Maintenance

I was inspired to think about maintenance by the rather high standard set here. I must confess I am nowhere as efficient as that, although I once moved house in three days under duress.

I must however say that the process of education can be simplified a lot. Students need to think, and then produce. Teachers need to provoke, and then guide. The other stuff can be packed away.

The problem is that there is a fundamental disconnect in the system. Students are using muscle memory or memory muscle too much. The hippocampus is now the campus hippo — Google is not making us stupid, but neither is it keeping us from being stupid even though a simple search could stop us from uttering a silly question in public.

I've actually experienced this disconnect when working with students recently. They ask you, "What's the meaning of XYZ?" when they can just look it up with one of the many tools they now possess but which you didn't when you were growing up.

In the old days, we had to make our own tedious links using index cards and ingenious tapestries of paper and ink. Now, they can do it with the Internet and its appurtenances. But they don't. It is all very vexing. The brain is a high maintenance organ, and most people aren't maintaining it well.