A Motivational Story

Two words can change everything! I often tell you I never know where my inspiration is going to come from for one of my posts. That happened again for this one. Yesterday, I posted this motivational story on my Facebook page:

Click on the image to make it larger:

I like that, short, sweet and to the point. Four words tell the whole story. Or so I thought. I received several Likes and a Comment; then, Tim Doll wrote this comment:

 "I can. I will. I did. End of story."

Two words changed the whole story for me. It was so simple and yet changed the way I looked at my entire project. If you are a longtime reader, you know I am all about education and lifelong learning.

Two words had me thinking about this for several hours last night and all day today. It was not until I called Tim to discuss what exactly I was going to write.

Let me tell you a little bit about my friend, Tim Doll. When we lived in Sibley, Iowa, I was a member of the Boy Scouts. Tim is a couple years older than me and his father, Al Doll along with Chuck Uzzo were our troop leaders. Chuck's son, Brent was also in our troop.

Little did I know how our lives would intertwine more than forty-five years later after we moved away from Sibley in February 1969.

It turns out Tim came to college at Worthington State Junior College shortly after my father became a coach and counselor there. Tim just told me when he was in high school and felt lost, my dad became a mentor and counselor for him and was one of the guiding influences in his life as a teenager with no focus. He holds my father in high esteem. I did not know that until our conversation today.

I cannot begin to tell you how many times people have told me over the years how much of an influence my dad had on them in their formative years. I have posted other stories about my dad you can find on my calendar.

When I was a freshman and sophomore in high school, I was the vice president of my class. Michele Naab was our treasurer. In the fall of 1973 Michele met Tim at the college. They were married shortly thereafter and have been together ever since.

They now run a vineyard entitled Villa Rustica just outside tiny Dunnell, Minnesota. To visit their Facebook page, click here.  If that does not get you there, click on this URL:https://www.facebook.com/pages/VILLA-RUSTICA/237844439595886  I absolutely love the idea they are making wine in southwestern Minnesota!

Besides that, they have made more than forty trips to Greece where they take a small group of people on a working vacation and made their own little cottage industry to make virgin olive oil for their clients. Creativity and entrepreneurship is alive and well in that household! I am very happy to count them as my friends.

I was not sure where this post was going when I started it. I believe my purpose has turned into showing how we can take our passions and make a life worth living. You have heard the old saying, "If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life." I am guessing here, but I will bet Tim and Michele will tell you they do not feel like they work at all when they are in their vineyard or making olive oil in the Mediterranean.

I want to close this with a photograph from one of the activities we did as Boy Scouts in Sibley.  We were collecting free clothing and I love the look on our faces as volunteerism was a part of my life from an early age.

Again, click on the image to make it larger:

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

Good Grammar Part Two

Last year in my March third and my September thirtieth posts I wrote about how I believe good grammar is going the way of the dinosaur. I mentioned several examples of how people who should know better are using poor grammar. I still believe that is wrong. I strongly believe we are dumbing down not only our youth in schools, but the adult population as well. In my September 30, 2013 post, I stated, "Those are just two suggestions. I have many more. I will save those for another post." 

Well, this is that post. You may reach those sites by clicking on these URLs:

http://iamnotdoneyet.blogspot.com/2013/03/what-happened-to-good-grammar.html

http://iamnotdoneyet.blogspot.com/2013/09/are-we-dumbing-down-our-young-people.html


A few days ago, I posted this graphic on my Facebook page in the form of a test, and asked people if they had passed it. I received several comments agreeing with me and giving me examples. I would like to share both the graphic and some of the comments made in response to it:

My comments started out with one from Laurie in Maine with this, "… I see them all spelled wrong every single day but I have learned to let it go! I realized it was making me crazy to see it … now it just doesn't. All I have to care about is if I spell it right!  Makes for much less stress inside me!

Amy from Worthington wrote, "I also notice it a lot. My Mom was a stickler for good grammar, and now, so am I. I still cringe when I hear it spoken!"

Then I stated, "I have learned to pick my battles." What I meant by that was there are certain times I will correct someone because they have told me they want to change and they appreciate my teaching them. Other times, I just consider the source and have given up on trying to change someone's bad speech patterns. I figure they will learn in due time; and it may sink in sooner or later.

