THE 21ST CENTURY SCHOOL
        
              A few nights ago I watched a report on NBC about a school in
        Rockford, Michigan that is actually preparing its students for
        the 21st Century.
              The school board in Rockford decided that its students
        needed to be prepared for the world that was rapidly evolving
        from the Industrial into the Information Age.  They financed a
        $40,000,000 bond levy to create a "state of the art" educational
        complex.  
              From the report, it was evident that many of the board
        members and educators involved in designing the system were
        familiar with Toffler's The Third Wave, and adult learning
        principles espoused by Dr. Malcolm Knowles' in The Modern
        Practice of Adult Education.  
              The school features a computer network and teleteaching
        capabilities that most major universities in this nation would
        love to have.  Many students receive instruction via distance
        education.  Professors from universities facilitate classroom
        learning using modern interactive media formats.  Students can
        listen, ask questions, challenge the presentations, and learn
        from many of the best in their fields while not being anywhere
        near the facility where the presenter is.  
              Students maintain their own television and radio network
        within the school.  They prepare the morning news for the student
        body, and learn the intricacies of modern mass communication from
        an experiential point of view.  
              What fascinated me most was the sophisticated communication
        network within the school itself.  The designers did their
        homework well.  All students who attend the school will graduate
        with the skills necessary to easily assimilate into any of the
        burgeoning 21st Century corporations that utilize "state of the
        art" communication technology.  
              It seems only appropriate that in Michigan, in the state
        where Henry Ford first introduced the assembly line to modern
        industrial production, that a school system would take education
        to the next level of sophistication.  Would Henry Ford be
        impressed?  
              I'm not sure.  There are many, like Ford, who introduce into
        the world, a revolutionary process, and then wonder with some
        misgivings if they have done the world a service.  In his old
        age, Ford was extremely reactionary, and many of his earlier
        beliefs were cast off by him because he believed they caused more
        harm than good.  
              Whether we like it or not, teleteaching and other high tech
        educational processes will soon be coming to education.  There is
        not a university in the country today that does not require its
        students to take some basic courses in computer science and then
        stipulate that students complete papers using computers instead
        of typewriters, or sending papers to their professors using E-
        Mail systems in the university's networks.  Internet and Bitnet
        connect learning establishments all over the world in a way that
        information is readily accessible to anyone who has a modem,
        telephone line, and a computer.  The "Global Village" has
        arrived.  
              When I am with any group of educators, I am generally
        dismayed at how many who graduated in the sixties and seventies
        still are not computer literate.  Kids today know how to
        manipulate the technology; many of their teachers do not.  If
        teachers are to be role models for their students, it seems only
        natural that they need to model the use of this important 21st
        Century technology as well.  Today in 1993, it's not a
        requirement, but for new educators, it rapidly is becoming so.
              Since the early 1950's, education researchers have isolated
        206 different domains of learning.  Two of these domains are
        reading comprehension and mathematical ability.  These are the
        two domains currently being tested on the SAT test.  Yet the
        other 204 domains are left untested and any student who possesses
        competencies in these others areas but not in math or reading
        comprehension are left to their own devices.  
              Somehow, I imagine the Rockford School considered these
        other domains.  Some of the students learn not only to use the
        modern tools of communication, but also how to fix them when they
        break.  As high tech gear becomes more and more commonplace in
        the modern global corporation,  someone will have to fix it.
        Those who once aspired to fix automobiles and other industrial
        age machinery will find a new niche in the information age
        repairing computers, VCR's, FAX machines, VHS movie cameras, and
        other devices.          
              Some people might balk at the high cost of the Rockford
        School.  However, it doesn't lie dormant when the high school
        students leave for the day.  The complex is then utilized as an
        adult learning environment.  All sorts of evening classes are
        offered to the community members that assist in preparing them
        for the changing job place and job market.  The school serves two
        functions: preparing the young adults for careers in the new
        information age, and training adults to be competitive during
        this transition period.
              Change is sometimes scary.  Yet, it is the only constant of
        the 20th Century.  Ironically, the only thing that hasn't change
        in the 20th Century is baseball.  
              The 1993 World Series are over and Toronto won again.  
              Wait, come to think of it, it's no longer just  "America's
              Favorite Pastime."