A Bill of Goods - The Problem

Last time I said that I was going to ruffle a few feathers. Well, I’m not sure if I have yet, but I’m going to try again to get things stirred up. After all, isn’t healthy debate what it’s all about? And I think that for far too long we have been without healthy debate on what really works in schools.

I entitled this posting “The Problem,” but actually there are many problems. There is no argument that we have a major problem with student failure (yes, I’m using the “f-word” here). People don’t want to use the word “failure” with children – something about it hurting their precious self-esteem. Well guess what, folks – a lot of these kids have no self-esteem to begin with. They’re smart enough to know that we’re just playing word games. They have already figured out that most adults don’t expect anything out of them. Oh, we say we do, but then what happens? We coddle them, we tell them that it’s not their fault they can’t read – that some other bad teacher or system, or whatever, did it to them. They are victims of their environment, of the system, of “the man” – whoever that is. And then what do we do – we pass them on to the next level where they are even farther behind. “You couldn’t handle seventh grade, so we’re going to promote you to eighth grade where you can really bomb.” I ask you, does that sound like a good program to you?

Let’s put things in perspective. If you had a job and you couldn’t cut it, would your boss promote you? Okay, let’s say you’re not in a government job – would the boss promote you? More than likely, the boss is going to tell you to get up to speed or you’re gone. This is the “real world” that we’re supposed to be preparing kids for. And then we wonder why so many young people seem to have an “entitlement” mentality. Hello! Does anyone see a problem developing here? It’s a similar situation to the problem that communist societies faced – if I can get the same thing doing nothing as I can doing something, why should I do something?

That should make some people happy – I’ve just compared our educational system with communism. But I’m just getting going. Wait until you see where I’m going next.

A Bill of Goods

First, I know I’m going to upset some people with this (if anyone actually reads this, that is), but I’m going to write it anyway. After all, isn’t that part of the reason for a blog – to get your opinions out even if some people don’t want to hear them? And anyway, this is based on my personal experience and reading/study, not anyone else’s – or is that true? Because what I’m about to do is take my own crack at the plethora of “experts” who are creating our educational “systems” – you know, the ones that are supposed to make all students achieve at grade level and beyond? Okay, so off we go.

We’ll start with my background. I was a teacher for 14+ years full time in both public and private schools, plus some time at the community college level. I spent a lot of time going to all the required workshops and in-services, trying my best to implement all the gobbledy-gook and mumbo-jumbo, and never seeing any real improvement. It never seemed to fail that the students who needed the help least were the ones who took full advantage of everything, and vice-versa. It slowly began to dawn on me that we have been taking the wrong approach to helping struggling students to succeed.

This is where the “bill of goods” comes in. There are people out there who are making a ton of money pushing the latest “wonder program” to make all kids successful. So of course, the last thing they want is someone saying their stuff is crap. Well, I’m going to say it – it’s crap! So much of it is just recycled from the past anyway. Ask any teacher with some years of experience, and they will tell you that this stuff just keeps coming back under different names. And so many of these “experts” are long on theory but extremely short on practical experience. I don’t know how many of them I’ve heard talk, but very few of them had ever really spent much time in a real classroom. And when they did their “sample lessons” in a classroom, it was always with a small group of students while another teacher kept control of the rest of the class.

I can see I’m going to be going on with this for a while, so I’m going to stop here and pick up again next time. And I promise, the next time will not be so long a wait. This is only the beginning.

Blogging Course Review

About a month ago I told you that I was going to be checking out a course on blogging from Simpleology. First, what is Simpleology? Well, it's a fantastic site that can really give you a boost toward achieving your goals. I would definitely recommend checking it out.

Now, about the blogging course. I will admit that I didn't really get going on it right away. The first day I had it I went through the first couple lessons, which are pretty much basic blog facts. Then I got busy and didn't follow through (anyone else ever do that?), and didn't get back to this blog either. I finally got a burst of enthusiasm, and came back to both, and I'm glad I did.

This course really gives you some great tips and suggestions, even if you have been blogging for a while. And if you're new to blogging, you REALLY need to get this course. It has early lessons on choosing a topic to blog about, knowing your audience, creating content, getting traffic, and most important of all - how to make money from your blog. Anyone else out there like money? I thought so.

I'm still working through this course, but I'm excited about bringing my blogs to another level. I will be back after I get through more of the course and give you an update on what I've learned. Meanwhile, why not click on the link and check out Simpleology.

Take Two

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

Back from the Grave - or Wherever

Well, I know I've been away for a while - although I'm not sure if anyone out there has noticed or not. Be that as it may, I thought I should get back to writing if I expect anyone to read any of this. Plus, I received a challenge today from an internet training group to post about a new blogging course they have developed. Anyone who is willing to post about the course and put a link on it will get it for free, and then is supposed to use it and review it. And since I have been weak on blogging lately, I thought this would be a good thing to check out.

So I'm also going to put it a link here for anyone interested in checking it out. Then I'll see what the course is like, and I'll report back here.

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

And sometime I'll talk about where I've been and what I've been doing, and then get back to the blogging I planned to do.

Strapped or Not?

The other day I was reading a commentary about a book entitled Strapped by Tamara Draut. Ms. Draut is the Director of the Economic Opportunity Program at Demos, which is a public policy center in New York City. In her book she talks about the difficulty that young people have in getting started today, and gives suggestions about how the government can help – for example banning credit card companies from promoting on college campuses. Now I will admit that I have only read the posted excerpt of the introductory chapter, and most of my thoughts are based on the commentary I read. But then, when has that ever stopped a blogger from posting his or her thoughts? In my defense, though, I have tried to do some research to get a better idea of the topic as it is covered and the feelings of the sides involved.

