It's Good For What It's Good For

I was recently teaching a lesson about electrolytes.  Since the place where most students hear the word electrolyte is Gatorade commercials, it can lead to some interesting discussions.  We talk about the history and how the chemistry department at the University of Florida created it to aid the Gators because of how much electrolyte carrying sweat they lose during practice.  Inevitably, there is a student sitting in my class drinking Gatorade as though it is a normal drink.  Because my students are in middle school, this isn't currently doing them any harm.  At that age, I'm pretty sure they could eat Tupperware, and their bodies would figure out how to process it.  However, the salt content is far too high to be treating it like it is a regular drink, especially as you get older or have a family history of hypertension.  Gatorade is a great thing for the purpose for which it was designed, but it really doesn't belong in any other context.

After having this discussion, I started noticing how often I say, "It's good for what its good for.  Just don't use it for everything."  Here are a couple of examples.

Quizlet - The students at GRACE love quizlet.  When I begin study training with middle school students at the beginning of the year, I ask them to tell me how they currently study.  The vast majority of the answers use the words "look over the notes" and "make a quizlet."  The teacher next door to me hates quizlet, not because it is a bad program but because his material isn't about vocabulary.  For that reason, I have changed my study skills lesson to include tools for different thinking levels.  I show them blooms taxonomy, and we talk about how quizlet is really only helping with the bottom, remembering, level.  I don't know if I am getting through to them, but I want them to understand that you have to have more than one tool in a toolbox.  Quizlet is like a hammer.  A hammer is great for hammering nails, but it would be terrible for unscrewing a screw.  Quizlet is great for remembering vocabulary, but it will not help you analyze the parts of an experiment or decipher a graph.  It's good for what it's good for.

Wikipedia - I have written in previous posts about how much I have changed my tune on Wikipedia.  I have even donated to their fundraising campaign for the last two years and am now the proud owner of a Wikipedia water bottle.  That said, I still teach my students that it has its place.  Like printed encyclopedias, it doesn't really have a place in formal research.  A student shouldn't be using Wikipedia as a source in a paper they write for me any more than they should be using me or the student sitting next to them as a source.  I show it to them often, however, as a way of finding answers to questions or just learning more about a topic (and the hyperlinks are great for the curious learner in a way print encyclopedias could never have been).  Wikipedia is wonderful when used properly; just be aware of its limitations.  It's good for what its good for.

Each time I find myself saying this to a student, I come to the realization that this is true of most things in life in general and education in particular.  Most things have an intended purpose, and they find their best use in those bounds.  Whether you are talking about the dangers of overdosing on prescription drugs or the dangers of extramarital sex or the dangers of driving your car from New York to London, the problem isn't the tool itself.  It is using them improperly.

Examining the proper use of things will help you to find joy in them and not blame them when you use them off label.