Generation NOW kids &
why schools have to change … (Part 1)
When I was a child,
adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard
things were when they growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school
every morning.... barefoot and in the snow… uphill... BOTH ways...
I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to tell my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it.
But now that I'm older and a school librarian, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. They've got it so easy. I mean, compared to my childhood, they live in a Utopia.
I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to tell my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it.
But now that I'm older and a school librarian, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. They've got it so easy. I mean, compared to my childhood, they live in a Utopia.
To begin with:
- Our parents told us to stay outside and play (without providing
supervision or advice on activities) ... all day long. Now children are
never left unsupervised and have packed schedules with camps, lessons,
sports, tutoring, enrichment … or if the family can’t afford these things
the Internet and TV are the babysitters.
- Everything is safer now. I remember roller skating (metal wheels) on
the sidewalk without the benefit of pads and helmets. My knees were
permanently scabbed. I rode my bike without a helmet, often with no hands.
Seat belts and car seats were for rich people with new cars. My mom
let us ride wherever we wanted – even in the open bed of a truck and we
hung on. If we were lucky, we got the "safety arm" across
the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly. Not only that,
but the recharging ports in cars … those were cigarette lighters, and
there were also ashtrays that slid out and were full of butts. People
actually drove around smoking while the kids were in the car -- with the
windows rolled up (which was actually a chore because you cranked a handle
to make windows roll up).
- We didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up,
we had to use the stove. Making popcorn was a real ordeal. You either had to have a
special popper or you got this foil package that you put on the stove and
then all the kernels in the bottom were burnt.
And then there was technology:
·
The television had 13 channels. We had to use
a little book called a TV Guide to
find out what was on. There was no such thing as channel surfing because we had
to get UP and walk over to the TV to change the channel, which we did by
turning a dial ~ I remember being the remote control. Not only that, sometime
the reception was fuzzy and if I wanted a clear picture I’d have to stand in
front of the TV holding the rabbit ears just so.
·
There were no DVRs or TiVo or OnDemand or
streaming TV from a website, so if we wanted to watch a program we had to watch
it when it was being broadcast and there was no fast-forwarding through
commercials. There was no Cartoon Network either so we had to wait all week
long for cartoons that were only on Saturday mornings. Late night TV ended
sometime after midnight, and then the station played the Star-Spangled Banner to “sign-off” and then there was nothing on
except a test pattern until morning.
·
After school, there were reruns of wholesome shows
like The Brady Bunch, Gilligan’s Island, and I Dream of Jeannie … oh and Bewitched. I think I may have seen every
episode of these shows several times because nothing else was on. Every once in
a while there was an Afternoon Special that was really corny and always had a
moral lesson for you to learn. What do kids do now after school? They’re
multi-tasking, switching between several activities incessantly; listening to
music, texting friends, doing homework, sending IMs, watching YouTube, checking
email and Facebook, sending tweets, eating, and playing a game … yes, they are
trying to do all these things simultaneously.
·
Our only telephone was stuck on the wall with
a long cord that got tangled up as we walked as far away as it would stretch.
We were lucky that we weren’t on a party line where your neighbors could listen
in. Even so, I remember my parents getting very irritated having to listen to
my long, inane conversations. Now parents often don’t have a clued what their
kids are talking about; half of it is in acronyms (LMAOROFL) and it is filled
with bizarre emoticons ;-)
·
There weren't any fancy features like Call
Waiting, either. If we were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a
busy signal, that's it. There was no Caller ID so when the phone rang we had no
idea who it was! It could be our school, our parents, our boss, our grandma,
the collection agent... we just didn't know! We had to pick it up and take our
chances. There weren't any cell phones either, so if you left home you just missed
the calls – see, we didn’t even have answering machines! If you wanted to make
a call away from home, you’d have to find a phone booth – sometimes you can see
them still.
·
TEXTING? Yeah, right – although for a while
there were these beeper things that people carried around to know when they
were desperately needed for an emergency.
·
Yes, there were computers (I’m not that old!),
but they existed in huge rooms in big companies and even with that gigantic
computer it was less powerful than an iPhone now.
·
No one had personal computers, and the
Internet wasn’t open to the public. If we wanted to know something, we
had to go to the library and look it up ourselves, using the drawers in the
card catalog! Information
is now instantaneous and customizable with RSS feeds, blogs, interactive
websites, and … Google.
·
There was no email. We had to actually
write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then we had to find or
buy a stamp and put it in the mailbox, and it would take a week to get there.
·
There were no MP3's or Napsters or
iTunes! We had records in vinyl with beautiful jackets that were like
artwork. There were no CD players, but we did have giant boom boxes that
were really heavy to carry around. We'd play our favorite tape and
"eject" it when finished, and sometimes the tape deck would “eat” the
tape when ejected. And if we wanted to steal music, we had to wait around all
day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning
and mess it all up!
·
I remember the first video games like Pong and
Space Invaders and Asteroids. Our screen guy was a little square (well,
we used our imagination) and there were no multiple levels or screens, it was
just one screen… forever! Oh, and you could never win; the game just kept
getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like
LIFE! Now there are sophisticated game systems like PlayStation or Xbox with
high resolution 3-D graphics, and these devices also serve as DVD players,
Internet connectors, and you can control the games with your body. World of
Warcraft, and other MMORPGs, are so absorbing that kids can concentrate on them
for hours on end, seemingly loosing track of where their virtual life ends and
their real life begins.
I hate to say it, but the
kids today don't see how good they've got it … they wouldn't last five minutes
back in 1970. But by the same token, I can see that their experience growing up
is not “easier”, just different.
And
this is why school can’t look the same as it did in 1970. We’re talking about
the NOW connected generation, with their own obstacles to overcome. Students
today are not engaged by spending 6-hours daily listening to a teacher talking
at the front of the classroom, often moving too fast for some, too slow for
others, and not using any of the tools they use to learn on their own.
[To
be continued] Look for Part 2 in February, which attempts to answer the
question of how schools need to change to meet the needs of Generation NOW
students.
by Janice Gilmore-See, Southern Section
Past-President
