Technology and Idealism in Education

I think, or perhaps choose to believe, that there is an innate and essential element found in the make-up of all English teachers. This quality may not endure after years dealing with school politics and changing curriculums, student apathy and state mandates, poor pay and deficient funding. But there is a point, when these men and women first read a great book, felt again when they first step into the classroom, at which this vital flame slowly begins to glow warm. For some it is but a fleeting emotion, for others it is the fuel that drives them through the day. These teachers will be guarded at times, joking of the summers off, the good hours, the job options, and the ideals of this unquestionably noble profession. But there is unspoken passion. Perhaps it is too naive, possibly delirious in its own romance, but this little fire give a slight warmth to even the coldest days; it is simple notion of what can be, it is the unquestionable belief that with books we can change the world.

These teachers see teenagers full of angst, full of self-doubt, confused in self-identity, scared that the center simply does not hold. How these teachers would so like to explain to their students, soon to set foot into this sometimes harsh world, that these feelings will go away. But do they? Yet, as teachers, they believe that they can make a difference. If they can only teach these torch bearers of the future to covet the true love that Romeo and Juliet so unquestionably prove must exist, what a wonderful world we could live in. If only Gatsby can lead these students to live their own lives, teach them how to honestly pursue dreams, how fantastic life could be. If only the students would sit for a night and read O’brien’s The Things They Carried, how sure they are that war would be no more. How great the world would be if they could only teach the students to see the beauty, to know the horror, to feel that which is sublime. Spoken or silently understood, these teachers believe that the right few words can change the world. For, the world does need to change.


Today, given the choice, most children will sit at a desk with a computer rather than under a tree with a book. The average teenage would rather chat with their friends on AIM and stalk their ex-girlfriends or current love interests on facebook, than read the stories that fundamentally define what humanity is, what it could be. You may argue that they’re being more human with the computer and communications technology; they are speaking and interacting with other human beings, they are on national geographic seeing parts of the world that they would never see in a novel, they are learning the current realities of the world that no book can ever provide. Is this not better than arguing whether it’s better to be, or not to be?

There is no simple answer. I do think it’s great that the Internet can give us the realities of life across the globe. But what if I don’t want to teach realities, what if I want to teach ideals? What if I don’t want to teach what is, what if I want to teach what I do so honestly believe could be? Can I utilize the all that communication technology provides without distracting from the dream worlds and grandiose notions of being that I will teach? Do I sacrifice the glimmers knowledge I see in novels for the glare of knowledge that can be found online?