Distinguishing Useful Talk from Bullshit

He said, "As I see it, the best things schools can do for kids is to help them learn how to distinguish useful talk from bullshit....Every day in almost every way people are exposed to more bullshit than it is healthy for them to endure." (p35)  - Neil Postman 1969 National Council of Teachers of English. 

I found this quote to be a great summary of what we are learning in this class.  Some might interpret that Postman was focused on the classics, however, he was "...instead sharpening focus on the practice of critical thinking, the practice of questioning assumptions." (p35)  His goals are even more relevant today in the digital world we live in today.  Students today are often "plugged in" everywhere but in the classrooms.  Like the gentleman some of us heard at a school docs session, the argument for reading books is often part of the digital debate.  However, how many of us own tablets or kindle's that we use to read?  Regardless of the argument some want to make, the digital world is the reality of our students and clever ways to incorporate them in the classroom can only provide an eduation our students will not get on their own.  Like Postman said, and Hobbs demonstrated in chapter 2, we need to teach our students how to make educated decisions in the digital world and to use it to their advantage.  The use of reality shows came as a surprise to me, especially with some of the risky topics that are often the focus.  We often forget the risky topics that are discussed even in "classic" literature.