John Caldwell Has Watched As Technology Exploded

John Caldwell remembers his first year of teaching business to high school students at Highland. That was the year that the Salt Lake City School District purchased its first set of brand-new computers. Caldwell spent hours that first night reading the computer’s manual, confused by all the complicated engineer talk.
Today, 43 years later, Caldwell is Highland’s librarian and implements technology into his everyday life.
As a baby-boomer (Generation Jones, which comes at the tail end of the baby boomer generation), Caldwell grew up in Tooele, Utah using typewriters and landline phones. After graduating from Tooele High School, Caldwell went to Utah State University and graduated with a degree in business and marketing education.
He began his teaching career at South High School, which used to be located where the Salt Lake Community College resides (1575 S. State Street), before it closed due to a shrinking population. Then, in 1983, he transferred to Highland, where he has been ever since.
While he has been a constant at Highland for 43 years, everything else around him – from technology to students – has changed.
Baby boomers are known for their strong work ethic, goal orientation, and optimism. Caldwell embodies all of that and more.
“We were taught to value things that might not be so popular today,” Caldwell said, “just because of economic differences and social differences.”
Baby-boomers are the children of people who went through the Great Depression, a period of economic downturn and widespread unemployment. They were taught to use money conservatively, only spending what they have and avoiding debt. Nowadays, consumers can pay with the tap of a phone. Money is no longer thought of as a scarce resource, but as a plentiful asset…hence the amount of debt so many find themselves in now.
And nothing was pricier than technology. During his junior year in high school, one of Caldwell’s teachers brought a $200 four-function calculator to class. Calculators were not common in schools. They were an expensive luxury that revolutionized learning. By just punching in numbers, students could get answers instantly. But not many could afford them, so paper and pencil remained the most common tool used in math class. Now, calculators are required and can be delivered overnight from Amazon.
Calculators were the first big piece of technology Caldwell witnessed in school; now he has an entire computer lab in his workspace, checks out laptops to students, and helps to troubleshoot technology issues. He has come a long from manual typewriters.
“I do a lot of shifting and changing,” Caldwell said.
Now as a librarian, he works in a room of over 30 computers with a cellphone in his pocket.
Caldwell has adapted through decades of changing technology as a teacher. Not only has he incorporated it into his life, he learned along with his students when it was first being implemented. Caldwell has been through a historic time period that will impact education for years to come.