The year is 2016. Cars can run on electricity, we can buy things with our phones, "Instagram models" are a thing and social networking is making the world smaller, while furthering the divide between personal interaction. Before you know it, we’ll all live on spaceships while adorable robots clean up a trash-filled planet Earth... or maybe Siri is the foundation for Skynet (my personal belief).
I could be wrong, but it’s my understanding that our parents and grandparents worked a lot harder for their educations than most people my age ever have. Even my older brothers, who are 32 and 29 years old, had it tougher than I did. As a 22-year-old who graduated from high school in 2011, I was lucky enough to grow up in the age of Google, Wikipedia and other technological advantages.
Even during the course of my ongoing college career, I can’t tell you how many times I've thought to myself, “Damn Nick, you sure would have been screwed in this class if you hadn’t been born in 1993.” Right place, right time, I suppose. I know for a fact that I’m not the only person who feels this way. You know how I know this? I didn’t go out and talk to people to get their personal opinions. Nope. I just did a Google Image search for “College Graduate Memes,” and this came up.
Sadly, this behavior by youth in recent years is only perpetuated and enabled by the adults and institutions around them. As long as the educational system continues to value test grades and statistics over understanding and enlightenment, America will continue to fall behind in the international ranking for education. According to a study conducted by Pearson in 2012, the United States was 17th in said ranking.
The cutting of funds to the arts and humanities over the past thirteen or so years, coupled with the habit of traveling the path of least resistance, have stagnated the abundant creativity and knowledge that flowed so freely once upon a time. While the budget cuts to our education and the advent of technology are two entirely separate issues, I don't believe their consequences to be mutually exclusive.
Examining educational reform requires a multi-faceted approach because it is a multi-faceted issue. What's important is that we don't allow technological developments to lessen our penchant for invention and innovation. Rather, let us strive to use technology to supplement our creativity and ability to transform visions into tangible reality.
I think we must always be on our toes, and never too predictable; never expecting anything besides the unexpected. Vonnegut said it best, “We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” Otherwise, we may keep progressing toward a society too dependent on technology. Whether or not that technology will be Wall-E or the Terminators, remains to be seen.
