I imagine it's all done by text message today, or perhaps mental telepathy.
In a recent conversation with the father of a soon to be teen; I heard the lament that without strict home rules in place it can be all about the little e-device.
It made me think about what Mr. Gersmehl would have done about Facebook and texting in sixth grade.
Instead of Jeff passing a note to Michelle to ask if she liked Ron; he could have made a couple of keystrokes and posted:
Michelle, U like Ron?
The rest of us in class could have given it a thumbs up or down, depending on what we thought at that exact moment about Michelle and/or Ron.
Maybe we would made alternate posts:
Any trades for lunch?
How long is this class?
Can I get the answers to the math story problem?
The teachers could have just looked at their tablets sitting on the podium at the front of the room and not worried about folded up pieces of paper being surreptitiously moved from desk to desk or thrown across the room when the teacher wrote on the blackboard.
Mr. Gersmehl might have looked up from the English textbook and inquired if the class thought Ron and Michelle should go to the school dance. He might have asked Michelle if she did, indeed, like Ron.
I'm sorry, that is going too far. Mr. Gersmehl would have had no time for such nonsense, I'm sure. More likely, the little electric gizmos would have found a new home in his top left desk drawer, humming - buzzing - and beeping until the school year ended or the batteries died.
Mr. Schwanke, I think would have gone the other way. He might have written the question on the blackboard and polled each class as it came in throughout the day and maybe announce the results on the end of day announcements.
That would have been worse than having our electronic gear confiscated. And you know some wise guy would have taken a video of the whole thing and posted it to YouTube in practically real-time for the world (including our social networking stay at home moms) to see.
Those same moms would have been up on the latest 6th grade gossip when they picked us up after school and some of those moms would have had "like" campaigns for their kids.
Oh, the humanity!
Frankly, its difficult to look back all those years and figure out how we ever survived those difficult days - with just a rotary dial phone attached to the wall or a long cord. Made worse by the fact the whole family shared the same line!
I didn't pass many notes myself until 8th grade, and fortunately passed them successfully (or so I thought) to the intended reader.
It wasn't until years later that I heard that some of those hand-written notes in which I wrote (what I thought) were pretty romantic poems (for an 8th grader) were read aloud and laughed at in the girls' locker room.
On second thought, Facebook would have been better, since maybe then someone, any one, might have "liked" it.
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