The Imaginary Front Porch

Sitting with my mother this past weekend on the real front porch of my childhood home, built by my great grandfather, I was once again mesmerized by the stories of her 99 years. Though I have heard so many over and over again I am like a young child as I listen, rarely tiring of hearing the adventures and often catching a new detail.  One story recounted when as a young child she and her siblings would either traverse the miles to school with the horse and buggy or by foot…no snowpants in those cold Minnesota winters and frozen bag lunches by the time they arrived. When she was a bit older, her family’s Model T was so light that if it happened to tip over into a ditch several people could simply set it upright again. She drove it over the Rocky Mountains, to California, New Mexico, Texas and other places with no air conditioning,  no GPS, no 70 MPH freeways.  During those years could she even imagine the huge fire engine red ’54 Packard I learned to drive on, with all of its 1950′s amenities, spaciousness, and increased capacity for speed?  Or dreamed of the original VW Beetle she acquired in the 60′s with the trunk in the front?  With each couple of decades and each new car came the “wow!” factor.  How could she possibly have imagined the improved engineering, style, computerization, and all the developments that have brought us to the world of cars in 2007?  I think of cars as an example…it could be Victrolas (mine is in my office) to record players to tape players to CD players to IPods to ?????  What will it be? Times hundreds of categories. In the next 40 years what will I be reminiscing about that will seem so “old?”

For children growing up with IPods, IPhones, SUV’s, Tablet PC’s, witnessing regular excursions into space, access to countries and people one could only dream about when my mother was young, what will the world be like 10, 15, 20, 50, 100 years from now? What will our children have seen and experienced when they turn 99?  How do we wrap our imagination around that, for much of what has occurred is the use of amazing imaginations to move to the next level and the next and the next, to see new possibilities that are not yet known.  Where will the imaginations and conceptual skills of our children take us and them? What will they add to what is already known that will create the latest cutting edge product or contribute to the strenthening of global relationships?

In education we try to think about these questions so as to prepare our students well for their world ahead. It feels like a daunting task, but  it is also one that invites us to access and use our sense of wonder and dreaming and to explore our own untapped thinking capacities.

And…how will imaginations  be harnessed to preserve our world for 10, 15, 20, 50 and 100 years from now?  What will be the future views from front porches?