Beech Tree News Network

HOLOGRAPHIC LIFE:  Last weekend a pretty sizable chunk of time was spent, by part of our family, studying and trying to get a grasp on a subject which every member of our family has very limited experience with. The youngest member of our clan is currently involved in a program that is supposed to encourage and better prepare him for college. I have began to question their tactics and methodology to achieve that desired result but none-the-less, he is already in the middle of the process, so we undertook the task of helping him in a subject he was struggling to comprehend and that particular subject was Advanced Chemistry.

Now, last weekend was a long one, with the celebration of our nations Independence and it was also the time our family had set aside to celebrate the birthday of our youngest member. Studying and trying to learn a completely foreign concept had not really been part of the plan for that weekend but when someone you love needs your help, you do whatever you are capable of. It turned into a bit of a frustrating experience and at one point I made the remark of, “What am I getting out of all this!” My wife simply replied that I was getting exactly what I liked. By that, she meant I was getting to learn something new and she knows me well enough to know that I do enjoy such situations; usually.

I do enjoy learning, but I have to have some kind of base to build on, a reference point of some kind. Our eldest child is the only one in the family who even took any chemistry at all and she freely admitted, she had already forgotten most of it. I knew about periodic tables and such from an advanced science class in High School but that was about it. Our youngest has not even taken basic chemistry yet, I don't really understand the logic of undertaking an advanced course, without that base to build on, but someone else made that determination for him.

I also only enjoy learning only IF it is on my own terms, not someone else, other than me, determining an agenda for me. I believe there is a really big chunk of us whom are like that but the educational community and the bureaucracy that runs it, doesn't seem to grasp that concept and instead holds on to the, “more is better” philosophy.

I had no “Advanced Chemistry for dummies,” books available, or no “ionic equations made simple,” D.v.d and the internet proved almost useless, in breaking it down to something familiar, so we would at least have a starting point to take off from. Let's face it guys, this particular Subject and by the way, I am convinced that learning by subject, is absolutely the wrong way to learn, but anyhow, this subject, with its molecular bonding , atomic weights and Ionic equations for half-reactions; come on now, 99.7 percent of us are never going to use that in real life or even care. Now, some basic chemistry may be needed, you need to know you can't put a fire out with paint thinner (or salt or flour, for that matter) but unless chemistry really makes your heart go all aflutter, there is no real need to incorporate an advanced knowledge of it into your life.

After a while of things basically making very little sense to us, I was really, really; wishing for some kind of holographic tutor or something, we could enlist, to aid us in figuring this stuff out. I saw something similar one time on a television show, where, with a special set of goggles, an animated angel popped up, to answer all kinds of questions in a simulated learning environment. Of course on the Star Trek series (yes, I watch Star Trek, big shock huh?) they have the- Holodeck, where all sorts of simulated environments can be created, to appear as though you are actually there, interacting with people and places, which actually only exist inside a computer.

I believe some day, in the not too distant future, those technologies will actually become more readily available and incorporated into how we all learn. In my ideal world, virtual learning centers would almost completely replace the traditional classroom. My ideal classrooms would look like a cross between a Barnes and Noble, the open and progressive concept of, St Francis school, in Goshen Ky, (for those that might not have understood the Goshen reference in an earlier column) and the arboretums in the Opryland hotel. That just seems a more natural way to learn; to me.

A hologram would make life more fun and exciting and it would be great for wisdom-seeking and sight-seeing and all sorts of things but there is only one catch; it is not real! A holographic life can never replace the real thing. A real life takes real people and real relationships and real struggles and real triumphs and real heartbreak and real friendships and real love. A hologram can never give that to you, no matter how advanced they become. Cell phones have already made life better in a lot of ways, connecting us to people and information in ways only dreamed about until recently but they have also sort of took away the ability of a lot of us to have real conversation and make real connections with people. I wonder if holograms might make the problem even worse.

A lot of us are already leading a holographic life. We portray only an image of ourselves to the world, letting them only see the portion of our lives we want others to see. This is no way to lead a real life. It has to get messy and complicated to be real but it is totally worth it and it is how real people, were designed to live.

Happy Birthday Drake.

We love you; Mom, Dad, and Taylor.