Before I knew that a man could kill a man, because it happens all the time. Now I know that even the person with whom you've shared food, or whom you've slept, even he can kill you with no trouble. The closest neighbor can kill you with his teeth: that is what I have Learned since the genocide, and my eyes no longer gaze the same on the face of the world.
Boys' brains are being digitally rewired for change, novelty, excitement and constant arousal. That means they're totally out of sync in traditional classes, which are analog, static, interactively passive.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights how digital exposure alters boys' learning processes, making conventional education methods ineffective.
Philip Zimbardo's quote addresses the significant impact of digital technology on boys' cognitive development. He suggests that the modern digital landscape, which constantly stimulates novelty and excitement, contrasts sharply with traditional educational methods that are static and less engaging. This mismatch leads to difficulties in adapting to conventional classrooms, as boys may struggle to focus in an environment that does not match their digitally accustomed brains.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation about modern education methods, one could use this quote to emphasize the need for reform in teaching strategies.
More from Philip Zimbardo
All quotes βEvil is knowing better, but willingly doing worse.
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Many cults start off with high ideals that get corrupted by leaders or their board of advisors who become power-hungry and dominate and control members' lives. No group with high ideals starts off as a 'cult'; they become one when their errant ways are exposed.
Heroes are Ordinary People whose social action is Extra-Ordinary/ who ACT when others are passive, who give up EGO-centrism for SOCIO-centrism.
Bullies may be the perpetrators of evil, but it is the evil of passivity of all those who know what is happening and never intervene that perpetuates such abuse.
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One trend that bothers me is the glorification of stupidity, that the media is reassuring people it's alright not to know anything. That to me is far more dangerous than a little pornography on the Internet.
High school isn't a very important place. When you're going you think it's a big deal, but when it's over nobody really thinks it was great unless they're beered up.
How much more do they deserve our reverence and praise, whose lives are devoted to the formation of institutions, which, when they and their children are mingled in the common dust, may continue to cherish the principles and the practice of liberty in perpetual freshness and vigour.
Knowledge is taken from breath, not lives in a book
There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book we read becomes luminous with manifold allusion. Every sentence is doubly significant, and the sense of our author is as broad as the world.