For Thursday, August 10, 2000 Gibbs, Drummer Column, 734 words
Cybernation and hibernation
Well, it's finally happening on a grand scale. Big business, especially big tech business, has stopped sitting on its hands and complaining about the feds, the state, the American tax-payer, teachers, and a 200-year-old educational system for not successfully producing young adults capable of developing or working with their new complex, sophisticated software and electronic gizmos, or simply not being able to read beyond an 8th grade level.
CEOs and executives are actually rising out of their calfskin chairs, stepping out from behind their mahogany desks, rolling up their sleeves, and pitching in. We're not just talking about writing checks, either, but pitching in with talent, time, and sweat. Granted, this isn't a movement that just started with the publication of this column; it has been growing in recent years to its current grand scale.
Not since the days of Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Ford have we seen such philanthropy. According to the July 24 issue of Time, in 1999 dollars Carnegie donated $4.8 billion and Rockefeller gave $5.8 billion. Bill Gates, for all his detractors, has given $22 billion. His foundation spends a billion a year, and no, it doesn't all go toward building new Microsoft employees and customers. He gives to third-world malaria vaccine programs and medical research that simply saves and improves lives without any profitable backlash for Microsoft; and Intel, as you well know from the big front-page story last week, is actively helping us all with the Intel Teach to the Future program.
Again, according to Time's research, religion is still be biggest recipient of philanthropy, earning 43-percent of 1999 charitable contributions versus only 14-percent given to education. Also, interestingly, the poor give the largest percentage of their income overall. Those earning under $10,000 give 5.2-percent, while those earning between $75,000 and $99,999 give 1.6-percent.
This is all information I gathered during two weeks of summer technology training where I was the recipient of the charitable efforts of Intel and Microsoft. Intel treated me to a week of training in building technology-based lesson plans and ended the session by giving me a Pentium III laptop computer. From there I drove to Monterey for additional training funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, which put us up at the luxurious Hyatt Regency, treated us to scrumptious meals, trained us on technology leadership skills for three days, and donated Encarta and Office2000 25-station license, and a year's site license to SchoolKit.com where thousands of complete technology lesson plans await downloading by BHS teachers.
My brain is kind of full right now. When I close my eyes, instead of seeing colored splotches, my rods and cones are triggering 1s and 0s. My dreams involve PowerPoint presentations and Excel charts. I've returned home to to finish the Digital Grant. It has been FedExed to the state and is awaiting approval. With it we will receive $582,000 for technology. We intend to spend a lion's share of it, approx. $350,000 on training and tech support.
Now I'm going backpacking way, way back deep in the Sierras for a full week with my old college buddy, Gino, from Philadelphia. I'll carry my basics, a hammock, and a fishing pole. I will do nothing followed by nothing leading to nothing with nothing to show for it but nothingness. I will bait my hook, clean and cook my own trout, but that's it. If sleep requires effort, I will remain awake. If being awake requires effort, I will sleep. My watch will be stowed in the bottom of my pack, and the only electronic device I intend to use will be a flashlight, and only then if the moon is obscured.
When we return, Gino will fly out at 10 p.m. and at 11 p.m. my niece, Cassie, who is 18 and from small town, Pennsylvania will arrive for her first trip to California. For that week, my wife and I will do everything followed by everything leading to everything with everything to show for it. BUT NO TECHNOLOGY, beyond the occasional ATM. We intend to give Cassie the grand tour and visit those many places locals usually only go to when company arrives -- Chinatown, North Beach, Stinson Beach, Santa Cruz Boardwalk, Muir Woods, Marine World. She wants to shop for school clothes and be a fashion hit back home. We're going to help her with that and love every minute of it -- Macy's, Gap, wherever she wants to go.
When she leaves, I'll be refreshed. I'll be ready to return to BHS and bring all the technology goodies I've acquired with me, and share them, and enjoy it.