Just Thinkin’-
About Time and Change,
“From bad grain never comes good bread.” I wish I could remember who said this. I’ve often used it to explain to students why the little things matter. Especially in statistics.
A friend said, “No one said it. It’s a Proverb.” I said, “Huh!”
Students didn’t always get my grain to bread analogy. I wondered why. Bread has always come from a grain and always will. Unless we begin to make an artificial grain which will produce artificial bread.
What do you mean I can buy artificial grain on Amazon and at Walmart? Now?
Henry David Thoreau said, “Things do not change; we do.” Now I’m fond of Thoreau and agree with many of his conclusions. On this I’m iffy. I know some 175 years ago on Walden Pond he hadn’t met Artificial Intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence. When folks are working so hard at convincing me that something is good, I start to wonder. I see videos in which the lines between fantasy and reality are blurred. Have you ever heard the line, “Methinks the lady protest too much?” Such a descriptive line that I, like half the world, attributed to Shakespeare. I was truly disillusioned to hear that it was from some obscure 1930s movie. I still resist believing it. I know the truth is in here somewhere but where? Fact from fiction can be so difficult to determine.
From phones to drones to clones. Over recent years, much change has come. Perhaps never in human history has change been more pervasive. I listen to the television ads for the new iPhone. I ask my grandchildren, my usually reliable sources on new technology, why I should buy a new iPhone. Each in order they shrugged their shoulders and said, “I don’t know.” Now, I think that is a clear indication that the generational torch that JFK spoke of has been yet again passed.
The Tulsa World recently had a front page article on why technology should be removed from the classroom. I have long believed that technology should never get between a good teacher and their students. I remember good teachers. I believe we all remember our good teachers.
I’m sure my family is tired of hearing this story. I am going to tell it anyway. I was once privileged to join my friend, Fr. Bill Hamill, then Director of Studies at Cascia Hall Preparatory School, for a lunch with A. Bartlett Giamatti, the then President of Yale University. My friend asked President Giamatti, “What can Cascia Hall do as a school to better prepare our students for Yale?”
Without hesitation, President Giamatti answered, “Have them memorize more poetry.” He discussed rote memory and immediate recall.
I want the answer. When? Well, now would be nice.
The weather is changing. On my back porch the steam rising from my coffee cup is replacing coke fizz. Like the inevitably of the seasons, things change.
All great change in America begins at the dinner table. – Ronald Reagan
