Does education work?

 

Graphic has no bearing on the content of this post. I just needed some cute.

After writing the last post about simplistic campaign ads, I started down the road of wondering if education is actually working in this country. If my career as an educator was an exercise in futility. If human beings are even capable of being truly “educated.” What does being educated even mean? Why do such campaign ads even move a single vote?

Much of what feels like “stupidity” in today’s politics seems fueled by social media. For many, many years, not just in 2022, pundits have been concerned about “culturally constructed ignorance.” Clive Thompson uses the word “agnotology” to describe how special interests work to sow confusion instead of enlightenment when there is ignorance about a topic.

Ah, life was much simpler before the Internet and cable news - when professional librarians stood guard between bad information and their patrons by carefully selecting materials for their collections by using credible review sources. Going to the library meant one was assured that the books on the shelves were - to the extent possible - accurate.

On seeing this barrier between the misinformation and users melt away as the Internet became popular, many of us during our careers pushed for a new competency called “information literacy.” Over 20 years ago, I wrote the article “Survival Skills for the Information Jungle,” In the introduction I observed:

While technology can be enriching, the Information Jungle and projects that call for the demonstration of higher level thinking skills contain perils as well. The role of the teacher and library media specialist has rapidly changed from one of a desert guide (helping learners locate scarce resources) to one of a jungle guide (helping learners evaluate and select resources of value). This change has been so rapid that many educators have not had time to learn the skills necessary for their new roles. But for those who do, the rewards for doing information problem solving in the Information Jungle can be tremendous.

So did all educators see the value of teaching information literacy skills? Or did they continue to push a curriculum that was memorization and low-level skills-based (encouraged by NCLB and national assessments that were to be the be-all-and-end-all of school performance measures.) 

Yet as I reflect on the current state of national discourse, I perhaps have suffered under an even greater illusion - that we as humans are rational beings. That our emotions are subservient to our analytic abilities. That we think more than we feel.

At what seemed like the same time information literacy became a topic of discussion, the concept of EQ (Emotional Quotient) appeared in educational conversations as well. EQ (or EI - Emotional Intelligence) was defined as “the ability to perceive, use, understand, manage, and handle emotions.” Acknowledgement that attention to emotions is as important as attention to literacy and analytic ability. (Sorry, Mr. Spock.)

Voters are value-driven. And for some, those values are based on evidence selected by using information literacy skills. But for too many, solid factual information is trampled by strong emotions, deliberately inflamed by special interests. 

I would be both naive and dishonest to say that my own emotions do not enter into my decision-making around political issues. My love for my children and grandchildren impact my stance on environmental interests. The work I do daily with low-income seniors fuels my support for social support networks funded by government spending. Even the amount of the grocery shopping receipt and the balance of my IRA increase my interest in economic policy. 

Can education somehow help students at least develop an awareness of both the need for good information and a strong EQ? And be wiser voters now and in the future?

Oh, and please vote if you haven’t already. Rationally, if possible.

Comments

[Mandy]

All I can say is that I did my part to provide information literacy lessons to my students over the last 17 years. Beyond basic library skills, I felt it was the most important thing I could teach them. Their world is changing so rapidly and the amount of information they take in on a daily basis is just staggering. I suppose it’s amazing to me because I can remember a life with the internet and without. I can only hope what I taught them will stick with them as they seek out answers and explanations in the future. What you wrote twenty years ago is right on the money. It’s definitely a jungle out there!

[Doug Johnson]

Thanks, Mandy, for your commitment.

I suspect there are more folks out there like you than we think - and making a bigger impact than it sometimes feels.

Doug

[Herring]

It often comes down to whether we think “being educated” means thinking the way I think, or if it means having an intelligent but quite different belief than my own. My experience had been that the majority of educators think being educated means voting for a certain party or ascribing to a specified ideology. If a given person does not ascribe to it, then, QED, they are not educated. Unfortunately, most studies to date indicate that do-called critical thinking skills cannot be taught or taught effectively. I surmise that that efficacy is based on ascribing to said hoped for ideological outcome.