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> Lisa Miller writes:
>
> "Last September, I began teaching Freshman Composition. I was surprised
> at the lack of concern ...
Walter Miller chimes in:
> My father was a professor .... He felt,
> and many of his colleagues agreed, that students in that decade no longer
> enjoyed thinking. In fact, he said, many students became downright
> indignant
> if an assignment required them to think, rather than to regurgitate the
> facts he handed them.
Walter, I agree with you and your father.... before I delved into the
business fray, I too was a college instructor (--and highschool, and
elementary, too), and I too saw the type of evidence your father and Lisa
see.... It's all the deadening of the imagination... TV lets us think for
us..... I would add, though, to your essay..... people do not listen to the
radio anymore, either. When I listen to Garrison Keillor, for example, and
listen to his stories, my imagination paints the picture of Lake Wobegone,
and Fr. Emil, and all the people at Dorothy's chatterbox cafe.... however,
when the show is on tv, not only is the writing atrocious, but they've made
the pictures for me, and my mind has nothing to do!!! So atrophy sets in...
---and at such a young age, well, what types of critical thinkers will there
be left!!! Only the scribes and the coders are the thinkers?? (well, many
of them, anyway!)
Regards,
Nancy McDonald (bursting out from the lurk mode)
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