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I was just reading Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marc Prensky and it got me to thinking a bit about some of my favourite old Warner Bros. cartoons. In particular, it made me think of Wile E. Coyote sitting in a pile of rubble with a huge boulder plummeting towards him. I can picture him huddling under the tiny umbrella (that he produces from places unknown), as though that will somehow protect him from what is coming.

At times, education feels the same way. I find that we often hold out hope that things will go back to the way they were a few years ago, huddling under the little umbrella of past experience. We feel that we need to make the kids fit into the model of what we are most comfortable doing. If we don’t look out from under the umbrella, we can’t see that change may be headed our way. If we can’t see change (boulder) coming, it won’t happen, right?

Unfortunately, the boulder always seems to obliterate the poor coyote. I used to find myself wondering, “Why doesn’t he just get out of the way? Doesn’t he realize that the umbrella really won’t do him any good?” After reading this article, I start to see why he doesn’t get out of the way – it’s because that’s the only way he knows.

It is very difficult to change our ways and to see the possibility that there is another way of doing things. For my own practice, and for my children’s education, I hope that we can find new ways to avoid that boulder.

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