New Post? Not for Prof Class?? WOAH!

So I would like to start this blog again with something that I saw on facebook and afterwards posted on my own facebook wall.  You'll see later it also nicely leads from my last blog entry.  It is this article:

http://www.xtra.ca/public/Toronto/Rainbows_banned_at_Mississauga_Catholic_school-10262.aspx

Now I'd like to make a comment that my concerns with how this went down have nothing to do with Catholicism/Catholic Schools/Religion in General.  It was funny that even though I made it clear my issue had nothing to do with these things, every single post other than mine on my facebook wall mentioned things like "Why surprised, its a Catholic School?", "It's great that Catholic schools are making progression!" or "Why does everyone think Catholicism is so intolerant of different lifestyles?"  (I am paraphrasing here).  It gave me a real insight as to how touchy religion still is when it comes to Education and especially LGBT issues.  And how when religion is introduced in a discussion it can often overwhelm the view, perspective and discussion at hand.  That makes sense though, because religion is something to be very passionate about and in almost everyone I have had the pleasure of meeting, this passion makes them better people.

So if my concern doesn't have to do with the religion that lingers in the background of this situation, what is it?

My concern doesn't come from what they specifically banned or what charity they had to donate to, but from the fact that student's with alternative lifestyles were allowed to attend the school, have the event and then the main arguments people have for putting restrictions on the event are "we don't celebrate alternative lifestyles" and "you don't have to go here if you don't like it".  Its the way this all went about and the aftermath that irks me (look!  No mention of religion! =D). It's very counterproductive to a world I would like to see (where no topics and social norms are above being challenged and questioned from time to time).  If the school board is not ready to have the discussion on lgbt issues (which is completely in their right to not be, these schools are based on something where this topic is controversial), then be big enough to admit that.  No one should begin a dialogue you don't actually want to have because it can hurt everyone involved.  That is the point I am trying to make.  As teachers in our classrooms, if we begin a discussion with our students who are not ready to handle the topic, we know it can be detrimental, toxic and possibly dangerous for those in the room.

For me, its easy to pick a side on this article based purely on your religious convictions, but I encourage people to look past that and see the bare facts of what happened here.  Take your own religion out of the equation and what have you got?

Tell me that, and we can really start a discussion.

The end...but not really.

As a last blog entry I’d like to sum up my experience not only in this class, but my experience and opinion in education in general. 

These blogs have allowed me to explore the ideas of exceptionalities and equity issues that face education today.  Most of the blogs have open ended questions without any answers.  A lot have a strong opinion on subjects that you may or may not agree with.  I strived to create entries that elicited some form of response, whether good or bad, from the reader.

One of my favourite quotes is from Aristotle:

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought 

without necessarily accepting it

Genius.

This is where we need to go from here.  Young teachers need to have opinions, pose questions and not be afraid to play devil’s advocate   It seems to be an epidemic in all areas (not just education) of people afraid to do so in fear of offending others.  If new questions and ideas aren’t asked, how can we change current thought and ideologies?  If we think of ourselves as “educated minds” then we shouldn’t be offended if other people question our current practices and beliefs.  Yes some people will be stuck in their ways, but change is sometimes a slow progression.

So please, educators of tomorrow, ask questions and be open to new ideas and thoughts.  We don’t need to accept all of them, we don’t even need to like all of them, but it keeps us thinking.  Thinking of change and how to make things better.  I’m sure the ideas of exceptionalities and equity would not be here today without it.

I don't mean to be racist, but...

This entry is going to be half blog half rant. 

Today we mainly discussed and contrasted the stories of two individuals.  “Ashley” from the Ashley Treatment (google search Ashley Treatment) and Rick Hoyt of “Team Hoyt” (again, a google search on this will turn up many stories).  If you are unfamiliar with either of these stories I urge you to read/watch them. 

As well an interesting point of view brought up during the lecture was the social model of viewing disabilities where the “disability is situated it society’s failure to adapt to the needs of its citizens”.  I think this is an important distinction that has to be made and more widely thought of.  Individuals with disabilities are only “disabled” by the fact they do not somehow function within societal norms.  As to what these norms are, is completely constructed by the world around them.  For example, if the entire country was deaf, we would have much more efficient methods of visual communication.  But since most people are not deaf, it is not a priority to develop such a system. 

