids becoming dumber is not with distraction because television, comic books and friends provide the same but, rather with the education and the parents of the students? Children are moldings of their environment after all. Moving onto the section about Elliot Weinbanum we don’t seem to get much fact here instead we see some interesting things about her son that make sense on why he’s incredibly slow. The only piece that comes to a solid piece of fact is found in these two paragraphs, “Weinbaum and his colleagues are, when it comes to education, the deciders — the men and women who study how and what schoolchildren learn, how teachers teach, and how both can do better. And as far as they’re concerned, the kids are all right. They acknowledge that there are differences in how kids learn these days, but … well, let professor Janine Remillard explain. “Take literacy,” she says. “There’s not really less reading. Kids are just reading in smaller chunks. They’re not digging deeply into texts, but they’re reading from a lot of different sources.” Besides, these educators say, we don’t have solid data to tell us what kids really did know 30 or 40 years ago, not to mention that the American education system is struggling to decide exactly what should be taught now, given the ever-increasing possibilities. The Penn profs see the world changing, not our kids.” The rest is about how her son plays “…six hours a day on his computer, playing World of Warcraft…” and her over generalization of the generation. “Still, it seems obvious that kids like Jake — meaning most kids — are spending way too much time at one thing instead of learning all they could. Isn’t it self-evident that my son would be a better student, better future employee, better human being, if he spent six hours a day reading Tolstoy and listening to Bach instead of playing WoW?” Is a perfect example of herself at actually showing her over generalization of the current generation where she compares most kids to her own son which, is one unquestionably wrong to do. To collect data to help support that the majority of kids is like her son there would have to have been a study and poll in order to support that. The observations only go so far and if the use of them is Jake and the two high achieving girls to summarize an entire generation of children and teens is a little unfathomable. In addition she tries to say that by reading the classics and listening to classical music can make someone a better person while, this can work in few and far in between cases just because, a child prefers to listen to other selective forms of music to give them a more variety and read from different sources gives them a broader perspective, a broader perspective is better than a narrow one.
Although not summarizing and disapproving the entire article would seem lazy but, continuing on would seem redundant in the answers with reused, recycled refutes. The whole idea of the article was that kids through the ages are becoming less intelligent, less knowledgeable, not as wise however, Sandy Hingston’s entire basis from beginning to end of the majority of kids was her son Jake. The overgeneralization is simply outrageous while, she tries to support the idea with weak examples and few in depth analysis of the facts given. She didn’t consider the fact that most kids do not sit six hours playing WoW until their brains rot from the inside their skull and didn’t take time to actually research how children are today. Perhaps with more time the article could have been rather solid with good balance between facts and opinion however, this is not the case and this article too much opinion and basis to be able to reference this as a good source for what it’s title is about.
In the editorial, “Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?” the author, Sandy Hingston, articulates openly to the matter that kids are stupid. She makes valid points through the article but not enough to hide the detail that she must be crazy to put her own son’s failures on the internet, which is in fact she wants students to stay off of, for the world to see. Who is to say that her son does not know his own days of the week and months? Is the any proof to what she writes; is there truth to what she says about the classes her child took? How can I believe that a person in high school does not know the days of the week or even how to function with a ruler? Frankly being a high school student myself I just don’t believe it. I don’t believe her son is stupid, where is the proof to tell me I’m wrong. I have not heard him stumble while reciting the days of the week. I have not seen the children in the Californian high school scratch their heads at the sight of a simple ruler. I can only believe in what I see in the exception of magic. And this certainly is not a magic trick. Sometimes it’s not the students fault, can teachers do no wrong. Maybe the parents were at fault. The author of this article apparently did not of her own son’s problem and continued with her life for the next 10 or some years without realizing or having the slightest concern that her son hasn’t learned his days of the weeks or months. Maybe instead of bashing on kids she hasn’t met she should stick to teaching her own child and make him better in his life. Sandy Hingston continues throughout the editorial to illogically assume that what you see is what you get. Not all students are like the ones she finds at the most randomness locations. Some want to learn about everything others don’t. Some students want to read the books instead of watching them. Who is she to judge of the 100 of thousands of students that know the basic things, who is she to say that the children of America are not fit or qualified to run a successful life. She has not experienced our generation of inspiring mathematician, doctor’s and architects. Some high schoolers don’t apply themselves. How is she to know their secret talents when she is too busy being a stereotypical person of how high school students are viewed in this day and age? The answer is she doesn’t. This general speaking thing Sandy Hingston has going on in this editorial is extremely demeaning to every great high school scholar and to every student planning to attend high school on account of academics.There are those few who take it upon themselves to know who the speaker of the house is (John Boehner) and maybe they know who invented pasteurization too(Louis Pasteur). We are the future and should know these things but just because we don’t, doesn’t make us automatically stupid.
Hingston has no idea what the future hold for any person let alone her own heir. For the reason that occasionally reading “stone carved list of books since 1950’s” excites students to see their influential writers come to life with their own mind’s imaginations. Many unknown authors are the most critical in their writing; it may date back before the 1950’s but that only makes them a base for every writer to come after including Sandy Hingston. Those are the authors who have wrote the greatest works of art known to man such as Mary Shelly the writer of Frankenstein and Shakespeare who wrote the everlasting heart of Romeo and Juliet. The true creator of true love. When people say “I will die without you next to me” does anyone ever think about the contents of the actual meaning, if so where is it that your mind takes you? Sandy Hingston has no right to say the crucial things she exaggerates. The older the writing the more intelligent the words seem to be. Over the years our language has not evolved into something less artistic using shorter words and phrases to get a point across. When hearing the words of a classic novel or documents from the civil war there is a difference to be seen through which how authors spoke their minds in terms in which we are so invested in not to understand. Technology can be the biggest distraction in the entire world but it can be the thing that saves your entire life. Using technology does not make a person stupid. It makes them resourceful. In the case of 24’7 usage of this device things can get pretty debatable. There should be time to social face to face. Now a day there is not face to face contact as in the generations before. But it doesn’t mean are the idiot generation expected to fail. This exact purpose is sometimes the reason why most high school student doesn’t let out emotion to just about anyone. They are afraid if their voice is heard they will be judged. And with today’s technology it will happen. There is no denying of this issue. Though the guardians should not be the ones making the accusations directed at a younger subject whether it is one of their own or in general (Sandy Hingston). Some students are in a constant fight in the uphill battle to get rid of the distractions. But when Sandy Hingston says she has caught herself more than once incapable of denying an email or text herself what chance is there for anyone else to. What chance is there for the “innocent” high schoolers to fight the battle themselves when they live in a world of negatively brought to you buy yours truly Sandy Hingston. In my opinion technology has to paths. Technology can either save us from ourselves or destroy us one text at a time.
“Children today seem, well, dumber than they used to. They don’t know the most basic stuff” (1) Sandy Hingston honestly has no idea what she is talking about if she is really going to say that. Just because her child is dumb doesn't mean the rest of us are. I mean if you don't know your days of the week then maybe you should be back in the second grade. So what if we like technology? So what if most of us would rather watch a movie then read a book? Its how we were raised to do things; it doesn't matter what his teachers taught him. After all she was the one who raised her son to be dumb, if you're not satisfied you could teach him yourself. Considering you think you’re just extremely smart maybe you should become a teacher and teach us the stuff you think we should know. Yes, I know not all of us are little einsteins but most of us are pretty darn close. Sandy is blaming technology for us not knowing the basic knowledge. But guess what? Most of the things I ever read are off of my technological device. Sandy stupidly states,“They may be taking every AP and Honors course their schools offer, but they can’t tell you who invented pasteurization.” (1) I bet she doesn't even know that answer. We all know the basics of learning and we don't have time to learn all of the frivolous material she may think is important. So the next time someone says that kids are dumb or stupid maybe they should check on the average student and not their thick headed son who doesn't even know the days of the week.
Sandy Hingston, you are a terrible person. First off, just to say that kids are getting stupid is downright awful to say. There are young minds who are brilliant in their own ways. Then to say that your child is stupid, is just appalling to me, who says that to their own child. you must not care very much how your child feels. As you explain, “they may be taking Ap and Honors courses their schools offer, but they can’t tell you who invented pasteurization”. Hingston, the reason why there’s Ap and Honors courses provided for the school isn’t for the things you do in the class, but the way you think later on. Some of those Ap courses help you think outside the box and help you look at the world in a different way. The way your thinking though, is too much inside the box. Also, you see technology as a distraction, but many other parents would agree that technology is a helpful tool for research, writing papers, and also much easier than driving to a library and trying to find the right book for a half an hour or so. Do you not notice that you’re representing your own son as the leader of so called “stupid teenagers” as you represent us as. There are so many great minds out there. A boy by the name of Boyan Slat,19, has just designed a device that could be able to remove 7250000 tons of plastic from the world’s oceans. Now, do you think that Boyan Slat is stupid? 19 years old, huh, isn’t your son around that age? Next time you write an article about something, write something that makes sense, and doesn’t make me want to throw up!
