April 25, 2018 BRAIN DAMAGE

Is technology making kids less intelligent?? This is a question I wrestle with quite often. Between spell check, calculator's, GPS and GOOGLE--technology is doing all the thinking. Real learning is sequential. Students need base knowledge which is then connected to new information in order to internalize and learn. Looking it up on GOOGLE takes no effort. And the brain discards random facts because there is NO scaffolding waiting to be built on.  It's too easy for them. They simply generate answers with NO CONTEXT. WHAT THEY REALLY NEED ARE THE FUNDAMENTALS FIRST-- technology should ONLY enhance the process--build on existing bases of knowledge. Kids are NO longer using their BRAINS to process and memorize information.  GOOGLE has become their sole source of information. LOOK IT UP AND FORGET IT.  Imagine a world where people  DEPEND on technology to THINK FOR THEM. That's where we are headed. No wonder people go into PANIC mode when they lose their phones--IT'S BRAIN CENTRAL-- They can't operate without them. Scary.

What's even scarier is that I almost missed out on one of the National Book Award finalists of 2015. It's called Fates and Furies (taken from Greek mythology) by Lauren Groff. Here's the premise. There are two sides to every story right?? So let's take that a step further. There are two sides to every marriage too. What if you wrote a book depicting your marriage and your husband did too. Would it be the same? How would the perspectives change?? Set in New York in 1991, Lotto and Mathilde meet at the end of college and marry by graduation. They are truly, madly in love or so Lotto believes. His narration of their 24 year marriage is the first part of the book called Fates. As the second half of the novel unfolds, Mathilde has taken over with her version of their story. This novel is the portrait of a marriage--love, betrayal, lies, heartbreak--damaged and even delusional characters. Do we really only see what we want to in people?? I loved most of this book but  thought it was a bit  too long. The concept was so interesting though that I had to know how their marriage would pan out in the end. This book is about 400 pages long--or a 6 mile run--that is absorbing and unforgettable.