So here is where my rant comes in.  When we had this discussion in lecture, specifically while contrasting the two stories of individuals with MID and their families, it seemed the “societal model” of viewing the stories went right out the window.  Almost every person that raised their hand started with something along the lines of “I don’t want to judge, but…” and then proceeded to judge the parents of Ashley while applauding the work of the Hoyt family.  To me, this is very similar to people who say “I don’t mean to be racist, but…” and then make racist comments. 

First off, the discussion we ended up having was ridiculous and unproductive.  The path we went down was not of a constructive evaluation on societal pressures both families have with children with intellectual disorders, rather one where parents were either right or wrong for their decision.  As someone who is an able-bodied white, straight, male, the amount of ways society disables me is quite minimal.  Most the people in the class are very similar, so our ability to relate to these parents or children and pass some form of judgment is laughable. 

More importantly however, is how quickly we were able to completely forget the societal model of viewing disability in favour of giving our own opinion and the individual model of disabilities.  It’s scary that in an hour of being presented with that information it was disregarded, when this is the model we should be keeping in mind in our classrooms and schools for the rest of our lives.  The best way we can help students with MID’s in our classes is by asking what can the school board do for this student?  What can the class do for this student?  What can I do for this student?  And the more we view news stories and other ideas with the societal model the easier it can be to do the same in our classrooms.  Ultimately this will be the best for our kids.

My child is a snowflake!

I was watching a House episode where the patient had to decide whether to keep her perfect memory (her ability to recall every instant of her life) or take pills to get better (which would make her lose her ability).  She struggled with the decision, of not wanting to be normal.  In the end she took the pills.

“if you want to be special, you’re going to have to be alone”

(notice how I’m sticking with the alone theme here…seems somewhat important, eh?)

What does this have to do with education you ask?  Well in the world where “every child is a snowflake”, at least to their parents, the idea and what it truly means to be “special” should really be examined.  This woman, who I believe truly is special, would probably have gotten an IEP in my classroom (I she can’t, who can?).  However the way I see the development of IEP’s and the expansion of learning disability diagnoses is this: I will have 20 kids in classroom with 20 IEP’s. 

Fantastic, no?  My child is a snowflake, going to be the next president, and fly to the moon, they should be getting individual attention from teachers.

So I ask again, what does it mean to be special when everyone else is special?  Does our education system deteriorate when we are unable to discern between those that truly need a more focused attention and those that would succeed if they just applied themselves a bit more, the parents were more involved, or a wide variety of non-“lesson plan accommodation/modification” methods?

My concern and heart goes out to those that truly feel alone because they are special.  Who cannot succeed the same way as their peers, not because they don’t try, but because they try every second of every day with little avail.  My concern and heart goes out to those that might not be seen as that “special” for too much longer going the way we are.

“I was tired of being alone”

That statement stopped me dead in my tracks while reading a document very close to:

http://www.canadianliving.com/life/community/growing_up_lesbian_or_gay_in_canada.php

an article that describes athlete Mark Tewksbury experiences through life and current awareness and education fronts on  Lesbian and Gay youth. 

The reason these 6 words made me put the article down is because in such a short, concise manner this man has described everything wrong with teaching, especially when it comes to youth who are queer in our classrooms.  There are very few people in this world that can fathom what it means to be alone.  This is especially true in every other way you should fit in (this boy in particular was athletic, presumably doing well in school, probably otherwise socially adept) but for one reason that you cannot change about yourself you are ostracized. 

Now what about youth “in the closet”?  They would feel the exact same sense of loneliness (not being able to relate, be a “normal” student in the eyes of society) except.  We have so many terms these days, just look at the alphabet soup of lgbttiqqccp2sa, and as teachers it is very easy to say something that will make a student feel more alone.  Especially when we are the role models of the classroom and set the tone of most interactions in our school.  Now I am not saying lets all jump on the PC bandwagon, but a certain care must be taken to inform ourselves on all of these issues.  Otherwise we will continue to make students feel more alone, and not even know it.

Autism Spectrum

The latest lecture we had was on Autism Spectrum Disorder.  What really hit home with me was the activities we played, revealing how everyday interactions can be very difficult for those who are autistic.  Idioms, for example, cloud communication as people with autism tend to take statements at face value.  From the usage of “face value” you can see how I enjoy idioms and use them in every day conversations.  We all tend to.  However we are blocking the understanding of people we can possibly be speaking to.  It is not unlike English Language Learners.  If someone were to say to me “avoir la chaire de poule” I might hear something about chicken and get a little hungry. 