In Sandy Hingstons article, she does prove a point; We do spend most of our time behind a screen. Technology has influenced the way we do things and think in a tremendous amount of ways. But, we are not stupid. She could have used a way better word other than stupid, a word that doesn't offend anyone. It seems like she used her son to represent us, and since he is "stupid" we are too. That's not right. she states, "They don't know most of the basic stuff: who fought against who in World War ll, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake's case the days of the week (he's shaky on months too)." Yeah, don't get me wrong most teens don't know who fought against who in World War ll but they know that The United States fought. I know for a fact that if she asked any kid above the age 7 they can definitely tell you the days of the week and months of the year without any help. If her son is in junior-high school or higher and he is a "little shaky on the months" there is a problem. I am a freshman, I am in all honor classes, i take two maths, and spend most of my time behind a screen; does that make me stupid? No! not at all. Sandy can not compare us or categorize us with her son, it is her fault her son is really ignorant. It is her fault her son spends so much time behind a screen as a mother you are in control, take his phone away make him actually read a book since you are so upset with his stupidity. Maybe he has a learning disability you never know, its not nice to call other people stupid. Im not really nice. In fact, Hingston also proves her stupidity by, Mostly blaming technology for everything. For the ones who are "stupid" or who I like to call ignorant can blame their mothers and fathers, or maybe they just couldn't afford to be educated. Like really come on. Stated in the article "Adults have always been afraid to of their culture being lost, Penn's Sharon Ravitch declares." To be honest, the "culture" basically has already been lost a long time ago. Times has changed. That isn't our fault, or technologies fault either. The fact that she cant even make up her mind shows her ignorance. "Maybe kids aren't stupider at all; maybe the new ways of learning are really different. Not inherently worse." Duh! Sandy. Learning has changed. Everything has changed, and she acts like that is hard to comprehend that. Hingston says that, "they don't ready, they can't spell." I totally disagree because if that was the case we wouldn't be able to read and "keep up with 440+ facebook friends", upadate our statuses, and sign up for social networks. All of things requires reading and spelling. I'm guessing when she is saying they she is talking about her son. I may have some mistakes in my spelling but I can spell, I may not know every word but I can read, and it's okay because i'm still learning. She isn't very conscious of her word choice she didn't have to say we are getting stupider. She could have simply said she feels as though our knowledge has decreased, states a few reasons why and there. Shes done. Really, all we have to do is manage our time, spend less time on social networks, focus a little more on academics and we'll be okay. Study more, we can bring SAT scores up, we can always gain more knowledge. She, on the other hand is always going to be known as "the lady who wrote an article about stupid teens, but is stupid herself." It amazes me how people think.
It is true that some kids are "stupid," but that's because they don't try to be smart. Sandy is basing the article on the kids that she knows and met already, which isn't fair for the rest of the kids who actually try. If you look at what other people are commenting on Sandy's article, you will see that not only kids disagreed with it. I don't know about other people, but I would rather watch a movie than read a book. Books are time consuming and could take you a really long time to read, while movies are two hours long and explain what the book is about. By the way pasteurization was invented by Louis Pasteur. Does Sandy go off topic a lot or is it just me? I think "LAST JANUARY, a young Florida mother was trying to play FarmVille on Facebook, but her three-month-old son kept crying. So she shook him to death" was an unnecessary sentence, because she says that kids can't live without technology and then she says a mom was playing a game on Facebook. Honestly, Sandy should worry about her son and getting him the help he needs, since he is a high-school grad and doesn't know that Wednesday comes after Tuesday.
In response to “Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?” by Sandy Hingston I don’t even know where to begin. This article opens with a conversation between what appears to be two human beings, although exceptionally low in intelligence. It appears the author of the article is quite concerned about her son’s intellect. Really, coming from the woman whose kid doesn’t know the days of the week? It’s obviously her terrible parenting skills and her lack of distinguishing salt from cocaine that caused this child’s horrid existence. Of course, technology, like usual, is to blame. Excuse me, but who has been doing homework since he’s got home, and still has hours and hours more? I understand this being a problem for kids with small attention spans, but for the average child, this should not falter a child’s ability to learn. Of course, since technology is the clear culprit in a world of a thousand other things to blame, she elaborates on how we spend too much time online. Well, maybe you spent too much writing terrible articles instead of teaching your kid the days of the week. This alleged human also falsely accuses us of being easily distracted, which I honestly find offending. Next, I’d like to draw your attention to this load of garbage, “‘We may have an infinite amount of information at our fingertips’, Chatterjee says, ‘but we don’t actually ingest that information in such a way that it gets deeply encoded.’ And that explains why my son doesn’t know the days of the week”. Like before, the blame falls upon the endless resource of information, the internet. You can’t really blame her for thinking this way though, my brain would be pretty jumbled too if I did meth. Like any other drug-driven journalist, she makes a remark about how her “AP student” spends six hours a day playing World of Warcraft. I’m sure he passes all of his classes. Further down in the article, the creature makes up a human being that takes all AP courses, three sports, and is running for class president. While this human only exists in the depths of her stoned imagination, she convinces herself that this is humanly possible. Since most freshman struggle with honors course, all AP and multiple extracurricular activities would be obnoxious. Of course, this prophet has enough time to spend a half hour on Facebook, and acts like it’s nothing. If she was real, I would want to see her therapist, because I sure need one (my mom should be making an appointment). And while I would love to rant about this horrible excuse for an article for ten more paragraphs, homework awaits me, and maybe a couple days from now, sleep (or maybe History class). Thus, I leave you with a question: Are we getting stupider, or are we too smart for her to comprehend?
Sandy has valid reasons to back up her opinion on how she sees this generation of kids. I get that, but what I don't understand that she compares every single teenager to her son and thinks that they all must be the same. Her son's not a genius and it's because of the fact that he watches movies in his english course rather than reading an actual book. If she think her child's stupid it could be what he learns at school considering he spends 7 hours there, learning. Jack says, “We haven’t read a book all semester. We watch the movies instead,” It could be that his class doesn't do anything productive with their time since he does have an A- just watching movies. Anyone at his age should know the days of the week in order. It’s common knowledge, everyone should know this stuff. If not, Sandy’s the one to blame because she’s doing a bad job being a parent. He spends most of his time on the computer playing WoW and she complains about how he doesn’t spend time doing anything productive. She’s the parent and she could tell him what to do and what not to do. If she thinks he’s spent a good amount of time on the computer it’s time for her to tell him it’s been enough. One of her sources, Ally, is a perfect example of what her son should’ve been like and my guess is that she had parents who helped her shape into the person she has become. Running for president and being in groups and stuff like that had made her into an overachieving student. Pushing Jack to try new things could’ve made him into the person Sandy would have wanted him to become instead of someone who spends most his time spent behind a computer screen.
Never in my life have I read a more illogical, pointless not to mention botched document in my entire life. That was until I read Sandy Hingston’s article about her opinion about how our generation is full of dumb kids. Her reasons alone make me want to laugh in her face and slap some sense into her. Let me be the first to congratulate you Ms. Hingston at your failed attempt to prove how dumb we are by using your son as a reference. Honestly what made you believe that all teenagers in the good old U.S.A today are an exactly replica of your son? I know we’re not the sharpest knife in the drawer but, your son makes a butter knife look sharper. Not everyone plays World of Warcraft for six hours straight and fail to know the days of the week. Which by the way happen to be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If you’d like I could recite this to your son along with his nine times tables and other “basic skills”. Since you clearly failed in helping your son Ms. Hingston. That’s enough talk about your duller-than-a-butter-knife son let’s talk about you Ms. Hingston. You have stated in your article that your son was in AP classes watching movies on books instead of actually reading them. At WHAT point in time did you decide to check your son’s classes and see what’s happening!?And then you wonder why your son doesn’t know the days of the weeks. He’s probably lying to you too because I never heard of an AP class watching the Great Gatsby instead of reading it. Then you go off saying that even if we are in AP or Honors classes we still don’t know what we’re doing. Michael Skube’s tried to pull that off in his article “High school grads write of reading, cheapen degree” and it didn’t work because like you he thinks that we are all dumb. I’m going to make this very clear to you Ms. Hingston when it comes to teenagers and technology. Not all of us waste our time on the internet updating Facebook pages. Not all of us are addicted to technology and stare at the screen computer screen. You make technology seem like a negative thing, so let me rain some positives down on you. Technology is EVOLVING we are becoming so engrossed in it is because we are told that the jobs that are about to come to light are going to revolve around technology. And if you haven’t noticed Ms. Hingston teachers no schools are urging students to use technology to better our planet and themselves. Besides what else do you think teenagers use to type their essay or this rant I’m typing? Exactly how many times have you gone over your prompt? You use many sentences in your article that make no sense at all! “A young Florida mother was trying to play FarmVille on Facebook, but her three-month-old son kept crying. So she shook him to death.” HOW is this sentence even relevant to your argument?! Then again that’s the irony of this prompt, you call us stupid yet you type up topics irrelevant to your argument. Talk about not knowing your basics. I could go on and on about this Ms. Hingston but, it’s not worth it. You and the many other adults out there who doubt us think the same way but, you are all wrong. We may not be like the previous generations, we may not be “old-school” thinkers but we are the future like it or not. I hope you feel ashamed for writing such an essay because both you and your son need some counseling. And a calendar while we’re at it.
Where do we post the essay? I can't post it in the comments because it has more than 4,096 characters.
ReplyDeleteJust post it in 2 different comments.
DeleteBryan Marengo
ReplyDeleteHonors English
10/7/13
In her document, Sandy Hingston proves a point: The world is changing; but not in the way that she is saying. Her whole essay is about how stupid kids are becoming; she says that the world is changing because children use technology for stupid things, but, here, she is wrong. The world is changing because twenty years ago, a mother wouldn’t write a titanic essay, about how stupid her kid is, and post it online for millions of people to see. Sandy has many psychological problems, as seen by how she speaks in her essay, and it’s not surprising how stupid her son is.
There is a famous saying: An apple doesn’t fall far from the tree; Hingston proves this cliché true; she says, “What in the world is going on with our kids?” As a parent, it is Sandy’s job to find out what is “going on” with her kid, and asking the computer this question won’t help her find out. Not only is it her job, as a parent, to know this, but this excerpt also shows us that Ms. Hingston is writing without knowing anything about what she is writing about. But let’s ignore the fact that Sandy’s stupid and knows nothing for now and focus on the impact that parenting has on a child. Hingston says, “…our kids…[perform] time consuming tasks (including the average 3,339 text messages they send and receive each month—or more than a hundred per day).” The solution to this problem is so easy to find out, I’d bet even Sandy’s son could figure it out: TAKE AWAY THE PHONE!
Now that we know that Sandy is a sorry-excuse-for-a-parent, we can now focus on her stupidity. In the text, she states, “Call me old-fashioned, but the fact that he doesn’t concerns me.” I can’t call her old fashioned because a.) old-fashioned people don’t post essays on the internet, b.) old-fashioned people don’t use the word “facebook” thirteen times in an essay, and c.) an old-fashioned person would teach their kid the days of the week, not wine about it on the internet.
