In an article in last week’s New York Times, we find this:
The director of Google’s education apps group, Jonathan Rochelle, touched on that idea in a speech at an industry conference last year. Referring to his own children, he said: “I cannot answer for them what they are going to do with the quadratic equation. I don’t know why they are learning it.” He added, “And I don’t know why they can’t ask Google for the answer if the answer is right there.”
Regular readers know that I think this fundamentally misguided. Knowledge remains and will remain essential to negotiating the world. To see why let’s turn to another article in the Times: “If Americans Can Find North Korea on a Map, They’re More Likely to Prefer Diplomacy.”
Here’s the map of where the surveyed individuals placed North Korea.
According to the Times:
Geographic knowledge itself may contribute to an increased appreciation of the complexity of geopolitical events.
By the way the quadratic equation is not that hard to learn.
