Sometimes the biggest mistakes turn out to be the greatest inventions!

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

My reaction to the article “What’s Our Sputnik?”




Although I was a little taken back by the author’s brutal honesty, I have to agree that I am also worried about the future of the United States.  I think one of the main problems with today’s society is the lack of motivation with the younger generations.  My students would rather spend their free time social networking than studying.  They also idolize people like Snookie and Paulie D and think that they are going to get rich from being a reality star.  Kids need to know that 99.9 percent of the world works hard for what they have. 

I think that a Sputnik-like event might spark attention and make science education in the forefront but I do not feel that the younger generations will be affected by this event.  We need to find ways to inspire students in the field of science.  This means that teachers must be 100 percent committed to their students.  They must find a way to make science enjoyable and capture the attention of all their students.  In order to accomplish this I think the government and state officials need to provide more money to the sciences.  Teachers need to be trained in the areas of STEM and inquiry science.    

1 comment:

  1. Lauren,
    I agree that I was shocked by some of the things that he mentioned in the article. However, at the same time, I agreed with a lot of what he had to say. You make a very interesting point about the shift in role models for this generation of students. Instead of astronauts and war heroes, this generation of students idolizes reality stars. We, as teachers, definitely need to lay the framework to get our students interested in the sciences and motivated to achieve. However, I fear that without solid role models it will not be enough.

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