Please, Sandy, don’t flatter yourself by calling yourself old-fashioned.
Ms. Hingston proves her stupidity at least two more times in the passage when she says, “I need to believe they won’t be swept into a Kool-Aid colored whirlpool…” (Kool-Aid can be many different colors) and when she gingerly states, “They spend an average of eight and a half hours in front of screens…Add in eight hours of sleep and seven of school, and that leaves half an hour when their senses aren’t under siege—just enough time for a shower.” I have two things to say to that: Experts say that high schoolers need nine and a quarter hours of sleep, maybe, since her son is sleep-deprived, that’s why he is stupid, and if a half an hour is “just enough time for a shower” then, not only is the stupid lady capable of calling her son stupid, but also capable of killing the Earth as well.
Sandy, in addition to making stupid remarks, also makes many pathetic attempts to prove her point that ultimately fail. “Last January, a young Florida mother was trying to play FarmVille on Facebook, but her three-month old son kept crying. So she shook him to death.” That quote has everything to do with stupid teenagers. “Jake can look at his cell phone to see what day it is,” Ms. Hingston says, “but where can he go online to find out what being human means?” The question, “What does it mean to be human?” has been asked for centuries; and if Homer and Aristotle couldn’t figure it out, I doubt her stupid son could, even if he obliterated his phone. If this Sandy Hingston is too stupid to make decent remarks and not sound like a complete moron, then why listen to her? (Some of Hingston’s other articles include one titled “Men Are Toast. No They’re Not. Discuss.” and one titled “Why You Want To Eat Your Friend’s Adorable Baby”; if Sandy’s not serious enough to give her articles names that make it sound like an educated person wrote them, and not a cannibalistic sexist freak, then why take her seriously?)
DeleteForget everything that I said for a moment; let’s pretend that Ms. Hingston is an intelligent woman that genuinely cares for her kid and knows what she’s talking about. Maybe the problem lies not with her, or the new generation of humans, but with her son himself. In her article, the mother says that in her son’s English 101 class, they didn’t read books. “They watched movies instead. Jake got an A- in the course.” If the boy’s job in the class is to watch movies, not comprehend books, and he still gets only an A- in it, something isn’t right; I get As in Advanced Language Arts, and we do read books in that class. The mother, that cares so much about her child that she insults him again, also says, “They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week.” I’m younger than her high school son and I know that Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Japan—the Axis Powers—fought the United Kingdom, United States, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics—the Allies—in World War II (and the only reason she knows this is because she’s older than dirt), that there are two pints in a quart, and that the days are Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; so it is not the whole generation of kids that don’t know it, just her stupid son that follows after his stupid mother. Finally, in his article on Esquire, Chuck Klosterman says, “It’s the rock-throwers that get things done.” This means that if Sandy wants something done about her son’s education, she should stop typing away at her keyboard and do something about it. I don’t believe that the next generation of kids is full of the stupid, but, since their parents aren’t able to do anything about their child’s education, even if they think that their children are stupid, then the stupidity falls onto them.
Alexis Sprenger
ReplyDelete10/8/13
I don't believe us teenagers are stupid. Sandy has a point that the world is changing and I believe her but she makes it sound that the next generation is going to be full of stupidity. We all have some type technology these days that we spend too much time on, but we all find time to do our homework and study. You have stated “ They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week. (He’s shaky on the months, too.) This is the reflection on you. He is a junior in high school and he doesn’t know the days of the week or the months of the year. We are teenagers; we have cellphones, computers, and iPods if you think as a parent that we he is spending too much time on these devices then take it away from him! Just remember since technology came out it has been growing rapidly and in the next 20 years there are going to be more advanced items. As us teenagers we want all the newest devices. Not because we are stupid or to learn the months of the year, but to engage in new things and expand our brains to new things. Yes we could do that by reading a 300 page book and learning things from there but our generation isn’t about reading it’s about technology. Stupid isn’t the word to describe us teenagers. We learn from our parents and what our parents do and follow in their footsteps and by you saying that your son doesn’t know the months of the year are a reflection on you because you’re the one who should have taught him that.
In an article written by Sandy Hingston she asks, “Is it just us, or are our kids getting really stupid?” The answer is, it’s just you. I’m utterly offended by this piece of trash you wrote about students. She rudely wrote, “Children today seem, well, dumber than they used to. They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week. (He’s shaky on the months, too.)” Now, you’re son who is a junior in high school may be the one who is really stupid, but not all the students. Considering you are the mother to Jake and helped him learn the days of the week or the months of the year show that you weren’t such a smart mother.
ReplyDeleteYou say that we are all dumb, but every student and child are different. I and plenty other students know how to use the ruler and know that Friday comes before Saturday and after Thursday and that in one quart there is two pints. In this article you talk to about three students and already assume you know the inside of a teenage brain when you obviously don’t. When you stated, “Junior year was bad for him and me — we never seemed to have anything nice to say to one another.” If you can’t even hold a conversation with your son without getting mad at him or vice versa shows that you don’t know teens.
Technology ruined us all, as a whole. Not just me or just all the students, everybody. You said it yourself, “And I’m trying my damnedest to ignore the bouncing symbol, to get my important work done … and I. Just. Can’t. I have to click. I have to see. I have to bite the apple.” Yet, you continue to put my self esteem down about how we overuse technology when you do the same. Now, you wouldn’t appreciate it if I wrote an article about how stupid adults are getting. If adults alike to you can spend time in front of technology screens, students can’t? Using spell check or google for answers doesn’t mean you are dumb, it means you are smart enough to use your resources.
The article, Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?” by Sandy Hingston is just plain horrible. First, she’s talking about teenage stereotypes, not actual people. I refuse to believe that anyone of this generation is that dumb. If her son really doesn’t know the days of the week, then he needs help, and is most definitely not an accurate representation of the mondern teenager’s intelligence. SHe needs to spend more time educating her son instead of writing off his whole generation. While we are not highly articulate, or spend as much time in a library, but we are not a doomed generation of idiots. I do admit that we spend too much time online, especially myself, but that doesn’t make us idiots. Also, reading classic novels does not make you a genius, and not reading them does not make you an idiot. They might increase language skills, but they’re not going to do a whole lot for us in our practical lifetime.I will say that we are lazier, but those of us who do apply ourselves or just enjoy learning, are just as intelligent, if not more so, than the last generation. The rest of us can at least use a ruler. So Sandy, yes, it is just you.
ReplyDeleteWhat Sandy Hingston's article consists of is false accusation against our generation, however she bases these assumptions on her own son. “They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week. (He’s shaky on the months, too.)” This rubbish she calls an article is solely based on her son’s lack of knowledge. To state that our generation is becoming "dumber" because her son does not know the days of the week seems like an excuse for her lack of parenting. A question for Hingston is that, how were you not aware of the fact that your son did not know the days of week? “Junior year was bad for him and me — we never seemed to have anything nice to say to one another.” Was your relationship with him so distant that you did not realize he didn’t know Thursday came after Wednesday and before Friday? She blames the rapidly growing use of technology for the cause of our generation becoming stupid, when in reality it is her ignorance and stupidity that has caused her son to be that way.
ReplyDeleteThis editorial is in fact true! Well, most of it. The fact that kids are dumb, period? I don't think so! But, Sandy Hingston is definitely right about how technology makes us stupid. And she mentions that it is supposed to be our new future, and how it was supposed to pave the way and help, but she says it has all gone sour. Like Hingston said, "So the tech stuff isn’t benign, though kids think it is. And it’s been deliberately developed to make it hard for them to turn away." And with that, we don't get our homework or chores done and we have a huge tendency to procrastinate.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with her on the fact that instead of watching the movie, they should read the book (and maybe watch the movie to compare the two)! I've seen countless movies that were about a book and EVERYTIME they leave something important or enjoyable out of the movie version. Hingston then states,"...the couple tried to read his essays and to listen to his work on audiotape, but it was only after watching a DVD about Emerson that they began to understand him." She starts talking about how this is just how our brains work now, visualizing and watching a movie. And I don't completely agree because everyone has a different learning style, and mine is audio. I like to hear things, so I would read an audio book and everything would just stick.
Although this is not all she says in her editorial, I believe some of her reasons for us being stupid have the same concept. I leave you at this, kids are in fact dumb, but not in a way you would think. And it's because of technology.
Sorry this was past twelve I had to read the article which took a little longer than expected but I had to read and type this on my phone so... I hope it's okay :/
ReplyDeleteHow the author portrays kids these days is not true. Some people may think we are brain dead, but we really do have a lot of knowledge they haven’t seen. When the author said her son doesn’t know the days of the week, that’s just a little sad, but that’s not his fault if his teachers never taught it in Kindergarten. Another thing she mentioned was that we use too much technology and that is what is killing our brains. I do also agree that we do use too much technology and would much rather hang out with someone or talk over the phone instead of text, but to say we spend every second of our lives on technology is a little extreme. Some technology is okay, but she is making it seem like we shouldn’t be using technology at all almost. I think it’s time for her to maybe update into this century and not say in the past where there wasn’t all that much technology. Another thing she mentioned is that the teachers are showing movies and not making the kids read books anymore. This just shows ONE school out of thousands in the country. I have been to many different schools and not one teacher has made us watch the movie before we read the book or just watch the movie. Sometimes we didn’t even watch the movie after a book because our teachers wanted us to focus on imagery. I’ve actually been told all my school life that the movies are never as good as the books and usually the movies are way off from the books. Maybe the author should realize she’s most likely sending her child to a very bad school district and should transfer him to a better school district. Keeping kids from technology is not going to happen completely because it’s the 21st century now and things have changed. Maybe if she tried seeing what it’s like to be a part of this then maybe her opinion would change.
ReplyDeleteSunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I am a freshman in high school and I know my days of the week. Congratulations to me, now where’s my sticker?
