Head of School 1

I recently downloaded Snapchat on my mobile phone in hopes of staying connected with my daughters. If you don’t know, Snapchat is the preferred social media device of the teen set with a valuation at $20B. It is, perhaps, the latest step in the globalization of our planet with over 7 billion photos/videos shared daily. In fact, they have a video chat function that is far easier than Skype! Jeffrey Garten’s book From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives takes us back as far as 13th century Genghis Khan in hopes of demonstrating significant turning points in our connectivity. For me, the most interesting of the ten giants was Andrew Grove. Anyone? Anyone? Didn’t think so. Grove fled both the Nazis and Soviets, eventually arriving in the United States. Garten believes his work was more important than Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. His gift to globalization was the mass production of microprocessors that are in everything from iPhones to Tesla vehicles. In an increasingly hyper-connected and globalized world, it is wonderful to be part of a community “where the world comes to school.” Where making a goofy face tagged with the time, temperature, and cat ears can simultaneously reach friends in Hong Kong, Regina, or San Francisco. For this we can thank Genghis Khan and Andrew Grove. Of course, virtual connections can never replace face to face human to human interaction, but we older folk must embrace the Snapchat generation. If I can, so can you! Stay connected, Brentwood.