Today’s teens have grown up with technology at their fingertips. Teens are used to putting in much less work to learn a fact than even my generation is. Just googling something has become a norm. I know google is the first place I look when I just need to check something really quick. After two minutes (max) I get my answer and I move on. That is how the teens of today have grown up learning. So I somewhat agree with Wagner, and his account of the lack of work ethic in teens today. I just don’t see it as a lack of work ethic, I just see it as the way in which teens today work.
Wagner mentions a few times throughout this chapter that young Americans have a bad work ethic. Here are some examples of what he writes:
In my classroom I totally let kids google things, all the time. But my students know I expect more from them. Googling is no different than looking it up in the book, and copying the first sentence they see from either of them is not acceptable. Regardless of how my students look up their information, they are required to give me some original thought. It took some time, but they get it. I think this different work ethic has led to some great classroom moments. And I think Wagner begins to recognize that when he writes “however, the ways in which young people are different today as learners may be the most fundamental change we need to understand as we consider how to close the global achievement gap” (178).
Wagner mentions a few times throughout this chapter that young Americans have a bad work ethic. Here are some examples of what he writes:
- “worried about the decline of the work ethic among young Americans” (167).
- “They don’t proofread their papers. It’s as though they think spell-check will catch all the errors. They just don’t seem to care very much about their work” (168).
- “The work ethic is definitely not as strong as it was five years ago” (168).
In my classroom I totally let kids google things, all the time. But my students know I expect more from them. Googling is no different than looking it up in the book, and copying the first sentence they see from either of them is not acceptable. Regardless of how my students look up their information, they are required to give me some original thought. It took some time, but they get it. I think this different work ethic has led to some great classroom moments. And I think Wagner begins to recognize that when he writes “however, the ways in which young people are different today as learners may be the most fundamental change we need to understand as we consider how to close the global achievement gap” (178).