Another situation will happen when I do not know the individual and figure I am not going to change his or her behavior by correcting her or his grammar. Like I said, "I have learned to pick my battles."

Amy then followed with, "I never say anything to the offender, but I mentally thank my Mom."

Jeanne commented, "An advantage of working at school, I passed easily! However, I agree with you about picking your battles!"

Angela from Ireland, then stated, "Thank you Mike! Please send this to everyone everywhere; these are all errors that make me unreasonably upset on a daily basis. Becoming pedantic in my old age."

Eric, is now teaching in Egypt for two years along with his wife, Donna, wrote this, "Don't you guys get it ... Mike will NEVER stop picking this battle. And he shouldn't! …" He followed that with,  "Us old farts have to keep the language alive if we possibly can."

Eric also said, "Teaching in the Minneapolis public schools for 30 years has caused me to take a hit being able to speak proper English … but keep on fighting the good fight my friend!"

There were a couple more, longer quotes from Eric and other teachers; and I started talking about other grammar mistakes that bothered me until I got a quote from Di in New Zealand who stated she passed my little grammar test with flying colors!

My last post was this, "Another grammatical faux pas that really bothers me is when people split their infinitives! I get especially annoyed when professionals on the TV news or sports broadcasts say something like, "They play that way, still." That is just wrong! One would think professional journalists never took English Composition 101."

The thing I found remarkable about my Facebook post was how I had received Comments from three different continents and Likes from approximately fifteen states. I love the fact the Internet can teach all over the world! I have Facebook friends from five continents and I do not know how many countries are represented by people that read this blog either on Blogger, Google+ or other means of Internet transmission. I do know my website has been visited by people from well over one hundred countries!

I also do not know how many people have bought my book that live outside of the United States. I believe that is kind of cool, and incredible to think someone halfway around the world is reading this post right now!

I look forward to your comments and any grammar related issues that cause you pain to hear!

Later,

Mike

No Child Left Behind Needs To Go!

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is very frustrating for teachers, administrators and people involved in our schools.

If you read my last post regarding dumbing down our young people, you know I addressed some issues pertaining to what I see happening to the education of our children in our schools today. Between comments I received on my blog and Facebook, people who work in schools are very frustrated with the effects of NCLB and its requirements.

One person posted this cartoon about NCLB and all students having to pass the same standardized test:

Click on the image to make it larger:

If indeed, a standardized test given to every student with varying abilities in the fifth grade is supposed to judge a school by its test scores with no regard for the school's demographics, part of the country, inner-city, suburban or rural school, how can every school compete on the same plane? I, for one, contend they cannot. That is why I believe, along with many others, NCLB needs to go the way of the dinosaur.

Personally, it has affected me because many schools do not want to give up that extra day in class they could get with their students to prepare them for the test rather than go hear a motivational speaker in the gymnasium or auditorium. 

I often get the excuse, "The last speaker we had was not very good."  Therefore, I get judged by the last guy and not on what I might be able to do for the students in that school. It is very difficult to convince a principal, other school administrator or teacher their students might benefit in taking the tests by listening to what I have to say.

What often happens at the end of the day is the person in charge will come up to me and say something like, "You were right, you could hold their attention for ninety minutes and give them something useful to take back to their classrooms." 

You can imagine what I am thinking about that time. I want to say, "I told you so," but that is not the appropriate time nor place to gloat. I want them to refer me to another administrator so I bite my tongue, smile and say, "Thank you, would you help me get into other schools by spreading the word with your contemporaries who might also like to bring me in?"

Going back to the cartoon, the rest of the comment was: "I started working in the Roseville School District in 2001, and have seen a steady decline in basic learning skills. In many cases, I see teacher spending more time doing the paperwork required by NCLB then teaching. NCLB has done more to harm our educational system than anything else in our history. I wrote a lot of papers on this subject when I was in school."

That is not exactly a ringing endorsement for No Child Left Behind!

