Dubai: There is hope. Teenagers in the UAE know the 18th century German composer Beethoven as opposed to 16-year-old YouTube pop sensation Justin Beiber.
The classical composer would have been happy to learn that 11 to 25 year olds in the UAE are far more familiar with his name compared to American students who thought Beethoven was a dog in a popular movie series.
A report by the international news agency AFP about the US-based Beloit College's ‘Mindset' list, highlighted some of the results that humanities professor Tom McBride and former public affairs director Ron Nief had come up with after speaking to young Americans. The two academics have been compiling the list from 1998.
Gulf News decided to run a short trivia quiz past 15 young people in the UAE, five of which fell in the age group of 11 to 14 years, five in the 15 to 20 years and five in the 21 to 25 years segment. The questions were formulated to evaluate knowledge that would be generally known. It is not a scientific evaluation and should be taken in the same vein.
Interviewers
The interviews were conducted on the phone by Readers Desk journalists Huda Tabrez, Rabab Khan, Heather Madore, Mohammad Jihad and Manuel Almario. The survey respondents represent the multi-cultural spectrum of the country.
Firstly, we asked readers to list all the seven emirates. Eighty-six per cent of those polled were able to name all of them. The rest confused Al Ain with Ras Al Khaimah and Umm Al Quwain.
A 22-year-old reader did introduce a whole new emirate called "Al Musaif".
The most interesting answers were for the question ‘What is the third rock from the sun?' A 16-year-old said: "It is a comedy series on television." A 23-year-old declared: "It is Mars!" Sixty per cent gave the correct answer of Earth.
Moving from the galaxy to the internet, we asked readers: "Do you remember a time without the internet?"
Answers ranged from the 1960s to 2009. A 14-year-old said: "Some time in the 1960s during the British war." We quizzed him on this "war", but there was no clarity. Just one 16-year-old gave a fairly accurate answer to say "the 1980s".
The final question focused on language and how popular usage seems to have changed the functionality of words, especially abbreviations such as ‘asap' and ‘aka'. Emails commonly arrive with ‘ASAP' tagged at the end. Do people realise what it means or does it have new connotations?
A 13-year-old said: "I don't know what either of them stand for, as I don't use abbreviations."
Sixty per cent gave the accurate full form of "as soon as possible" for "asap". The evolution of language was better illustrated with "aka" or short for "also known as". Many had a fair idea what it implied and held strong associations with rap and hip-hop stars for them.
However, a 16-year-old did ask: "Isn't aka the similarity between two words?" Another youngster thought it meant "where do you live?"
Technology
While the Mindset list is designed to "give a snapshot of how things have changed", the responses from young people does beg to ask if perhaps technology and the internet have allowed people to become mentally lazy.
Kim Thompson, a lecturer in health sciences based in the UAE, said: "Not sure that the term lazy is useful — kids are digital learners now, but they still need guidance.
"General knowledge on the whole is becoming less, from my observation, in part due to [the] focus of learning in schools and possibly partly due to less interaction with older people who have and value such knowledge."
Ian Hicks, an assistant principal at a school based in Dubai, has been an educator for over 30 years with experience in Europe, Phillipines and the UAE. He offered a different perspective.
"To be honest, I encourage students to use the internet sensibly for research. The internet is absolutely a brilliant tool, so is a newspaper — as good as an encyclopaedia," Hicks said.
"I think to some degree they are becoming mentally lazy. There has to be some form of rote learning, especially for a young child, such as spelling rules and times tables. They have to be taught."
He said that rote learning helps children learn basic information, which forms a foundation. They then develop other skills and use the knowledge to "transfer the skills they have learned".
Hicks said that the reason young people might appear to be less informed is because they have not been taught to transfer "factual education" to life. There is not enough focus in some classrooms on developing a child's intellect.
"In schools in my experience, with the exception of one teacher, the focus of the classroom is the teacher not the student. The teacher is the catalyst who encourages students to develop their understanding."
