Everything old is new again?

Over at The Chronicle of Higher Education, Ben Wieder has an article about the top technology trends for higher education for 2011. The list looks similar to many we in k-12 have seen over the last couple of years, but my favorite line was the first one:

"Mobile devices are one year away from transforming education. For the third straight year." (emphasis mine)

Lately in the car I have been waxing nostalgic and listening to Peter, Paul, and Mary. Their protest songs bring up issues that are still discussed today. What cracks me up is that we all think we've discovered some new idea to get excited about, when it really isn't new at all. I have also been reading The Organization Man by William H. Whyte, Jr. This book was recommended in American Libraries--the October 2010 issue had a column of Rousing Reads required for Mad Men by Bill Elliott. (Incidentally, if you would like more Mad Men reading ideas, visit the NY Public Library's blog post on Mad Men reading lists.) In The Organization Man, Whyte discusses a great many things, but one of them is the move away from individuality toward "group think" (1984 anyone?) where society is always right, and people are becoming sheep who follow no matter what. Whyte says that the current (meaning post WWII) trend in higher education away from the pure sciences and humanities and more toward technical training is producing a generation of people who are unable to think for themselves. He goes on to say that the system--meaning corporate America--is crushing creativity and nonlinear thinking, therefore invention. What? Isn't that what is happening as I write? I know I have read many current columns bemoaning this very fact, and the current public education system's complicity in it.

Here's what I think. Rather than finding this alarming, I find it somewhat comforting. Let me explain. If thinkers have been worried about people not thinking and the direction of American education for that long, perhaps that is part of what keeps the system working. We cry out, "Wait, aren't we forgetting something important?" And people stop and think, at least some of them, and some of them even change direction and 'gasp' start thinking for themselves. This is how change begins.

Mad Men graphic from the NYPL blog.