Forward Thinking

Lori Sabo

December 29, 2017

Issue:

#494

Have you seen the article on the Top 30 Failed Technology Predictions? Sage and serious words of distinguished thinkers are fodder for our laughter. One of my favorites (as I type away on my laptop) is “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” That was from Ken Olson, president, chairman, and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., maker of mainframe computers for big businesses, arguing against the PC in 1977. Another favorite, since I live near Seattle, Washington, where Boeing was founded, is “There will never be a bigger plane built.” A Boeing engineer said that after the first flight of the 247, a twin-engine plane that held 10 people.

I read the complete list to my husband, and we laughed out loud at many of them. When my son popped home for a visit, I said, “Sit down for a second. You have to hear these failed predictions. They are so funny!”

I had read the first three and was moving on to number four when he said, “I don’t want to hear any more. I don’t think they’re funny. All those short-sighted people didn’t jump on the bandwagon, and they were totally wrong.”

“You’re kidding me!” I replied.

“No, I’m not kidding. The article is annoying because for every person who said something like that, there were people who believed, envisioned, and worked hard to get there.”

Hmm . . . My passionate, idealistic, opinionated offspring had a point (even though I still think the failed predictions are funny). And it caused me to think about my days as a literacy coach. I worked with teachers who invited me in because they trusted me and valued my role as a collaborative colleague. Regardless of what they wanted to learn or get help with, we dug in together. I modeled mini-lessons and comprehension strategies, demonstrated conferring, and helped analyze reading assessments. We had fun, and discovered the energy, flow, and joy that come from working and learning together.

Then there was the classroom . . . where I was sent . . . by the principal . . . to model what we’d been learning about best practice. Only to this teacher, best practice was what she already practiced and had been practicing for the past 20 years. Busy little students worked hard in neat little rows of desks on purple-inked worksheets after a choral reading of the week’s basal text. I put on my cheeriest, most confident smile and walked in with something amazing prepared, only to have her leave while I modeled or sat at her desk correcting the aforementioned purple worksheets. Like those quoted in the article, she was content with the status quo. She’d been through so many pendulum swings that she wasn’t getting on another one, no matter what it was.

I hope I don’t ever lose the ability to see the vision. Although I don’t believe in change just for the sake of change, I do believe in change that leads to true progress: progress for my students, and progress for my own practice as a professional. I don’t want anyone to ever look back and see my name under “30 Failed Teacher Predictions.”

Speaking of predictions, Conan O’Brien once predicted that in the future, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook would merge together to form one humongous, time-wasting website called YouTwitFace. I’ll be a member.