dead men tell no tales...
...and drink no wine, and are therefore no good at partiesWednesday, July 27, 2005
Smart people rule
A fella named Steven Johnson has written a book... it's called "Everything Bad is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter," and I really want to read it.
In the meantime, he's written an open letter to Hillary Clinton in the LA Times, about video games and "Grand Theft Auto" and kids and stuff... it's an excellent read:
Crime statistics are not the only sign that today's gaming generation is doing much better than the generation raised during the last cultural panic -- over rock 'n' roll. Math SAT scores have never been higher; verbal scores have been climbing steadily for the last five years; nearly every indicator in the Department of Education study known as the Nation's Report Card is higher now than when the study was implemented in 1971.
By almost every measure, the kids are all right.
Of course, I admit that there's one charge against video games that is a slam dunk. Kids don't get physical exercise when they play a video game, and indeed the rise in obesity among younger people is a serious issue. But, of course, you don't get exercise from doing homework either.
Link via BoingBoing.
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