Carrying Music In Paper Cups
Guest post by Mark Pittman
I like to think of myself as a fairly forward thinking person — especially concerning technology. I seek out new gadgets and new ways to do things and revel a bit in my own latest-and-greatest superiority. But I have to admit, this playful puppy turned into an old dog when my daughter showed me how my thinking was still stuck in the 90’s.
New Tunes
Being an interlinc member, there is always a fresh stack of CDs on my desk. My daughter, armed with this knowledge and her love for Family Force 5, has an eagle-eye for the arrival of a new Youth Leaders Only box. She is rewarded for her watchfulness (how can I resist those big eyes and her smiling face asking me if she can have the latest CD from her favorite group?!) She is very polite and thoughtful, but the urgency of wanting to hear the new music recently made her ask “in motion” — disc already in hand, on the way to her computer and speakers in her room (knowing I would, of course, say yes). It took just a few seconds for me to hear the song “Chainsaw” (at full volume) from her room. I smiled, happy again to help get some great music into her hands, head, and heart.
About a week later, the kids and I were having a dad-induced clean-the-house session. My daughter was working downstairs folding laundry, so I took it upon myself to grab the upstairs trash. As I reached to pick up the can from her room, I gasped, and then bellowed out a loaded-lungs-yell that brought her bounding up the stairs. “Yeah, Dad?” she said, thinking I had another cleaning chore to add to her list. All I could do was point to the Family Force 5 CD in her trash can, so shiny in the midst of her other trash. “What is this doing in here?!” was all I could muster, still frozen in disbelief. How could my daughter throw this disk away? My daughter cocked her head, trying to process why I was so upset. Still not fully grasping the gravity of the situation, she simply said, “Um, Dad … I already uploaded it to my computer.”
That’s when it hit me. To her, the bright, shiny disc was simply a paper cup—a vessel to carry music from the dispenser to her device. Once that was done, she didn’t see a need to keep it. I had to adjust my thinking.
Time to Clear the Shelves
For many of us who grew up displaying our music collection for all to see and admire, CDs are to be encased in notebooks or lined up on bookshelves for people to see. But in that split second, my daughter helped me make a complete shift in how I view CDs.
What’s YOUR “Paper Cup”?
Music that resides in our earbuds won’t do our students any good. Since CDs are now a thing of the past, we need to find a new “Paper Cup” to get music into our students’ ears. I know that interlinc’s working on developing that new delivery method. When the music is streamed to your students’ earbuds, it will flow, like water, into their heads and hearts.
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