Two teachers recall past, look to new century

By Jon Echternacht

What changes have taken place in education as the current century comes to a close, and what path will it follow in the next millennium?

Jerry Larson, a science teacher at Hudson Middle School with 26-1/2 years under his belt, and retired home economics teacher, Dolly Qualls, who served as an educator for 36 years, pondered the question last week.

Larson said he worked for UNIVAC as a computer operator and programmer while he was a college student from 1968-70 and the changes since then have been astounding.

"The size and expense of computers has changed considerably. When I was working for UNIVAC, computers cost $1 million, and could fill a room, " he said noting that now they are affordable and portable.

"When I first started teaching, we were just beginning to use hand calculators and they were expensive. Now you can find one for a couple of bucks," he added.

"One of the really big steps in the last few years is the networking of computers and access to the Internet," Larson said.

"We had a project in our class in astronomy where we used Power Point to access graphics from the NASA home file and the photos were good quality. A few years ago, the same project would have involved writing to NASA and requesting photos and then waiting for them to show up in the mail," he said.

As far as the next century is concerned, Larson sees the availability of information coming into play. "I think probably there will be more information available on the Internet, but with more and more information, we will have to be more critical about its reliability," he said. "Anybody can put something on the Internet."

"We may also suffer from information overload," he warned.

He also sees the use of the computer becoming more of a necessity for students. "They will use the computer like the encyclopedia or a text book," he said.

Dolly Qualls retired in June of 1998 after serving 36 years in the Hudson district. She started as a home economics teacher. The class was later changed to Family and Consumer Education.

Advanced technology even reached into her cooking classes. "There was an emphasis to do everything quick, everything fast," she said. "And technology brought in the microwave and the convection oven," she said.

Qualls said that Hudson started to include male students into home economics classes long ago. "Very early we had boys in the program with the boys' chef class," she said.

She also noted a changing society required that her classes include teaching time management. "The pace of life picked up and patience was lacking," she noted.

Qualls has noticed significant changes as a result of the expanding population of Hudson since she started teaching in 1962. "When I first came here, everybody knew each other. Then people became more mobile. Families moved in and families moved out," she said.

As far as the next century is concerned, she said, "People have to start to realize what is important in life. I hope we lose the materialism of the '80s and '90s. And I hope common sense comes back," she said.

"No matter what happens, nothing is more important than people, and we have to start with the children first. People are the most important resource," she said.