Is Your School Whale Blubber?

The record age was just a blip. It was a bit like if you had a source of whale blubber in the 1840s and it could be used as fuel. Before gas came along, if you traded in whale blubber, you were the richest man on Earth. Then gas came along and you'd be stuck with your whale blubber. Sorry mate – history's moving along. Recorded music equals whale blubber. Eventually, something else will replace it.

- Brian Eno quoted January 2010 in The Guardian newspaper

Eno's talking about records and the music industry here, but I think quite a good analogy is to be made to mass-produced printed books, institutionalized/industrialized public education, and a number of things the digital landscape is rendering obsolete.

And I think every teacher, admin, schoolboard member, and super oughta be reviewing the recent history of the past 15 years of the music industry -- from the rise of low-cost digital alternatives to traditional analog studio recording to the rapid decline in profit and usefulness of cassettes and CDs. [You do remember cassettes, right? If you are like me, your most recent auto is the first you've owned that hasn't had a cassette player.]

'Alternatives' and 'Usefulness': they are the key words.

Oh yeah, and 'Whale Blubber'.