On October 4th, 1957, my first year as a teacher and one day after my 25th birthday,  we were "treated" to a beeping sound being sent from space by a man-made satellite.  The first of the many that now roam about the earth. It was called "Sputnik," and, God forbid, it was put up there by the Soviet Union - our Cold War arch enemy.   "Sputnik," which in Russian means "fellow traveler or "comrade" if you please, was a sphere about as big as the exercise balls you see in workout videos or at the gym.   A very small object that possibly was the trigger for a majority of the technological changes of the 20th Century.  

Soon many American officials and editorial writers were beating their breasts and bemoaning the fact that "backward" Russia could make such a giant leap ahead of America in technology.  The next priority was to find who to blame for our failure.   There was plenty of blame to spread around, however all could be summed up into one thing: America's general pursuit of what came to be called "The American Dream."  We were hell-bent on making up for the deprivations we had suffered in The War.  Our scientific "brains," for the most part were concentrating on how to build automatic washing machines, clothes dryers, and TV sets.  The few scientists, most of whom were Germans we had captured and brought to America after The War, were not given nearly as much attention or money as was the quest to have "The Ed Sullivan Show" reach into every American home.   But the fattest, longest, finger was pointed towards "Education."  We had not produced enough scientists and mathematicians.  With their ears still ringing from Sputnik's extra-terrestrial beeps the federal government jumped into Education with both boots.  They more than doubled the money alloted to the National Science Foundation and tripled the funding for "Education."

A scant three years later John F. Kennedy was elected president and, as he told the world in his inauguration speech, "let the word go forth. . . that the torch has been passed to a new generation," big changes were in the air.    He told us "We" would land a man on the moon by the end of the decade.  Soon a tsunami of money was surging into America's schools.  First it was science teachers.  Any high school science teacher could easily acquire an NSF grant to further his/her scientific education at the Graduate Level.  Seeing this "Golden Goose," other "special interest groups" in Education began lobbying for similar grants for Social Studies and the Arts.  It was an easy sell to Congress.  Any teacher of any subject who could not get a federal grant to attend a "Summer Institute" at some college somewhere was a poor salesman indeed. 

As a band director, in 1967,  I applied for and received a grant to attend a six week "Institute" where I studied ballet (which will be another entire story soon).  In other words the entire "Summer Institute" program became a boondoggle.  By this time the entire "institution" of American  Education was as hooked on federal money as any addict.   The federal government shoved its nosed under the tent in which decisions as to what children are taught were being made.  And since "He who pays the piper calls the tunes," that led to a change that has had more impact upon American society than any other event in my lifetime.  "The Camel" now roams freely inside that tent and in most places is welcomed and fed.   Instead of local or state authorities determining what children are taught, today a lion's share of those decisions are made one way or another by our federal government.   Ultimately the insertion of the federal government into Education at all levels was, and continues to be, responsible for the major changes in public moral standards, our judicial system, and journalism. 

A second wonderfully magnificent change came about in 1963 when the "Salk Vaccine" was first made available to the public.  Our children no longer had to be carefully kept from places where they might be exposed to the horror of "polio."  Prior to that, every time a child went to a public swimming pool, a movie theater, or even a neighborhood birthday party there was always a fear that the would come down with that terribly crippling disease.     Soon adults and children alike lined up in school gyms, libraries and other public buildings awaiting their turn to be given the Salk vaccine.  Within a matter of a decade polio had become a word to be looked up in the dictionary.   If you do not have a "feel" for what a terrible scourge polio was the picture below shows how many victims of severe polio lived for the rest of their lives.

The "Iron Lung" in which they "lived" was sealed as tightly as a pressure cooker.  From the moment the patient was put into it until they day they died they regularly felt the compression of their chest as the "lung" filled with compressed air, followed by a "whooshing" sound like trucks releasing their air brakes.  It truly was a disease from hell and winning the battle with it must be ranked as one of the great changes that have occurred in my lifetime.  Unfortunately there are many parents today who have become more frightened of the vaccine than the disease, thereby taking a terrible chance that their child will never be exposed to the polio virus.

A third huge change I have witnessed is the shortening of the generation gap that exists between adults and young people.  It exists especially in terms of their taste in popular music but also in many other things.  As a boy and later teen-ager I listened to the same music my parents had enjoyed, and the music they enjoyed was not all that different from the music their parents had enjoyed.   If our radio played a piece by Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman or a Dixieland band no one in the house objected or shouted "Turn that thing down!"   Although the winds of change had begun to stir; on Sunday night, February 9, 1964 they became a budding hurricane.  "The Beatles" appeared on the wildly popular "Ed Sullivan TV Show."  They sang: "All My Loving" "Till There Was You" "She Loves You" "I Saw Her Standing There" "I Want to Hold Your Hand," all of which were a radical departure from "Swing." 

Advertising and Marketing "guru's" quickly saw an opportunity to create an entirely new group of customers who would buy things differently from what their parents chose to buy.  That group was America's teen-agers, and thanks to the affluence of the 1960's teen-agers pockets had money in them.  Money to buy "their" music.   And if they didn't have enough money "Mommy and Daddy" would foot the bill to cover their "different" life-style.  The number of years that constituted a "generation" were shortened from twenty or thirty years to little more than ten.  Merchandisers had found a gold mine.   By the time the 20th Century ended the gap between what "people over 30" and those in the teen and 20's was even shorter.   Through slick advertising which made full use of psychology, the marketing people had created several niche's of buyers;separate, but close in age, but all of whom wanted different "stuff."  Today young people lead largely separate lives; not only from their parents but also from their brothers and sisters if they have any.   They no longer ask Dad for the "car keys," some even have a better car than their dad's sitting in the driveway. 

All in all, there has been a monstrous cultural change over the course of my life, and I use the word "monstrous" in the sense of the word on which it is based - "monster."  That's not to say there have not been "good" changes - the Salk Vaccine was a blessing from God as is the cochlear implant I wear that makes it possible for me to interact with "the world." 

Can we separate the "good" from the "bad?"  Should we try?  Well, we Christians believe the teachings of Christ who in one of His parables had a land owner answer his field worker this way when that worker asked if he should uproot and throw away the weeds in the garden: "No, leave the weeds grow with the crop.  When harvest time comes the weeds will be thrown into the fire.  The yield of the crop that was planted will be gathered into the barn."