untitled

---Things Have Changed

FTLComm - La Ronge - October 21, 2000

I want to share with you some of the things that I have been doing as I return to the class room for a stint as a teacher.

media
diffusion
The first and foremost thing that strikes me after being away from teaching and dealing with high school students for five years is that things have changed . In a real and tangible way. The effects of media diffusion are so evident that it strikes me as one of the most profound changes in modern society to have occured since the advent of television in the mid fifties here in Saskatchewan.

fall of
1956
CKCK Regina went on the air in the fall of 1956 with CHAB in Moose Jaw and CFQC in Saskatoon all within a few months most of Saskatchewan had television and people would gather in the homes of those people with television sets to watch the snowy black and white screens and experience American culture in a new way. I Love Lucy, Walter Cronkite's Twentieth Century and Ed Sullivan were amazing, so was George and Gracy but most of all there was Saturday Night Hockey Night in Canada.

my wonderful Habs
The Habs, my wonderful Habs and the low down dirty Leafs whom my father adored were there on our snowy screens. "JC Tremblay to Bellivieu, back to Richard as he fires one off Worsly, into the corner and back to the point, Harve makes the shot and again Worsly kicks it out. Richard has the rebound. . . . . He shots . . . He scores..........And the Canadiens go ahead into night's game three to one."

changed
our lives
As I wrote that passage above I could just see the ghostly smudes on the screen and the voice of my life long heros Foster Hewitt or Danny Galivan. The only guy I thought more of was Roger Ducett the wonderful fat man who sang "Oh Canada" for each home game of my team. You know I still feel saddeness when I realise that he is long gone after a miserable fight with cancer. The point I am making is that television changed our lives, affected us all. It was what we talked about and what we shared with each other. The characters on television became friends, enemies and associates in our daily lives. That has changed.

every kid
in class
Only five years ago I could make a comment in class, a phrase from a television program, a tag line from a commercial, refer to a situation from a popular show and almost every kid in class would get the joke or at least recognise the source and the message was passed. That has changed.

not a single student
I was shocked when in one of the first English classes I did I referred to a line from David Letterman and no one, even had a glimmer about what I was referring to. "Stupid human tricks" means nothing to a La Ronge kid. "What's uuuuuuuuup?" evokes no response, there is no point what ever to say "Is that your final answer." Even "Its time to vote" means utterly nothing to them. The dillution of network television, the proliferation of cable, direct television and the complete irrelevance of so many specialty channels that there is no longer a common theme, language or reference point is the change that I had not expected. Surely we all knew this would come but I am amazed to find that it has already occurred.

---Things Have Changed

FTLComm - La Ronge - October 21, 2000
	I want to share with you some of the things that I have been doing as I return to the class room for a stint as a teacher.

media diffusion	The first and foremost thing that strikes me after being away from teaching and dealing with high school students for five years is that things have changed . In a real and tangible way. The effects of media diffusion are so evident that it strikes me as one of the most profound changes in modern society to have occured since the advent of television in the mid fifties here in Saskatchewan.

fall of 1956	CKCK Regina went on the air in the fall of 1956 with CHAB in Moose Jaw and CFQC in Saskatoon all within a few months most of Saskatchewan had television and people would gather in the homes of those people with television sets to watch the snowy black and white screens and experience American culture in a new way. I Love Lucy, Walter Cronkite's Twentieth Century and Ed Sullivan were amazing, so was George and Gracy but most of all there was Saturday Night Hockey Night in Canada.

my wonderful Habs	The Habs, my wonderful Habs and the low down dirty Leafs whom my father adored were there on our snowy screens. "JC Tremblay to Bellivieu, back to Richard as he fires one off Worsly, into the corner and back to the point, Harve makes the shot and again Worsly kicks it out. Richard has the rebound. . . . . He shots . . . He scores..........And the Canadiens go ahead into night's game three to one."

changed our lives	As I wrote that passage above I could just see the ghostly smudes on the screen and the voice of my life long heros Foster Hewitt or Danny Galivan. The only guy I thought more of was Roger Ducett the wonderful fat man who sang "Oh Canada" for each home game of my team. You know I still feel saddeness when I realise that he is long gone after a miserable fight with cancer. The point I am making is that television changed our lives, affected us all. It was what we talked about and what we shared with each other. The characters on television became friends, enemies and associates in our daily lives. That has changed.

every kid in class	Only five years ago I could make a comment in class, a phrase from a television program, a tag line from a commercial, refer to a situation from a popular show and almost every kid in class would get the joke or at least recognise the source and the message was passed. That has changed.

not a single student	I was shocked when in one of the first English classes I did I referred to a line from David Letterman and no one, even had a glimmer about what I was referring to. "Stupid human tricks" means nothing to a La Ronge kid. "What's uuuuuuuuup?" evokes no response, there is no point what ever to say "Is that your final answer." Even "Its time to vote" means utterly nothing to them. The dillution of network television, the proliferation of cable, direct television and the complete irrelevance of so many specialty channels that there is no longer a common theme, language or reference point is the change that I had not expected. Surely we all knew this would come but I am amazed to find that it has already occurred.