A Slinky Approach to History

Earlier today I heard an expert talking about today's youth being illiterate and unlearned. This he said was in spite of all the information they had at their fingertips. This is a ridiculous thesis. When the printing press first came out, the elder generation wailed at the fact that oratory history was lost. They felt that the next generation was ignorant, stupid, and the caretakers of the future were squandering away all that their predecessors had laid out for them. They tried to understand past, present, and future in a linear fashion, like going from point A to point B in a straight line. Their children were dumber because they could not recite Homer's Odyssey from memory. When will we learn?

The previously mentioned expert challenged his class to research obituaries on a few different literary giants. He then challenged them to do this without the use of the internet and marveled at their discomfort. That was his proof, these kids cannot research without Google. Really? I would love to see that same professor recite an obit from memory, without the aid of any written text... at the tender age of let's say....sixteen. Or do a research paper without entering any library.

Just because the next generation does not do something as well as the previous does not mean they are worse. The word one needs to keep in mind is 'obsolete', as in 'you are way before you want to be.'

We use social media to rekindle past relationships, where today's youth uses it to establish relationships. Members of the general public know how to use the Dewey System and Google, but few are master's of either. History is not a straight line, but a spiral. A Slinky going up and down, left and right on the most random staircase M. C. Escher ever created.

Pass the torch, and quit wondering if Ali would have beaten Tyson.

Jackson will one day laugh at my ineptitude on any given future digital device.

That's okay, I will kick his ass at Mario Bros.

Eric

Comments

Sylvie said…
This "expert"? Exactly what is his or her area of expertise? Surely this unenlightened individual is not anti-internet. Especially not if he/she is all about obituaries! ;) I mean, we were reading Ed McMahon's, Farrah Fawcett's and Michael Jackson's obits within minutes of their deaths, thanks to the internet. Would this expert have you wait until the printed word makes it to the news stand or the public library before you get the details?

Maybe this sad person had to walk five miles to school through snowstorms and thunderstorms and broiling sun as a child. Would he/she feel that modern transportation has invalidated the education you coddled children received because you got to school the easy way? Just curious.

I have more. :) xo
June 30, 2009 at 12:01 PM
Anonymous said…
Certainly students need to be able to accomplish research tasks by using all methods available to them. Unfortunately, often many do rely on the internet exclusively. When we Boomers were kids, taking your whole report from just the encyclopedia (the consumate body of knowledge at the time) was a similar problem.
July 6, 2009 at 5:08 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grace

The boys say the best graces before dinner.  Yes, the boys. We have multiple graces at our mealtimes. Everyone wants a turn. Sometimes they are sing song, sometimes they are short and silly and sometimes they will melt your heart. The other day, Jackson was mid-grace and thankful for food and family and force fields. Yes, he ended his grace by asking if God could put a force field around our loved ones. I'm hope God is a Star Wars fan.
Read more

Eli Fletcher Copley

Things can change in an instant. Our baby boy was born Nov 9 at 10:35. He weighed 7 pounds and 13 ounces. He arrived three weeks early. But appeared to have enough poundage for a safe delivery. He arrived with quite a healthy cry. His healthy cry gave everyone a sigh of relief. We were thrilled to hear those healthy sounds. Eric stayed with him while the doctor finished my surgery. We would all meet up in the recovery room. When I was wheeled in to the recovery room, no one was there. I was told Eli had to be taken to the special care nursery because he had started grunting to get the fluid out of his lungs. Everyone remained positive. After an hour the nurses came back to explain he was not absorbing the oxygen he was receiving and they bumped his intake. Eventually they would put him on a cpap. He was taken to the NICU. By the end of the night he was put on a ventilator. Things can change in an instant. That night he was monitored and it appeared he was going to be able to be weaned ...
Read more

Saturday

Eli's numbers, machines, blood gases, pulse ox and oxygen rate have had no change. We have been told this is a good thing. While there have been no major improvements...there have been no further deteriorations. This is how we get closer to stable. The long term goal is to get him stable and then eventually wean him off his numerous medications and machines. But for now, we focus on the fact that his information stayed the same throughout the night. It is difficult to see him like this. Every time we visit him we want to scoop him up into our arms. It is impossible to believe that I have yet to hold my baby. But I know he is where he needs to be. Those machines are tiny miracles. The nitric oxide is our miracle. We have even heard the NICU nurses refer to Eli as The Nitric Baby. So far it appears as though the nitric is working to relax his artery. Our happiest moment came early this morning when we learned they had decided to start giving him small feeds of breast milk. We would ...
Read more