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The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty ofmessenger boys.- Sir William Preece, chief engineer of the British Post Office, 1876Imagine how Preece would feel if he knew that today we can play televisionprograms and movies, take pictures or videos and display them on the internet,write and check email as well as exchanging voice messages iwth today's cellphones. Soon we will also pay for our purchases using our phones when we reach acheckout desk.It should be noted that people in the UK today often receive two snailmaildeliveries on weekdays and one on Saturdays, so Preece's successors were notasleep at the wheel.This quote reminds me of several relating to computers and the internet, most ofwhich you have likely read so I won't bore you by repeating them. The mostoutstanding of these was Bill Gates declaring that 64 KB of memory ought to beenough for anyone.How can such prominent people be so far off in their predictions? For one thing,most of them were middle age or older when they made their now-embarrassingdeclarations. As people get older, they want their world to remain the same asmuch as possible because it has taken them so many years to gain a reasonableunderstanding of it as it is (was).However, nothing remains the same, in nature or in human lives. That which appearsto maintain the status quo is most likely decaying beneath the surface. The onlyconstant in this world today is change.Many people are not prepared for major changes in their lives, such as when theylose their jobs or their spouses. The kinds of skills necessary to cope with thedownturns of life form part of the emotional development that children aresupposed to go through as they grow toward adulthood.Many don't get enough coping skills. Their parents either don't know what to teachthem or they believe that children should not be "burdened" with possibletragedies that might befall them later in life. Just mentioning the words drugs,alcohol, suicide, Prozac, therapist, murder, divorce and abuse is sufficient toremind us that not nearly enough people have the skills they need to cope withtheir lives.Coping skills can be taught. They aren't being taught by enough parents today,maybe because the parents don't know the skills to teach their kids or maybebecause they lose the opportunity to teach them at the right time. How manyparents have been shocked by news of their children being arrested for drug use orbeing pregnant before it had even occurred to them to teach their offspring aboutthese topics?The only way to ensure that the emotional development of each child is addressedproperly and each stage's components effected at the right time is the way we havealways managed matters that parents could not handle on their own: we turn it overto teachers. It only makes sense for teachers to cover matters of emotionaldevleopment (as well as parents) so that every child will have the same ability tocope with the ups and downs that life will throw at them.A few decades ago students could expect that the company that hired them when theyleft school may employ them for their entire careers. Today it is more likely thata person will have ten quite different jobs through their working lives. Most ofthem will be like careers in themselves.Kids need to know not only how to get their first job, but how and when to pursuea new job and to secure the skills needed to do the new job (career) when the timearrives. They need to know what to do when they are dismissed, other than to applyfor social assostance.They need to know what to do when change smacks them in the face. Those things areteachable.You can talk with your friends and neighbours about this, maybe get together apresentation to make to the principals of local schools. One success in one schooland word will spread until entire school distrincts will adopt your plan.
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