.1 Inescapable Reality of Global Compression

It is no longer possible to ignore the global context of American education. America does not exist in a void - it is part of an evolving international society. I mean, even look at how we manufacture cars. Did you know that the Pontiac Grand Am, a classic "all American" car, is manufactured entirely in Korea? And what about the Honda Accord - those are made in California. What is the world coming to when we can't even trust the labels on our cars?

I'll tell you what the world is coming to - it is coming to a new era in the history of the planet. As I have said before in this course, we now live in an international society and that can not be escaped. It must be embraced.

That puts teachers in tough spot. Teachers are the ones stuck with the difficult job of training students to live in a world which isn't in existence yet. How is that possible? How do you instruct students how to operate in a society which is only just emerging? What special tools does the teacher need to manage this?

Well, most importantly, teachers have to be comfortable with change and teach that attitude to their students.

Did you guys know that when I was young, I mean, when I was starting out in my career, the US government paid a lot of money to do a study to discover how many computers the world would need. Computers were just coming out, and the government was very interested in how they could be used and what the world demand would be.

Well, after carefully examining all the data available, the study clearly showed that the WORLD DEMAND for computers would be satisfied by a total of fourteen computers. That is right. 14. Can you imagine a more ridiculously wrong answer?

The point here is that the world has changed drastically, even in my lifetime. This rate of change is only going to increase, and teachers have to be very aware and comfortable with this. In fact, I would very confidently go so far as to say that any teacher that is afraid of change is incompetent. They are incompetent because they undermine the next generation's ability to cope with change.

What is alarming here is that it is in the nature of people who choose the teaching profession to like stability -- teachers aren't traditionally risk takers. This needs to change if the teaching profession is going to deal adequately with our rapidly changing world. This is one of the reasons we stress the use of technology in this class, even technology which is still experimental. You, as future teachers, need to become comfortable in an environment of change and new experiences.

	What is one of the reasons we stress the use of technology in the classroom?	Answer Here
	Mrs. Jamison teaches science in a suburban high school in Richmond. She has been teaching for over twenty years, and even though times have changed, she has refused to accept the change. She changes a rule in her classroom and one of her students is resistant to such change. How could Mrs. Jamison's attitude in this situation be partly to blame for her students' attitude towards the changes that she has made in her classroom?	Answer Here