"Patience, Iago! Patience!"
I remember when video cassette recorders first hit the mass market about 25 years ago. I was dumbfounded that I could actually rent or purchase ANY MOVIE I WANTED TO SEE AND WATCH IT WHENEVER I WANTED. (Actually, at the time I had to rent the VCR too because I couldn't afford one of my own, but that was how the original video rental stores made most of their money.) It was such a novelty, such a cool thing, that I still remember the feeling of control I had. I was no longer beholden to the movie theaters and TV stations (of which there were only about five at the time) for my entertainment. Today's teens, however, don't remember such a time. To them, there has always been immediate gratification when it comes to entertainment. In fact, most of them probably grew up watching Disney movies on video...a thousand times each, on demand, making the television seem like an excellent baby-sitter for frazzled parents.
Music? If I wanted to hear my favorite song, I could either buy the record (12-inch vinyl disks, like huge black CDs, except the "needle" actually had to touch them to make them audible--no lasers and digital sound back then) OR call the local radio station and beg the DJ to play it...and then wait next to the radio for hours, to see if he actually would. There was no skipping to the next track with the push of a button.
I grew up in a world where there was no fast-forward, but now I seem to live in a world where there is no slowing down. Students in the computer lab doing research routinely moan, "This computer is so slooooooow!" They think I am terribly old-fashioned and quaint when I tell them that in the days before the Internet (days before they were even born), if we wanted information for a research paper, we had to go to this large building called a library where there were these ancient technologies called books. They had no "search" function; you had to do that yourself. No Internet? How did I live? How could I buy my movie tickets, download my music, or keep in touch with my friends?!?
Well, we did it the "old-fashioned" way, the slow way. While I appreciate all these new, speedy technologies as much as my students do, I fear that they have created a sense in the society that we are entitled to everything we want when we want it, no matter what. And I fear that we are doing so at the expense of our ability to think critically and make intelligent decisions about things that may ultimately matter more than constant fun and immediate gratification.
Somehow civilized society plodded along just fine for hundreds of years without cell phones. Now, my students can't turn the stupid things off long enough to write down a spelling list (which, they would argue, they don't need to know how to do because they can always just "text" the words and the spell checker will fix their mistakes for them). The TV remote, DVD players (in cars, for the sake of humanity!!), personal stereos, the Internet...
Maybe it's just the same old "infernal machine" argument: New technologies in every generation are regarded with disdain by the users of older technologies. Maybe I too will be assimilated to the point that one day I'll be doing 80 on the freeway, while talking on the phone and watching a movie on the in-dash DVD player, and in the back seat my grandkids will be IMing their "keypals" in Botswana while playing a video game and listening to their favorite songs, all of which they downloaded into their watches before leaving home. Sadly, even if I am able to do all that without killing us, I won't have a chance to look at any scenery or enjoy the breeze because by then the "scenery" will include only factories belching black smoke into the skies, and the "breeze" will provided by the air-conditioning system. I fear that the speedy "progress" of modern technology will change our reality to the point that we will no longer know what matters.
So why does this bother me? Well, part of it has to do with the fact that although the world has changed (progressed?) immeasurably in the past 15 years, schools have not. Lectures have always been boring when delivered in the dull monotone of the tired professor, but it seems that most teenagers today find EVERYTHING boring if it isn't accompanied by loud music, flashing graphics, and fun! This honors class has been assigned to read the novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. It is a "classic," which requires one's full attention to appreciate and understand. Yes, Dickens often says things the long way. He overdescribes, and his language is occasionally subtle and sarcastic. He uses lots of figurative language, extended metaphors, and fancy phrasings. This is all stuff that "honors students" should delight in; it makes them part of the shrinking crowd of people who can still understand classics without the help of Spark Notes and cheat sheets. But if the last few years are any indication, for today's readers, the novel is just too challenging...not because they are dumber than previous generations but because they won't slow down long enough to pay strict attention to anything.
I know we live in a world that drives us forward with maddening impatience, but please do me this favor: Set aside a couple hours a week for all of the month of April to read A Tale of Two Cities. Do your reading in a quiet room. If there are none in your house, visit the library. Read slowly and carefully. Appreciate every lengthy description and use the time and silence (the "leisure," as Faber would call it) to create those characters in your mind and make them real. And, maybe most importantly, talk about what you read! If there is no one in your family who is interested, talk to others in this class. If they don't seem to care, come in and talk to me. If I'm not in my room, post a question or comment on the discussion board and I will reply. This novel could be an amazing discovery for many of you! You will be astounded at how much you will enjoy the book if you take the time to appreciate it, think about it, and share what you learn. If you don't, it's going to be (like every other assignment probably is for you) a chore.
