Obama Coins?

I was at the mall this weekend, and saw a kid who looked to be about 16 years old wearing an Obama t-shirt. I've been working with kids for a long time, and I don't remember ever seeing one wearing a t-shirt with a picture of a U.S. politician on it (unless it was being derogatory.) But this guy was wearing the shirt unironically. I just can't remember ever seeing one of my students' wearing a Reagan, Bush (I or II), or Clinton t-shirt. The New York Times is today calling this "Generation O."

(Also, over the weekend, I saw a television commercial for "official" Obama coins. It reminds me of the kinds of merchandising you see in Europe that feature members of a royal family or in Memphis for Elvis. I guess it doesn't take long for the kitsch to come along.)

But one wonders how this kind of admiration for a president will transform not only the media's longstanding satirizing of the powerful, but an entire construct of "teenage" that has developed over the last century.

National Technology Assessment?

I guess I have massive mixed feelings about the potential for national assessment of technology as described in this recent Business Week article. I'm glad to see that technology "skills" aren't marginalized, but I'm also worried about a future in which new literacies are forced into the old school paradigm. Still, maybe the technology assessment might push states into creating more screen-based assessments in other subject areas and to do away with the paper/pencil assessments.

World Dairy Expo

I'm writing this from beautiful Madison, Wisconsin, where I've just presented at the Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English. The first thing the cab driver said when I got into the cab yesterday at the airport was, "Are you here for the World Dairy Expo?" Unfortunately, I had to say no, and unfortunately I haven't had time to visit the expo. But I did walk up and down State Street yesterday, and went in all the used book stores and think I even got a book that I've wanted that is no longer in print. And a novelizaton from the old Ben Casey TV series. I had to stop, because I only have a tiny suitcase with me and a laptop bag. I also found all kinds of posters and prints and calendars and even a refrigerator magnet with Harry Langdon. I also found some buttons that said "Jesus was a community organizer. Pilate was a governor." Every time I went anywhere on campus, there were people asking passersby if they were registered to vote "at the address where you are currently living." I got back to my room last night early enough to watch some of the vice presidential debate, but I soon fell asleep and was only awakened about 2:00 a.m. when apparently the bars were closing, and a steady (or actually unsteady) parade of young men and women went down the street. What awakened me was their singing. It seemed like they frequently broke into song as they went down the street. When I went to the window, I also saw a couple in the midst of what appeared to be a heated argument. She came to a complete stop, and he came back to talk to her, putting his arms on her shoulders. After a few moments, she unfolded her arms, and they walked off together, huddling together to keep warm.

Amazing Back-to-School Speech

Thanks to Darren Draper, Ed Tech Solutions, and Kevin Jarrett, here's the most amazing back-to-school in-service for teachers you'll ever see. Given that it's being delivered to 20,000 people, does the response seem a little lukewarm?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAMLOnSNwzA

Back-to-School Isn't Denim Anymore

"Back-to-school doesn't mean denims and tops any more. It means iPhones and laptops." This is a quote from Craig R. Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail consulting group, quoted in an article about how Macy’s earnings are below expectations this year. Coming off some time spent offline (in the mainly offline world of the Hocking Hills region of southern Ohio), I’m struck by how divided and passionate we seem to be in our opinions about new media. Stephanie and I stayed in a cabin in the woods that’s about 20 years old, and one of the advertised attractions of the place is that there is not a phone or a television in the cabin. Interestingly, we found in the cabin a stack of journals dating to the inception of the cabin in which the proprietors wanted people to write about their experiences. It was like a time capsule reading about people who had honeymooned in the cabin or had celebrated anniversaries or who were trying to overcome some loss. I became hooked on these mini-stories, and laughed at some of the romantic exploits that were bragged about and some of the poetry that was quoted (The Desiderata seemed to be a favorite.) I wondered what ever happened to the people and how their stories turned out. One of the common threads, often stated with great anger, was that the cabin residents were so happy that there was NO TV and NO INTERNET! These sentiments were often stated in all caps with multiple exclamation points. Even the “old” medium of the telephone was railed against and described as an enemy of inner peace. When Stephanie and I saw the innkeeper (a graduate of Kent State) at breakfast, we asked her about the journals, and she said she started providing journals early on, because some early visitors were on spiritual journeys and that journaling was a part of that.

Of course, I understand why people equate phones with their hectic daily lives, including work. But I’m wondering why television and the Internet were treated so harshly in the journals. Why do we have such a love-hate relationship with these media that we feel more peaceful without them during vacations, but that we are overwhelmingly drawn to back to them at back-to-school time and back-to-work time? I can hear some people saying that it’s mainly the young people who are drawn to this new media, that they wouldn’t find an unwired cabin in the woods to be that desirable. Still, I had another summertime experience that caused me to problematize that old binary of young/old. Stephanie and I were at Blossom about 10 days ago to see the Cleveland Orchestra perform. One of the numbers they were performing was Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F. We enjoyed a picnic on the lawn with some friends, and were enjoying the music when I noticed a few feet from us, a boy of about 15 with close cropped hair and the retro eyeglasses that some of the young kids wear. He was staring intently at what looked like a book in front of him. Then, I realized that it was a music score to the Gershwin piece, and he was lost in listening to what the orchestra was doing and comparing it to what was in the printed score. He was really into it, as he nodded and smiled at various points in the performance. In this case, the “old” media became new again, and really it became kind of pointless to even think of them in that way.