Here’s why:
1. My students don’t know who Mark Hamill is.
His first appearance as Luke Skywalker happened the year before I was born. I never saw an (Original Trilogy) Star Wars film until after they were all out and on video, thanks to my parents’ screening regimen. These two facts mean that I can’t possibly be an O.G. Starwars fan, I’m too young. I, like many a confused younger Beatles fans, had to inherit my taste from people who were alive to see it happen the first time. So, when a student of mine (who is otherwise pretty geeky) doesn’t know who Mark Hamill is, it’s a sign that I’m not as young as I think.
2. I’m shifting to the father figure.
The lab is filled with geek undergrads today. The environment that has created in this space is practically my alma mater. There was a group earlier huddled in front of the Smart Board, doing what they do best; exploring, learning and having fun! All of that exploring landed them on the text to speech function, and soon the three or four young men were cracking all 66 of their peers up with a computerized voice repeating memes targeted to their demographic. When the laughter had died down, I took the opportunity to jump in and show them other cool things about the Smart Board and it’s productive use. Yes, I was that dad/teacher/etc.
It wasn’t until later that my memory got the best of me. 15 years ago I accompanied the Zumwalts to Portland to help them buy a computer. When we had it back a their farm house hooked up and humming along, the first thing Pete and I did, after some exploration of the functions, was to type in funny phrases into the text to speech converter, most likely lines from The Holy Grail. 15 years ago I was doing exactly what these students were doing today: exploring, learning and having fun. The difference to me now is that my natural instinct is to extend that further, and help bring others along on similar, familiar paths of learning. I care for their development and I use their enthusiasm to try and teach them something… instead of joining in and trying to make the synthesized voice with the British accent try and return a dead parrot.
3. Other General Evidence.
- I read articles like this, and can’t wait to start early language training.
- I’m thinking right now about writing a blog anticipating fatherhood.
- I fell asleep on the couch at 11:30 last night.
- I’m waking up well before I’d ever like to, on purpose.
- Part of my purpose is to set good habits for the future.
It’s a good thing I still have my looks.
I’ll say….