Even the classic “Here’s the wind-up and the pitch” is different nowadays – SCN Encourager

Oh, how I’d love to hear a baseball game called by Ernie Harwell again.

But that particular joy is “long gone.”

I thought of Ernie Harwell as I was looking over my notes from MSPRA’s summer conference in Petoskey.

He was so much a part of my generation.

Dr. Nancy Colflesh’s presentation at MSPRA about better understanding cross-generational communications was an eye-opener, and it’s a topic I hope we can cover with her in a future Encourager.

So many of our cultural icons and attitudes—from heroes to singular defining moments—are uniquely attached to their own generation, and Dr. Colflesh made this point so powerfully that I’m unable to forget it.

Wish I could!

I can’t even watch a baseball game on TV in the same way now, dang it.

During a game last week, the commentators were discussing a veteran starting pitcher.

As the pitcher was going into his wind-up, one of the commentators remarked, “Boy, is that old school pitching. You won’t see a pitcher use that traditional rock-back-and-forth wind-up anymore. The game has changed and pitchers are now coached to get rid of the ball much more quickly.”

And this is when I recalled the keystone premises of Dr. Colflesh.

Every generation does things in its own way.

As school communicators in 2015, we no longer have the luxury of composing a long traditional wind-up to whatever “pitch” we hope to make, either.

Today’s texting and tweeting parents (generally speaking) want us to just skip the big build-up and get to the point.

Time is too precious.

And this holds true for most of the school communications we direct at our parents.

So there you have it.

We’ve got to perfect a speedy-kwik delivery just like a professional baseball pitcher.

Only without the benefit of a $4.5 million annual salary.

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