ReplyDeleteIn the editorial, “Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?” the author, Sandy Hingston, states it clearly and bluntly. She thinks kids are stupid. Sandy even goes as far as to insult her own son, who is her flesh and blood, just to try and back up her poorly constructed opinion. I completely disagree with her. Generalizing all teens into one stereotypical category is not the way to form an idea. She writes, “Junior year was bad for him and me — we never seemed to have anything nice to say to one another.” Afterwards, Hingston states, “They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week.” Who is “they”? Sandy is somehow convinced that just because her son is stupid, every other kid in America is stupid as well. And I hate to break to you Sandy, but there are parents who can communicate with their kids and make sure they know that there are two pints in a quart. If Sandy is so appalled by her son’s stupidity, then it would be best if she herself taught him, or took him somewhere to get taught. I’m sure there are many people willing to teach a junior in high school the days of the week. Ask a second grader in the street, even. I bet they would know! It’s clear that Sandy Hingston’s son is stupid because of his lack of a good education and a rapport with his mother. But somehow, Sandy has the idea that technology makes kids stupid. And this is where the lines get blurred.
What is technology making us do? Technology allows us to have access to information with a click of a button. Technology allows us to stay connected with others without ever leaving the house. Technology allows us to draw things and read things on a screen. To put it briefly, technology makes kids lazy. We no longer need to visit the library. We no longer need to talk face to face. But technology does not make kids stupid. With technology, we are actually learning more, and at a faster rate. Hingston says, “What is Jake learning when he spends six hours a day on his computer, playing World of Warcraft?” The answer is: nothing. At least nothing that can be graded. By playing World of Warcraft instead of learning the days of the week, Jake is just being lazy. Playing his video games did not make him stupid. He was already stupid beforehand. All in all, Sandy Hingston’s opinion is irrelevant and Sandy Hingston should re-evaluate how she disciplines her son. Technology is the root of Jake’s laziness. Technology is not the cause of his stupidity. And just because Jake is stupid, it doesn’t mean that I, and all the other kids that Sandy called out in her article, are stupid as well.
The article "Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?", in a sense is offending and realistic. Kids now spend too much time on the internet or texting. Since there time is being spent doing other things they don't find the time to read or study. "THE INTERNET WORLD is big and brash and colorful and infinitely engaging, and books are black and white and just sit there." This quote is on point 100% right. Books are boring. Nobody wants to read a boring book when they could go on there phone or computer and actually not be bored while doing so. "They don't know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week. " This statement was the only thing that I could pull out of the article that I didn't agree with. You learn the days of the week in kindergarten.. well at least I did. Its something that you always have to remember so why wouldn't kids know this information? We know basic stuff, we just don't know alot of the complex stuff that requires a lot of thinking. “Take literacy,” she says. “There’s not really less reading. Kids are just reading in smaller chunks. They’re not digging deeply into texts, but they’re reading from a lot of different sources.” I agreed with this like many others because I often don't feel like writing notes on the book that I'm reading. Taking notes though does help understand the book better than if you didn't take notes. Everything makes more sense when you think about it. All in all though the author, Sandy Hinston, of this article is right but wrong in some areas. Kids are stupid but not exactly as stupid as she thinks. Kids still learn their times table, days of the week and they read books in reading class. I don't think technology is to completely blame for this matter. It could just be the fact that kids just don't feel like learning because they don't care what grades they get. Not all the kids are the same. Many are happy to wake up and go to school and learn everyday. Then there are some who could care less. Either way the author did make some good points but maybe over exaggerated a little.
ReplyDeleteKids are not stupid, or dumb. We have diffrent brains then the last generation. How many of the adults in this world could hack the schools computer system and shut things down, erase things. Not many. You know how many kids can, a lot. In fact a child with a mental disorder did it just last year at Davies. Other kids were bullying him and he took action cause the teachers would just watch it happen. If adults are so smart why are they letting kids watch movies instead of reading books. If they are so worried about the future generation why are they just sitting by watching it happen. Maybe it's the adults that are stupid because there not doing anything to stop the issue. They say we have short attention spans but when you go to school for six hours a day sometimes you get bored. Not to mention the fact that most of us come home to two hours or more of homework and studying. Yet most of us still manage to do all our homework play sports hang out with friends for hours, and get up before the sun rises in the morning. How hard it must be for the average adult to get up with the sun and go to work. At least for most adults work doesn't follow them home. School is constantly nipping at our heals and we are able to deal with it. If half the adults if the last generation had all this pressure that we have now to do well they would need therapy. Guess who doesn't. The stupors kids. Even though we have become more dependent on technology it dose not make us dumb. The curriculum we have is ten times harder then it was thirty years ago. My mom can't even help my brother, who is in fifth grade, with his homework. She was a teacher! She taught children, but she has no idea what we are doing because it is so different. Kids are stupid? I think not.
ReplyDeleteThe article "Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?" seriously offended me and probably many other kids my age. Hingston basically sums up in her long article that us kids are just stupid which is far from the truth. Yes technology has become a big part of the everyday life of a teenager but they haven't taken over our lives. Hingston states "they don't read. they can't spell." I totally disagree with that opinion. Teenagers are still going off to college, becoming doctors, going far in life. Most of us know how to count, know the days of the week, know how to write essays, etc. Back in the days smart could have had a different definition as it does now in 2013. Sandy talks about how stupid her own kid is. She even says "I'd like some basic knowledge to be inside his head." If she feels that Jake doesn't have any basic knowledge, which he probably does, she should teach him herself. Teachers work extremely hard to teach us kids successful ways and all Sandy does is talk bad about kids, our knowledge, and what we are learning. We still have History, English, World Languages, and Math and most students pass these classes. I will totally say that in some of our classes we learn pointless information but we are still grasping main idea and points. We aren't stupid and it saddens me that an adult with a child of her own says this. My mom will sometimes stress that us teenagers are on our cell phones or computers too much but being a teacher herself, she knows that students still work hard. Technology can even be a plus in school, sometimes. Taking notes, researching, etc. is so much easier and faster on a smart phone. So no, us kids aren't stupid, maybe some kids make stupid decisions now-a-days but we are the next generation and the strongest and smartest of us will bring up a decent generation.
ReplyDeleteSandy HIngston's article had very good points. Yes teens in this generation are very lazy and rely on our devices to do things for us, but I have to say she did over exaggerate a bit on how kids are so stupid. Sandy made it seem as though every single teenager in this world and in this generation are incompetent and soo dumb that we cant even say the days of the week. To me that is a huge insult. I understand that yes most kids spend time on Instagram or Facebook but it doesn't mean were incapable of taking care responsibilities that need to be done. She mentioned that her son doesn't know the days of the week of his 9's times table honestly that's would be her fault. Because I'm pretty sure that me along with other millions of teenagers know there times table, maybe her son should get that fixed. Sandy also mentioned that "young people have always rebelled against their elders." Yes we do but if you think about it what makes our rebelling different from teens rebelling in the past cause honestly if you rebel you rebel it has nothing to do with your generation cause kids will always rebel. You tell them to go left they go right. the author was once a kid once right? So is it safe to say that she could have possibly once been stupid to?
ReplyDeleteThis mother obviously has a very strong opinion and it seems that not much-if anything-will be able to change her mind. But I am on the total opposite side, in ways technology is very good for the average teen. One argument that I love is that you can take life improving skills out of these “video games”. As Yasmin Kafai stated in the article, “Over so many hours he’s learned how to master an incredibly complex system. These multi-person games that involve intra-functional teams organize their entrants the way some workplaces do. These are skills that corporate employers are very interested in.” Not that I am anyone’s superior but I think that you need to have a great amount of knowledge to comprehend how this works. I especially don’t think that the average parent could understand-I have self-experiences with this. I have tried several times to defend this argument with my parents, but like most would say, “You are rotting your brain with this violence”, they don’t look in-between all of that. Although I don’t think technology is bad, I also do not think that it is good to use for so long at a time. To prove my point that technology is not making kids stupid and is putting them not on a better course than older ones, but an equally sufficient course, it could be possible that what our elders may think is “stupid” may be the new “smart”.
ReplyDeleteWell to start off, don’t use the word stupid. It is a slightly offensive term and it would be more appropriate to use the word: Ignorant. Ignorance is bliss as they say, and it is easily recognized that Sandy is having a delightful time living her wonderful, blissful life. Sandy proclaims, “Children today seem, well, dumber than they used to.” What does she know about “Today’s Generation” anyway? Things were a lot different when dinosaurs existed, and when they first discovered fire: Ugah! Ugah! Moreover, Hingston states, “They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart and in Jake’s case, the days of the week.” That right there is unfortunately true, kids aren’t well versed in some basic areas. However, Hingston is not complaining about that, specifically. She is blabbering about “stupidity”. In today’s generation my dear Watson, brilliance is not commonly found amongst those who “know who fought against whom in World War II,” but amidst those who can solve the most/largest problems that the world faces today. I’m not talking about the idiot who made “Pizza Scissors” or the lonely revolutionary who created the “Hug Me” pillow. No, I’m talking about a genius like; Jack Andraka, age 16, who invented a new quicker method to detect pancreatic cancer. With this, he can and will save millions of lives, truly brilliant. If Mrs. Hing-whatever still believes that the 21st generation is “stupid”, I’d actually like to see her make something useful with her life, instead of complaining about a generation that can create a better future.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading the article “Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Really Getting Stupid” I was actually getting a little offended! She’s comparing us to the dumbest of the dumb, AKA her son. He’s a junior in high school and still doesn’t know the days of the week, or his 9 times tables! I mean if there’s a kid who is asking his parents “Is it day two or day three” then he has lost too many brain cells hitting his head against the wall. Well I really can’t blame Jake for his stupidity because you know what they say, like mother like son.
