The older boys were talking tonight at dinner about Steve Jobs’ death, and his short but amazing life. I didn’t realize or just didn’t remember that he had cancer, which the men at the table informed me everyone has known for years. Ironically, my 8th grader just had to turn in a report and diorama about someone who has changed the course of human history. He chose Neil Armstrong, probably because he’s an iconic figure, rather than because of any interest in space exploration, but he commented that Steve Jobs would have been an interesting person to profile. He certainly has changed human history. Was his death a little more peaceful knowing he had made such a contribution to society? And he lived a life of apparent virtue. A hero for modern times.
Perhaps I shouldn’t mention it during this time of national mourning, but I find myself asking whether or not Jobs changed history for the better. I feel old because I can remember the introduction of personal computers. As a high school journalism student, I even became something of a Mac snob. I say something, because it quickly faded away when my foray into journalism ended. I jumped on the email bandwagon in college, but that was the last time I was ever on the cutting edge of technology. It changes too quickly for me. It costs too much to upgrade frequently, especially for something that I use primarily as a glorified typewriter and encyclopedia. Even the cell phone: I downgraded from the iphone to a little flip phone that doesn’t even have a camera after we moved here. And I don’t miss it. I've been having a down-on-technology moment for some time.
Obviously, I indulge in the social media stuff, but I’d really rather prefer if someone wrote or called to tell me about their lives. I wouldn’t want to do away with all the improvements in medical care and research and criminal justice that computers made possible -- just the criminal activity that computers make possible. It’s certainly handy while homeschooling to look something up quickly on the internet or to show the kids a film clip or play a piece of music. But the information I seek could be located elsewhere were the internet still a figment of imagination.
Not too long ago, I read this passage in John O'Donoghue's Eternal Echoes: " The instrumentalization of contemporary life pushes us ever farther away from Nature. Even farmers do not really get their hands dirty anymore. Years ago, when you looked at a farmer's hands, they were like miniature lexicons of the landscape. The hands were worn and roughened through contact with soil and stone. . . . It was a powerful image of living hands reminding us that those hands were originally and would again be clay. People dressed in their Sunday best to go to Mass. Serving Mass, you would see perfectly dressed men come to the altar for Holy Communion. They would stand reverently and offer a pair of withered earthened palms on which the white host would glisten: the bread of life on hands of clay. This is a vignette from a vanishing world. Generally, when we lose individual contact with Nature and with each other, we gradually lose our depth and diversity of presence."
Not too long ago, I read this passage in John O'Donoghue's Eternal Echoes: " The instrumentalization of contemporary life pushes us ever farther away from Nature. Even farmers do not really get their hands dirty anymore. Years ago, when you looked at a farmer's hands, they were like miniature lexicons of the landscape. The hands were worn and roughened through contact with soil and stone. . . . It was a powerful image of living hands reminding us that those hands were originally and would again be clay. People dressed in their Sunday best to go to Mass. Serving Mass, you would see perfectly dressed men come to the altar for Holy Communion. They would stand reverently and offer a pair of withered earthened palms on which the white host would glisten: the bread of life on hands of clay. This is a vignette from a vanishing world. Generally, when we lose individual contact with Nature and with each other, we gradually lose our depth and diversity of presence."
What has me riled up lately is that the director of the Department of Defense schools, a woman with a business degree who moved up through the contracts department, recently visited the boys’ schools to promote the use of tablet computers in the classroom so that students can take better notes and become more organized.
So that they can become more distracted, is what I would say.
Can’t they just use an agenda? A little notebook to write down their assignments in? Isn’t there a study somewhere that shows students learn more when they write something down?
I’m sure teachers can be instructed in getting the most out of tablets for education, but I imagine students might enjoy getting what they can out of them without the teachers catching them playing apps or checking Facebook. I can’t think of one thing about classroom instruction that would be improved by giving students tablets. They are there to be educated, not entertained. They need to be encouraged to use their brains a little bit instead of making it easier for them to find answers. They need the "depth and diversity of presence" in the classroom, not the mindlessness that comes from spending too much time attached to a screen.
I’m know I’m a minority on this issue. I’m sure there are a million and one ways that tablets can be used to enrich learning.
I’m just not sure that students will learn any more than they did in 1991. Or 1981. Or 1901.
Steve Jobs was still amazing. May he rest in peace.