I do not have all the answers, and I'm not sure anyone else does either. I do believe something needs to be done and done in a hurry because our children are falling farther and farther behind the rest of the developed world in national rankings and numbers of high quality, well-educated people ready for the workforce.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Later,

Mike

Are We Dumbing Down Our Young People?

I believe that is a fair question. Everywhere we look we are seeing it happening. Young people do not seem to be learning like they did even ten years ago. Many believe it goes back even farther. Studies have shown an incredible decline in vocabulary, critical thinking skills, the ability to communicate, problem-solving skills and a host of other skills necessary to compete in the global economy of the twenty-first century.

I have written about this before and after watching this brief video by the late, great George Carlin, he makes some interesting points in the direction our educational system is going. Watch this short bit and see if you agree with him or not:
 

http://youtu.be/WGL8FEMc378

You may read my previous grammar post of March 7, 2013 by clicking here. 

He makes a compelling argument regarding what our children are learning, or in the greater sense, what they are not learning.

After reading several articles on the topic, being turned away from schools because they do not want to bring in an outside speaker that would take away time teachers have to prepare for the test, countless conversations with frustrated teachers when I do get in the schools and a host of other factors, No Child Left Behind is not working for schools all over the country.

One of the biggest problems No Child Left Behind has is it is given as a standardized test to fifth graders of every educational level. That means children whose primary language is not English, Special Education students on all levels, gifted and talented students; students with lower IQ's are all tested on the same test. There is no way many schools with very diverse populations can keep up with other schools that do not have a wide range of students.

Of course, there are other factors in why our children are not learning critical thinking skills, creative problem-solving processes and constantly lowering their vocabulary skills. Please do not get me wrong here, I am all for the digital age and learning with computers. What I have a problem with is the loss of the ability to communicate with one another in a one-on-one conversation, and do so intelligently without one or both of the people using improper grammar, today's modern acronyms, and not being able to formulate a proper complete sentence.

One of the things that bothers me the most is when I turn on the television to watch the news, SportsCenter, or watch a game of any kind, and have the broadcasters and announcers using improper grammar.

To me, listening to someone speak improperly is like scraping your fingernails on the blackboard. It is everywhere. I often find myself hitting the Mute button when watching a game of some sort and not having to listen to the broadcasters butcher the English language.

I try to be as well-informed as I possibly can in writing because I believe it is important to show I care about what I believe to be an important subject. I cannot tell you how many times my editor and I discussed certain language when we were writing my book. I constantly try to be vigilant in my language on this blog, every letter I write, every comment I make on a Facebook post and email I send.

I know sometimes I come off as being a Nazi Grammar Police, but I believe it is important for us not to forget an important skill. As you may know, I use a voice recognition software program to write this blog. It is called Dragon Dictate and is Macintosh's version of Windows' Dragon Naturally Speaking. I used that program to write my book when I had a MacBook Pro with the Parallel program that allowed me to use the Windows side of my computer. Now I have a Mac Mini and have Dragon Dictate as my program.

This is just a small portion of my problem with the educational system today. My little brother, Chad, taught in a year-round school in Southern California for seven years. He loved the students, but had problems with administration and some of the requirements that were heaped on him. They never went more than six weeks at a time without being in school. I believe that is the wave of the future. Year-round schooling makes sense to me if done properly.

It is been proven time and again students lose a lot of the knowledge they gained in the previous school year when they have a three-month summer vacation. I believe that should also change.

Those are just two suggestions. I have many more. I will save those for another post. Does anyone see any mistakes I made in this post?

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

What Happened To Good Grammar?

What happened to good grammar? Has it gone the way of the dinosaur? Should we just let it die and speak like we forgot our seventh or eighth grade grammar lessons? Is it important to at least sound like we are intelligent when we speak and write properly?

One day I was in a middle school, and a young man started to tell me a story. He said, as he pointed to his friend, John, Me and him went to the mall. I asked him to repeat it. He replied, Me and him went to the mall. One more time, I asked him to repeat what he just said. The third time the young man said, Me and him went to the mall.

Whereupon, John piped up and said, No, it's him and me.

Neither one of them obviously had a grasp on the objective and subjective forms of the pronouns him and me. If anyone remembers their seventh or eighth grade grammar, they know he and I are the subjects in a sentence, and him and me are the objects.

