Weird, right? These new phones are a marvel. I am not an iPhone lady, but I am a Samsung Galaxy lady, and Oliver showed me how to turn a plain old photo into a stylized creation. I don't know what you call this, and it's not even an app, but the possibilities are endless, and I wasted a good bit of time twiddling around with different settings today. Maybe it wasn't really wasted time, though. I also taught Oliver about grammar (subjects and predicates), read him some history (the relationship between women fighting for their rights in the eighteenth century with the abolitionists) and listened to some Johnny Tremain, as we drove around the city. Yeah, remember old Johnny Tremain? I read it in eighth grade, too, and while I didn't exactly love it, I remember it, and there's comfort for both Oliver and me that he's reading something at "grade level," for what that's worth. This homeschool thing is a lark most of the time -- I wish everyone would take a jab at it and help me to dispel some of the illusions about it -- or delusions that you have to spend $40,000 a year for your kid to learn. But back to the wasting of time (not money). I confess to being bored out of my mind whenever I see one of those posts or news clips about how technology is killing our children or how we're being sucked into the internets, forswearing all social connections. Or the end of books or film or Buffalo sandals and appropriate underwear. I'm sure there are plenty of folks out there who have troubles with monitoring their screen usage (and I'm not above yelling at Henry, in particular, to put that thing down!). just as there are those that watch too much porn or drink too many glasses of wine or smoke too much pot, but let's face it. The things are here to stay, and rather than freaking out about them or instituting those unplugged rules, why doesn't everyone just relax? I have this theory that as technology pioneers, we are really just caught in the slipstream of where we're going. Does that make sense? We can't see that far ahead.
Makes a lotta sense to me.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes marvel: you are doing three completely distinct kinds of mothering at once, and doing them all with such imagination, commitment and grace.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine- who is a professor in the department of the history of science- tells me that if one goes back to the time when the printing press led to the mass production of books and the novel was first developed, we will find tons of commentaries then about how reading is the destruction of mankind and in general...bad for our health. It was felt to make women more susceptible to hysterics , depression and other such feminine extremes and was turning everyone into anti-social book addicted soon-to-be castoffs of mainstream society. Would be interesting to see what the history books will have to say...
ReplyDeleteWe have homeschooled during k,1,7,8th -- With 3 different kids at different times. All other years in public schools. Never homeschooling more than one kid at a time. Love reading your posts. Our kids now say in hindsight that the homeschooling years were the best...Sounds like a great year for you and Oliver.
ReplyDeleteAs always the "thing" itself is not inherently bad, it's how it's used, IMHO. I think the internet is magic and much of technology can do so much good, but it makes me sad to see people with their ears stuffed with sound and their eyes locked onto their phones whilst they are walking in the woods, paddling on a river. It particularly galls me when small children are left with "interactive toys" to play with rather than their parents or siblings. Loss of connection for some...yet I connected with an entirely new life because of my computer and I know others have as well. It's a boon to those whose disabilities make it difficult to leave home. I go back and forth on it, you know because deep in my subconscious I have a genuine fear that our society would collapse with one solid attack on our power grid. I would do just about anything to be able to live "off the grid".
ReplyDeleteI like the groovy photo!
ReplyDeleteThe good of technology outweighs the ills -- I think, like you said, that the dangers of excess exist in a lot of behaviour. Moderation in all things!
(I love how my work computer automatically modifies my comment to conform with British spelling.)
On my recent flight(s) I sat between an artist painting in a small journal, a teenager engrossed in a Steven King novel (an actual Book), a woman reading a marketing manual (an actual Book), and a napper- while I knit a sock. No one was on a device playing games or watching a movie. I thought that was interesting. Six out of six people unplugged by choice for 3 hrs at a time.
ReplyDelete"we are really just caught in the slipstream of where we're going"—isn't that the plain truth. wonderful writing!
ReplyDeleteI listened to an interview with Lev Grossman and he said he didn't let his children near a screen for the first 8 or 7 years of their lives or whatever. It didn't surprise me, then, when I didn't like his book. I never had to read Johnny Tremain. I just wish I could love a book now as much as I loved what I did read when I was Oliver's age.
ReplyDeleteWe can't see too far ahead, and I'm convinced that we put on special glasses when we look behind us so that we only see ourselves, and not any sort of context.
ReplyDeleteAnd, if it weren't technology, we would have some other societal ill to worry about when it comes to the younger generation. I think it's a control thing, frankly and has nothing to do with the specific items but the fact that we want to impose our agenda on the children of the world because we think we know best. If nothing else, technology has given our kids the opportunity to show us how much they know that we don't and I love it (within reason - I am also guilty of telling them that they've spent too much time with it).
I like how you snuck your favorite word, "slipstream" into this post!!
ReplyDeleteLove that picture of you!! :)
I'm always appreciative when I hear interviews with Sal Kahn; he's so visionary and turned on about education. OTOH, I'm also entertained by the fact that lots of Silicon Valley execs send their kids to Waldorf schools for the early years, to play with wooden toys and wool-stuffed handmade dolls. And I agree with Claire about the extreme vulnerability of the grid
ReplyDeletemost of us depend on for almost everything.
er, Khan, not Kahn.
ReplyDeleteBarely worth puzzling through another captcha.
Very cool photo and I am with you, "we can't see that far ahead."
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