Thursday, February 7, 2013

Falling Through the Generational Cracks

Being a baby Boomer, I’m supposed to enjoy what the kids call “old school Technology.” Well, I do. My old world technology was (and still is) radio and television. I go to trivia contests at resorts, and emcees usually wonder if I ever left my house as a child, or, if one of my former jobs was that of an emcee of a similar trivia contest.
I’m going to share a secret with everyone: I am not a reader. Reading is something that I have to do. Goodness knows, one only has to look at the assignment page for each week to see that. Reading is not what I do for pleasure. My brother bought me a Tolkien box set of books when I was in eighth grade (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy). I tried to read them, but I couldn’t. I had to see the movie to understand it. Much like Generation X and their Cliff Notes, television and movies were my cheat tactics. Had the VCR and PC been inverted ten years earlier, I might have breezed through high school.

I know I’m dancing a fine line here. It’s been a tough two weeks. I have overseen both pre-registration and formal registration for courses. This is the fourth time I’ve used Google Docs (well, now it’s called Drive) to reserve seats for registration. Super Bowl Sunday was entirely spent on comparing the two lists, and bouncing those students out who decided to ignore pre-registration. My school has 1400 seniors and juniors, so the task is rather daunting.

Please let me assure you, I am not at the point of a breakdown. My language has not turned, well, salty. I’ve done what you’ve asked. I have clicked on all the links. I have seen the suggested readings. Looking at all of this makes my head feel like it’s about to explode. Seeing Ben Rimes’ video, I wished I could grab a remote and change the channel. My wife is in a book club. Her circle has husbands who get together for their own book club. I really never had the urge to join them. It’s not my thing. For me to order Mindstorms or Switch will lead to the same outcome faced by Mark Bauerlein’s The Dumbest Generation, Douglas Watts’ Everything is Obvious: Once You Know the Answer, or Will Richardson’s Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts: they will sit on the shelf, collecting dust. I read a chapter, or two, and then life gets in the way. The books drop deeper and deeper on the to-do list, until their shelved.

I realize what you may be thinking: I’m an educator! I should be using any time I have reading. Much like finding people who hate chocolate ice cream, you’ve found the person who hates reading. You’ve found the person who doesn’t enjoy reading, and who thinks it ranks up there with cleaning the bathroom. I already belong to a number of professional societies which send a number of professional magazines. They sit on a pile on a table in my office.

So, no, I will not be setting up a book club in Mightbell. I will not be joining Ben Rimes or his Book Club 106. Perhaps after 30 years, the thought of coming home from school and reading about education just doesn’t interest me. Piaget speaks of the four levels of Cognitive Development.  Perhaps I am stuck at a lower level when it comes to reading. To paraphrase Dr. Seuss:

I would not like to read
here or there.
I would not like to read
anywhere.
I do not like
to read a book.
I do not like them,
I won’t look

1 comment:

  1. I enjoyed reading your post. It certainly has some points that I can relate to. When I read the texts in this course, I find it enjoyable. When I read Practical Research in our other course, it takes me days because I start on Sunday and keep putting it down. What I'm not used to is watching all of these videos. You must be loving that but you didn't mention it.

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