And We Thought We Had Said Goodbye

From Becca-

Does anyone remember Netscape? Way before Internet Explorer and that crazy Firefox this was THE internet program everyone used. Back in the day Netscape was as jivey as let's say...Windows 95. As a fifth grader I can fondly recall being impressed if not astounded at how a machine could make stars dance over a capital "N" so artistically.

Sadly, as technology changed, Netscape started becoming outdated, and even I grew less and less touched by the browser's graphics. Eventually, we all said goodbye to Netscape. Or so we thought...

Today somewhere between attempting to stay awake and not stabbing myself in the eye with a red ink pen, my gaze shifted toward my cooperating teacher's computer screen where she was yelling near obscenities (Ooo dangit it ain't sh-sh- this ai-isn't suhpposed ta be hap'nin). She was having trouble getting her email to load. I walked over to see if I could assist her, and to much shock and dismay, I was greeted with, that's right, the capital N. After spending five minutes standing with my arms crossed pretending not to see the giant E tatooed on the bottom of the screen (all the while the stars propelling at a super obnoxious rate), I casually mentioned maybe she would be able to open her account in I don't know, say Explorer or Firefox. To which my CT told me she found explorer "too difficult" to work with, and she just doesn't like trying new things (which is a good statement coming from a HS English teacher). She then got a weird look on her face and asked, and I am not joking, "Fireanimal what, that sounds like the name of a perfume?" (yeah maybe a perfume from Walmart).

...I have said it once, I'll say it a thousand times. This town may only be 40 minutes from Carbondale but it is an entirely different WORLD maybe GALAXY that I'm not sure even Netscape's N can get to quickly.

While I do not have anything against perfume that comes from Walmart or people from the South, I tell this story just to illustrate the sort of things I encounter every day during my observation. I can overlook the fact that the English teacher uses the word "aint"-I find it much harder to ignore that she teaches firstsearch (for research papers) to students on Netscape because she is unwilling to change technology according to the appropriate decade that she is living in. These kids are seriously getting screwed over.