I’ve been working on the presentations/workshops that I’m going to be giving in Nairobi next October.  It’s been hard to get myself disciplined and going on these and since there are two full-day institutes plus a 3-hour workshop it isn’t an easy task.  My friend Barb told me about a research study that concluded that once you’ve been unemployed for a year you’re pretty much unemployable because you’ve lost the habits that go along with working; getting up early, working to deadlines, etc. etc. etc.  So I’m a little bit afraid that I can’t do this work any more since I’ve been lazing around for some time now.  Nonetheless I’m determined to make these all excellent events, so I’m working away at it.

In my online research I came across this video and watched it about 4 times in a row. My first response was hmmm, interesting but. I wasn’t sure what the but was, but I did know that something didn’t feel quite right. So I watched it again. And again. And each time it distressed me more. Have a look at it yourself and see what you think.

Understand that I’ve always embraced technology. Yes, it’s true, I’m almost always afraid – even as I sit here typing – that I’m going to break my computer.   But I was one of the first teachers to have computers (yes, three of them) in my classroom.  Of course by mid-winter we still didn’t have all of them actually functioning and the only thing that hurried the board of ed’n along in fixing them was when I threatened that I was going to start using the computers the following weeks as props in physics lessons:  What will happen if we drop a computer monitor (remember, the big old ones) and a keyboard out the window of our 3rd floor classroom at the same time?  One is big and heavy, one small and light:  will they hit the ground at the same time?  And so on.  So you see, I like technology. Still and all, the numbers of hours kids are spending on TV and phones and twittering and iPodding and texting and surfing the net and playing video games online and on and on it goes … well, that kind of saddened me.   Is it just nostalgia that makes me yearn for kids wanting to just plain go outside and play?

And then there’s the confusion between creativity and having to have electronic technologies at your fingertips to be creative.  Do I need to put a machine in front of a student to engage them now?  What’s happened here??

So now I have a good way to start one of my institutes.  We’ll watch this video and talk about all the things in it that seem to be true (or don’t make us uncomfortable) and those that might be leading us down the wrong path but seem to be persistently in the air.

But I’m sitting here blogging about this so I’m really a part of it aren’t I?

I remember one of my high school teachers warning me that school was preparing us for jobs that wouldn’t exist by the time we got out of school and started working.   I don’t want to be one of those people who gets stuck in a view of “the good ole’ days” (truth is, I don’t remember them) or unable to grasp the present much less imagine the future. With this to start I think I just might be able to put together a vision for the rest of the day without too much trouble; I have piles of resources sitting right here beside me and what I need is time to just imagine the day and then build a framework for it.

Meantime I had coffee this morning with a young man who is running for school board trustee in my neighborhood.  I worked with him on the board of the Wychwood Open Door (a drop-in centre which is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for folks who live on the street) and was impressed by him  After initially standing him up this morning (calendar problems on my iPhone) we finally met at 9:30 and spent an hour talking about what we’d like to see change in education.  I think I’ll help him out with his campaign; we need young, passionate, creative, smart folks like him making educational decisions.  Guess I’ll start here.

ELECT ADAM CHALEFF-FREUDENTHALER

T.D.S.B. TRUSTEE for ST. PAUL’S