Yesterday, a friend of mine was explaining how he needed to change one of the questions on the opening survey he gives to students for statistical purposes. The question was "How many of the Lord of the Rings movies have you seen?" This summer, for the first time, not a single student in his classes answered "All three". He asked me if I remembered watching Happy Days as a kid, and if I thought then that the 1950s seemed like they were so long ago. He then pointed out that the 1950s were closer in time to us when we were watching Happy Days than we are now to when we were children. Time seems to be moving so quickly now.
This made me think about some other issues of time that make me feel old. Trevor was born the year before the 9/11 attacks and he's now in the eighth grade. I have now lived more of my life being married than not, and more of my life being a father than not. None of my children have lived in a world without the World Wide Web. I have had my Yahoo email account for nearly half of my life. Connor and Rowen have always lived in our current house. Rowen never rode in our Green Silhouette. Should my daughters have children, those children will probably be closer in age to Rowen than Rowen is to them.
There are some positives to this. I get to watch Star Trek the Next Generation about every six years. We're doing so right now since Trevor doesn't really remember seeing them and he's now the age I was when I first watched them. Considering how little Connor and Rowen stay in the room, we will probably be doing this again. I will get to do the same with other shows and movies that I love.
It's no wonder that so many of my "pop" references seem to go over my students' heads. Even video game references which I used to think of as recent (e.g. "The cake is a lie" or "Would you kindly") are met now with a completely blank stare. It's amazing how fast time has gone by.
This made me think about some other issues of time that make me feel old. Trevor was born the year before the 9/11 attacks and he's now in the eighth grade. I have now lived more of my life being married than not, and more of my life being a father than not. None of my children have lived in a world without the World Wide Web. I have had my Yahoo email account for nearly half of my life. Connor and Rowen have always lived in our current house. Rowen never rode in our Green Silhouette. Should my daughters have children, those children will probably be closer in age to Rowen than Rowen is to them.
There are some positives to this. I get to watch Star Trek the Next Generation about every six years. We're doing so right now since Trevor doesn't really remember seeing them and he's now the age I was when I first watched them. Considering how little Connor and Rowen stay in the room, we will probably be doing this again. I will get to do the same with other shows and movies that I love.
It's no wonder that so many of my "pop" references seem to go over my students' heads. Even video game references which I used to think of as recent (e.g. "The cake is a lie" or "Would you kindly") are met now with a completely blank stare. It's amazing how fast time has gone by.
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