Study: SpongeBob Impairs Kids Concentration

http://www.wric.com/story/15441247/study-spongebob-impairs-kids-concentration

Causation is NOT relationship.  This study says that watching Spongebob causes attention problems.  Well, I can say that Ice cream causes death, is that true?  No, there is a correlation (relationship) between the two and the causation of both of them is summer.  During the summer, you eat ice cream, and you are more likely to have a heat stroke which can cause death during the summer.

I think that we are in a different society with different brains than before.  I will be able to discuss this more when I get a book that I am supposed to read this semester called "Endangered Minds."  But we can fight and deny and throw temper tantrums about this change in brain function caused by TV (i.e. impulsiveness, lower intelligence tests, etc.), or we can take this research and think "Wow, it sure was different when I grew up," and then teach them in a way that helps them.  This could mean that we now have to teach differently.

Teaching differently has happened before, look at education 300 years ago.  300 years ago, they focused intensely on handwriting, now they are beginning to teach typing more than handwriting.  A teacher from 300 years ago would be in utter horror to see how the education system has changed since he or she taught.

What can we do, we can limit their tv watching, but let's be honest, we can't destroy all TVs out there (I mean, we could, but that might not be the most legal thing to do).

Our teaching will have to look differently, so what could it look like?  We have to use technology in teaching.  Teaching out of a textbook is an old practice that puts students to sleep.  Worksheets should be piled up in one place and then burned (sorry, I just hate worksheets, they don't actually encourage true learning which is learning that is practiced.) and we all dance in the ashes.  I encourage you to look at my next post because it is going to be about apprentice learning.