Tuesday, August 28, 2012

The Devaluation of Knowledge

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Expert Author Henry M. Piironen
In traditional schools, you're penalized for making a mistake. But that won't work in the new information culture, in the digital world we live in today. -Daniel Greenberg
When we are still in the education system, the knowledge we have learned is evaluated by tests. If we give right answers in the tests, we receive points. And if we give wrong answers, we receive penalties, reflected in the sum total of our correct answers.
What the youth should understand is that this is a method of not only giving them knowledge, but also to develop our abilities in critical thinking and evaluating knowledge. These two skills are especially in value in the modern information culture. Why? We must be able to validate or disqualify the sources of knowledge we face in our adult life. Whether in the internet or in the popular culture of book- and entertainment industry. Any why is this critical? Because knowledge has experienced an extreme devaluation.
The information given in the digital world cannot always be trusted. They may be hunches. They may be personal opinions presented as facts. They may be political propaganda to turn the public opinion to support an agenda. And inside this reality of devaluated knowledge, without critical thinking skills, learning can produce awareness that has no foundations in the real world.
The quote in the beginning of this article is meant as a warning by the educator Daniel A. Greenberg. Formulating incorrect, i.e. non-real-world knowledge is not penalized. On the contrary, knowledge is valuated by the popularity of it. Whether it is true or not does not matter. And we are all a part of this problem of the devaluation of knowledge.
We as humanity create the information reality we exist in. We are responsible of its creation and what we have created. Greed, the thirst to be recognized publicly, and other mediocre vanities are a part of the deterioration of humanity's highest ideals. And we, by publicly recognizing and awarding this behavior, are the fuel of this train of thought.
The devaluation of knowledge is a symptom of yet something more significant. As a culture, as a species, we are in danger of becoming adrift in the continuum. Our highest ideals are placed into entertainment, visual- and auditory stimulus, material wellbeing as a symbol of success as a human being, and into celebrity status.
The devaluation of knowledge and the decrease on the appreciation of intelligent and critical thinking are decelerating the development of humanity. This can be even more dangerous than disharmony between nations.
Henry M. Piironen is an Author, Poet, Philosopher, Scientist and the Founder of http://booklounge.org/, a free online library. It provides you with thousands of titles from genres of fiction, philosophy, psychology, Christianity, Sacred Texts from over 40 religions and more. Read. Connect. Share. Now.

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