George: "O.K. Someday—we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and—"
"An’ live off the fatta the lan’," Lennie shouted. "An’ have rabbits. Go on, George! Tell about what we’re gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it. Tell about that George."
"Why’n’t you do it yourself? You know all of it."
"No…you tell it. It ain’t the same if I tell it. Go on…George. How I get to tend the rabbits."
"Well," said George, "we’ll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we’ll just say the hell with goin’ to work, and we’ll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an’ listen to the rain comin’ down on the roof—Nuts!" (Of Mice and Men p.119-123)
"An’ live off the fatta the lan’," Lennie shouted. "An’ have rabbits. Go on, George! Tell about what we’re gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it. Tell about that George."
"Why’n’t you do it yourself? You know all of it."
"No…you tell it. It ain’t the same if I tell it. Go on…George. How I get to tend the rabbits."
"Well," said George, "we’ll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we’ll just say the hell with goin’ to work, and we’ll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an’ listen to the rain comin’ down on the roof—Nuts!" (Of Mice and Men p.119-123)
The passage above is from the wonderful classic by John Steinbeck – Of Mice and Men. Anyone who has ever read this book (and I think we all have at some time in our high school years) can remember how George would tell Lennie about how perfect it would be someday for them. “Cream so thick you can hardly cut it.” Heaven……a land of milk and honey…….at least in the eyes of these two men. Technology’s version of this heaven, a land of milk and honey, can be found in the National Education Technology Plan.
Now please don’t think I am a pessimist about everything. But I am a realist. And school funding at a state and federal level has made the dream world of the NET completely unrealistic and, at present time, unattainable.
The Michigan Education Technology Plan is in line with the NET, but a bit more realistic. I feel the state has given goals that, given a glimpse of better economic times, may be remotely doable. Idealistic? Yes. But we all have to have dreamers somewhere in the plan in order to improve ourselves.
Our district technology plan is……sad. Is it in line with Michigan and National Education Technology Plans? Yes. It sure looks good on paper. But you see, I sit on the technology committee and see firsthand the struggles faced by our support staff trying to meet the needs of the teachers and students. Our entire program can be summed up into, “How do we fit this Band-Aid over this problem to get a little more life out of it?” There is no expansion or improving of technology. We simply do all we can to maintain the status quo. And, because of aging equipment, we are losing that battle. Heck, I am writing letters to corporations requesting corporate help in improving our district’s technology. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
The district technology plan is also old (written in early 2008) and is due for a rewrite next month. Do you think I could help weave a tale the caliber of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men when I help rewrite it? Perhaps if you come back to the site next year, and read somewhere in it, “Can I feed the rabbits George? Can I? Can I?” You will know I had a hand in it.
Of Mice and Men quote: http://www.shmoop.com/of-mice-and-men/dreams-hopes-plans-quotes.html
Gwinn Area Community Schools Technology Plan: http://www.gwinn.k12.mi.us/TECHPLAN/2008Plan.pdf
And by the way,isn't asking what we think of the Michigan Education Technology Plan the equivilent of your wife asking, "Does this dress make me look fat?" Page 21 - Review Team :)
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