One thing that I noticed in looking at the excerpt and the commentary is the different background of the two writers. Draut is a liberally-educated director of a liberal think-tank in New York. The commentary I read was by a man called Michael Masterson (an admitted pseudonym), who is a millionaire businessman. Obviously these two are not going to see eye-to-eye. I consider myself to be a relatively moderate conservative, former teacher, and entrepreneur with some experience in a number of areas (which in some circles would make me an expert on multiple subjects). So with this out of the way, let’s begin.

Strapped presents the idea that the world has gotten so hard for the 20- and 30-somethings that by-and-large they cannot succeed in life. They are weighed down with debt and can’t find jobs that will get them out of the situation. The working world has gotten to the point that a college degree is now the entry level education, but those degrees are now so expensive that many young people cannot afford them without going seriously into debt. This debt then makes it impossible to get ahead because the wages paid are not enough to allow them to get out from under their debts and live a normal life at the same time. Along with the aforementioned ban on credit card promotions, she also advocates more government grants for education and a more equal pay scale.

I could not help but feel for the individuals presented in the intro of Strapped, but I also couldn’t help but wonder about the stories that were not told. How well do these stories represent the plight – or condition – of the great mass of 20- and 30-somethings who are discussed in the book? I know people in that age group who are struggling, and others who are quite successful. I also know Baby Boomers who are on the verge of disaster. So were these people chosen because they represented the majority, or because they were visceral and tear-provoking? I suppose only the author would know for sure.

On the other hand, the commentator only gave as an example his own experience of developing a successful above-ground pool installation business with two friends from college. He describes in his piece how they busted their tails to develop a business that was eventually brought each an average of $300 a day, allowing them to pay off college debts and be able to move forward – all in a matter of about 10 weeks. However, having written two books, Automatic Wealth and Automatic Wealth for Grads, both successful sellers, he must have some idea of what he is talking about.

I think one thing that bothers me most about Draut’s book is her insistence that it’s “not my fault.” In the intro she complains “Far too often, social critics place the blame squarely on our shoulders, maligning everything from our work ethic to our spending habits.” But what do you call it when (as mentioned in other reviews) some young people are insisting on having the iPod, the X-Box, and a host of other cash-heavy and future-poor items? As Jim Rohn, one of the leaders of the self- and business-improvement industry says, we get paid for the benefits we bring to our employer. No benefits, no pay.

What I see in this book is part of what has gotten us to the situation that Draut complains about – an attitude of entitlement. The feeling among too many young people that they don’t have to earn what they have, they should just be given it. It takes its form in the child who “has” to have the newest iPod or iPhone, the student who doesn’t understand why the teacher insists on seeing effort in exchange for a passing grade, the young person who wants good pay just for showing up to work, or the author who insists that the government should solve the problems of expensive college costs and debt. All of which really ignore – or in Draut’s case argue against – the idea of personal responsibility. It’s the politics of victimology – “It’s all their fault.”

I’ll end here for now, although I could probably go on…and I will on another day.

Mentors and Mentoring

I was reading a post on a network site today about mentors and how important they are for our growth and success. The author pointed out that mentors can be almost anyone in our lives who can help us to see our situation more clearly and discern a direction to go. They encourage us, they support us, they challenge us. They can give us direction when we need it. Then someone else mentioned the idea that maybe mentors could be virtual, and if so maybe they didn’t even have to be living.

So that got me to thinking about the idea of non-living mentors. If a mentor is someone who helps give us direction, then why not someone no longer living, or even someone who has never actually lived. After all, haven’t most of us had the experience of getting a little boost from a quote from the past or even some song lyrics? With this in mind, I thought I would take a look at some lyrics from the song “For Good” from the musical Wicked.

“I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you”

People do come into our lives all the time, but is it always “for a reason”? Well, I guess that depends on how you look at the word “reason.” (No, this isn’t like the infamous definition of what “is” is.) Now, this is not a tangent, but I’m going to digress a moment from my main topic and look at the ideas of “reason,” “accident,” and “coincidence.” If we think of “reason” as meaning something is done with a “purpose,” then that would make it the opposite of “accident.” For example, if you break someone’s arm by accident, you will be in much less trouble than if you do it on purpose or for a specific reason. But with the word “coincidence” we have a problem in that the word itself is opposite or contradictory. “Say what?”

What do we usually mean by a “coincidence”? Usually it refers to something unplanned (or made to look unplanned if used sarcastically). The site Dictionary.com presents the main definition as “a striking occurrence of two or more events at one time apparently by mere chance.” But the same site gives the definition of the root “coincide” as “to occupy the same place in space, the same point or period in time, or the same relative position.” I have come to understand and believe that coincidences are not accidents. I remember seeing this illustrated logically by the use of angles in mathematics. Angles that “coincide” go together when overlapped – in other words, they match each other, despite apparent dissimilarities.

Now let’s get back to our example. Do people come into our lives “for a reason”? I believe they do, if we are willing to make the effort to learn from them. Herein lies the main point in the song, as far as I’m concerned: “And we are led/To those who help us most to grow/If we let them/And we help them in return.” Our lives coincide with those of people who will help us grow – in other words, our mentors. But here is the rub, as Shakespeare would say – we have to “let them” help us grow. The greatest mentor in the world is useless to someone who refuses to allow him/her to help. On the other hand, sometimes the most ordinary-seeming person can have a great influence on our lives. It all depends on our willingness to allow the “coincidence” to work its magic – on both sides. When we do this, we just may find ourselves saying:

“Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good”