Thirteen weekly letters written in 1990 reflect personal observations and feelings about Dawson College at that time. They are reproduced here in the autumn of 2017—with a few editing touches and footnotes for clarity.  0

Dear Colleague:  2

Sensible people first look after themselves and those near and dear to them, don't they? And for the rest of humanity they largely accomodate Malthusian laissez-faire. Sensible people seize each day until the days cease for them. Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero. That's what sensible people do.  3

But educators, not unlike statesmen and some artists, measure Man against a grander scale of place and time. Educators seek to prepare youth for the future. Educators dream of days beyond. That's in their grain—even though their dreams readily turn into nightmares.  4

One nightmare is losing out in the worldwide competition, of being in the power of those more successfully engaged in aggressive, industrial-commercial activity; whatever form their success may take. It is a nightmare that may well slide into another bad dream: becoming the object of disdain and exploitive ridicule. Farfetched? Witness the official setting of the stage in Japan. Witness it right here, from the pages of Montreal's The Gazette of April 9, 1990:  5

Not all Japanese agree and the ministry had to fight arduously in the courts against those who tried to still those old winds so marvellously devine.  7

Not only Japan spices pride with prejudice. Are we not doing a fine job right here at home in Québec? And for not unrelated sentiments tune in to the latest news from Europe. From Germany, for example. A Pakistani man was killed for being Pakistani, and Turkish Gästarbeiter (invited workers) were thrown out of a bar, which brings to memory signs sported at commercial establishments and public places, Jüde Nicht Erwünscht—Jews not welcome. This may not be state policy, but it does show us some of the local color.  9

Another nightmare for those concerned about the future is the limits Mother Earth puts on her hospitality. Five billion people now growing to ten billion within a handful of decades are far too many. David Suzuki once asked the eminent Harvard social biologist Edward G.Wilson how many people the Earth could sustain. "Two hundred million," Wilson replied. This may not be an exact number, the answer a bit glib even, but it is an answer that casts doubt on that brave talk about sustainable economic growth for all of the world's peoples, talk arising from "Our Common Future, a report produced by the World Commission on Environment and Development" (Oxford University Press, 1987) at the behest of the General Assembly of the United Nations.  10

When that report came out, the world food supplies had shown some impressive growth for years on end, due to intensive fertilization and irrigation. But things have turned sour since. Observes the 1989 annual report of the United Nations' Children Fund,  11

Quoting Lester G. Brown, ed., "State of the World 1989, A Worldwatch Report on Progress Toward A Sustainable Society." W.W. Norton & Company,  13

Environmental migration already occurs—always did—but if global warming proceeds unabatedly, the rise of seas will flood te most fertile soils available and massive migraton with ensuing upset in human affairs must be anticipated. Quite possibly, if not likely, within the lifetime of our students.  16

The return of the hinomaru and Kimigayo to Japanese schools will bolster the young for conflict, environmental or otherwise. One suspects that this move is propelled with much the same foresight and care as has been Japan's economic miracle. First attend to the slow job of inculcating the right spirit, later design any detailed strategies if and when needed. Does not chance favor minds prepared?  17

North Americans, too, worry about environmental stife. We may not comprehend the mysterious ways of a patient and purposeful East, instead take pride in coming straight to the point. Here from The Gazette of April 12:  18

Dare I say that educators who ignore these matters are failing their primary function which is preparing people for the future?  20

Perhaps the three most important developments educators must contemplate, in addition to their routine concerns, are:  21

"We could be a species on the way to extinction in 50 years," said Canadian businessman, diplomat, environmentalist Maurice Strong. "Every second, every minute that we lose, in my view, is deepening the diagnosis. It is making it less likely that we can survive." (From Out Fragile Future, supplement to The Gazette of October 7, 1987.)  25

A compelling image of a future in which change is the sole constant has been painted in Scientific American of September 1989 by William D. Ruckelshaus, twice director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a member of the World Commission on Environment and Development:  26

Conventional education, be it general or vocational, prepares people for a future not to different from the present. But now, with accelerating change, we must educate for a society in flux, a society with unpredictably shifting structures.  28

A new CEGEP science program, intended to take effect within a year or two, and then will have taken up an incredible 14 years of preparation—no shooting rapids here!—emphasizes the need to put in the curriculum the cultural-societal-technological interfaces of science. Thus it wishes to correct faults of the past. But don't you think, dear colleague, that this will merely be a groping for branches that overhang the rapids' shores as our wobbly canoo speeds past them on course uncertain?*  29

Of much greater value in the new science program for all levels of schooling is the extensive use that will be made of computing devices. Mind you, the ideas going into this are partly stale, partly tentative, partly in need of development. We are horribly short on vision, short on purpose. We are already dazed still or bored already by what industry has to offer, while others look at the stuff like little kids do at a display of toys. But, really, should we not get set to tell manufacturers, as precisely as we can, what it is we need? Need especially for the well-designed teaming of computers with wide-awake brains to give our students a fighting chance to locate, evaluate, and apply informatyion needed for shooting the rapids that threaten their survival?*  30

Pulex vobiscum.  31

Henry K van Eyken  32

Pulex, L. puce, Fr. (flea, computer chip), Pulex exiguus therefore, is microchip, also Fleabyte.  fn1  *

Footnotes, added in 2017

Shortly after we were apprised of that program so many years in the making, it was scrapped; within weeks, I believe.  fn2  *

Please notice: I was talking here about augmenting human brains with digital technology, not articial intelligence that currently preoccupies society, a quarter of a century later. (To be sure, there is no sharp dividing line between the two—consider, for example, the pocket calculator.)
Ten years after writing these letters, I attended, on-line, a series of lectures by Douglas Engelbart at Stanford University in Silicon Valley. Topic was the augmenting of the human intellect by co-operative computing. This led to me being asked to look after his website, which I did for a number of years. During that time I was invited over a couple of times. There I also met a number of his associates. What a refreshing experience it was to be able to converse about matters touched on in these letters!  fn3  *