{"id":124,"date":"2023-10-06T15:46:57","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T19:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/?p=124"},"modified":"2023-10-06T15:46:57","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T19:46:57","slug":"why-the-22nd-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/2023\/10\/06\/why-the-22nd-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the 22nd Century?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why the 22nd<\/sup> Century?<\/strong><\/p>\n

S. M. Gollmer<\/strong><\/p>\n

How far should we cast our vision into the future?\u00a0 Should we care about tomorrow, next week, or next year?\u00a0 We certainly don\u2019t want to be short sighted, and planning has its benefits.\u00a0 For me I really don\u2019t expect to see the next century unless medical technology makes it possible to reach an age of 140. However, failing to plan for the next century sells myself short.<\/p>\n

As an educator, I have a duty to the next generation.\u00a0 My college students are around 20 years old and by the time they reach 2101, they will be in their upper 90s.\u00a0 It seems my distant vision may be a bit too far.\u00a0 However, the Apostle Paul, when writing to Timothy, charged him as follows: \u201cand what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also\u201d (II Timothy 2:2).\u00a0 This charge involves not just a teacher and student relationship, but two more generations of educators.\u00a0 Paul, teaching Timothy, is the first generation.\u00a0 Timothy is to entrust this to faith men, a second generation.\u00a0 A third generation is gained when these faithful men also teach others.\u00a0 As parents and teachers, my students will be training the next generation well into the year 2060.\u00a0 In turn, that generation will teach the third generation into the 22nd<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

Over the years there have been a number of influential teachers in my life.\u00a0 Surprisingly, one of them was a substitute teacher, Mrs. Evans.\u00a0 I only benefited from her teaching several times through grade school and middle school, but I have fond memories of her mental math exercises between lessons.\u00a0 Although she controlled the classroom with a firm hand, it was clear she loved her students.<\/p>\n

For most of her career, Mrs. Evans was the sole teacher at Sweet Home School, a one-room schoolhouse in northwestern Illinois.\u00a0 From the 1920\u2019s to 40\u2019s she taught my aunt, uncle and father through the 8th<\/sup> grade.\u00a0 Although the one-room schoolhouse eventually closed, she continued to teach in the Warren school district.\u00a0 My brother-in-law had her as his 1st<\/sup> grade teacher and she was still substituting into the early 1970\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Her influence on me directly through substitute teaching and indirectly through my family cannot be measured this side of heaven.\u00a0 Although having no children of her own, she saw her students as her children.\u00a0 Her teaching career may have only spanned a half century, but her influence lives on through my attitude towards teaching and students.\u00a0 I am preparing for the 22nd<\/sup> century because my influence extends further than I can imagine.\u00a0 May I have the privilege to impact a future Mrs. Evans, who will teach the generation that influences the next century.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Image from Rural School Houses of Jo Daviess County \u2013 Illinois History Fair 2015)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why the 22nd Century? S. M. Gollmer How far should we cast our vision into the future?\u00a0 Should we care about tomorrow, next week, or next year?\u00a0 We certainly don\u2019t want to be short sighted, and planning has its benefits.\u00a0 For me I really don\u2019t expect to see the next century unless medical technology makes… View Article<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}