Susan Orlean bemoans the findings of a new study that tested students' basic knowledge of history:
Most fourth graders can’t say why Abraham Lincoln is an important historical figure? Wow…. Being able to reel off a list of dates in history, while useful, is so much less important than understanding why those dates matter…
When a machine can do something better and faster than a person can, I am happy to let the machine do it. (Why tie your shoes when you can use Velcro? Why add a long list of numbers when a calculator can do it faster and more reliably?) But understanding who we are and how we came to be the way we are? That’s not Googlable now, and I hope it never will be.
The Dish 