The Pivot

Last week, my kids watched with total fascination the landing of the Mars rover, and we got talking about all things space. Steve and I decided it would be appropriate to watch the film Hidden Figures over the weekend. (The price is currently discounted on Amazon Prime Video, I assume because of Black History Month.) If you haven’t seen it, it’s a wonderful and very inspiring film.

But what caught me in this viewing was the amazing foresight of Dorothy Vaughan when she hears that the IBM, once up and running, will replace the human computers in doing NASA’s calculations and mathematical checks. If the film portrays history correctly, she had the foresight to see what this meant, and how she could move forward with technological progress. Vaughan taught herself the computer programming language of Fortran by reading a book (!!!) and then taught the employees that she supervised so that they would be ready when their current positions because obsolete.

I had flashbacks to my first week of running Zoom and FaceTime lessons in March 2020. The advent of the pandemic forced a similar technological pivot upon music teachers around the globe. It’s hard to even imagine a time when online lessons were not a thing. We have all learned so much in the past year. The best teachers have adapted and made lessons - in whatever format - still valuable for their students. I’m so thankful for the community of music teachers that has supported one another in this transition. And, I will admit, I’m hopeful that in 2021 I won’t be forced to learn quite so many new technological skills. 😊