So when we are in the front of classrooms, and we bring who we are to the profession, how easy will it be to continue this pattern of speech?  To continue this disconnection we have between us and students with autism?  Just something to think about.

I will admit this was the subject out of all the exceptionalities and equity issues we have discussed that I am the least comfortable with.  I do not know a lot about the subject of autism and I am a little embarrassed about it.  However it was great to have a lecture on the subject and I’m definitely going to read more on the subject.  You should learn something every day, right?

Body Image Issues.

In first year at university, I would have been classified as Class II Obese.  Over the course of last year I was able to (safely) lose and keep off about 90 pounds and am currently in a normal weight range.  To this day I still have very prevalent body image issues.  However I would not have been able to do any of this without taking a good look in the mirror and saying I was not happy with myself. I was not okay with who I was.

  

What irked me during our lecture on body image and when I read statistics in general, is the very "accept your body for what it is" and "be happy to be you" mentality and the always negative statistics on diets.  For most people this is a wonderful idea and should be in more people's ideologies .  However I guess my question is what about the kids that really do need to lose weight?  How are their body image issues when they go through day to day life?  How can we have so much information on the epidemic in this country yet still I walk through the ARC and pay $8 for a booster juice when it's $5 for a pizza, chips and fries combo.  When someone on the Biggest Loser (which lets face it, is probably the most widely viewed work out program) loses 10 pounds a week and a student loses 1, how do we ensure they know that that's okay.  If stores sell triple XL tshirts, is that normalizing obesity?  If I am a teacher teaching positive body images and "be happy with yourself" do we lose opportunities to talk frankly with students about safe workout routines and nutrition to accommodate physical activity?  (which to be honest, I am just learning about now through friends I go to the gym with.  From my experience this information seems to be reserved for the athletes in high schools)

I apologize for another rant post, however this issue strikes a chord with me.   What would be interesting in the future is more date on successes/failures of plans made by school boards to promote healthy lifestyles.  Or on society's role on obesity.  This is because everyone seems to talk a big game about obesity, about how it’s on the rise, how our children are in danger etc…but nothing, in my eyes, is constructively being done about it.  It’s time for a change.

I’m a poser

I decided the best place to start writing my blogs this semester is to look back at my blogs from last semester.  Upon doing this I realized one thing:  I like to pose a lot of questions.  Rarely do I answer them, that’s for someone else to do.  But nonetheless a question mark gets used frequently. Why do I do this?

Well that’s one question, after some reflection, that I can answer.  I’d like to make the conjuncture that as young educators, our role is to pose the questions.  Questions that don’t necessarily need answers, but questions that need to be asked.

In the past week or so, it has been amazing the amount of discussion I have had on students identified with giftedness in our classroom.  The majority of them have been based around a comment made by a professor that (and I am paraphrasing) gifted students are the ones that will be future leaders and should be treated accordingly in the classroom.  What was great is most people questioned the validity and intention of this statement. 

As a former gifted student, the discussion touches a bit of nerves. I use the word former since my record states I was “demitted” from the program after middle school.   One reason I left the program was because I didn’t like the type of people it seemed to breed.  It might have been just my experience, but there was a sense of elitism that just rubbed me the wrong way.  As well, when everyone is put in the program based on math/science and only one in Language/Verbal, one has to question how we test these students.  Does Gifted just mean smarter?  Should students with tutors or who had Kumon as a kid have an IEP?  Because as of right now, at least for the kids who get in for their math capabilities, this seems to be a way to do it.

At the end of the day I’m all for the idea of Giftedness as a reason to have an IEP.  However in the way it is tested at the moment, we lose a lot of the aspects that I believe to be important for someone to deserve an IEP in a classroom in favour of how well they can perform on a standardized test.

Classism. Period.

Creative title, I know.

But I think it deserves to be stated outright.  Its often forgotten over the other "-isms" that we commonly think of.  Ironically, in my opinion, it is one of the more prevalent and wide-ranging inclusivity issues that youth deal with.  On a very superficial level, we judge people by how well kept they are, if they have the trendy clothes/styles and whether or not they have the latest Apple gizmo (this is especially true in younger kids).  Commercials and media don't help this idea either.  So I don't think we have to even go as far as looking at poverty to see classism in everyday life and easily in our classrooms.

