Wow, here it is, 2012. I look around and see so much is so different than when I was a kid. I look at the world and think as bad as things are, there is so much about "right now" that is stinking cool! I was in a second grade class this week. We were in the middle of a Reading lesson on Fact and Opinion. We discussed that to be a fact, it has to be provable. I asked where would you go to find proof of a fact. Without missing a beat, several chimed in, "The Internet." I smiled. They are right of course.
I told them that when I was their age we had to use "encyclopedias"to prove facts and look up information. When I was their age, we had phones in our homes that still had cords from the handset to the phone and you had to stay close to the phone to talk on it. Then we talked about how today you can walk around in the yard on your house phone. I told them we never had cell phones until I was grown and we never had computers in our homes. Those were big, massive things that had their own buildings. They looked amazed and some laughed; rightly so, too. These children are growing up in such a charmed age. It is like the Renaissance Cubed.
I wonder about the trade offs we've made. Sure we have such technology with even school-aged children having their own cell phones and iPads. We have (most of us) more than one computer in our home. Heck! Most of us carry a computer in our pocket or purse (Smartphones). We can store all the photo's, music, files, and such on a tiny little memory card and keep it with us always in a flash drive (ever ready to view or add to the fold). If we don't know how to cook something, a recipe is a click away. We can order groceries online and have someone else pick up and deliver them. Although they can still offer some good services, we can plan, execute, and pay for our vacations without ever speaking to a Travel Agent. We can rent cars, get prescriptions, buy just about anything or service we need online and never have to interact with other humans. This is what I mean by trade offs.
How good is it when we live in our own little world without the benefit of others? We get to the point where we dwell on ourselves. Now days we have more diagnosed depression and I think it is because we are so tuned in on us. We don't learn about the lady that checks our groceries and her sick husband. We don't know about the man who lives next door and the sadness in his life, because we don't have to. We never stop to think how lucky we are that we don't have their problems, because we don't know about their problems. What is more: we are becoming a society that does not care about their problems. We are growing more and more selfish every generation.
We keep our children inside 90% of the time they are home because it is either not safe for them to be alone and playing out of doors; or we don't want to sit outside and watch them play. We buy them bicycles they don't ride because it isn't safe to be out riding around the block. They sit inside and play video games and people complain because they are not skinny. When I was a child I knew everywhere around my house within 6 blocks in any direction. I got lost once and no more. We have to teach kids map skills now because they never leave their yard. They have no sense of direction. I had friends that lived across the street and over a mile away. I rode my bicycle to their homes and my Mama knew I was okay. She would tell me to call when I got there so she wouldn't worry. Mostly she was worried about traffic, not creepy people. I walked over a mile to go to the 7-11 store just to buy candy or a coke with my allowance.
While I learned a bit about money in school, I really learned how to plan for what I wanted to buy on my own. I could count it out and know if I had what I needed. Time, I learned about that too. I knew how to judge approximate time by daylight and to read a clock well because me being home when I was supposed to be kept me out of trouble and who wants to miss dinner? Now they have to be taught that at school as well.
If I fell and hurt myself on my bike, a kind person would always help me up, make sure I was okay and I never had to worry if they were dangerous. I learned to read and write because I had teachers that showed me what a world it opened up to me. It wasn't because I was tested at every turn. We had Chapter and Unit Tests on Grammar, or Language as it was called, on Science, Math, History/Social Studies. We never had "Reading Tests" per say, and my comprehension is pretty good. I think making it meaningful to the class, to me, helped me learn better. More tests does not mean more learning, it never did.
I believe in Spelling being an important skill. I do not think we should always rely on that red squiggly line to help us out. It may not know what form of wear, or ware, or we're, or where we need to use. I think while we do type a lot, we should still have good, neat, legible handwriting (manuscript and cursive) to show we are not without civility. Little things do matter. I believe when we teach History, we should teach the what and the why and not strive so hard to force the whens. I believe Science should always begin with wonder and end with more of the same. Give a child a reason to believe that there is more to discover or they will feel they have nothing to offer. Reading should be personal. If I only read to score points to make you look good, I am getting nothing from it. I will cease to do it as soon as I am allowed to. I see that with many adults who NEVER read anything more than a newspaper after they graduate and do not have to. This is sad. I always feel they miss so much by not reading books. Make it mine, then I will hunt for more to read.
Yes, these children of today live in a wonderful technologically advanced age. I think they have lost the magic of childhood in many ways. They have lost the hours in the yard, playing in ditches and wooded lots pretending and exploring. In school they are taught in ways they hate, lessons they could care less about. They are tested until they are exhausted and still the government is not pleased with anyone's results. I sort of feel sorry for these children of today with their iPads, Playstations, Wiis, TV's in each room, and air-conditioned bubbles they live in. I miss my old corded wall phone and my wonderful hours playing in my neighborhood; just me, some friends and our dreams.
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