Reaction to Karl Fisch's "Things I Want My Future Principal to Read"
For those of you who want to get down to business, here is the link:
As a former English teacher, I've read some pretty deep stuff! I've had my world turned and my eyes opened to new possibilities a number of times by great literature. As I've told my former students many times, sometimes you have to wade through some pretty deep stuff to be transformed. After reading this piece (which will at first feel a little deep and overly philosophical), something in me changed.
The article the link will take you to, written by Karl Fisch, references two works that have shaken him lately. For me, this piece gave voice to my overwhelming feeling that, with the explosion of technology in the past 15-20 years, we are standing on the glacier of change that is entirely transforming the landscape, serving as the dividing line between what is to come from this point forward and what has come before it. As Pesce and Turek put it in their article, this dividing line will serve as the marker "before which the ‘dumb’ and disconnected generations of humanity will seem incomprehensible and inhuman." We are fortunate enough to be standing at that point in time.
If this is true, the question that is begged is clear: "How do you educate people to function, participate, thrive, produce, and succeed in a world that we simply cannot imagine or predict?"
The charge is essential, the answers are varied and highly debatable, but it is SO CLEAR TO ME that there is one suggestion that will NOT suffice -- continue to do what you have always done.
Hopefully the piece, specifically the concepts and images presented in the piece (I just love the image of people being polled about the impact of Gutenberg's printing press and them chuckling to think that anything could have that kind of impact), gives credence to the idea that maintaining a stationary position (specifically in education) during a time of such prodigious change is unethical and unwise.
Just had to share and needed to share with others who might appreciate the thought!