But looking at the more serious issue of child poverty.  Reading the 2003 Report Card on Child Poverty, by the Canadian Council on Social Development, I was astonished to read that 390,000 children live below the poverty line.  14.4%.  Imagine having 4 kids in each one of your class below the poverty line.

To me, it makes me wonder as to why we don't see classism as much as an issue as I've seen in the past.  Is there some reason we don't want to talk about it?

Most of my teaching experiences so far have been in summer school.  Sadly that means there is a whole bunch of material to cover and not a whole lot of time to worry about a lot of "under the surface" kind of issues such as the "-isms".  To me, a successful day was if the students came to class and didn't get into a fight (the ratio of successful days to unsuccessful days was about 1:1).  So it makes me excited to get my own class and actually have the time to establish a classroom atmosphere.  And for an inclusivity issue that does not get brought into schools all that often, this will definitely be another "-ism" that will be in the back of my mind while trying to create the best environment my classroom can be.

Inclusion <=> Innovation

Read Inclusion Promotes Innovation by Jutta Treviranus on Thestar.com, September 12, 2007.

What I like about this article is it flips how we view inclusion of students with disability (or at least my view).  The normal perspective is that innovation is needed to promote inclusion in the classroom (ie hearing aids can help students with hearing difficulties).  However, what is needed is the idea of inclusion to not only support innovation directly, but to support others who would otherwise not be able to reach their full potential.  We don't have to look further from Einstein, Beethoven, and Stephen Hawking to see true innovators who all have disabilities in some way.  Imagine

The second part of this article that really intrigued me can be summarized by the quote:

"We train educators to teach the norm"

This (in lack of a better word) sucks.  Mainly because it's true.  It's hard when society gives us perceptions of "normal" students, how "normal" students learn, and how "normal" students behave.  How can we expect to teach anything different?  Well think of that 1 amazing teacher we all had in high school.  The one that did something different.  The one that geeks and gangsters alike adored and listened to.  They didn't teach the norm.  So why should we?  

And this is why I love Education courses so far.  We question ourselves and convention on a weekly basis.  What I hope happens is that this teaches us, as future educators, to do this on our own constantly in schools.  Question inclusivity issues.  Question our own practices.  Question our own bias.  Because so far, thats been the best thing that we can do before we have our own classroom and even after we have established ourselves as professionals.  It's always time to grow, especially in a growing world that requires inclusivity.

Students do not drop out, they are forced out.

Consider that statement for a second.

For me, it's a powerful one.  Along the lines with "Consider the glass half full, rather than half empty", it really changes how you view at-risk students in schools.  Essentially students will not leave a place that is doing them a service.  Maybe instead of viewing the disengaged student as someone who can't be helped, or needs to change, we should look at how the teaching can change to serve the student (to a point obviously, we aren't going to make a candy, puppy and firework course just because a student is skipping math).

I want to extend this a little bit further however.  We have the "force out" instead of the "drop-out", but we should also recognize students that are at risk of becoming a force out.  Let's call them, a "fade out".  I work as an EA in Peel Board's Summer School and these are the students I see most often.  The ones that are genuinely bright, capable students but either never show up or disrupt others around them because they aren't getting anything out of their school experience (for a variety of reasons).

With this different perspective of how students are feeling, I think we all as current and future educators can better serve others.  So please give it a second thought the next time you are ever frustrated with the performance or attitude of a student

What I Don't Know Could Fill A Boat. A Large Boat.

Today we had a discussion on aboriginal youth in classrooms.  Coming from Mississauga I’ve always sort of prided myself on knowing a lot about different cultures and religions, especially in how they played a role in inclusivity in the classroom.  However when the group today presented a quiz on aboriginal people, I was humbled about how little I knew about this group, especially when it came to education. 

One thing that got me was how different the socio-cultural aspect and cue differences between Eastern-European culture and Aboriginal culture.  This included a difference in importance of punctuality, the idea of praise, all the way to even eye contact while speaking to an individual.

As educators, we can often impose our own beliefs and ways of doing things in the classroom.  This often isn’t a huge issue when we all come from the same sort of background or heritage, but when we get into more diverse classrooms there is an exponential number of things we have to consider. 