As I remember the rule, if you cannot say one person in a list of two or more, then you are using the wrong word. Now, that is obviously a paraphrase of the rule; but, I think you get my message.

Another one of those scratching your fingers on the blackboard types of misused verbs is seen and saw. How many times a day do we hear someone say, I seen that, or I have saw them in that store? If not those exact sentences, ones similar to them when they misuse the two verbs.

There is one more I want to share, and that is the use of lie and lay. The definition of lie is to rest or recline; while the definition of lay is to put or place. So, you do not lay down to take a nap, you lie down to take a nap. The other one is the misuse of lay. When you put a plate on the table, you lay it there. If you can substitute the word put or place instead of lay, that is the correct usage. Likewise, if you substitute the word rest or recline when you lie down, that is the correct usage.

I could go on and on, but I think you get my drift.

The March second edition of the St. Paul Pioneer Press printed a story about a Stillwater, Minnesota couple who are doing a documentary on grammar entitled Grammar Revolution. You may read the article by clicking here.

Elizabeth O'Brien states in the article, The way we present ourselves is through language. So when you're writing a resume, when you're writing a Facebook status update, when you're writing an essay in college, grammar gives you this tool to present yourself in the best possible light.

She makes a very good point. It is very well written by Mary Divine, and explains the situation much better than I.

My point in writing this post is simply this: I believe America is dumbing itself down! I know the English language is always changing. However, I do not believe we need to change certain things just to accommodate the laziness and ignorance of some of our population. This is a very complex subject, and I could go on and on. But I think you get my point.

Please feel free to share your poor grammar stories in the comments portion of this blog.

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

P.S. I want to thank my mom, Colleen Patrick, for showing me this article.

Help Me Celebrate Ed Roberts

If you know me, or have read my book, you know I went to the University of California at Berkeley in 1974 through June 1975. It was not a long time, but my time in Berkeley changed my life. The week between Christmas and New Year's 1973, my dad flew with me to Oakland where we were met by the Physically Disabled Student Program's van (PDSP). the van already had two riders. They were Hale Zukas and Ed Roberts.

They were both actively involved in the Independent Living Movement on and around the  campus. I just read an article about Hale who is still active in the movement today.

However, we lost Ed in 1995. Ed Roberts was literally the first person I met when I moved to Berkeley. Little did I know what a huge impact he would have on mentoring me and becoming an international advocate for civil rights for people with disabilities. There is a nice piece on Ed's contribution to the movement on the California.gov's website. You may read it by clicking here. There is even a fully accessible building located in Berkeley called the Ed Roberts Campus which is home to several disability-oriented, non-profit organizations. You may learn more about it at their website by clicking here.

Ed and I became fast friends and spent a lot of time together watching sporting events including several baseball games, football games and the 1975 USA–USSR track meet. I talk about Ed and his influence on me in my book I Still Believe In Tomorrow and how much our friendship meant to me.

The reason the California Department of Rehabilitation is celebrating is it is its 50th Anniversary and they are making a list of their fifty most notable people in their history. Guess who the number one person on that list is?

When Ed first applied to go to school at Cal, he was denied entrance because he he did not get a high school diploma. He did not receive a diploma because he failed to take and pass two classes, physical education and driver's training. Through his persistence of never backing down or allowing the system to say no, he eventually earned an undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley. He became the first student with a severe disability to ever be admitted and graduate from the University California at Berkeley! He certainly was an amazing, inspirational person!

Once Ed got in, that opened the doors to more students. At the time, I did not realize when I went out there the residence program I lived in the first year was only a few years old. Had I known that, now I wonder if I would have even gone. I tell people the second best thing I ever did was going to Berkeley. The inevitable question comes back then, "What was the first?" 

My response is always, "Coming back to Minnesota." 

Berkeley was a great place to go to school with an ever-expanding accessible campus, but I got homesick and came back to Minnesota where I eventually earned my bachelors degree in School and Community Health Education. 

