Das muss hier noch rein, denn es geht um Popkultur, und es geht um’s Lernen: Malcolm Gladwell („The Tipping Point“, „Blink“) hat ein Buch gelesen und rezensiert. Beide, die Rezension (sage ich) wie das Buch (sagt Gladwell), sind höchst unterhaltsam und lehrreich. Zwei Fundstücke mögen dies unterstreichen:

„Twenty years ago, a political philosopher named James Flynn uncovered a curious fact. Americans—at least, as measured by I.Q. tests—were getting smarter. … Flynn found, I.Q. scores showed a steady upward trajectory, rising by about three points per decade …

What’s more, the increases have not been confined to children who go to enriched day-care centers and private schools. The middle part of the curve—the people who have supposedly been suffering from a deteriorating public-school system and a steady diet of lowest-common-denominator television and mindless pop music—has increased just as much. What on earth is happening? In the wonderfully entertaining “Everything Bad Is Good for You” (Riverhead; $23.95), Steven Johnson proposes that what is making us smarter is precisely what we thought was making us dumber: popular culture.“

„So why, as a society, are we so enamored of homework? Perhaps because we have so little faith in the value of the things that children would otherwise be doing with their time. They could go out for a walk, and get some exercise; they could spend time with their peers, and reap the rewards of friendship. Or, Johnson suggests, they could be playing a video game, and giving their minds a rigorous workout.“
Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker, 9 Mai 2005
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