Question

From Everything Bad Is Good For You

By: Steven Johnson

De-emphasizing the content of game culture shouldn’t be seen as a cop-out. We ignore the content of many activities that are widely considered to be good for the brain or body. No one complains about the simplistic, materialistic plot of chess games. (“It always ends the same way!”) We teach algebra to children knowing full well that the day they leave the classroom, ninety-nine percent of those kids will never again directly employ their algebraic skills. Learning algebra isn’t about acquiring a specific tool; it’s about building up a mental muscle that will come in handy elsewhere. You don’t go to the gym because you’re interested in learning how to operate a Stairmaster; you go to the gym because operating a Stairmaster does something laudable to your body, the befits of which you enjoy the many hours of the week you’re not on a Stairmaster.

So it is with games. It’s not what you’re thinking about when you’re playing a game, it’s the way you’re thinking that matters. The distinction is not exclusive to games, of course. Here’s John Dewey, in his book Experience and Education: “Perhaps the greatest of all pedagogical fallacies is the notion that a person learns only that particular thing he is studying at the time. Collateral learning in the way of formation of enduring attitudes, of likes and dislikes, may be and often is more important than spelling lesson or lesson in geography or history that is learned. For these attitudes are fundamentally what count in the future.”

Questions for Discussion

1. What is the point, or claim Johnson is attempting to get his readers to accept?
2. What reason does he give to support this claim? What evidence supports the reason?
3. Besides the reason and evidence, do you see any other kind of rhetorical appeals (ethos, logos, pathos) operating in this passage?
4. Do you find this argument convincing? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Johnson is attempting to accept his point as we ignore many activities which is good for the brain and body..

Reasons to support this claim is learning and thinking, learning algebra not only to improve the skills also for building up a mental muscle, stairmaster benefts when we go to gym not only for our body which we can enjoy the many hours of the week you are not on a stairmaster..

Rhetorical appeals in this passage experience and education make benefits for learning in the way of formation of attitudes, likes and dislikes from everything we learners important for our future fundamentally..

This argument not convincing, but saying message for our goodness from Everything bad is good for us..