ReplyDeleteSandy Hingston isn’t the brightest color in a rainbow and she definitely shows this throughout the article. “Add in eight hours of sleep and seven of school, and that leaves half an hour when their senses aren’t under siege — just enough time for a shower.” Anyone with an I.Q. over 4 should know their basic addition. Or maybe she just doesn’t know there’s 24 hours in a day; her dumb as a doornail son sure doesn’t! Sandy point that kids are stupid doesn’t even make sense because smart parents make sure their kids are smart and doing good in school. They don’t let their kid get an A- in a class that only watches movies. So just to disprove Sandy’s article and make publishing it a waste of her time, it’s really half the parents job to make sure their kid is doing what they need to do. If a parent doesn’t care about their grades then why should the kid?
In the article written by Sandy Hingston, she asks, “Is it just us, or are our kids getting really stupid?” Ummm...no I think it’s just you and that dim-wit son of yours. Not only have you insulted us kids with your rude comments, but also your own son. I completely disagree with you, and the fact that you are labeling all kids “STUPID.” You stated, “ They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War 2, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week.” First of all, who is “they”? Every child is different. Almost all freshmen including myself know that Thursday comes before Friday and after Wednesday, or that there are two pints in a quart. I mean come on, this isn’t 2nd grade! So rather than asking are Kids stupid, you should ask yourself … “Is it just ME, or is MY SON really stupid?” Unlike you, most parents communicate with their children, and actually make sure their child knows their days of the week, conversions, etc. So that goes to show that you weren’t playing the role of a good mother. Because a good mother, unlike you, would have made sure their child was meeting the learning requirements. And if you are so appalled by your son’s stupidity, go hire a tutor! I mean… I’m sure they won’t have a problem teaching a junior in high school the days of the week.
ReplyDelete“They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week.” Sandy Hingston son must be incredibly stupid because I’m pretty sure a fourth grader could know all that if they wanted let alone a junior in high school. Hingston had really good points that made sense and that I could relate to like about reading and not really taking in the information like we should but, that shouldn't make us stupid. Technology is a main part of our lives that should be benefiting us for education. Some people go extreme with it like video games which Jake, Sandy’s son, clearly must be addicted to if he doesn't know the days of the week. Social networking can be distracting but if you manage your time on them it shouldn't affect you so much to the point where you get distracted when you’re learning. Like I said before, Hingston does have a good amount of reasons and statistics that kids now a days are “stupid”. Who is she basing this article off of? Her son who seems to be the stupid one. She shouldn't take it out and reflect it on us because she’s wrong. Yes, everyone has their differences and leaning and our generation happens to use technology fortunately. There was many reasonable points made but referring to us as stupid, is totally uncalled for.
ReplyDeleteOf course kids aren’t stupid. A select few are, but not all of them. Even if they were stupid, it’s a parent’s job to insure that students don’t grow up writing “papers that are pastiches of plagiarism” because how your child acts is a reflection on you. Sandy Hingston is blaming students for being ‘stupid’ when students are taught how to act, read, and write. The quote from the passage, “I want to believe my kids aren’t like this — that I’ve taught them how to be discerning, how to stand up for themselves and think critically,” proves that children are brought up on different perspectives on what stupid is or isn’t or what critical thinking really is. How do we know that the way Hingston taught her kids the way to stand up for themselves wasn’t violent? That might be her definition of what’s right. There are other things to know besides “who fought against whom in World War II…”. Kids aren’t stupid because we make ourselves stupid, we don’t. We act based off of the people we look up to. I was always taught to never take stupidity because it was a waste of time, because that’s the way I was raised. And if your teenage son doesn’t know the months of the year or days of the week Sandy Hingston, maybe you should have thought of another way to teach critical thinking.
ReplyDeleteAlthough many kids are offended and should be after reading “Is It Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?” written by Sandy Hingston, Mrs. Hingston does make many valid points. Many of my classmates are freaking out by what Mrs. Hingston is saying because the truth hurts. As Mrs.Hingston wrote, “They may be taking every AP and Honors course their schools offer, but they can’t tell you who invented pasteurization.” or when she wrote, “They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints in a quart...” many kids do not know the answer to those questions. For one thing, students only know what they were taught in class, students no longer have “time” to learn other things because they use their time stupidly. Technology has been a big obstacle in kid’s learning, in 2004 there were 1 million Facebook users, in March of 2013 there were around 1.11 billion users. In 2012 ninety-four percent of teens who used social networking had a facebook. In addition, Mrs.Hingston wrote, “Isn’t it self-evident my son would be a better student, better future employee, better human being, if he spent six hours a day reading Tolstoy and listening to Bach instead of playing WoW?” Although many will disagree and say they do read and don’t play video games, statistics show that from ages 8-12 play around thirteen hours of video games and ages 13-18 play fourteen hours a week. Overall, I may be the only one but I do agree with Mrs. Hingston, technology should be benefiting us however for many it is becoming a huge obstacle in their success in learning.
ReplyDelete"Children today seem, well, dumber than they used to. They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week." I would love to know where you are getting this information from. I can guarantee you more than 95% of honor students in high school know all of this. Don't take your bad parenting out on all the kids who you think are "stupid" because your son is a dumbass. If he can't restate the days of the week or months, he simply should not be in high school. Are there stupid kids? Of course there are, and most of them don't care what they get grade wise or where they go in life. However, a majority of the students have plans on going and doing something productive in their life time. Sandy doesn't need to bash children as a whole because there are kids who are intelligent. Certainly more intelligent then you! This editorial is very poorly written. She puts us children in a group that is very stereotypical and spits on us in our grave. Sandy's son is mentally impaired because of his poorly educated mother. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree and it clearly shows in this piece of garbage editorial.
ReplyDeleteIn this reading the author, Sandy Hingston, uses a small percentage of kids and relates them to our whole generation. If you son, who is a high school grad, does not know his nine times tables or his days of the week there is a problem. I am certain that I know mine. She states that kids go home and spend 8 hours watching television or playing video games, another 8 sleeping, leaving half an hour to take a shower. I get home at 6 o'clock every night if I'm lucky. The most I have watched television this year has been on the weekends. Our generation consists of kids who choose not to apply themselves to do better. But that is not all of us so we should not be titled as "dumb". One of the many reasons why some students get so distracted is because kids are put under a ton of pressure and deal with stress. Additionally, we're often accused of being obsessed with technology. I do not think that we are obsessed, it's just the way we grew up and it's what were used to dealing with all the time. It is absurd that we are always titled and known because of the kids who do not apply themselves. We are never recognized by the students that spend 6 hours on their homework, or the ones that read above their grade level. Many people say we are judge mental. In reality they only see the bad in us.
ReplyDeleteJasmine Newsome
ReplyDeleteThe author of this article clearly doesn’t understand the new age that we have entered. She’s saying that kids are completely dumb because of how we depend on technology for everything (which is wrong). Technology was made for people to use it, to help make things easier so why not use it. I agree that some kids are more stupid than others because of the constant use of technology and depending on it as crutch to get them through the day. But I also have to say that using technology is a great thing. Some of the smartest people in the world today use technology on an everyday bases. In the century we’re in, technology is needed for everyday tasks. The author of this story actually uses her son as an example of how stupid kids really are. She mentions that her son doesn’t even know the days of the week. Now come on that’s just pathetic. Honestly if a child in high school doesn’t know the days of the week than something is going on in that brain of his. I don’t think the author can call every kid in the world stupid just based on her son. Just because your son is not the brightest it doesn’t give you a reason to assume everyone else is. I think it’s time that the author stops holding on to the past ways and except that were moving into a technology driven society. The learning style is different than in the past and it’s time we start moving on. Technology is actually making us smarter in ways you could never imagine.
ReplyDeleteThis article written by Sandy Kingston really surprised me since she, herself , has a child. Saying that kids are dumb really affected me in a negative way. There is no sides to her argument that I agree with. In some cases I can see where the author is coming from. In this article however there is nothing I can understand. I would never call one of the kids I go to school with dumb. Now do some make poor decisions to make them come off as dumb, of coarse. Sandy states, “children today seem, well, dumber than they used to.” just because we know the benefits of the new technology does not mean she can rag on us for using it. If Sandy were a kid in this day in age she would be doing exactly what we are. We have the answers at the tips of our fingers. Sandy also makes it sound like we never read a book in our life. I have no clue where that came from because the way I was taught how to read was with a book. To be completely honest I do not know what kid would not be offended by this. Maybe having a child of her own was not the best idea if she thinks kids are dumb. Sandy Kingston needs to come into my Honors English class and ask my teacher how many books do we read during the year and I guarantee the answer will not be none.
In Sandy Hingston’s absurd article “Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?” she makes some very honest points about kids in this generation. On the other hand, I was truly disgusted with how stupid she made students today sound. Although she was correct about how much time we spend on our phones and laptops, she did not have to make us out to be a bunch of idiots with the IQ’s of doorknobs. How dumb does this lady think we are? I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason her son is so stupid is because she doesn’t know how to be a parent and tell him to get off of world of war craft. What makes Sandy and other parents think that technology makes us dumber and they’re so much smarter than us? Yes, we do get most of our information on the internet but, we are still taught the same curriculum just in different ways. We still have to pass exams and state tests that prove we have learned up to the same requirements as Sandy once did. Sandy tells us how kids are so dumb that they don’t know how to use rulers. “Children today seem, well, dumber than they used to. They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week. (He’s shaky on the months, too.)” I don’t know how much different her son’s school is than mine but, I can honestly say that everyone in my grade knows how to use a ruler and knows the days of the week. I also don’t understand why she thinks old fashioned is so much better than new technology. Yes, it is much harder to find the answer to a question by going to the library and looking it up but, that doesn’t mean that children today aren’t learning by researching information on the internet. Just because information comes easier to us today, doesn’t mean that we are slackers who aren’t as educated as past generations. It is only human nature to use our resources and the internet just happens to be one of them. I’m sure if Sandy had the opportunity to use the internet in school she would've. I do not agree with Sandy’s point of view because she barely even has her facts straight. Students today are not dumb because of technology. Maybe Sandy is just dumb for thinking that.
