Happy new year, everyone, and welcome to the first Tuesdays with Swindy posting of 2011!
My wife, Sarah, who is amazing for countless reasons not covered in this post, inspired this week's topic yesterday when she saved the day with a little do-it-yourself ingenuity. Returning from a ten-day holiday trip, we'd unpacked, put the kids to bed, and prepared to tackle the mountains of laundry that result from a family trip with two kids and a dog, when our washing machine started making unfriendly noises.
Upon investigation, we could see that the agitator was only catching when pressed or weighed down, so it was only turning intermittently.
Our washing machine is an older one, so it was natural that my first thoughts were about how much it was going to cost to buy a new washing machine, how quickly we could have it delivered, how much time it would take me to install, and how much time I’d be spending at the laundromat in the interim.
I wonder how many Americans would have followed through with those plans, and headed out to the nearest megastore to buy a brand new model (which sadly, might only last five years itself) without investigating other options. This is not going to be a rant about large home supply chains producing a lower-quality product to a consumer base that seems increasingly likely to purchase for convenience instead of durability. Fortunately, either because we don’t like to spend $500, or because we pride ourselves on being fairly sufficient do-it-yourself-ers, I can instead write about a small triumph and the importance of knowing how to effectively search the Internet.
During my work day the next day, Sarah looked up our problem online and found a very helpful video that showed how to check if the dog agits have worn out, and how to replace them. She also found a local business in our neighborhood that sold the piece that fits our model, broke out my ratchet set, and fixed the problem for a total cost under $7, before I even got home from work. Sarah rocks!
Now I don’t need to go as far as PA Governer Ed Rendell, whose recent comments about the “wussification of America” speak to me with the cutting honesty that only a lame duck politician can deliver. I won’t write about how quick we are to say we can’t do something when it seems difficult. And I won’t go as far comedian Louis C.K., who blasts our society for its impatience with technology when we should instead be amazed at the advantages we enjoy and often take for granted. “Give it a minute,” he says to people who complain when their cell phones take a few extra seconds to download information, “it’s going to space.”
But there certainly is a connection to be made here.
I was almost ready to swipe the credit card for a new washing machine when our problem was a cheap and easy fix. The availability of information, and our (Sarah’s, in this case) ability to search effectively were the factors that enabled us to solve a problem.
During Governor Rendell's appearance on The Colbert Report, he compared the US to China, unfavorably, and casually referenced the failure of our educational system. It was about the sixth time I'd noticed hearing or reading the words "our failing public school system" during the course of the day, and it is a phrase that I’m really getting tired of encountering. It seems to be becoming the cliché to explain the cause of all of our problems with impatience, lack of self-reliance, and poor performance. It has to start somewhere; it must be the schools.
But if all the information anyone would need for an education is out there in cyberspace and a student with proper guidance can access anything he or she needs to learn, I have to ask: WHO is failing?
I am tempted to answer this by saying that the students need to take their own education more seriously, and many certainly need to, but anyone who works in schools has to understand that there are age and development factors at play. People realize the importance of their own education, and their own level of control over it, at different points in their lives. Teachers want to create lifelong, self-sufficient learners, but this doesn’t always happen on cue.
When I look back at my own school experience, as a person who took it very seriously and thought I had a clear path figured out, I often think of several courses I wish I’d taken, looking back from perspective of someone who has now been out in the working world for over a decade. As an English major, I thought I was allergic to math back then… but after using it in some form virtually every day since then, I have developed a new appreciation for solving problems with finite solutions. In recent conversations with friends and colleagues, I think many of us who majored in the arts and humanities would enroll in more math and science courses if we had it to do over again, and many who majored in those disciplines frequently express their interest in learning more about the arts.
What if our educational system was set up for people to enter the workforce in their teenage years, then return to school in their twenties after gaining some perspective on the world?
OK, a change of this scale is not too likely. But we can all continue our education by consuming information online.
Sarah told me she was very grateful that someone had taken the time to create a video explaining how to solve our problem. I remember feeling the same way after I learned how to make our cement steps last summer. It’s almost like planting a tree after cutting one down – after getting help we both felt like giving something back to the online community by posting instructions or a video for an area in which we are knowledgeable.
Maybe we can be more than consumers, but also contribute by sharing our own knowledge. Maybe we can teach our students about this communal give and take, while sharpening their abilities to find the information they need on their own. Maybe the problems aren’t always as big as they seem.
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