Anyone, anyone!

I met a dinosaur last Wednesday.  Well, I didn't actually get to meet him in person, but I did see the work of his mind and the effect it had on a young man.

The young man labored, not looked at, reviewed, studied, or tried hard (although all of these are true descriptions), but LABORED over a set of study questions for a History test.  "Tell me about the test," I had asked the young man.  "It's 50 questions, multiple choice, short answer, and matching," he replied.

That's not just a method used last decade, that's a method used half a century ago when I was in school, and a method used in the 1800s, the 1700s, just keep going back.  I understated my true thoughts of a string of expletives a mile long by saying, "Holy mackeral," and shaking my head.

History is important to some people especially those like this teacher who excelled in it and received his Ph.D. in it.  But for others it is more of a boredom thing.  Especially, is it mind-dulling to learn the names of treaties, alliances, and small events when they have already happened and their impact on the world has already passed into oblivion.

There are not enough words in all the languages of the world to express how dull it makes a person to remember trivial information for only the blank on a test.  The young man told me yesterday that he was pretty sure he failed the test.  I'm pretty sure that he did and that whoever took the time to memorize the set of restrictions put in place in Germany in the 1930s  called Kristallnacht will not know what that information is the day his or her summer vacation begins.

Somewhere between this man's learning and awesome knowledge and the kind of teaching that affects and inspires people to reach for the stars is a total lack of awareness of advances in society, a total disconnect.  He's a dinosaur.  His days are numbered.  If he lasts past 2017, he will gasp a breath of air and want to die.  Reading reams of material (Yes, I have seen the articles he hands to his students) and testing it in writing is not even on the radar of study skills for this generation of students.  They're so far beyond this point, they could teach the teacher a thing or two about Kristallnacht - in 3D holographic scenes of reality from the time period.

The young man will survive into the generation of adults that take the world to the next level of medicine, space exploration, global reformation, and digitized economy.  The Dinosaur will join his species in the bogs and tar pits around the country for museum purposes.