ReplyDeleteWow. Never thought in a million years I was “stupid”. Thanks Sandy. I’m literally heart-broken now. In her oh-so-amazing editorial, “Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?” she tells us, without a shame in the world, that kids are basically a disgrace to the human race. Now it’s my turn, without a shame in the world, to say that you, Sandy Hingston, are wrong. We may not be the brightest crayon in the crayon box, but you have to realize—we come from a totally different generation. According to Hingston, “They don’t know the most basic stuff: who fought against whom in World War II, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake’s case, the days of the week.” All I have to say to that is—where’s your proof, Sandy? I’m sure, as a “smart” person, you’d know that you always back up your reasons. All because Jake’s your son and he doesn’t know a single thing, doesn’t give you the right to assume that all the other millions of kids are like him too. Not trying to brag or anything, but I can tell you EXACTLY who fought against whom in World War II, the CORRECT number of pints are in a quart, AND the days of the week. Am I still stupid? You’re probably thinking, “Oh she’s just a little girl. She doesn’t know anything.” Well I have you know, I’m not alone on this. Professors at Penn’s Graduate School of Education even stated, “And as far as [we’re] concerned, the kids are all right” You may think technology is responsible for our stupidity, but what do you know? You’re wrong again! They only reason why your son—and many other kids out there—are stupid is because of their lack of perseverance. They don’t strive for the goods grade and new knowledge like some do (aka laziness). Or maybe they’re just smart in a different way. Like with art, sports, etc. You don’t necessarily have to be good with books to be classified as a “smart person”. So Sandy Hingston, I’m sorry to say this, but your editorial is out of commission. I mean, after all, we ARE the future of America. We have to have some intelligence in us, right?
ReplyDeleteSandy Hingston, your question was, “Is it just us, or are kids getting really stupid?” The answer to that question is that it’s just you Hingston. Now, my question is have you ever met another teenager in your life? I ask that because suddenly, you just made your son the representative of all teenagers in the US. Not every teenager in the US is stupid. Every teenager is different but I could certainly say that we aren’t all dumb. Technology is not making us stupid either because it’s not like during class everybody is on the phone doing whatever. If they do that, then it’s the school’s fault for not caring what students do. From what I read, your son needs help, so don’t compare me to him. You said your son doesn’t know the days of the week and he’s a senior. My sister is in the first grade and she knows the days of the week. Plus, she knows the months; in order. That just proves our generation isn’t dumb. Not knowing the days of the week is like saying you don’t know what two plus two is; or does your son not know that either?
ReplyDeleteNow, enough about your son because I could go on all night about how your son is stupid; let’s talk about you Hingston. You said your son told you he took AP English and they haven’t read one book that whole year; and that all they do is watch movies. Think about that for a second; AP English, no reading, no work, just movies. What kind of school does your son go to!? Hingston, if you were a good mother you would have went to the school and asked what is wrong with their curriculum, or at least taught your son something yourself. However, instead of doing that, you decided to post it on the internet hoping some people would complain with you and take your side like a little teenage girl. And you said we’re the ones with our faces glued to screens; you little hypocrite. How about you stop thinking every teenager is like your son and do something about him because I’m worried about this guy Hingston. Let’s start by letting him study a calendar.
Dumb. This is the word that Mrs. Hingston uses. Dumb, such a strong word, is it not? The definition of dumb is stupid, unintelligent, or foolish. Hingston constantly speaks about how this generation has no knowledge of anything because they can search any answers up on the computer simply by typing in the question. However, why must this generation know all the information that previous generations have learned when there is now the option to search it up on the internet? Why know what 100 times 13 equals when they can get an instant answer? I’m not saying that they shouldn’t learn anything and they should depend on technology for all their knowledge, such as reading or writing, I am implying that we should be allowed to be dependent on technology. Is that not what it’s for, to make our lives easier? This world is adapting making newer and newer devices every day and it’s our jobs as humans to adapt with the world.
ReplyDeleteOn the contrary, when it comes to socializing, the 21st century is depending on technology way too much. “Back in the day” teenagers used to have verbal conversations with correct grammar and most people had a bigger variety of friends because they were forced talk to everyone. Today, if we have to contact someone its abbreviations and slang on a text. Not in person, a text. In today’s society if you don’t have a cell-phone or Facebook account it is very difficult to ask people if they want to hang out because now asking someone in person is considered weird. With the constant use of technology to build relationships and connections we can’t forget who we truly are. The Gutenberg Elegies says, “our inwardness, our self-reflectiveness, our orientation to the unknown.” In other words: a soul.” We can’t forget our true souls. Nevertheless, educationally this generation is not getting “dumber”, however social skills is where they lack knowledge.
In 2010, Sandy Hingston decided to publish her pointless and never-ending rant, “Is It Just Us Or Are Kids Really Getting Stupid?’, in The Philly Mag. She believed the new generation of youth was less intelligent than the previous ones, especially because of technology. The whole editorial was garbage.
ReplyDeleteFor one thing, she was generalizing one generation off of lets-face-it, a dull pitchfork in the toolshed of knowledge. The rest all know the order of the months and days of the weeks. Moreover, these young adults are learning with different resources than what were available before, emphasis on the word learning. Yasmin Kafai from Penn’s Graduate School of Education explained about video games, “Over so many hours, he’s learned how to master an incredibly complex system. These multi-person games that involve intra-functional teams - ‘guilds’, they call them - organize their entrants the way some workplaces do.” (mentioned in the article on page 3) All people involved in education know everyone discovers lessons differently. While the last generation might have readers, this one has more scenario-type learners. Furthermore, some points demonstrated were more focused on today’s culture instead of the question of intelligence. “Isn’t it self evident that my son could be a better student, a better future employee, better human being, if he spent six hours a day reading Tolstoy and listening to Bach instead of playing WoW?” (page 3) The woman seems as if she’s mad with the whole world, and tried to fit in one writing piece. Until she can back up her point with real evidence and write on point, I cannot respect her as a writer.
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ReplyDeleteKayla Du-Bois
ReplyDeleteHonors English
10/9/13
Are children and teens truly becoming dumber, more idiotic and much more egotistical with age? Many would give a resounding “Yes!” to that statement after reading “Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?” by Sandy Hingston however, there’s a more logical stand point to looking at this article and that’s taking a look at the so called research. To refute her opinion that kids are truly becoming idiotic let’s first take a look at whom she uses as her first example, her own son. She says “…my son Jake’s junior year of high school, he took an AP English course. Junior year was bad for him and me — we never seemed to have anything nice to say to one another. But Jake did like to read, and it occurred to me at some point that perhaps I could use his AP English course to connect with him.” Pretty simple, yes? Well in the next few lines her problem begins to appears, “… I was glad when, for his senior year, Jake proposed taking an English course at the local community college. Come September, he and a buddy drove to the college every Monday night and sat for three hours in English 101 — where they never once read a book. They watched movies instead.
Jake got an A- in the course.” This part here is where her point begins, her child never once read a book and received an A- in the course here is where her thoughts start to develop about children today. The belief that kids have becoming dumber over there years is nothing new, parents blame many different things from the start of technology with the same sayings and same ideas that their parents had about their generation. It’s a continuous cycle but, the question is does it really ring true or not? Well Sandy seems to believe it as her article is exactly what it says it’s about. Yet, it’s been repeated and through history we can actually see the quality of education improving greatly and knowledge expanding however, even with the obvious facts to support her opinion she says “In the past decade, the number of college grads who can interpret a food label has fallen from 40 percent to 30 percent. An American child is six times more likely to know who won American Idol than the name of the Speaker of the House. (For more bad news, see the sidebar on page 59.) Reading and writing scores both fell on the 2008 SATs. Not long ago, a high-school teacher in California handed out an assignment that required students to use a ruler — and discovered not a single one of them knew how. “The only example that holds any weight would have to be the 2008 SATs scores the rest is complete and utter nonsense with imaginary weight.
Her examples for simply supporting her reason and to help try to support her reason are like said above nonsense with little weight. She then tries to bring in the internet as a distraction for kids as a point. Which, it honestly is and always has been her opinion on it and then goes into some actually goes into a semi convoluted point about bottom-up and top down attention. The transition from one to the other with her explanation makes little sense for bottom-up attention has to do with inductive reasoning rather than deductive reasoning in top down attention. Each of the ways to reason and break down the information use different ways of taking it in so, why mention them both when she just goes onto say the same thing? Because she uses it to Segway into the fact that deductive reasoning or top down attention is part of what Western civilization is built upon with the literature that comes with it. The fact a person must focus to read and conclude is unnatural because it “…requires us to filter out distractions and focus our attention on a single task.” And the internet can be a distraction for our attention with the bright and colorful and constant stimuli to the brain. Constant input to the one part of the brain where the attention for quick and joyous things is very quickly refreshed while, the part of the brain that we require to read, write and focus on tasks for the long run are very easily tired out and take a long time to recover so, it’s obvious why the internet is very distracting. This is all true the way it’s presented though doesn’t support her point as solid as it could because other points and reasons why information is not ingested properly as much which she doesn’t mention. For instance, the fact many of us, children, teen, and adult alike are not receiving the required sleep needed for proper memory removal and reinforcing in the brain causes the bonds between information to be not as strong. This has had a study done in Scientific American’s 2013’s magazine has a title aptly named “How Sleep Shapes Memory” with its main article “Perchance to Prune” by Giulio Tononi and Chiara Cirelli says “…neurons in the sleeping brain fire neatly as often as they do in a waking state, and they consume almost as much energy. What is the point of this unceasing activity at a time when we are supposedly resting? Why does the conscious mind disconnect so completely from the external environment while the brain keeps nattering on? The brain’s activity during rest likely serves some essential functions. When we are awake, memories form as neurons that get activated together strengthen their links. Sleep researchers have assumed that during sleep, reactivation of these neuronal circuits reinforces the links. But just the opposite may occur: mounting evidence suggests that the spontaneous firing during sleep may weaken synapses, or contact points between neurons in many roused circuits.” This all ultimately means that while we sleep useless contact points or memories seen as neurons in the brain are weakened allowing for stronger more important contact points to have stronger bonds in comparison and allow us to remember such. If we don’t get as much sleep then how are those bonds supposed to weaken so others can be reinforced? Exactly they can’t be and with as much information we are bombarded with means we can’t digest it all.