I want to close this post after telling you one more Ed Roberts story. Besides helping to coordinate PDSP, form the first Center for Independent Living, of which there are about six hundred of them now around the country, he was also instrumental in forming the World Institute on Disability (WID). Its work is now reaching worldwide communities. Shortly after I left Berkeley, Governor Jerry Brown named Ed to head California's Department of Rehabilitation. I have always found great irony in the fact the department that once refused to help pay for his college education was later being run by him.

Here is a picture of Governor Brown making the appointment:

Click on the image to make it larger:

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

Knowledge Is Good

If you ever saw the movie Animal House, you may remember the opening scene and the statue of the founder of the fictitious Faber College, Emil Faber. They slowly panned to the bottom of the statue where the words Knowledge Is Good were inscribed.

Of course that was just the first of many jokes throughout that wonderful movie and it's spoof on higher education. This post is not about Faber College, Delta House, Otter, Boone or even Bluto, played by John Belushi, who I believe was one of the best physical actors of all time. He never had to say a single word and with just his body language, eyes and facial expressions made audiences laugh hysterically! It is still being watched by a whole new generation.

This post is about higher education and the amount of post-secondary degrees my immediate family have achieved. While cleaning the other day, my mother gave me an article she found in a box. I have attached it to this post. It is from the tiny town of White, South Dakota where my parents grew up on farms a few miles out of town. The title of the paper was The White Leader. It was published in the spring of 1980. White, South Dakota is a tiny town of about five hundred people located fifteen miles northeast of Brookings, South Dakota.

Between my parents, my five siblings and myself we hold three Associate of Arts degrees, six Bachelor of Arts or Science degrees, three Masters degrees and one Juris Doctorate degree. My father, Arlin Patrick is in the lead with one Bachelor of Science degree and two Masters degrees. His Bachelors degree is in education, as are Kathleen's, Chad's and mine. You could say the apples did not fall far from the tree with us.  

In fact, my dad's undergraduate degree is in physical and health education, and my degree is in school and community health education with a minor coaching. You could say I followed in his footsteps. I literally grew up in his footsteps as he was always coaching once for or another I was following him everywhere. I have one photo of him teaching me how to use a basketball scorebook when I was six years old. I was a Gym Rat from the time I was old enough to walk.

I have many great stories about growing up with a father whose job it was to play. He coached and mentored me until the night of my accident. Then, he helped carry me off the field and kept me from going into shock. I tell several stories about him in my book I Still Believe In Tomorrow. I also have pictures of him at my accident scene on my website. You may see them by clicking here, here and seeing one in the book.

Here is the article I mentioned earlier:

Click on the image to make it larger:

As always, I welcome your comments.

Later,

Mike

Is Extending The School Year A Good Thing?

Many studies have shown students lose a good amount of what they learn in the typical nine-month school year over their three-month summer vacation. That three months has been a huge detriment to their retention, and causes a goodly amount of time to get back to where they were before their summer break.

That is one reason why many schools across the county are moving to year-round schooling. If you do not know, in year-round schools, they never have a break of more than six weeks.

I just read an article that originated from the Associated Press telling of a pilot program in five states and forty schools that will extend the school year by six hundred hours. According to the article, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Tennessee will take part in the initiative, which is intended to boost student achievement and make U.S. schools more competitive on a global level.


You may read the article from USATODAY.com by clicking here. I could not find the original article on the Associated Press's website.


I believe this is a good step towards catching up with much of the rest of the developed world. The United States has continuously been falling backwards in our ranking for many of the education benchmarks which we have historically led the world. This pilot program will only last three years and then evaluated.

I am guessing we are going to see marked increases in these schools' results.

Of course, there are detractors to the idea and believe it is not the way to go because countries like India and China have shorter school years and are getting better results. Is it a question of quantity versus quality? Is it a question of prioritization? I am anxious to see what the results will be with their students with severe disabilities, all their students with special needs for that matter, low-income students and all of the round students that do not fit in the square holes.

Something needs to be done to get all our schools educating as many of our young people to the highest degree we possibly can. I certainly do not have the answers.

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

The Referees Are Back

When I started this blog, I stated I was not going to get controversial in my posts, but since this is my blog, I guess I can break the rules if I choose to do so. I am about to go on a bit of a rant here, so be prepared.

