At the start of this term, my school invited Waleed Aly to speak to us. He’s an academic, writer and TV personality who is very good at making people think. He spoke to us about globalisation, but also about identity and being ‘discerning’. He argued that in this age of “infobesity“, at a time where chemical weapons in Syria are dwarfed by Kim Kardashian’s latest photo shoot, teachers are the ones who should be helping students to discern what is significant and what isn’t. He was happy that that was our job, not his.
As History teachers, significance is one of the key concepts of our discipline. “Significance is the importance that is assigned to particular aspects of the past, for example an event or issue or the contribution of an individual or group. Deciding on significance is a complex process because it involves making judgments that depend on perspective and purpose. Significance may vary over time and from group to group. What was seen as significant in the past may not be considered important today, and what was significant for one group in the past may not have been significant for other groups.” (Source)
Showing good judgement is a vital skill for any young person, and teaching them about significance is a large part of that. But this led me to another problem that I see, both within myself and in other people. It’s the filter bubble. How can you be discerning and understand significance if you don’t look at a wide range of views? I sometimes notice that some of my students are absolutely convinced of a certain point of view but without seeming to be open to other view points. It seems that some of them lack an intellectual flexibility and openness. I could just be a symptom of being a teenager, or it could point to a wider problem.
The Critical Thinking Organisation has a great definition of what constitutes good reasoning and it is what I would like to see in all people, young and old: “Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.” (Source)
The “filter bubble” is the the Internet’s version of the echo chamber. Here is a quote from an article with the byline: “How Google help you to agree with yourself“: “Like conservatives who watch only Fox News, or liberals who watch only MSNBC, the Internet’s beginning to act in a way whereby users aren’t exposed to points of view separate from their own. Liberals rarely head to the Drudge Report, conservatives steer clear of Mother Jones—that we already know. But the same exclusionary concept extends to social networks as well. If an old high-school friend starts getting racist on Facebook, the block button’s right there; and you don’t follow people you think are idiots on Twitter, unless you’re engaged in a “hate-follow,” which inherently negates the persuasive force of that person’s account.
“It’s not something unique or technology related,” writes Matt MacPherson, who, in 2006, started the Church of Google, a mostly tongue-in-cheek celebration of the “closest thing” man’s created to a real, provable god. “We tend to hang out with people who are like us, elect into office people we like on a personal level and not because they’re necessarily the best candidate. We consume what we’re already interested in. So the problem is with our human nature; not the algorithms designed to appease that nature.” (Source)
I need to think more on this, but I have to go now and try to help the young minds of Australia becoming more discerning…..
Sources:
Achistoryunits.edu.au. (2015). Key concepts | AC History Units . Retrieved 16 July 2015, from http://www.achistoryunits.edu.au/teaching-history/key-concepts/teachhist-concepts.html
Criticalthinking.org. (2015). Defining Critical Thinking. Retrieved 16 July 2015, from https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766
Psmag.com. (2015). Retrieved 16 July 2015, from http://www.psmag.com/nature-and-technology/how-google-helps-you-agree-with-yourself