DINOSAUR

That’s me.  I’ve been in denial.  All this time I have convinced myself that I believe that the Old Way is better, and therefore do not need to embrace the new technology.  “Sure,” I say, “I get it:  Constant-no-break-always-in-touch-communication is the way of the future, but I’m NOT buying it.”  We did JUST FINE without calling from the grocery store to check with home if we need anything.  We were OKAY when stuck in traffic and delayed by an hour or so without calling.   Nobody would worry.  Because that is the way it WAS.

I laughed, very hard, when my First Grade Teacher friend told me about the first time she had Free Choice in her class and kids chose to play on the computer.  When Nick wanted to interact with the big old computer monitor, instead of using the OLD SCHOOL mouse, he pressed his finger against the screen and tried to wipe away the unwanted icon and bring the more desirable game with a swipe of the hand….NOT!  This is under-funded public school.  Touch screen computers exist in the real world, but they are not reality for the average classroom yet.

Today I was in a Third Grade class when a student needed to call home.   I informed him that he could use the wired classroom phone, but he had to dial 9 before his home number to get through.  After the call I saw him staring at the receiver, quizzically looking back to me for help. 

“Did you get through?” I asked.

“Yeah, my parents are coming,” was the response.  But his face was still confused and he was turning the phone receiver, attached to a strange coiled cord, around in all directions to get a better view.

“Are you okay?” I inquired.

“Yep.  Everything is fine,” he responded, “I just don’t know how to turn this thing off!”

I actually had to assure him that if he put that antique phone into its base that it would shut itself off, or “hang up”, as we Dinosaurs like to say.

We can pretend to be simply resisting the latest technology as a fad, but I must admit that the new developments are leaving me far, far behind.

We have all been through this.  “Yep,” says Grampa, “I used to walk ten miles through snow and ice to get to school.  You kids have it too easy!”  He spouts his values as superior to ours, like we do to our own kids.  Or is it denial?  Denial of new and better (and easier) things to come?  Are school buses really evil?  Carpools…were they the end of civilization?

Touch pads, smart phones…are they the path to the demise of human civilization?  Or are they just the future? 

Don’t ask this Dinosaur.