<p>The thing that would have made the biggest difference in my education, imo, is the computer.
My hands have always cramped when doing a lot of writing, and I am not the only one who can’t always read my writing.
When I was in K-12, we didn’t have access to even a manual typewriter ( that worked).
I attended community college when my oldest was young, & had an electric typewriter with correctable tape.
Big improvement over manual for me, but still a Pita, considering my skill level. Really big pita compared to the tools available now.
I appreciated that my younger daughters primary school allowed the kids to dictate stories, as they worked seperately on their writing.</p>
<p>Oldest didn’t have a cell phone until her senior year of college, ( although she did have a laptop in high school).
That was about ten years ago. H & youngest got one at the same time, youngest was in 5th or 6th gd.
I had one earlier, as my mother wanted to be able to get a hold of me ;), but I hadn’t been able to convince my husband until then that they were a necessity rather than a luxury. But as pay phones were disappearing around the city, he eventually conceded. He still has a flip phone though.</p>
<p>I do remember the first cell phone I saw. The mother of one of Ds friends had one. It was about 1991or 92, and it looked like a satellite phone because it was a large handset & came in a suitcase.
And I bet it didnt even have a game on it!
:D</p>
<p>Something that is a big change- that I don’t think kids grasp is that stores did not have the hours they do now.
No stores were open 24 hrs and certainly not grocery stores, which closed at 6 most days.
Admittedly that was in the 60’s & 70’s. After 7/11 opened, some stores started gradually extending their hours, but that has gotten to a point which is just crazy. I dont think we need department stores open on holidays for example.</p>
<p>My dad is in an Evacuation Advisory area for one of the California fires. He’s about 1.5 miles from the closest point. I called him last night when I heard about it, and he said “It can’t be that close. I read about it in the morning newspaper.” </p>
<p>Um, dad, the morning newspaper was printed about 20 hours ago. I’m watching video from your local news station; turn on your TV. Oh, and find the cell phone I made you get and put it on a charger.</p>
<p>“How are you watching my TV stations? Do they show it on your TV?” </p>
<p>Um, no dad, the Internet. </p>
<p>“Oh, you know I don’t look at that Internet thing anymore.” (Fire looks to be heading in less populated directions this morning.)</p>
<p>Just an example. When I was a college freshman, I once got into a heated dispute with someone over the name of the actor who played Christopher Pike in the original Star Trek pilot. The choices were Jeffrey Hunter or Jim Hutton. (It was Hunter.) Today, you’d get the answer on your phone in about 45 seconds. You can get almost ANY FACT IN THE WORLD on your phone in about 45 seconds.</p>
<p>I can’t remember the last time I argued about facts. The idea seems so silly.</p>
<p>Ynotgo, I hope your dad stays safe.
My D is in Wa, where they had been having wildfires, but they didnt have internet or cell service.
I was watching the twitter feed #CarltonComplex and crossing my fingers.
However, I think they were communitcating by radio.</p>
<p>After graduating college a friend and I drove from the east coast to California armed only with some maps and AAA books listing hotels. We called home every few days from a pay phone. It would be a much different trip now with cell phones to call from your car, access to maps, directions, restaurant listings, ability to book a hotel from your car, etc </p>
<p>My kids were impressed when I told them that I had used the really early version of the internet available in universities back in the Eighties to communicate with DH when he was on sabbatical in Japan. This was well before the introduction of AOL and there were no fancy interfaces back then just green text on a black screen. I also remember when you needed to type commands to boot up your computer.</p>
<p>There is more information and more accessibility, but more pressure. Think about Pinterest and kid’s birthday parties, first you think, “wow, how cool, I never would have thought of that” then you realize, “darn, everyone expects that level of ‘creativity’ now!”</p>
<p>I still take the AAA books when we are traveling because it’s much easier to turn pages and look at the maps than to keep switching screens and clicking on individual listings. </p>
<p>I used to work for a real estate agency (24 years ago) and it’s hard to believe that no one but agents had access to the listings back in the day.</p>
<p>When I was in high school, I volunteered at the local library. One of my tasks was to update the California Administrative Code binders. Sacramento would send a monthly (or maybe weekly) batch of pages to be swapped in to replace other pages. Also, I inspected music albums that were returned for scratches.</p>
<p>I bought my second computer in 1990. It used the 3.5" floppy disks that became pretty ubiquitous for a while. Today, in my pocket, I have a 32GB flash drive that cost me less than $20. It holds the equivalent of 22,000+ floppy disks. If you laid that many disks end to end, it would reach over a mile. And you can store that much information today in a widget the size of your thumb.</p>
<p>So what could we fit onto a 3.5" disk? Everything we needed!</p>
<p>No offense, but that example doesn’t really portray how “hard things were” back in the day.</p>
<p>I do remember how thrilling it was when word processors came into being instead of having to use the white out/white out strips,etc. Of course, when I would curse at the white out strips, there was always someone around to tell me how when THEY used to type, they had to use the blue mimeograph* pages, so you just HAD to be accurate.</p>
<p>*Wait-I can’t remember-what were those blue carbon pages that used to be attached to paper when you typed to provide copies?</p>
<p>My kids were puzzled by toasters, as we have never owned one and they only saw them in the hotels that served breakfast–usually very large machines that handled multiple slices at one time. I saw them on some IQ tests and smiled as I figure many kids would have no idea what those and even irons and ironing boards are. I’m not sure D has ever ironed anything in her life, tho S has. Many youngsters prefer steamers or just sprinkle water and pop the clothing back in the dryer to get out many of the wrinkles.</p>
<p>I still remember my first job at age 14. I was completing forms in multiple copies. White, thin white underneath for the file copy, yellow, goldenrod, pink, blue and green. When you made a mistake (and I made a TON of them), you had to correct EACH PAGE in the CORRECT color! It literally would take me ALL day to complete ONE form in all the colors. I decided I would make a TERRIBLE clerical assistant! That was still one of the toughest jobs I held as a teen.</p>
<p>It was also terrifying to babysit children that had been hospitalized. Their parents would not give us a way to contact them and I had no idea what I would do other than call 911 if they had a terrible asthma or allergy attack. I stopped babysitting those families after one evening. Too scary–no cell phones!</p>
<p>We must be technologically backwards. Visited D2 this weekend and she has an ironing board, broom and dust pan, a toaster, AND a traditional clock in her kitchen.</p>
<p>I immediately thought of travel agents and how I used to use them to buy airplane tickets.</p>
<p>EPTR - I used to love filmstrips! In second or third grade we watched a whole series on folk songs and Americana. I can still belt out the lyrics to “Eatin’ Goober Peas.”</p>
<p>I didn’t even know toasters were technologically backwards!! What do people use now? I have a broom too… Not a fan of the Swiffer-type stuff, because of all the chemicals.</p>