Enough

Who can understand the complexities of modern technology. I have difficulty with yesterday's high tech.Years ago when computers began to make an inroad into schools the nascent computer department decreed that all teachers needed training.

A good idea, but the training consisted of learning some basic computer language.

I returned to my classroom able to teach my class of "difficult" students how to write a sentence and watch it continue to scroll on and on until a human hand put a stop to the incessant roll. They were not intrigued until one student wrote a short sentence: F---ing boring!

That sentence scrolled over and over until I spotted it and said, " Great, you really understood the lesson."

I kept pace, forgetting about understanding and just moving along--floppys, zip drives, external hard drives, memory memory memory. Speed, speed, speed. Clouds. I visualize my own cloud--puffy, sitting on a tufted cushion and spreading its arms welcoming my latest dispatch.

It's easier that way. Each new gadget takes on a personality. Gestures, for me, in lieu of a mouse looks like a green serpent with tentacles. When the Wall Street Journal ran a story about the demise of the mouse I cringed.

Those people who make decisions affecting how I interact with my computer, want to consign the mouse to the scrapheap of the past.

I say, for those who want to use gestures do so and for those of us who love our mouse let us be. Enough.