When I was in kindergarten, I rode the bus to school one mile away from our house and usually walked home. No one thought anything of it, and it helped broaden the horizons of my little world. There was a nice creek were I studiously worked on my rock collection.
If you had a kid do that today, you'd be up on charges. I'm not saying there isn't a good reason for the change. It makes sense. It's hard to imagine doing that today but we're lesser for it.
On the other hand ...
I can recall, as most of us can, when the word "cancer" was a death sentence. I've lost friends and family to cancer, but I also have friends and family still living and laughing and doing great things people I love and cherish and plan to love and cherish for a good long time because now doctors can do so many amazing things that have become routine and taken for granted. We are certainly better for that.
I'm a little amused and little annoyed at the conspiracies of ether, the urban myths and willful misreadings of how things used to be that zap hither and beyond on the Internet. The subtext is not just that the world has changed and it's bad, but rather that some dark force or gang of bad guys decided to take away all of the good things just for the sake of meanness.
Get over it. No one forced us all to install a satellite dish, buy a new car, and live the life in the fast lane that's glorified on TV. The world is too hectic of a place, but it's the result of a thousand little decisions and demands that we all make. We say we want to slow down, but we never get around to it until tomorrow.
Quality edtech English language learning tools for EFL/ESL facilitators & students.
No comments:
Post a Comment