Invention is the Mother of Necessity

In 1983 the math/computer teacher at the junior high school where I served as an assistant principal came in my office one afternoon and plopped a brand new shiny Apple IIe on my desk.  She set it up, handed me a large floppy piece of black plastic with slots cut out and told me, "Welcome to the computer age, Mr. Wells."  I was intimidated.  I had no idea how to turn the thing on.  I did not understand the funky requests and blinking line on the green screen.  The next day I got a call from the central office and was asked to develop a way to use the Apple IIe to keep discipline records so that all assistant principals in the district could do so.  I booted and soon learned how to program using AppleWorks, and developed a simple data base that included student name, grade, parent name, etc., where I could store my disciplinary decisions.  Soon, I was cranking out form letters to parents and staff using the data base.  All the little index cards I had been keeping were eventually tossed. 

Two years later I talked my boss into buying me a brand new Macintosh.  Wow.  It came with Microsoft's Multiplan, the forerunner of Excel, and Microsoft Word.  I could change fonts!  I was looking at a white screen with black letters. It had a mouse!  Way cool.  The disks evolved from large soft floppy plastic to rigid 3.5 inch disks.  My data grew.  By the time I was a building principal in 1986 I could not imagine working without a computer on my desk.  Steve Jobs invented the computers I used.  His inventions became my necessity.

And that is how I began a journey that has led me to Twitter, Facebook, blogs, texting, etc.  I eventually became Executive Director of Instructional Technology for a large school system of 76,000 kids with 6 high schools.  Steve Jobs' inventions were more than inventions and my necessity, they were my livelihood.

We are well beyond the old Apple vs. DOS wars and well into iPhones, iPads, iPods, iTouch, etc., etc.  Steve Jobs impacted every child that has gone to public school since the mid 1980's either directly or indirectly.  That is a legacy no educator can claim.  What a remarkable man, what a remarkable company, what incredible tools.

RIP, Steve Jobs.  You are missed already.