DeleteMoreover, instead of using more fact she takes her son (yet, again) and uses him as an example for the entire generation of teenagers. “We may have an infinite amount of information at our fingertips, Chatterjee says, but “we don’t actually ingest that information in such a way that it gets deeply encoded.” And that explains why my son doesn’t know the days of the week.” She uses the that reason of we can’t deeply encode information as way to say why her son doesn’t know the days of the week and applies this to most if not all other children. However, does that mean a point such as hers is correct in use? No, not all! Just because something is distracting doesn’t explain why her son can’t remember the days of the week. That’s like saying that if you can’t remember how many minutes just passed because you were staring up the sky means that you won’t remember anything at all anymore. And since her son doesn’t the know the days of the week and wants some “…basic knowledge to be inside his head.” That he obviously hasn’t retained why can’t she, herself, unplug him from his internet, his phone and have him sit down with a book? Perhaps the problem with kids becoming dumber is not with distraction because television, comic books and friends provide the same but, rather with the education and the parents of the students? Children are moldings of their environment after all.
DeleteMoving onto the section about Elliot Weinbanum we don’t seem to get much fact here instead we see some interesting things about her son that make sense on why he’s incredibly slow. The only piece that comes to a solid piece of fact is found in these two paragraphs,
“Weinbaum and his colleagues are, when it comes to education, the deciders — the men and women who study how and what schoolchildren learn, how teachers teach, and how both can do better. And as far as they’re concerned, the kids are all right. They acknowledge that there are differences in how kids learn these days, but … well, let professor Janine Remillard explain. “Take literacy,” she says. “There’s not really less reading. Kids are just reading in smaller chunks. They’re not digging deeply into texts, but they’re reading from a lot of different sources.”
Besides, these educators say, we don’t have solid data to tell us what kids really did know 30 or 40 years ago, not to mention that the American education system is struggling to decide exactly what should be taught now, given the ever-increasing possibilities. The Penn profs see the world changing, not our kids.” The rest is about how her son plays “…six hours a day on his computer, playing World of Warcraft…” and her over generalization of the generation. “Still, it seems obvious that kids like Jake — meaning most kids — are spending way too much time at one thing instead of learning all they could. Isn’t it self-evident that my son would be a better student, better future employee, better human being, if he spent six hours a day reading Tolstoy and listening to Bach instead of playing WoW?” Is a perfect example of herself at actually showing her over generalization of the current generation where she compares most kids to her own son which, is one unquestionably wrong to do. To collect data to help support that the majority of kids is like her son there would have to have been a study and poll in order to support that. The observations only go so far and if the use of them is Jake and the two high achieving girls to summarize an entire generation of children and teens is a little unfathomable. In addition she tries to say that by reading the classics and listening to classical music can make someone a better person while, this can work in few and far in between cases just because, a child prefers to listen to other selective forms of music to give them a more variety and read from different sources gives them a broader perspective, a broader perspective is better than a narrow one.
Although not summarizing and disapproving the entire article would seem lazy but, continuing on would seem redundant in the answers with reused, recycled refutes. The whole idea of the article was that kids through the ages are becoming less intelligent, less knowledgeable, not as wise however, Sandy Hingston’s entire basis from beginning to end of the majority of kids was her son Jake. The overgeneralization is simply outrageous while, she tries to support the idea with weak examples and few in depth analysis of the facts given. She didn’t consider the fact that most kids do not sit six hours playing WoW until their brains rot from the inside their skull and didn’t take time to actually research how children are today. Perhaps with more time the article could have been rather solid with good balance between facts and opinion however, this is not the case and this article too much opinion and basis to be able to reference this as a good source for what it’s title is about.
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ReplyDeleteIn the editorial, “Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?” the author, Sandy Hingston, articulates openly to the matter that kids are stupid. She makes valid points through the article but not enough to hide the detail that she must be crazy to put her own son’s failures on the internet, which is in fact she wants students to stay off of, for the world to see. Who is to say that her son does not know his own days of the week and months? Is the any proof to what she writes; is there truth to what she says about the classes her child took? How can I believe that a person in high school does not know the days of the week or even how to function with a ruler? Frankly being a high school student myself I just don’t believe it. I don’t believe her son is stupid, where is the proof to tell me I’m wrong. I have not heard him stumble while reciting the days of the week. I have not seen the children in the Californian high school scratch their heads at the sight of a simple ruler. I can only believe in what I see in the exception of magic. And this certainly is not a magic trick. Sometimes it’s not the students fault, can teachers do no wrong. Maybe the parents were at fault.
ReplyDeleteThe author of this article apparently did not of her own son’s problem and continued with her life for the next 10 or some years without realizing or having the slightest concern that her son hasn’t learned his days of the weeks or months. Maybe instead of bashing on kids she hasn’t met she should stick to teaching her own child and make him better in his life. Sandy Hingston continues throughout the editorial to illogically assume that what you see is what you get. Not all students are like the ones she finds at the most randomness locations. Some want to learn about everything others don’t. Some students want to read the books instead of watching them. Who is she to judge of the 100 of thousands of students that know the basic things, who is she to say that the children of America are not fit or qualified to run a successful life. She has not experienced our generation of inspiring mathematician, doctor’s and architects. Some high schoolers don’t apply themselves. How is she to know their secret talents when she is too busy being a stereotypical person of how high school students are viewed in this day and age? The answer is she doesn’t. This general speaking thing Sandy Hingston has going on in this editorial is extremely demeaning to every great high school scholar and to every student planning to attend high school on account of academics.There are those few who take it upon themselves to know who the speaker of the house is (John Boehner) and maybe they know who invented pasteurization too(Louis Pasteur). We are the future and should know these things but just because we don’t, doesn’t make us automatically stupid.
Hingston has no idea what the future hold for any person let alone her own heir. For the reason that occasionally reading “stone carved list of books since 1950’s” excites students to see their influential writers come to life with their own mind’s imaginations. Many unknown authors are the most critical in their writing; it may date back before the 1950’s but that only makes them a base for every writer to come after including Sandy Hingston. Those are the authors who have wrote the greatest works of art known to man such as Mary Shelly the writer of Frankenstein and Shakespeare who wrote the everlasting heart of Romeo and Juliet. The true creator of true love. When people say “I will die without you next to me” does anyone ever think about the contents of the actual meaning, if so where is it that your mind takes you? Sandy Hingston has no right to say the crucial things she exaggerates. The older the writing the more intelligent the words seem to be. Over the years our language has not evolved into something less artistic using shorter words and phrases to get a point across. When hearing the words of a classic novel or documents from the civil war there is a difference to be seen through which how authors spoke their minds in terms in which we are so invested in not to understand. Technology can be the biggest distraction in the entire world but it can be the thing that saves your entire life. Using technology does not make a person stupid. It makes them resourceful. In the case of 24’7 usage of this device things can get pretty debatable. There should be time to social face to face. Now a day there is not face to face contact as in the generations before. But it doesn’t mean are the idiot generation expected to fail. This exact purpose is sometimes the reason why most high school student doesn’t let out emotion to just about anyone. They are afraid if their voice is heard they will be judged. And with today’s technology it will happen. There is no denying of this issue. Though the guardians should not be the ones making the accusations directed at a younger subject whether it is one of their own or in general (Sandy Hingston). Some students are in a constant fight in the uphill battle to get rid of the distractions. But when Sandy Hingston says she has caught herself more than once incapable of denying an email or text herself what chance is there for anyone else to. What chance is there for the “innocent” high schoolers to fight the battle themselves when they live in a world of negatively brought to you buy yours truly Sandy Hingston. In my opinion technology has to paths. Technology can either save us from ourselves or destroy us one text at a time.
ReplyDelete“Children today seem, well, dumber than they used to. They don’t know the most basic stuff” (1) Sandy Hingston honestly has no idea what she is talking about if she is really going to say that. Just because her child is dumb doesn't mean the rest of us are. I mean if you don't know your days of the week then maybe you should be back in the second grade. So what if we like technology? So what if most of us would rather watch a movie then read a book? Its how we were raised to do things; it doesn't matter what his teachers taught him. After all she was the one who raised her son to be dumb, if you're not satisfied you could teach him yourself. Considering you think you’re just extremely smart maybe you should become a teacher and teach us the stuff you think we should know. Yes, I know not all of us are little einsteins but most of us are pretty darn close.
ReplyDeleteSandy is blaming technology for us not knowing the basic knowledge. But guess what? Most of the things I ever read are off of my technological device. Sandy stupidly states,“They may be taking every AP and Honors course their schools offer, but they can’t tell you who invented pasteurization.” (1) I bet she doesn't even know that answer. We all know the basics of learning and we don't have time to learn all of the frivolous material she may think is important. So the next time someone says that kids are dumb or stupid maybe they should check on the average student and not their thick headed son who doesn't even know the days of the week.
So many of these made me laugh: )
ReplyDeleteSandy Hingston, you are a terrible person. First off, just to say that kids are getting stupid is downright awful to say. There are young minds who are brilliant in their own ways. Then to say that your child is stupid, is just appalling to me, who says that to their own child. you must not care very much how your child feels. As you explain, “they may be taking Ap and Honors courses their schools offer, but they can’t tell you who invented pasteurization”. Hingston, the reason why there’s Ap and Honors courses provided for the school isn’t for the things you do in the class, but the way you think later on. Some of those Ap courses help you think outside the box and help you look at the world in a different way. The way your thinking though, is too much inside the box. Also, you see technology as a distraction, but many other parents would agree that technology is a helpful tool for research, writing papers, and also much easier than driving to a library and trying to find the right book for a half an hour or so. Do you not notice that you’re representing your own son as the leader of so called “stupid teenagers” as you represent us as. There are so many great minds out there. A boy by the name of Boyan Slat,19, has just designed a device that could be able to remove 7250000 tons of plastic from the world’s oceans. Now, do you think that Boyan Slat is stupid? 19 years old, huh, isn’t your son around that age? Next time you write an article about something, write something that makes sense, and doesn’t make me want to throw up!
