Generation Gap

My daughter turned to me and asked why the Statue of Liberty was holding an iPad. A couple of months ago, she looked at me as if I was crazy when I explained to her that birds tweet. In her mind, she only associated tweets with Twitter. My daughter is 5. And while I am not a techie; she has access to laptops, an iPad, e readers, gaming systems, you name it and she does it. She also takes technology as a part of her curriculum in school.

I have been teaching for 8 years I can’t say whether or not I feel that technology is “the answer” or should take “the blame” for the successfulness or failure of our students. Because every child learns differently, I don’t think that there will ever be one answer. I don’t blame technology for the problems that children are faced with. I believe that every generation has their “thing”. As parents it’s our job to provide our children with boundaries.

My daughter lives in a print rich environment and is constantly exposed to books. Why did she think that the Statue of Liberty was holding an iPad? Why wouldn’t she assume that it was a book?

Was my daughter’s question the result of a generation gap, or am I missing a bigger picture?