Keeping Up

One of my favorite sounds is the gentle swish of turning the page in a book. I love the way a book starts to feel warm and cozy after I’ve held it for a while. And don’t even get me started on how much I enjoy the smell of books! Using my senses while reading is just one reason why I love it so much.

I am often asked, “What is your favorite book?” I have several answers and one is my high school American History textbook. Yes, I know that’s weird, but there’s a reason why I love that book. On the day that textbook was issued to me, I was instructed to open the front cover and write my name in it. As always, I scrolled through the names of the other students who had that book before me. To my delight and to my horror, I saw my oldest brother’s name! I was delighted because I love my brother and I thought it was SO COOL to be receiving the same book he carried around for a year. I was horrified because I realized the books had not changed in many years. In fact, there were many students who had the book before my brother and according to the copyright date, the book was ten years old. As you know, so much can change in ten years. (This funny Buzzfeed list points out sentences that would not have made sense ten years ago and some of them make no sense to me now!)

I called my brother and told him I got his history book. He said, “Oh gosh. There are so many errors in that book. I can’t believe you have the same one. Look at the section about the Titanic. All it says is that it was lost at sea. No note of it being found!” I thumbed through the book and sure enough, there was the Titanic still in a shroud of mystery.

Over ten years, researched uncovered many things about many historical events and changed what knew about them, thus changing what we can learn about them. I was horrified that this book was just ten years old and practically ancient. Fast forward to today and we see the same issue. Only this time, it’s not just with textbooks but also with technology. And it’s not ten years; it could even be as short as ten days and there is a change. New items are constantly being developed, changed, and improved. And you know what? I really love that ever-changing pace!

Education had relied upon items like textbooks to be the same over and over – for ten years or more. But as we learned more about differentiation, personalization, and individualization, we discovered that the “one size fits all” approach doesn’t work for students with instruction, textbooks, technology, or any other capacity. Using the same tools in the same way over many years is ineffective. We also learned that things change quickly and it’s a daily challenge to keep up. 

All professions experience this. Imagine if physicians relied on practices from ten years ago. Would you want your physician operating without the newest and most effective methods? Imagine if automobile engineering, online shopping, law, fashion, online banking, and any other industry remaining unchanged for ten or more years. It sounds crazy because it is crazy. Would you want to have the cell phone you used ten years ago? They looked like this. As things in our world change, so must we, but we must also remember our past and what got us to this point. 

We take existing knowledge and use it to build new knowledge and improve our practice. I will always fight for students to read real books as well as use effective, personalized technology. I’m not saying it’s always easy to keep up. I am saying we owe it to our students to try. 

I realize some things will never change. Like my love of holding a book and meeting a sea of characters. I know I will always love that American History book for waking me up. I know I will always have a deep respect for the impact those items had and continue to have in my life. But I also realize that I must build upon those longstanding traditions to make a true impact in today's classroom.