Man, Has School Changed

Today is a big day. My son, James, or Super James as we call him on the XL Morning Show, starts Kindergarten. I was excited; my wife cried. Not because she was sad, but rather because she's proud of the little man that James is growing up to be.

Standing there, watching my son walk into his school for the first day, it made me think of how much school has changed since I was walking through those doors.

Hardly Any Kids Ride Their Bikes to School Anymore

One thing I noticed this morning was that there were hardly any bicycles in the bike racks. Back in my day, almost every kid either walked or rode their bike to school. All our sports practices too. I guess it was because mini-vans were not being produced yet.

Text Messages Have Replaced Notes

We all love George Strait's song Check Yes or No, but today his question would not be passed on a note to the cute girl in the front row of class, but rather by text message. I actually think that makes it harder because you have to get the cute girl's phone number before you can send your message.

Smart Boards Have Replaced Blackboards

I have to admit, blackboards seem really old school. And I never liked them because I was terrible at writing with chalk. I have bad handwriting anyway, but when I write with chalk, it's practically unreadable. These days most classrooms have SmartBoards. SmartBoards are the Jetson's while blackboards are Leave It To Beaver. If you don't know those references, you probably don't know what a blackboard is.

If you watched the Jetson's or Leave It To Beaver, you probably aren't familiar with SmartBoards. It's what teachers use today in place of blackboards. The boards are interactive computer-operated screens that display websites, movies, and presentations.

School may change over the years, but I'm not sure the kids do. James is excited to learn, play, and meet new friends just like me when I was his age back when we took pictures on cameras and rode our bikes to school.