I remember, JT, a fifth grader in my LRC during a year in which, now, you would have to use the Way Back Machine in order to connect.
My JT helped write, E.T.'s First Christmas, a play my students produced and acted in. They were a group of kids with learning diabilities in an LRC. The labels, for IDEA funding, can be misused and maligned, but gets the child individualized attention. My class, of which I write this post, was in the early '80s. Some teachers did not understand way back then the concept of LRC, do they now?
So in 1998, principalhad less experience than me. I went way back. My kids always wrote on paper with pencils. I left in 1998 before computer technology took over instruction. But yesterday's news is often repeated these days above the fold.
JT told me that year of E.T. trending, he could not believe how fast the time went. He was an insightful child and was around for the Dallas episode in my LRC a few years earlier.
Do people know what LRE is? Topic for another post, maybe?
No computers and no cell phones. Kids sat in the way back of cars then without seatbelts and there were no safety laws on bikers wearing helmets.
Jane Pauley explains from 2024. The Way Back Machine which was created in 1996?
https://youtu.be/nQ6V9FkrO9U?is=fDC9WRpGLSrps_fr
E.T., the main character in the Steven Spielberg block buster movie, was an alien out of his comfort zone, in fact, worlds away from it. He, like Kevin, got separated from his family. His communication tool was his pointer finger with LED technology. Even Kevin, years later, did not have a cell phone during his Chicago and NYC adventures.
E.T. was billed as a kids' movie. It had dark and scarey scenes. My dad, who was still alive and healthy when it was released, saw it with Marie. They both advised, due to some serious moments with men in hazard gear, not to view it with young children. I did not have kids yet.
We later learned the lesson of appropriate viewing with Dick Tracey and the sewer life of The Penguin. Dark, dark subject matters marketed to children. They were not a good fit.
School aged kids watched, ET., so my school kids adapted it for a holiday stage show with Santa and children showing E.T. our secular Christmas traditions. We also had the ET puzzle. Yes, even then, piecing parts for the bigger picture was important to me. You know the bedroom stuffed animal one? Drew Barrymore was a child actor long before a talk show host.
In the movie, there were kids flying bikes, no flying monkeys and home was important. E.T. learned English. Adults were not only problematic but kept out of the loop. E.T. made his wants known as children listened. E.T. wanted to phone home. He spoke in two word sentences.
So, the race against time in the movie was to get E.T. home before the US government could do him harm. People are sad at the end, but it has a happy ending. Who needs a spoiler alert? Just FYI, I like to know the ending in a book and movie.
https://youtu.be/LVkO9Zw1F1k?is=ItIylkW4QyKOhEAH
Way back, there was talk of visitors from outer space, a controversial subject then and today. E.T. was not the only one who could not phone home easily in the '80s.
We had no cell phones in our desks or bookbags. We got along just fine. Communication at home and school involved land lines.
Enter the beeper era and kids had beepers in their bookbags. For drug deals?
When flip phones and smart phones became cheaper and smaller, and the busier parents became, cell phones entered the classroom on teachers' desks, hidden from view.
As children gained access to their own devices, through family plans, opportunities increased for rule breaking because the bell curve rings very loud in schools.
Thanks to the extremes, abusing the privilege of carrying a phone, bans started. But wait, enter some pretty intense teachable moments in lapsed security and little forethought, the cellular devices were allowed back in.
Text messages can be life savings as is the tracking mechanism which knows every step you take. Somebody is watching including the bad guys.
The phone, like a gun, is an inanimate object until someone pushes a few buttons or pulls a trigger. There ought to be laws to control them.
The phones are back in the news of course. A ban here or there, then a cell phone is thrown. The target had a gun.
Will the debate open up again? The pros and cons of holding one in a school, discussed at length. Studies needed?
How do kids phone home in times of crisis? If 30 cell phones are thrown at an unwelcome visitor would lives be saved? Should fake cell phones be in every pocket to help stop a murderer while 911 is reached from a real one?Would that be better than duck and wait?
Can children still be heard without a cell phone in hand?
Are we listening to their concerns?
Cell phones can be doubled edged swords. How should we use them in the classroom?
A cell phone, thrown across a room, is an action that seemed to have made a difference.
When does a kid get to phone home in real lockdowns?
Has anybody asked the kids?
It was the kids who went to the mattresses for E.T. even with guns drawn on them by government agents. Does art imitate life?
How has life changed since the original E.T.?
Steven Spielberg altered some scenes.
https://youtube.com/shorts/uPsXAIyc0bI?is=RQjFY7FcLyGeAXCT
https://youtube.com/shorts/1p3WaXq2Grk?is=CoVsgI6X5TnUXbnu
Ask about cell phones. Ask your kids. Can cell phones be like walkie talkies? Did you watch the above links?
What can we do so that a teacher, armed only with a cell phone, does not have to resort to hand battle with a person holding a gun.
The quick thinking teacher in Bend, Oregon is an example of using smart technology to help save others. She also used her arms in battle.
Does it have to get to that point again? I know the learning curve is long but children are watching and waiting.
How are we arming them for battle?
The battle is not over there, any more.
From the Teacher's Desk with Love,
Marian R. Carlino
November 1, 2026