When I left the North Carolina State Department of Public Instruction in 1995, the Internet was still a wilderness for the educators who even knew that it existed. I, and others, saw ourselves as trailblazers, establishing routes and landmarks for those who followed.

Then, for years, settling that wilderness became an allegory for an education institution that was, at last, starting to establish the means to move into this new environment and even beginning to expect educators to leave the established but increasingly irrelevant centuries old structures and move into a new and fertile landscape.

It might be usefully to extend this story from pioneers, then settlers, and talk about learning gardeners.  Our classrooms and extended learning environments have become great gardens of potential, and it has become our job to cultivate learning..

To cultivate the future.