Current Shock

I read this book back in 1970 – when I was a senior in High School. I reread it again while I was in the US Navy 1972-1975. It is worth looking back to some truisms from this book from back in the day – 1970 – and see how they look in the light of the day – today.

Learn-Unlearn-Relearn – and Repeat

This is of course still so very true – as we are now in the 21st Century – where change is the constant – it seems. Technology is moving faster, more and more information is available to us (some of it is true) and most of us need to find a way to stay current with being swept away from the current of change.

Note (from 2020-12-28): It was just this past week that I learned that the next quote is not the quote, nor is it attributed correctly…

My discovery is … that that is not the quote in the book, AND, Toffler was quoting Psychologist Herbert Gerjuoy of the Human Resources Research Organization.

So … wrong quote and wrong attribution. It was Gerjuoy who said:

“The new education must teach the individual how to classify and reclassify information, how to evaluate its veracity, how to change categories when necessary, how to move from the concrete to the abstract and back, how to look at problems from a new direction—how to teach himself. Tomorrow’s illiterate will not be the man who can’t read; he will be the man who has not learned how to learn.“

I think we all need to ask ourselves – how do I stay current – and how do I sort the wheat from the chaff?

There is Too Much Foo Foo

Or snake oil, or BS, etc. How, again, do you sort the wheat from the chaff? I always had my professional home, NSPI/ISPI. I counted on them to be THE source of Evidence Based Practices and concepts, theories and methods. But they too, lately, have often been guilt of not separating the wheat from the chaff – publishing on Learning Styles and Multi-Generational Differences. They have lost my trust. And I’ve witnessed in just the last few weeks BS on Multi-Generational Differences in in the publications of some other Sources that should be respected for their expertise – and they have lost me too. I recently talked with Jane Bozarth about this – and my hope that her organization – where she directs Research – the Elearning Guild – might become the champion of Evidence Based Practice in T&D/L&D and Performance Improvement. Some group needs to step up IMO. And soon. Some group that can earn our trust and keep it.

Alignments

The big stuff and the small stuff are both important. It’s too easy to get caught up being busy without questioning – challenging – ourselves as to the criticality of each our daily tasks – our busy-ness – to make sure it they are leading to where we want and need to go. But if you’ve got no goals, no plans – and you are just afloat in the seas of change – then you cannot make those alignment decisions – and cannot clear the decks of what is merely a distraction from your goals.

Roll With the Punches of Life

Change is inevitable. How do you deal with it? How are you planning on dealing with it? Are you prepared well enough for it? Worth pondering, I do believe. # # #