Don't Underestimate the Past

I was teaching a group of traditional students and I mentioned that while the future undoubtedly has a wealth of opportunities for professional opportunities, the past also has its power in terms of its lessons, experiences, and untapped potential (some older technology/non technology items, for example).

One student chimed in that he would use my quote of "don't underestimate the past," so I am thinking that the idea had found some credence. It reminds me of the Talmudic dictum of "remember the past, live the present, and trust the future."

Within culture we often go backwards for our inspiration. There is the jazz ensemble that the Wall Street Journal noted is "modernizing Morton" (Jelly Roll Morton, that is) by updating his classic jazz piano sounds from the early 1900s. There is also the Jack Delano photograph project as shown at the Chicago History, which features a photography update of Delano's classic 1940s photos of railroaders in the Chicago area in which Pablo Delano, Delano's son, takes photographs of the descendants of those in the original photos. 

I think we all need to be forward thinking in all aspects of our lives, however, the most powerful lessons integrate the future with the other elements of our reality.

We might take the issue of climate change as an example. According to Mark Bittman's "The Aliens Have Landed" we have already missed our chance to stop many of the negative effects of climate change, as many of the results are already here. He leads his article with a reference to how France felt they could contain Germany in World War 2 with their Maginot line built for World War 1.

And, then there is the more poetic response, as with Prout's "Remembrance of Things Past," where much of the book highlights how a certain action or event can bring us back in time and reveal many thoughts, feelings, and ideas, that might otherwise lay fallow.

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein's book "Plato at the Googleplex" is a testament to integrating the new with the old. Her premise of Plato applying his philosophy to our current tools is revealed as he compares niche websites in relationship to the Myth of the Cave, insofar as a fragmented society only listens to its own experts.  

The past might also be a powerful learning device in our use of counterfactuals. For example, I read a book review of Joseph Raskin's The Routes Not Taken that discussed how much of the development of the city of New York (and its surrounding areas) were directly influenced in terms of density and economic success by the subway system. What would have happened, the book muses, if different routes had been built, such as between suburbs rather than to Manhattan? How would economic development have been affected, etc.?

Within the field of education there are many examples of past being prologue. There was the 1919 Winnekta Plan (Crow Island school) that emphasized progressive tenants of learning through individualized learning plans, project based learning, student-friendly classroom design (color on walls, design innovation). These are all movements today as well, as we look to technology to promote individualized learning, for example.