A Balance-Driven Life

I am old enough to remember the first time I watched TV at school.  It was a big deal.  Walter Cronkite was reporting the details of the Martin Luther King assassination.  The impact of his death and the magnitude of this event was initially dwarfed by my excitement.  Television was still relatively new and had never been a part of our learning process. I was just a kid.

That weekend, I had a cold and was bound to the couch.  I watched Martin Luther King's funeral live on a a little 12 inch black and white TV.  This time, the significance of his death became real to me. Masses of people were grieving. I was moved. For the first time, I cried for someone I did not know and would never know.  The television allowed me to participate, to be touched by this man and to discover, firsthand, the beginnings of an amazing legacy. 

The year that King died, there were three TV channels.  Our family watched television together, after dinner.  When my parents were young,  their families would gather each evening around the radio.  

Media was a family event.  What was heard and seen was discussed at dinner tables and among family and friends.

Playboy magazine was behind the counter at the drugstore and covered in brown paper.  Of course, I wanted to peek, but couldn't.  Today, the Internet is a window not only to a wealth of information, but also a portal to any image or sound imaginable.

I am a proponent of change. I am a supporter of a technology-infused curriculum.  TV had a big impact on my life as a learner. Today, computers and devices of all types are providing innovative and creative opportunities for students and teachers.

Still, I am not quite comfortable in this high speed, high tech, device-driven life. I wonder about the ramifications of too much connectedness, too much information, too much of the time. I wonder if I can set the limits that children need to feel safe in such a complex world.