I've been commenting on John Spencer. His title is "Tom Johnson: Adventure in Pencil Integration." I love ready his posts! The first was a conversation he has with his students. He told them they were to substitute their paper and pen for slates that day. The students were so confused! Here is what I left under this post:
"I too was puzzled at the reason for slates when I just saw your title. It is intereseting that students at any age respond with, "But this is a pencil classroom." It's interesting how even students know how cut and dry our mediums are. Hopefully technology is changing that. I absolutlely love the idea of the human voice as being old school! That's exactly what I am really trying to develop in my brain before becoming a teacher. It seems like you are doing great things with these kids."
I was anxious to see what his next story was! The second post I commented on was also a conversation he ahd with students concerned with the future! He took pictures of his students. Most of the facial expressions of the kids' faces were pretty serious. One student thought this may not be the best pictures because 200 years from now, someone may look at these pictures and get the wrong impression. Mr. Spencer explained that documentaiton and artifacts are important and that people make their own judgements. He said that there are gaps in history and we may have the wrong idea about a lot of things. The following was my thought:
"I love the conversation you had with your students. Kids are so funny and I can’t wait to be in your shoes one day! The children bring up a great point. When I go to Cracker Barrel and look around, there are the strangest pictures of children, adults, and whole families throughout the store. I’ve always noticed that none of those people in the photos are smiling; they aren’t even smirking! I asked mom why she thought that was and she suggested that it may have been because the dental services weren’t the best! It’s funny that I, 20, would be wondering the same thing as your kids are wondering. I am impressed that your kids knew to think so far ahead into the future. I constantly worry about what’s to come but I was definitely living in the moment before I hit the age of 16! Selective memory has its pros and cons. I wish we all knew what the past was actually like. I guess it’s our job to do the right things, in technology and other aspects of life, and to leave the right things so future generations will better understand us."
I agree with the student about people years from now looking at pictures and history of today and getting the wrong impressions! The old saying, "A picture is worth a 1000 words" comes to mind when I think about it! But sometimes those "words" or "images" are the wrong things.
ReplyDeleteMr. Spencer is right. People are going to believe and interpret pictures and history as they want to--there is nothing we can do to change that! With technology the way it is today--and I'm sure the way it will be even more advanced in the future--these things will be harder to interpret the wrong way because we have ways of explaining pictures and history through technology!