ReplyDeleteIn Sandy Hingstons article, she does prove a point; We do spend most of our time behind a screen. Technology has influenced the way we do things and think in a tremendous amount of ways. But, we are not stupid. She could have used a way better word other than stupid, a word that doesn't offend anyone. It seems like she used her son to represent us, and since he is "stupid" we are too. That's not right. she states, "They don't know most of the basic stuff: who fought against who in World War ll, how many pints are in a quart, and in Jake's case the days of the week (he's shaky on months too)." Yeah, don't get me wrong most teens don't know who fought against who in World War ll but they know that The United States fought. I know for a fact that if she asked any kid above the age 7 they can definitely tell you the days of the week and months of the year without any help. If her son is in junior-high school or higher and he is a "little shaky on the months" there is a problem.
ReplyDeleteI am a freshman, I am in all honor classes, i take two maths, and spend most of my time behind a screen; does that make me stupid? No! not at all. Sandy can not compare us or categorize us with her son, it is her fault her son is really ignorant. It is her fault her son spends so much time behind a screen as a mother you are in control, take his phone away make him actually read a book since you are so upset with his stupidity. Maybe he has a learning disability you never know, its not nice to call other people stupid. Im not really nice.
In fact, Hingston also proves her stupidity by, Mostly blaming technology for everything. For the ones who are "stupid" or who I like to call ignorant can blame their mothers and fathers, or maybe they just couldn't afford to be educated. Like really come on. Stated in the article "Adults have always been afraid to of their culture being lost, Penn's Sharon Ravitch declares." To be honest, the "culture" basically has already been lost a long time ago. Times has changed. That isn't our fault, or technologies fault either. The fact that she cant even make up her mind shows her ignorance. "Maybe kids aren't stupider at all; maybe the new ways of learning are really different. Not inherently worse." Duh! Sandy. Learning has changed. Everything has changed, and she acts like that is hard to comprehend that.
Hingston says that, "they don't ready, they can't spell." I totally disagree because if that was the case we wouldn't be able to read and "keep up with 440+ facebook friends", upadate our statuses, and sign up for social networks. All of things requires reading and spelling. I'm guessing when she is saying they she is talking about her son. I may have some mistakes in my spelling but I can spell, I may not know every word but I can read, and it's okay because i'm still learning. She isn't very conscious of her word choice she didn't have to say we are getting stupider. She could have simply said she feels as though our knowledge has decreased, states a few reasons why and there. Shes done.
Really, all we have to do is manage our time, spend less time on social networks, focus a little more on academics and we'll be okay. Study more, we can bring SAT scores up, we can always gain more knowledge. She, on the other hand is always going to be known as "the lady who wrote an article about stupid teens, but is stupid herself." It amazes me how people think.
It is true that some kids are "stupid," but that's because they don't try to be smart. Sandy is basing the article on the kids that she knows and met already, which isn't fair for the rest of the kids who actually try. If you look at what other people are commenting on Sandy's article, you will see that not only kids disagreed with it. I don't know about other people, but I would rather watch a movie than read a book. Books are time consuming and could take you a really long time to read, while movies are two hours long and explain what the book is about. By the way pasteurization was invented by Louis Pasteur.
ReplyDeleteDoes Sandy go off topic a lot or is it just me? I think "LAST JANUARY, a young Florida mother was trying to play FarmVille on Facebook, but her three-month-old son kept crying. So she shook him to death" was an unnecessary sentence, because she says that kids can't live without technology and then she says a mom was playing a game on Facebook. Honestly, Sandy should worry about her son and getting him the help he needs, since he is a high-school grad and doesn't know that Wednesday comes after Tuesday.
In response to “Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?” by Sandy Hingston I don’t even know where to begin. This article opens with a conversation between what appears to be two human beings, although exceptionally low in intelligence. It appears the author of the article is quite concerned about her son’s intellect. Really, coming from the woman whose kid doesn’t know the days of the week? It’s obviously her terrible parenting skills and her lack of distinguishing salt from cocaine that caused this child’s horrid existence.
ReplyDeleteOf course, technology, like usual, is to blame. Excuse me, but who has been doing homework since he’s got home, and still has hours and hours more? I understand this being a problem for kids with small attention spans, but for the average child, this should not falter a child’s ability to learn. Of course, since technology is the clear culprit in a world of a thousand other things to blame, she elaborates on how we spend too much time online. Well, maybe you spent too much writing terrible articles instead of teaching your kid the days of the week.
This alleged human also falsely accuses us of being easily distracted, which I honestly find offending. Next, I’d like to draw your attention to this load of garbage, “‘We may have an infinite amount of information at our fingertips’, Chatterjee says, ‘but we don’t actually ingest that information in such a way that it gets deeply encoded.’ And that explains why my son doesn’t know the days of the week”. Like before, the blame falls upon the endless resource of information, the internet. You can’t really blame her for thinking this way though, my brain would be pretty jumbled too if I did meth. Like any other drug-driven journalist, she makes a remark about how her “AP student” spends six hours a day playing World of Warcraft. I’m sure he passes all of his classes.
Further down in the article, the creature makes up a human being that takes all AP courses, three sports, and is running for class president. While this human only exists in the depths of her stoned imagination, she convinces herself that this is humanly possible. Since most freshman struggle with honors course, all AP and multiple extracurricular activities would be obnoxious. Of course, this prophet has enough time to spend a half hour on Facebook, and acts like it’s nothing. If she was real, I would want to see her therapist, because I sure need one (my mom should be making an appointment).
And while I would love to rant about this horrible excuse for an article for ten more paragraphs, homework awaits me, and maybe a couple days from now, sleep (or maybe History class). Thus, I leave you with a question: Are we getting stupider, or are we too smart for her to comprehend?
Sandy has valid reasons to back up her opinion on how she sees this generation of kids. I get that, but what I don't understand that she compares every single teenager to her son and thinks that they all must be the same. Her son's not a genius and it's because of the fact that he watches movies in his english course rather than reading an actual book. If she think her child's stupid it could be what he learns at school considering he spends 7 hours there, learning. Jack says, “We haven’t read a book all semester. We watch the movies instead,” It could be that his class doesn't do anything productive with their time since he does have an A- just watching movies. Anyone at his age should know the days of the week in order. It’s common knowledge, everyone should know this stuff. If not, Sandy’s the one to blame because she’s doing a bad job being a parent. He spends most of his time on the computer playing WoW and she complains about how he doesn’t spend time doing anything productive. She’s the parent and she could tell him what to do and what not to do. If she thinks he’s spent a good amount of time on the computer it’s time for her to tell him it’s been enough. One of her sources, Ally, is a perfect example of what her son should’ve been like and my guess is that she had parents who helped her shape into the person she has become. Running for president and being in groups and stuff like that had made her into an overachieving student. Pushing Jack to try new things could’ve made him into the person Sandy would have wanted him to become instead of someone who spends most his time spent behind a computer screen.
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ReplyDeleteNever in my life have I read a more illogical, pointless not to mention botched document in my entire life. That was until I read Sandy Hingston’s article about her opinion about how our generation is full of dumb kids. Her reasons alone make me want to laugh in her face and slap some sense into her.
Let me be the first to congratulate you Ms. Hingston at your failed attempt to prove how dumb we are by using your son as a reference. Honestly what made you believe that all teenagers in the good old U.S.A today are an exactly replica of your son? I know we’re not the sharpest knife in the drawer but, your son makes a butter knife look sharper. Not everyone plays World of Warcraft for six hours straight and fail to know the days of the week. Which by the way happen to be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If you’d like I could recite this to your son along with his nine times tables and other “basic skills”. Since you clearly failed in helping your son Ms. Hingston.
That’s enough talk about your duller-than-a-butter-knife son let’s talk about you Ms. Hingston. You have stated in your article that your son was in AP classes watching movies on books instead of actually reading them. At WHAT point in time did you decide to check your son’s classes and see what’s happening!?And then you wonder why your son doesn’t know the days of the weeks. He’s probably lying to you too because I never heard of an AP class watching the Great Gatsby instead of reading it. Then you go off saying that even if we are in AP or Honors classes we still don’t know what we’re doing. Michael Skube’s tried to pull that off in his article “High school grads write of reading, cheapen degree” and it didn’t work because like you he thinks that we are all dumb.
I’m going to make this very clear to you Ms. Hingston when it comes to teenagers and technology. Not all of us waste our time on the internet updating Facebook pages. Not all of us are addicted to technology and stare at the screen computer screen. You make technology seem like a negative thing, so let me rain some positives down on you. Technology is EVOLVING we are becoming so engrossed in it is because we are told that the jobs that are about to come to light are going to revolve around technology. And if you haven’t noticed Ms. Hingston teachers no schools are urging students to use technology to better our planet and themselves. Besides what else do you think teenagers use to type their essay or this rant I’m typing?
Exactly how many times have you gone over your prompt? You use many sentences in your article that make no sense at all! “A young Florida mother was trying to play FarmVille on Facebook, but her three-month-old son kept crying. So she shook him to death.” HOW is this sentence even relevant to your argument?! Then again that’s the irony of this prompt, you call us stupid yet you type up topics irrelevant to your argument. Talk about not knowing your basics. I could go on and on about this Ms. Hingston but, it’s not worth it. You and the many other adults out there who doubt us think the same way but, you are all wrong. We may not be like the previous generations, we may not be “old-school” thinkers but we are the future like it or not. I hope you feel ashamed for writing such an essay because both you and your son need some counseling. And a calendar while we’re at it.