"Joe's Non-Netbook''

I’m a big fan of the CBS news show Sunday Morning. I love stories and they tell very good stories.

This morning I was fascinated by a story in which the reporter talked about some of the most popular Super Bowl commercials from the past with a group of college students.

First was Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef’’ ad which premiered during the 1984 Super Bowl. The popular line from the ad made its way into the language of pop culture and even surfaced during a debate between Vice President Walter Mondale and Sen. Gary Hart during the Democratic presidential primaries that year.

One of the college students said that her mother talks about the commercial all the time but that she had never seen it. The ad shows features three elderly ladies inspecting the hamburgers of the competition. One lady asks, “Where’s the Beef?’ The young lady in the CBS story was not all that impressed with the commercial. One student did allow that anything with a little old lady asking “Where’s the Beef’’ is funny.

The reporter then shows the students a clip of the commercial featuring football star Mean Joe Green. As Green is walking through the tunnel to toward the locker room, a little boy gives him an ice cold Coke. Green accepts the coke, drinks and then tosses the little boy his jersey in thanks. When the original commercial aired, I and countless other people felt tugging at our heart strings. What was the reaction from one young lady this morning? She laughed. She thought the commercial was funny. And all of the students thought that an ad produced several years ago mocking the original ad was funny. “That’s our humor, my humor’’ said one of the students.

So by the time I got around to watching “Joe’s Non-Netbook’’, I thought someone had been beating me across the head with a stick.

I’d even made an excuse for why the kids didn’t get the sentimental value of the Coke commercial. “They just don’t understand who Mean Joe Green is,’’ I said. “They don’t have the right context.’’

Of course that isn’t it. And it was a lesson that I got quickly. Those of us who are responsible or want to be responsible for educating our youth need to listen to them. We need to hear what they are saying to us.

“Joe’s Non-Netbook’’ is a funny video. I laughed out loud at it. The video underscores the importance, the necessity of adapting our teaching methods so that we engage students at their comfort level and with the tools that are so a part of their lives.

While we all know that there has been progress in incorporating technology into our educational system, I think the video and the story about the commercials are clear indicators to us that students want active engagement. It’s our responsibility to provide it.