The world is getting dumber. Or at least it feels that way. A person can get through the day – even succeed, and thrive – with less deep thought than ever before. Overall, we simply have lower standards and, in these tough times, want escape. You know this already. You’re probably zoning out right now.
But it got us wondering about our children. What will it take for them to succeed in such a world? Will they need to be “smart,” we wondered, or just savvy, which is something different? Will “smart” – which was formerly measured by the number of classic books you’d read, or your proclivity for adding numbers – need to be redefined?
Kids, meet the real world
Sue Palmer, a former headteacher and author of Toxic Childhood, a book about how the modern world affects (and infects) kids today, has considered the question, and finds the answer in kids’ relationships to technology and themselves.
“We’ve got to start defining ‘human’ before anything else,” she says. “We might call a child ‘smart’ if they can recognize the difference between the real world and the online world. And that requires having a concept of reality, which develops in childhood and that requires interacting with real people and real things.”
“The smart kid,” she summarizes, “is the one who can take control of the technology rather than have the culture controlling him.”
For that to happen, a child must consider himself an individual, albeit one of a larger society. That’s tough when “they also follow the latest trends without looking at themselves,” says Palmer. “We’re social, but it’s back to Socrates: ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’”
Dr. Dan Siegel agrees. His new book, The Whole-Brain Child, about fostering emotional intelligence in children, is already a bestseller in the United States. A neuropsychiatrist, he developed something called The Wheel of Awareness, a meditative tool focused around your perceptions. Although too advanced for five year olds, the tool – or one like it – could empower the next generation, he hopes.
About that generation, Siegel feels “realistically optimistic, if people can develop ‘time-in’ practices on a regular basis. There was a time when people would lose their teeth when they got to middle age, but once we learned to brush our teeth on a daily basis, we learned to keep our teeth for life. In the same way, if ‘time-in’ or reflective practices, were adopted on a daily basis, the outcome would be very positive for people, helping them to deal with this troubled world that we’ve given them.”
But what about, you know, books?
Emotional awareness is clearly important, and maybe the “smart” of the future. But surely school matters, too. Although Moby-Dick may have no real-world application, reading it helps you develop ideas and think creatively.
Oddly, these days, at least in the U.S., schools are mandated to focus less on thought and more on test scores, to the detriment of actual learning, as anyone who’s seen The Wire season four can attest.
“Overall, the schools have been antipathetic,” says Palmer, who, we remind you, is a former headteacher.
Dr. Jane Foley, the senior vice-president of the Milken Educator Awards, says the definition of “smart” is constantly changing. But all three experts agree on one thing:. “I do recommend learning to read,” says Palmer with a laugh. “You can get better ideas than through pictures.”
