I was straightening books tonight and I realized, with some tinge of nostalgia, that there was absolutely no need for the Rand McNally road atlas of Atlanta.
Nobody uses road atlases any more. Nobody uses paper maps. My son thinks anything not computerized is hopelessly Luddite. He relies on the computer for everything.
I have a friend who gave her daughter directions, verbally, last week, and her daughter ignored her. She Googled the name of her destination and then went to the wrong place because Google told her to go there – to the wrong location in a dicey part of town, where she wrecked her car.
I will never forget Michael’s 2nd or 3rd night delivering food for Bambinelli’s and he called me, frantic, because his GPS had not been able to tell him how to get on 285 and get to Buford Highway. I talked him through it and he got straightened out.
I’ve told him several times to sit down and look at a map of Atlanta, and get in his head a picture of the streets and how they’re laid out, to get a clear sense of direction. He doesn’t listen. He is 18 and of course people that age think they know it all and their parents are pitifully clueless.
I was telling Mother last night, he hates school because it is dull, much of the time. He expects to be entertained.
I grew up knowing school contained a lot of drudgery and you just had to get through it and get decent enough grades to keep the parents happy. You read the facts, you memorize them, and you spit them back on the test. I made good grades and learned very little of anything in school.
Most of my education has come from reading and studying on my own. Most of what I know of history I learned from reading historical novels. I learned world geography from studying the world map in my cubicle when I worked for the hotel company, and studied my routes to adopt my children. Studying alongside my kids when they had geography tests also helped my knowledge.
I would never have dreamed of defying my parents and refusing to go to college. I knew they worked hard to get themselves through school and they expected me to be grateful for their sacrifices that allowed them to give me an education.
Education in a formal sense is not always the best way to learn though. I know that.
Learning is a lifelong process, or it should be, and learning how to learn and take pleasure in it is critical to a happy life.
What astonishes me sometimes is that children now are accustomed to videogames that move quickly. Michael loves playing videogames and he learns exponentially fast because he wants to win. Books and teachers simply don’t spark his active mind like games.
So why doesn’t some computer whiz somewhere simply make up games that are truly fun and will help kids learn? Michael has been playing an X-box game called Civilization Revolution but got frustrated because he couldn’t figure out how to win quickly enough.
But back to the maps. This really bothers me, on several levels. What if a giant asteroid knocks out cell phones one day in the not-so-distant future, and people cannot read maps? How will they find anything?
How many Michaels are out there, bored by school because they crave the excitement and stimulation of videogames?
I worry, too, about the sensory overload. Michael and I went to Publix today and split up the grocery list, which makes for faster shopping. I nearly got sideswiped by him in the cleaning products aisle, because he had earplugs in and was listening to “music.” He was shopping and listening at the same time – and looking at the list on his phone.
He does have decent enough manners to pull those things out of his ears when I need to talk to him, and did so when we got to the checkout line.
Are we raising generations that cannot slow down enough to savor things in life, to really notice things?
Are they going to be able to develop a love of learning after their formal schooling is done?
I am demographically a tail-end baby boomer. My father didn’t fight in World War II but he was in the Army during the Korean War. I grew up without a computer in the house -- or a microwave oven, a VCR, a food processor, or a riding lawn mower. We had one TV for most of my growing up years, and we got two channels clearly, and one fuzzy.
My idea of great excitement as a kid was getting to do one of three things: go roller skating, go swimming, or go to the movies.
I didn’t run around taking photos on my phone all the time, but I have very vivid memories.
I can close my eyes and remember the tiny shopping cart I got to push in Carpenter’s when I was a small child. I recall how it felt to be carried in Dad’s arms, out into the ocean. I can recall the taste of an icy cold Coca Cola in a glass bottle. I have made thousands of mud pies.
I have stretched out on a blanket and gazed up at the sky, perfectly content to watch the clouds drift past.
Do kids still do any of those things?
Do they still read books and see the stories unfolding in their imagination?
Will they ever marvel at the smell of their babies’ heads, or the smell of city pavement after a summer rain, or a pound cake baking in the oven?
I know I am getting old. I get advertising flyers in the mail all the time for hearing aid places, retirement homes, and skincare products guaranteed to erase wrinkles.
I know how to read a map, though.
There are at least a dozen songs I can sing all the way through.
I can make a complete dinner from scratch, without even using a recipe or giving it much thought.
Will future generations have these skills?!
I hope and pray that at some point my son and my friend’s daughter, and all the other teens and twenty-somethings out there will want to back away from all the electronics and simply savor life at a slower pace.
I hope they will learn to love learning.
Maybe before all of us baby boomers are dead and gone we can pass on a love and reverence for life in the slower lane – at least some of the time -- for a change of pace… or when the power goes out and there’s no WiFi…
photo by Lisa Amos