At the end of the day we may think we know about a particular subject, or at least more than others, but don’t let that cloud your ability to be humbled and take the chance to grow.  Admit you don’t know something and learn from it.  Cause I definitely know what I’ll be doing before I get into my next placement.

Technology and Inclusivity in the Classroom

So today I pointed out that someone (a friend of a friend) used the phrase “that’s so gay” on facebook.  I do this on occasion in person (the usage of gay and retarded are the most frequent) and have never really had an issue.  Most apologize, correct what they said and the conversation moves on.  However in this case, the girl blew up on me.  I won’t post what was exactly said, but lets just say we wont be facebook friends anytime soon.  It struck me as odd since I’ve never had this reaction before, and it actually got me thinking: would this have happened if I told her in person. 

And this is what scares me, cause I don’t think so.  The first step to discrimination is to dehumanize the individual.  However in a world where we are all connected, not face to face, but wireless signal to wireless signal, the “human” touch is all too much lost.  A person is just wittled down to a screen name and tiny picture.  That’s pretty much as far away from a human as I can think of.  It’s no wonder there is so much hate on the internet these days, its just so easy to think of the people you are interacting with as not human.

So in the classroom how can we combat the fact that so many students are living in a world where its so easy to discriminate and dehumanize others 75% of the time?  I’ve heard so much about bringing technology into the classroom, and not to fight it, but there’s got to be something said for good ol’ face to face interaction.  So I want to pose a question: Do you think inclusivity in the classroom is at all affected by the increase use of technology?  Do students bring with them how they act online to the classroom?  Do teachers have to work harder today to create an inclusive, personal environment these days compared to years pervious? Is there a connection at all?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, but its just something I’ve been pondering today.  

"The Silent Ones"

No its not a title of a horror movie I'm writing.

Last week we had a frank discussion on racism.  It was great to have such a discussion in an open and safe forum.  However I found that there were still a few quiet individuals that did not share their opinion the entire class.  Now I am perfectly fine with that, it is their choice whether they want to or even feel comfortable enough to share their opinion.  It still got me thinking about those who I will deem “the silent ones”.  

In our classes there will always be these types of people, and it is very easy to overlook them and their opinions.  Whether they are silent about bullying they saw, their offense to a certain joke someone made, or just silent in general, it is very easy to overlook these individuals. 

So two points I want to make in this blog.  The first, for every opinion/voice you hear there can be multiple ones that haven’t spoken up.  Just because no one says something is wrong doesn’t meet it hasn’t been felt by others either afraid or too uncomfortable to speak up.  The second is that we should foster a classroom environment to shift the people from the “silent” group to the “vocal “group.  When everyone feels safe enough to share their view and opinion is a classroom I think we all want to teach in.

I am White, and I am angry at Christine Overall.

Read this article: I am White and I that means I am Privileged by Christine Overall.  If you finished it you got further than I did on my first read through.  Does anyone else who is white find it a little condescending to be grouped in with a lot of the assumptions she is making about white people.

“when whites think of race…”

“They [white people] agree, even though they failed to think about race and racism before the topic was raised by a person of colour”

“White people like me feel…”

“As a white person, I tend to be ignorant…”

“Because only white people like me…”

“Whiteness is the default position…”

A few comments:

First:  What the heck?  To have the audacity to make points about race and racism when she herself is making sweeping generalizations about her own race is nothing short of ridiculous.   Replace the word “white” with any other colour and the article takes a whole different tone.  I’m from Mississauga.  I was the only white person in my grade 12 calculus class.  I didn’t realize this until a friend pointed it out to me 2 weeks before the exam.  “Whiteness” was not the default position where I am from by far

What I think people need to understand when we discuss racism and other inclusivity issues in our schools and communities is that we all have a view to give.  We are all of one race, the human race, and from that there are many different backgrounds, upbringing, heritages that we can draw from .  To call all white people ignorant of racism is ignorant itself and sets us back in discussions such as inclusivity.  To say that our response to discussions is either awkward silence, ignorant agreeing, or response directly stemming from white guilt hinders any productive discussion we could have if people actually believe these comments.

So thanks Christine Overall.  How about next time we have a frank discussion on racism and inclusivity we check our baggage at the door and try to actually make a difference instead of commenting on what ways we cant, as white people, make one.

So I’m confused, but maybe that’s a good thing.

