By Jove I think they've got it!
The Inaugural event for the Coffee Party Movement was held today. Where? All over. In Coffee shops from Burbank to NYC. I don't know what happened at each of them. I was here in Tucson, attending one of several.
It was a real, honest to god Coffe Klatch. People holding on to their favorite brew, and sharing their thoughts about the state of our country. And for the most part, we all agreed. Not on the issues, nor on their resolution. We agreed on the fundamentals. That our discussions would be civil. Respectful. Honest.
It was fabulous. I, who am notorious for a) being right, all the time and b) never shutting up and c) being right, all the time actually did something I never ever do. I yielded. I allowed other voices to not only be heard...but heard by me. I listened. Which was really quite remarkable. What's more? I learned something. I learned that while I may know a little about some things, I certainly don't know everything about everything. But I learned I have the capacity to learn. We all do. By listening to each other. Sharing our ideas, our history, our vision.
In the end we came to a consensus of a sorts. Our little group decided that taking on Education was no small task. Just hugely important. What can we do, we wondered? And that's when it happened. The one comment that spurred us to act. A complaint if you will. That there's no High-speed Internet in one woman's neighborhood. And then another voice chimes in. He has it, but it costs a fortune, and there's no alternative. Which got us to thinking. How can we contemplate providing a world class education to our children, if the world can't reach them?
Educational budgets are being slashed nationwide, mostly because, well, they are in fact large budgets, highly visible, and represent the quickest way to "voter approval". But ironically, the internet, the one tool that can help alleviate the devastating effects of those cuts, is not readily available everywhere. A cyber library jam-packed with information to help teach our children. If you can't afford the textbooks, or the classroom space, or the school lunches, we can at least bring the world, and a world of information, to our children.
So while mainstream media ooohs and aaahs over the iPad and the iTouch and the i-wanna-be-everything gadgets, there are places, right here at home, where they'd be happy just to log-on and learn. So let's spread the word. Let's insist that mainstream media stop focusing on silly people wearing silly hats and drinking silly tea that should have been dumped in the river long ago (the tea not the people) and instead, focus on exposing the gaps in our nations technology infrastructure. Reach out to those areas where the idea of accessing the incredible library that is the internet is virtually impossible.
So. If your job is to inform the rest of us about the technological wonders of the world, maybe you can spend 5 minutes educating the techno-elite about the critical need for access. Without it, we don't have a prayer of really improving our educational system, or what's left of it. No pun intended.
It was a real, honest to god Coffe Klatch. People holding on to their favorite brew, and sharing their thoughts about the state of our country. And for the most part, we all agreed. Not on the issues, nor on their resolution. We agreed on the fundamentals. That our discussions would be civil. Respectful. Honest.
It was fabulous. I, who am notorious for a) being right, all the time and b) never shutting up and c) being right, all the time actually did something I never ever do. I yielded. I allowed other voices to not only be heard...but heard by me. I listened. Which was really quite remarkable. What's more? I learned something. I learned that while I may know a little about some things, I certainly don't know everything about everything. But I learned I have the capacity to learn. We all do. By listening to each other. Sharing our ideas, our history, our vision.
In the end we came to a consensus of a sorts. Our little group decided that taking on Education was no small task. Just hugely important. What can we do, we wondered? And that's when it happened. The one comment that spurred us to act. A complaint if you will. That there's no High-speed Internet in one woman's neighborhood. And then another voice chimes in. He has it, but it costs a fortune, and there's no alternative. Which got us to thinking. How can we contemplate providing a world class education to our children, if the world can't reach them?
Educational budgets are being slashed nationwide, mostly because, well, they are in fact large budgets, highly visible, and represent the quickest way to "voter approval". But ironically, the internet, the one tool that can help alleviate the devastating effects of those cuts, is not readily available everywhere. A cyber library jam-packed with information to help teach our children. If you can't afford the textbooks, or the classroom space, or the school lunches, we can at least bring the world, and a world of information, to our children.
So while mainstream media ooohs and aaahs over the iPad and the iTouch and the i-wanna-be-everything gadgets, there are places, right here at home, where they'd be happy just to log-on and learn. So let's spread the word. Let's insist that mainstream media stop focusing on silly people wearing silly hats and drinking silly tea that should have been dumped in the river long ago (the tea not the people) and instead, focus on exposing the gaps in our nations technology infrastructure. Reach out to those areas where the idea of accessing the incredible library that is the internet is virtually impossible.
So. If your job is to inform the rest of us about the technological wonders of the world, maybe you can spend 5 minutes educating the techno-elite about the critical need for access. Without it, we don't have a prayer of really improving our educational system, or what's left of it. No pun intended.
I question the premise that more technology is in itself an answer. Humanity went to the moon with a generarion educated with paper books, chalk boards and slide rules instead of calculators. A feat not repeated since.
ReplyDeleteThe technology can't be left as an end of it's own. If the focus isn't primarily on teaching the intellectual tools of discovery and development, but revolves primarily around classroom gadgetry, we could end up with generations who can't match the feats of their ancestors, and that's not progress.