As many of you know that follow the NFL, the NFL Referee's Union was not on strike, they were locked out by the Owners. From my understanding, there was a huge gap between their stand and the Owners' position. This lockout could have lasted a while. 

Then, Monday Night Football happened!

The replacement referees did not seem to be doing a very good job! Just ask the Vikings' head coach, Leslie Frazier, about the ref's giving San Francisco five timeouts towards the end of Sunday's game. Or, better yet, ask the Packers' head coach, Mike McCarthy, about the way their game ended.

I get a kick out of all the uproar from not only Packer fans in Wisconsin, but people all over the country are outraged at the fact we cannot get these union members to resolve their differences and get those good, union referees back on the job! I mean, come on people, we're talking FOOTBALL here!

Are they the same people that voted for Governor Scott Walker so he could bust the unions in Wisconsin for teachers, firefighters and police officers? I mean, come on people we're only talking about educating our children and taking care of the public safety here!

I do not see the national outrage over the way Walker handled those situations. I grew up in a teacher's union household. That union helped my dad and our family many times.

They went on strike once and things got tight for a short time, but with some give and take, the strike was settled and the teachers went back to teach.

Ultimately, the Owners got big-time pressure to settle their differences with the referees; now, we will be able to whine about the blown calls they make.

Of course, that is just my opinion. Feel free to leave yours.

Later,

Mike

P.S. There, I feel better after I got that off my chest. My next post will be back to what you usually expect from me. Thanks for letting me vent! Now, I am off to acupuncture. After that, I will not be able to put up this post. In fact, I will not be able to do much of anything!

I Have Started Another School Year

I got my 2012-2013 school year off to a wonderful start yesterday with a standing ovation after my staff development workshop for a great school district in Antigo, Wisconsin; so I guess they liked my presentation!

If you do not know where Antigo is, it is a nice little community of about 8,000 people in central Wisconsin located about a half hour north and east of Wausau. Everyone knows where Wausau is, right?

Geographically, they are a pretty large district where middle and high school students could live in homes as far as fifty miles apart! So, busing is a major issue for a district with about twenty-three hundred K-12 students. I spoke with their entire staff of about four hundred people. And there was only one Green Bay Packer uniform in the bunch!

I had fun teasing teachers about things like the physical education teachers not having a real job because all they do is play to getting a kindergarten teacher to stop giggling. I communicated several times before my visit with their Human Resources Director, Sarah Zelazoski about their specific objectives for my workshop and put together a fouteen-page handout together to meet those objectives. She told me afterwards my presentation was just what they needed. In fact, she said one teacher told her it was exactly what he needed to get him excited about the upcoming year!

Sarah also told me several teachers were already commenting on arranging to have me come back and spend a day with their secondary students! I love hearing stories like that.

My attendant, Kelly, and I got to eat a great lunch at Dixie's, a cool, little cafe which are my favorite eating places when I visit small towns. While we were there, a woman I met back in the middle nineties at the Wisconsin Teen Leadership Program (WTLP) came down for a quick visit before she went to pick up her seven-year-old son to bring him to my afternoon session for their athletes, coaches and several members of the community.

Please do not get me wrong, I loved my day with the staff in the morning, and teasing several football players in my afternoon session. We did a lot of laughing and hope they learned some things. I was in my element and feeding off the energy of my audience, like I always do; but the highlight of my trip was seeing my friend and getting to catch up a bit, Mary Meister, and meeting her son, Jacob! He was all excited because immediately after my presentation they were headed for his very first Packer game! Mary said he told her he would start to read his new, autographed book to his uncles and mom on their way to the game. That was cool!

Let me tell you why Mary made my day. The year after she attended WTLP as a participant, she came back as a counselor and did so for several years. At the same time, another Antigo student, Tara Wagner, was also attending our leadership program. We had great conversations at each camp and became great friends with these two wonderful young leaders.

We became such good friends, they both invited me to their weddings! An interesting note on that is, I was the only adult from those programs they invited. We formed a connection.

I love making or having longtime friends, not seeing them for a while and then when given the opportunity, reconnecting and picking up where we left off. That happened with Mary yesterday. We could have talked all afternoon.