This past Tuesday (Note: two Tuesdays ago now, I wrote this a while ago) we listened to Barbara Coloroso, an expert on bullying and related fields.  First off, let me say she was nothing short of inspiring.  I would suggest if you ever have the chance to listen to her speak as I’m sure she will have the same affect on you.

Surprisingly, the main messages I took from the night were often contradictory of not only my preconceived notions on the issues but also readings on behavioural exceptionalities assigned the week before.  This included new research that indicates reward systems activate “addiction” parts of the brain and the idea that bullying is not something that can be mediated as it’s a one-way attack on another individual.

I think we’ve all been given reward systems to reinforce good behaviour or even used them ourselves.  As well I know my elementary school and even high school used mediation as a tool to resolve issues such as bullying.  In some of these cases it helped, in others it didn’t.  You really can only look at it case by case.

And I guess that’s where my confusion might be a good thing.  Yes we will definitely be dealing with plenty of students with exceptionalities and a wide array of issues (bullying is only one of these issues).  Yes there is plenty of contradictory practices and research out there. However there is no textbook on teaching.  This is where teaching excites me.  This profession will never be the same from year to year, month to month, day to day, or even minute to minute.  As long as we stay proactive, use our best judgments, and keep our heads about us, even us new teachers can provide an impact in the students we interact with.  This especially includes ones who have exceptionalities, as they are the ones most at risk of succeeding in the school system:

So one thing I will take with me from all of this comes from the reading assigned from Special Education in Ontario Schools – at the very end of the Behavioral Exceptionality section. 

Taken together, the practices followed by most educatiors most of the time, could best be collected under the expression: flexible common sense.  While the term may not have definitive intellectial reverberations in the field of behaviour theory, it describes pretty much the route that is followed in the classroom: doing what is effective at the time and what makes sense at the time.

So focus on that last phrase.  Teaching is an amazingly dynamic field and as much research and as much studies that can be made it all comes down to you making those decisions in that moment.  Confusion is natural, but doing what you think is best at the time, in the end, the best we can do.

A Change?

Over the summer I was listening to a radio show that had a segment on innumeracy in today's society.  As a subject that interests me greatly, I was excited to hear what the guest expert had to say.  Sadly the interview didn’t go too in depth because the host would frequently make jokes about how she couldn’t do her taxes or multiply 7 and 3 without a calculator.  At first this struck me as horrendous.  Have we really come to a point in society where it is FUNNY that we have a poor grasp on basic mathematical concepts?  (But I guess I shouldn't be surprised, its really easy to find other examples, take TV shows like Big Bang Theory for one where its comedy draws on exactly this)

 Let’s flip it around, would it really be that funny if I told people that I have no clue what year Canada confederated?  (its 1867, right?).  Or that I get confused as to which province Regina is the capital of?  I have a feeling we wouldn’t all slap our knees and laugh it away.   How can we expect our students to care about a subject that gets diminished in our society on a daily basis?  Well with the current view of math in our society, growing access to technologies (calculators and computers) and the cutting of curriculum expectations in high school math we aren’t giving students too much of a chance to embrace the subject.

But then I realized its not just math that gets shafted.  French has had this issue for a while (when do we ever use French in Ontario?) and with Wikipedia even history and other “fact based courses” are getting a bit less relevant to be taught in class.

So what do we do as teachers when the student-teacher relationship model of the “knowledge giver” and “knowledge receiver” can be rendered useless by current technologies and societal advancements?

Well I suggest a shift in how we view the expectations we must teach to our students.  Jimmy can Wikipedia what the Qaudratic formula is.  Thus I could care less whether or not he knows it by heart.  But what are the implications of this formula?  What does it tell us about mathematical functions?  Sally can google when and how World War I started.  But how does that affect current global relations and what can we learn from it?  Why should I waste my time as an educator doing something a computer can do in 30 seconds much more effectively than I ever could? 

The shift, in my opinion, has to come from teaching pure factual, “memorizable” knowledge to teaching students to analyze and critically look at the information given to them.   So looking back on the radio show that inspired this whole line of thought, I realize we just live in a different world than our parents and even a different world that we did 10, 15 years ago.  Although it might be sad this woman could not multiply 7 by 3 without a calculator, it’s just the way society has progressed.  But as educators, we must be changing just as quickly as society (and just as importantly technology) does.  That is the only way we can be relevant to our students, and that’s the key.