We have two generations of schoolteachers in our family. This makes for some lively comparisons.
My husband argued the other night that the dress code should be enforced in the classroom, where shirts and trousers would be required. My son said, "The teachers would never dress that way." My husband said, "I'm talking about the kids!"One's answer to truancy is to call the parents. The other counters with, "You have to find them first." One's solution to failing is "find a tutor," to which the other one laments, "The parents have tied up all the good ones." They are 20 years and a planet apart.
Probably the most dazzling difference is the way kids are taught. In my husband's day, he lectured and the kids listened. Then one day, a projector was brought to class, the blinds were drawn and, for a glorious 30 minutes or so, kids saw a travelogue on Peru, or a health epic - "Hi, my name is Hal. I'm your liver!" (If you were 12 years old and female, you got a Disney film showing butterflies emerging into prom material.)
Between my husband's education years and my son's, the little inquiring minds got restless. Enter the computer age, where students had something to do to keep the blood supply moving. Computers held them for a while, but this was a generation of kids who were bored by computer-chip voices and canned messages. They had electronics up to their armpits. Their classrooms had TV in the morning, computer games in the afternoon and VCRs for rewards.
Education is now on the threshold of a new era: live entertainment. "From Ms. Babcock's eighth-grade multipurpose room, we proudly present `Friday Afternoon Live!' Appearing today will be Tom Cruise `Rapping With Subjective Complements' . . . Mary Lou Retton lecturing on `High on Hygiene' . . . Eddie Murphy on `What does "I'm history" really mean' . . . and a special appearance by the cast of `The Wonder Years' on `How to Speak Sitcom Fluently in Your Home.' And now filling in for Ms. Babcock is your guest teacher/host . . . Jay Leno!"
Every week will bring a new repertory company to the classroom, interspersed with "discovery field trips" to Vail and Epcot Center.
There is only one point on education where the generations still agree: first you have to get their attention.