Julio Bonilla’s Reviews > The Death of Why?: The Decline of Questioning and the Future of Democracy > Status Update

Of course, when it comes to politics, young people have to deal with the system they are given.

It’s never too late to change anyone’s habits. 🤓

“Social Justice teaching is a frivolous waste of precious school hours, grievously harmful to poor children, who start out with a disadvantage,” Stern writes. “School is the only place where they are likely to obtain the academic knowledge that could make up for the educational deprivation they suffer in their homes.”

The violence in L.A., committed primarily by African-Americans, stemmed from a profound sense of powerlessness in our public sphere-no voice, no power, no recourse, and no way of holding accountable those who would perpetuate injustice.

Civics programs in the 1960s were not very effective at imparting knowledge or excitement about political history or contemporary events. 👩🏻‍🏫

Questions are the tools of educators, but what kind of questions are best to ask? It depends on what we expect children to be able to do. Most questions asked and tested over the past hundred years simply force students to recall information: who, what, where, when, how. It is, as one educator put it, an exercise akin to the game Trivial Pursuit.

Now, said Drabinski, students think all research will be easy. “The Internet makes research easier until it doesn’t, and then students aren’t equipped to deal with things not working, or going wrong. [The Internet] de-skills you.”

The Internet is more than technology. It’s more than a medium. It’s an environment.

I believe that the Internet, and the role that it plays in our culture, is changing us. It’s changing how we think about information, how we learn about the world around us, even how we define our notions of truth. But most importantly, the Internet is changing how we think of the meaning of a question, and this matters to the future of democracy. 💻

And, yes, the Internet does make it pretty easy to encounter viewpoints with which you disagree— a lot easier than moving to another town. But good faith consideration and engagement is of those on the other side is not rewarded as much as creating or joining a strong community of sameness. 🌎