Kids? Not thinking? That’s unpossible!

I just listened to the Point of Inquiry podcast episode featuring Sir Harold Kroto (from 3/28 of last year). Kroto is a Nobel Prize winning chemist who is also an active science educator.

…Which is why it surprised me when he started talking about why kids today aren’t getting into science. His own interest stemmed from tinkering with mechanical building sets and fixing all the things around his house, and he argues that we now live in a culture of disposability and increasing complexity that makes it difficult for kids to get hands on with the machines in their daily lives… since iPods, cell phones, and computers are obviously too hard for kids to fix.

Smart as he is, the man has obviously never visited iFixit and Hack A Day.

I think now—more than ever—it is easier to get information about all these complex machines we live with… and yes, take apart / fix / modify / hack them. Kids only need the interest and access to Google, and they can build their own computer for pretty crazily cheap… or at least find out how that shiny screen on their iPod Touch works.

It’s presumptuous to jump to the conclusion that since everything is so much easier for kids nowadays, their brains are stagnating as a result. Kids are growing up with the internet and they quickly learn how to use it, sometimes to very impressive ends. What there really needs to be is proper education about WHAT this technology is and how to safely use it. Too many people treat their computers like appliances, rather than as communications portals to the world that need to be maintained, monitored, and secured. It took me until high school to recognize that… which is incidentally when I really got into technology and finding out how everything works.

Nowadays, it’s going to take a little more finesse than just giving Erector sets to kids.