After a two hundred forty mile drive home, I had a confirmation email for another school in Edgerton, Minnesota, where we lived from 1963 to 1966. I am going to visit the school, and the local paper is writing about my Edgerton history, memories and specifics about our time there. It will be published September fifth and have been given permission to put it in the Articles page on my website. I have read a draft and it promises to be a good article.

Yesterday was a Red Letter Day!

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

We All Need A Boost Up Now And Then

I have a challenge for you. Go ahead, try and go a week, three days or even a day without giving or getting a boost up! I am willing to bet you cannot do it. Why would you want to?


I spend a lot of time in front of this computer, reading, writing, calling, learning and listening to talk radio. The other day, I heard an ad for boostup.org. They were giving statistics from The Alliance for Excellent Education about young people dropping out of school. There is a map on the boostup website broken down by state. Fascinating information! I suggest you check out to see how your state is doing. Folks, as a nation, you probably already know, we are not doing very well with graduating our young people from high school.


They give you a list of facts about why students are dropping out. They tell you a few student stories. They tell you how you can take action to do your part by mentoring a single student to volunteering at a school to getting involved in a parent teacher group. And more ...


One suggestion they give which I really like is they suggest the schools bring in a guest speaker or performer! Well, sign me up! I have so many stories of the reactions, administrators, teachers and students have given me after a day in his or her school. I discuss many of them in my book, I Still Believe in Tomorrow. 


Often times, the reaction is something like, "Your program was much more than I expected." "You give me a new sense of hope." "This was much different than the last person we had." "This was the best program we've ever had." "I didn't want you to stop." 


Then, there are the emails I receive! You would not believe some of them. I receive notes from young people, and adults, who tell me things they have never told anyone! They trust me. They trust me because I speak the truth in my presentations. Do people trust you?


If you are an adult dealing with young people and want to help, give them a boost up however you can. If you are a young person, do the same with your peers.


As always, I look forward to your comments.


Later,


Mike

Education Is Changing

Once again 60 Minutes has introduced me to an incredible man who is making a huge difference in public education in America, and all over the world for that matter. With the help of teachers all over the world, thirty-five-year-old Sal Khan and the Khan Academy are teaching elementary students math.

This is just the beginning for this concept and it promises to be a major paradigm shift for the way schools go about teaching children in the future. Watch this segment and see what you think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxJgPHM5NYI&list=FLsN32BtMd0IoByjJRNF12cw&index=2&feature=plcp

I am having trouble embedding the video, so just click on this URL and you can view the video.

I have watched it three times already, and find something new each time.There are a lot of things I would like to write about it, but I believe the video speaks for itself.

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

Dumbing Down Of America

Last Sunday I was watching the Vikings game, feeling pretty good at halftime with a 20-0 lead when a commercial came on advertising the show Glee. The teacher asked the question, "Name the Capital of Ohio."

Whereupon the stereotypical blond girl wearing a cheerleading outfit quickly raisers her hand and answers, "O."

They then show a male student give her a look that asks, "What color is the sky in your world?"

The thing that bothers me is not she did not answer, "Columbus." The thing that bothers me is the fact they picked that particular part to advertise their show. I have been annoyed for many years by the way many of us speak and our horrible use of grammar.

One day I was in a middle school classroom and a boy said, "Me and him were going to the store."

I stopped him and asked, "Who?"

He quickly replied, "Me and him."

So I asked again, "Who?"

He said again, "Me and him."

Whereupon his buddy quickly stated, "No, it's him and me."

That is just one example of how we have forgotten basic grammar. We have not only used verbs like lie and lay or can and may incorrectly, but we are not able to form proper sentences any more.

For years I have been listening to people and wondering why this is happening. When I ask someone why they do not use proper grammar, adults tell me it is just not important. When I ask students, many reply with something like, "I'm not in English class now."

My response to that is then, "So if you are not in Math class and you buy a bottle of water at a store with a dollar bill, and the water is seventy-five cents, but the clerk only gives you a dime change, that's okay?"

When he or she says "No, that's not okay."

I come back with, "Why not, you're not in Math class now? Why is it okay to remember and use Math but not English?"

