Our Wired Children

In the post "Forget Screen Time - Lean In To Parenting Your Wired Child" Jordan Shapiro "came to realize that part of his job as a parent was to help his children make sense of their online experiences and teach them how to uphold enduring values in the new world they are living in."

Teachers are doing this every day.  Rather than fight the losing battle of "no cell phones" in class, many teachers I work with use instructional strategies that encourage students to access Google, YouTube, online texts, or interactive lessons and quiz sites through their phones.  They encourage learners to use the device glued to the end of their arms as a tool for learning as well as for entertainment and social interaction.

Now, do all students have access to smartphones that allow them to use these tools?  How can we educators ensure equitable access?  That's another topic for another day!

Back in the day, we used to pass notes in class hand to hand.  Now students text each other, faces focused on the screen.  Back in the day we stood around in groups and chat, now they follow each other on Instagram and Twitter.  Facebook?  More for the older generation, like me at this point!

A while back (three years ago!) I wrote a post about teaching active learners, those digital natives who were entering our classrooms at a rapid rate.   I wondered what a future world - a world without face-to-face, interpersonal communication would be like.  If you've never watched Wall-E, check it out for it's spot-on social commentary.  

I think a main call to action from Shapiro's post is to encourage adults to model effective communication whether it is face-to-face or through a device, and to teach young people how to learn and interact in an online world with a sense of their own personal integrity.  How are we helping them apply the morals and values we are trying to instill in them to what they see, hear and read online?

We have a responsibility to help our kids become critical users and producers of online content.

  

If our own kids and our own students are able to view a YouTube video or Instragram post through the lens of "who paid for it, and what are they trying to sell me?", then we are well on our way to helping them develop those critical thinking skills we keep saying they need. When they are the ones posting original content, is it representative of their learning or their values?  I love to think that it is!

Leaning In

You've probably heard of Sheryl Sandberg.  She is the Facebook executive who wrote the book "Lean In" about women and leadership.  Her basic premise is that too many women do not pursue leadership - they lean back instead of leaning in.  A quick Google search will confirm that there are many, many, many more males than females in CEO and other upper level management positions of major companies.  You probably don't need a Google search to tell you that, but it will.  

I am an educator, and I tend to look at things through an educator's lens.  I'm also a progressive, and try to be socially conscious as well, and tend to seek ways to understand the social implications of politics and policy.  I'm also a woman, a mother of daughters, a soon-to-be-grandmother, and a wife.  All of these roles inform and impact everything I do.

I recently watched Sheryl Sandberg's TED talk: "Why we have too few women leaders".  I found it compelling.

She suggests that the the answer to this issue is to "keep women in the workforce".  I have been in the workforce for nearly all of my adult life, full time in a retail career, part time doing church youth work, and full time in education for the past twelve years.  I've also been an adult learner, charting a new course for my professional life halfway through; I earned a degree in education, a masters in education, and right now I'm working toward a specialist degree and admin license.  I'm not really sure that simply keeping women in the workforce is the solution.

Ms. Sandberg states that women need to do three things if they want to stay in the workforce:

1.  Sit at the table.  Not behind the guy sitting at the table, but chin up to the table as equals.

2.  Make your partner a real partner.  She's talking about your partner at home, and if you are a working mom with a partner, you understand how in a lot of cases, you get the larger share of housework and child duties.

3.  Don't leave before you leave.  As in, stay fully engaged until you walk out the door, especially if you are anticipating a maternity or other kind of leave.

I was struck by the tone of her message, and here is where my socially conscious radar went up.  When acknowledging how hard it is to go back to work after having a baby, Ms. Sandberg said, "that job you return to better be rewarding, challenging, and make you feel like you make a difference" because it is hard to leave your little one.  I thought, she must be talking to women of privilege who can make a choice to go back to work or not.  

What about the majority of women in the workforce for whom staying home is not an option?  What about the women in the workforce trying to support a family on minimum wage, or the women who have to work more than one job?

There was a time in my life when I didn't have to work and I had the luxury - yes, I thought it was a luxury - of staying home with my three daughters, caring for them and for our home.  It was a wonderful time and I treasured it because I knew I was doing important work.  I also remained fully aware that I was able to do that because my husband earned a lot of money.

I reject the notion that there is something wrong or that it is in some way,  less than total fulfillment when a woman chooses the "mommy track", for lack of a better term.  I reject the notion that women are letting down their career-minded sisters  when they make a choice to stay home, to work part-time, or to put family first.

Why are there too few women in leadership?  I still don't have an answer to that question.  But I don't think it's wrong to find fulfillment in a balanced life. 

So lean in.  Commit to your important relationships with renewed depth.   Use all your senses with heightened awareness when you experience the world around you.  Make it a goal to stretch yourself and learn something new every day.  Leaning in is about so much more than staying in the workforce.  It's about contributing, sharing, loving, leading.  I'm leaning in right now.