A Teaching Life

Is this another example of digital devices imposing themselves upon us, each iteration moving us away from ourselves, and becoming the determiner of our presence in the world. Can human insistence on being human with one another be enough to stem this tide?

I remember thinking when Google arrived on my computer that I would not have to go to the library. I could sit and research what I needed for my classroom. All from where I sat. In searching, my brain was in question mode, wondering mode, in decision mode. My beloved Macintosh in the 80’s gave me license to become my own Gutenberg. The internet of the 90s brought me the world. From my times going to the library, to having my Mac, to searching the internet, my brain probed, pondered, queried, questioned, wrestled, struggled, all in search of supporting my teaching.

When meeting with my students, I offered what I was learning and asked them about it. What did they think? What did they want to know? To learn? Together our brains were often on overdrive, knowing not where we would go.

We created memories.

But were I now in the classroom and chose to adopt Google’s AI-synthesized answers and expected my students to learn them, our brains would remain on hold, perhaps observing us (not sure about that). No friction, no moving to the edges of our thinking. Simply expecting retention (which will not happen). Quick delivery, quick attention but no retention, no learning.

What kind of human being will we become? If we don’t ask ourselves this question we may be swallowed up into answer-land and become robotic receptacles of someone else’s universe. What will it be?

You have to decide.

           Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forward. (Kierkegaard)

          I write to bring ideas and methods from my life as a teacher in the latter half of the 20th century to help teachers and the public to “live forward” in this century. My latest book, Teacher in the Rye: Doing It My Way is available on Amazon. And I welcome comments here on my Blog or by email at frankthoms3@gmail.com.