Access To Information

In this era of instant access to information, a lot of information doesn't have to be remembered as it used to be.  I know the common complaint is that people have short attention spans and they are always buried in devices instead of in the outside world, but there is something exciting about being able to fact check on the spot, that makes me more careful and confident in the things I'm passing on to my own students. 

I am continually clearing up misinformation that was passed down to me in the past.  Without references, a lot of that learning runs the risk of being a strange game of telephone.  I had a junior high music teacher tell me without a doubt that the composer of Sleigh Ride was from my home town of Nepean, Ontario.  I was pretty sure even at 11 that this wasn't right, but took it as wisdom from an elder.  Recently it was Canadian Music Week and I have been playing some interesting music by W.H. Anderson, an English composer who made his home in Canada for long enough that his compositions count as Canadian works in music competitions.  Was this the misunderstanding?

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