"Students unplugged--the horror, the horror!"
May 20, 2009
From the Los Angeles Times, 4/29:
Can it be done?
In the year 2009, in a hopelessly wired world, can a small group of willing but nervous Los Angeles 10th-graders survive one long week without using any electronic devices?
"I suspect that people will be going crazy," said student Jamila Mohedano, who doubts her own ability to go unplugged without becoming unglued.
The torture at Guantanamo Bay was nothing compared to this. Beginning today at a downtown college-prep charter school, the homeroom class of teacher Shannon Meyer will go cold turkey for seven endless days.
What is just so striking to me is that of what the students will be anxiously giving up--TV, iPods, iPhones and cellphones, BlackBerrys, and PCs (including Facebook and MySpace)--I grew up with only one, TVs, and my adult children grew up with only TVs and by today's standards crude PCs.
And yet they are now considered by tenth graders to be indispensable.
What an amazing world we live in.