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I am sitting writing this on the couch, because my husband has annexed my computer to pay the accounts, and since that is his least favourite task – somewhere below cleaning dog-poop – well I can't complain! But one thing is clear: my handwriting has deteriorated somewhat since leaving school! And why is that? Because I so rarely have to actually write something long-hand anymore – even writing out a check at Woolies or Pick n Pay is no longer required since their machine prints it for you! Lucky I still know how to sign my name on the jolly things!
But all this has got me thinking how much things have changed since I was a kid – gosh, that sentence makes me feel ancient (and I promise you, I'm not – the other day in Woolies someone told me that I look far too young to have two kids – made my year never mind my day!) We didn't have microwaves or computers – I think I was in highschool when we got out first desk top computer , and our old microwave was practically the size of an oven! And when I travelled with my family to the far east when I was sixteen, we were amazed at all the Japanese men walking around with their cellphones – wow! I was so excited when I got my first cellphone, which took up my entire handbag, and the only reason I got it was because my boyfriend (now my husband!) lived an entire freeway away and I had to drive my old chorrie late at night past squatter camps and all manner of scary things! We didn't have Playstation or Xbox – just a little TV game console that you plugged into the TV to play tennis (I can still remember the “dickdock… dickdock…” noise it made when the ball hit the line that represented the racquet!) And then there was the old Betamax. For those of you who aren't old enough to know, this preceded today's VCR. Ours was pretty snazzy… it even had a remote control… attached with a LOOONNG cable which ran across my mom's bed onto the floor… And who remembers watching Simon & Simon and Beverley Hills 90210 with the radio on simulcast? Yes, I was a child of the eighty's. No CD's, DVD's or satellite television. When walkmans were cool.
A couple of weeks ago I went on a tour of the school that Megan is going to next year… the same school I went to might I add. I remember when I was in about standard four (remember being in a standards and not a grade? And having a teacher and not an educator? I was still a pupil then, not a learner… but I digress). Anyway, in standard four we had to do a project on any insect – I chose the locust. We had to go to our local library, find out as much information as we could in actual books, write out the project in long-hand into the project book, trace the diagrams (three times mind you so that you can imprint it back into your book), and then colour in the headings (or if you were lucky enough scratch transfer calligraphy letters onto your pages). So anyway back to the tour. There the grade sixes (same as standard four) were in the computer room researching the internet for a project on animals… to be presented in Powerpoint. And do you think that the grade seven teacher had a black chalkboard? Or even a whiteboard? Oh no… she had an interactive computerised board connected directly to her laptop, which not only could display internet search results and examples for the entire class to see, but said class could interact directly on the white screen using touch sensitive koki's! It's all too much for my little brain to handle.
So all of this got me wondering how things are going to be when Megan and Caitlin are older. Will they know what an LP is? A cassette? A video-tape? As it is, since we got PVR (the best investment ever!) we have not used our video machine so it's fast becoming obsolete. Will computers be controlling our houses? Our cars? Our lives? Will Megan and Caitlin still read books? Play imagination games? Know how to find a book in a library? Spend time outside? The answer, if I have anything to do with it, is a resounding YES. They will be allowed cellphones when they are in highschool only, and then they will only be for when the go out. I managed five years of highschool without a cellphone. If I forgot something at home, I used the good old ticky-box. Or just got detention. Which I probably deserved since I was so “loskop” (ask my mom!). And at home? I didn't have text message. I phoned my best friend - yes, every day, after I had seen her at school… but it was one phonecall. Not being interrupted during homework, tv, supper, sleep with the constant beep of an SMS coming through. And yes a computer and internet access is a necessity, but in the study, not the bedroom. And tv? In the lounge. Bedrooms will be for sleeping and play, not isolation into technology.
As much as my parents had different concerns when I was growing up, we still have the same goal in mind – keeping our kids young for as long as possible! And keeping the family unit intact. And keeping them safe. It's not going to be easy, but nobody said that being a parent is easy! So here's to the future – our future, and theirs. Cheers!
© Sally Hetherington .