It doesn't have to be that way. You can make it fun if you care to. Give it a shot!
Music? If I wanted to hear my favorite song, I could either buy the record (12-inch vinyl disks, like huge black CDs, except the "needle" actually had to touch them to make them audible--no lasers and digital sound back then) OR call the local radio station and beg the DJ to play it...and then wait next to the radio for hours, to see if he actually would. There was no skipping to the next track with the push of a button.
I grew up in a world where there was no fast-forward, but now I seem to live in a world where there is no slowing down. Students in the computer lab doing research routinely moan, "This computer is so slooooooow!" They think I am terribly old-fashioned and quaint when I tell them that in the days before the Internet (days before they were even born), if we wanted information for a research paper, we had to go to this large building called a library where there were these ancient technologies called books. They had no "search" function; you had to do that yourself. No Internet? How did I live? How could I buy my movie tickets, download my music, or keep in touch with my friends?!?
Well, we did it the "old-fashioned" way, the slow way. While I appreciate all these new, speedy technologies as much as my students do, I fear that they have created a sense in the society that we are entitled to everything we want when we want it, no matter what. And I fear that we are doing so at the expense of our ability to think critically and make intelligent decisions about things that may ultimately matter more than constant fun and immediate gratification.
Somehow civilized society plodded along just fine for hundreds of years without cell phones. Now, my students can't turn the stupid things off long enough to write down a spelling list (which, they would argue, they don't need to know how to do because they can always just "text" the words and the spell checker will fix their mistakes for them). The TV remote, DVD players (in cars, for the sake of humanity!!), personal stereos, the Internet...
Maybe it's just the same old "infernal machine" argument: New technologies in every generation are regarded with disdain by the users of older technologies. Maybe I too will be assimilated to the point that one day I'll be doing 80 on the freeway, while talking on the phone and watching a movie on the in-dash DVD player, and in the back seat my grandkids will be IMing their "keypals" in Botswana while playing a video game and listening to their favorite songs, all of which they downloaded into their watches before leaving home. Sadly, even if I am able to do all that without killing us, I won't have a chance to look at any scenery or enjoy the breeze because by then the "scenery" will include only factories belching black smoke into the skies, and the "breeze" will provided by the air-conditioning system. I fear that the speedy "progress" of modern technology will change our reality to the point that we will no longer know what matters.
So why does this bother me? Well, part of it has to do with the fact that although the world has changed (progressed?) immeasurably in the past 15 years, schools have not. Lectures have always been boring when delivered in the dull monotone of the tired professor, but it seems that most teenagers today find EVERYTHING boring if it isn't accompanied by loud music, flashing graphics, and fun! This honors class has been assigned to read the novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. It is a "classic," which requires one's full attention to appreciate and understand. Yes, Dickens often says things the long way. He overdescribes, and his language is occasionally subtle and sarcastic. He uses lots of figurative language, extended metaphors, and fancy phrasings. This is all stuff that "honors students" should delight in; it makes them part of the shrinking crowd of people who can still understand classics without the help of Spark Notes and cheat sheets. But if the last few years are any indication, for today's readers, the novel is just too challenging...not because they are dumber than previous generations but because they won't slow down long enough to pay strict attention to anything.
I know we live in a world that drives us forward with maddening impatience, but please do me this favor: Set aside a couple hours a week for all of the month of April to read A Tale of Two Cities. Do your reading in a quiet room. If there are none in your house, visit the library. Read slowly and carefully. Appreciate every lengthy description and use the time and silence (the "leisure," as Faber would call it) to create those characters in your mind and make them real. And, maybe most importantly, talk about what you read! If there is no one in your family who is interested, talk to others in this class. If they don't seem to care, come in and talk to me. If I'm not in my room, post a question or comment on the discussion board and I will reply. This novel could be an amazing discovery for many of you! You will be astounded at how much you will enjoy the book if you take the time to appreciate it, think about it, and share what you learn. If you don't, it's going to be (like every other assignment probably is for you) a chore.
It doesn't have to be that way. You can make it fun if you care to. Give it a shot!
posted by MRT at 10:32 AM
1 Comments:
Mr. Thompson I seriously doubt you could ever be quaint! Just to let you know yesterday during the, "play party," (the one between the two shows, it is not the real party.) while everybody else was watching a movie me and a bunch of other people went over to Creekside and played tag on the jungle gym. We had the time of our lives! Screaming, yelling, and chasing does not require any kind of technology. That is what real fun is! I hate watching movies with friends! It is such a waste of time. When I am with friends we play! While everyone was watching a movie, (at the real cast party. The one after the show,) I walked up and turned it off, and started a fabulous game of, "honey I love you!"
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