Lazy brains?
JOHN AMAGOALIK
There was a time when people had to use their thinking powers much more than is necessary today. People had to learn and remember things in order to survive. It required effort and skill to find food, shelter and other necessities of life. Even after our traditional way of life changed, we still had to have and learn new basic functions that required thinking and using our brains.
Technology has changed all that. Why learn the mathematical tables when a hand-held calculator can solve any mathematical problem for you? Why remember things when you can file away all kinds of things in a computer file? Why bother thinking and learning when the information highway is but a click away? Why leam how to do things when so many machines can do them for you?
Technology has made things so much easier to do. Technology is now doing a lot of the thinking for us and carrying out functions that used to require human hands and a human brain. This is all well and good. But what does it mean when a human brain is not used and exercised regularly? Like any muscle, the brain needs regular exercise. Without it, it becomes flabby, overweight, and it tires easily. It becomes a couch potato.
Technology is fine. It makes our physical way of life easier. But don’t let it do all the thinking for you. Know your math. The ability to read and write enriches the human condition. Understand how and why things happen the way they do. Be able to put your thoughts on paper so that you may enrich other human brains.
Schools are the training grounds for the human brain. Spend your time well there. Read newspapers and books. Write to your friends and family. Do pu les. Do things that exercise your brain. Otherwise, it starts to turn to mush.
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