The problem is not limited to this particular commercial. Listen to newscasters on TV, radio personalities, watch TV shows or other commercials. I would think journalists would learn how to speak properly somewhere in school.

I believe the rest of us need to check ourselves when we speak or write something and remember what we learned in that grammar class back in the day. I am not going to ask you to become the Grammar Police, but I become one on occasion. If you start to listen to yourself speak, I believe you will start to feel better about being part of the solution instead of part of the dumbing down of America. If you have children, definitely correct them and get them headed in the right direction.

I did a little research and Googled Dumbing down when several clairvoyant listings came up and I had not even finished my queue yet. So, I clicked on Dumbing Down of America. It was an incredible list!

I did not need to go far. I clicked on the first listing and got more information than I could possibly use. The book titled the deliberate dumbing down of america came up right away and is an incredible source of information about the history of what is, and has been going on for a long time!

Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt was working in the Department of Education during the early years of the Reagan Administration and saw what was beginning to happen. The bottom line is: she blew the whistle and like many whistleblowers, was summarily relieved of her duties. Her book is out of print now, but you can get it for free in pdf format by clicking here.

I realize this is a very long post, and appreciate it if you have read this far. I want to leave you with this quote and put the ball in your court.

The human brain should be used for processing, not storage.

Thomas A. Kelly, Ph.D.

The Effective School Report

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

Gospel For Teens

Once again, my favorite TV Show, 60 Minutes, came through with another piece I feel compelled to share because of the lessons I learned from their expert journalism. Vy Higgenson is running a program in Harlem that is changing young lives through teaching them to not only sing Gospel, but the history of the music and how it can change their lives. I have always contended education is about opportunity, and good material taught by good teachers. Gospel for Teens fits that bill.

It is such a good piece with so much to learn, they took two segments of the show to tell the story. Granted, this is the Summer rerun season and this story originally ran this Spring, but it was new to me. If you have already seen it, just delete this post. But, if you missed it this Spring, check out these two video segments from tonight's show:



Segment Two:



I often say how my post material comes to me. I do not have to go looking for it. It has happened again tonight.

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

P.S. To my Facebook friends who want to see the videos, just go to my blog by clicking here. While you are there, please subscribe to it, follow the directions, you will receive an email every time I post, and you can check out some of my old posts. You will find some of them educational, entertaining and occasionally even humorous. Thank you.

Public Education Done Right

Once again we see what education can accomplish when done properly. Thursday night the CBS Evening News chronicled the success of one Washington, D.C. public charter school, Thurgood Marshall Academy. TMA not only graduates 100% of its students, but also guarantees each one will go to college! Then, they assist their alumni to assure they graduate with a post-secondary degree. You can learn more about Thurgood Marshall Academy by clicking here.

Check out the story, and see what is happening:


Watch CBS News Videos Online

If the video will not play, you can watch it by clicking here.

I love watching what young people accomplish when given an opportunity and support they need to succeed! It is an inspiration to me to see a young man cry when he achieved something not even he thought he could do. He not only graduated from high school, but college as well. Now he plans to go to graduate school and earn a Ph.D. Watch him succeed at that too.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Later,

Mike

Music In The Schools

The world is full of very creative and artistic people. Once again, one of my favorite television shows, 60 Minutes, did a piece on one of them tonight. Bob Simon's piece on Conductor Gustavo Dudamel shows what he is doing to give elementary students an opportunity to learn how to play an instrument in an orchestra. As this piece shows, and many experts will tell you, it is all about opportunity.

You can view the piece by clicking here if it doesn't show up on this video:



Watch CBS News Videos Online

As anyone who has anything to do with schools these days knows, funding is being cut in many areas, especially the arts. Often times, entire programs are being cut. My youngest brother is also doing something about it in elementary schools in Southern California. I will write about his program in another post.

Studies show how important involvement in school is for young people. I believe this video shows how this opportunity improves a young person's confidence, self-esteem and personal responsibility. Plus, it teaches them an entirely new set of skills. I cannot say it enough times, "It is all about opportunity."

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

P.S. I am sorry I have missed a few weeks. I just spent another thirty-eight days in the hospital. I am still a little weak, but I am back!

Geoffrey Canada Is Making It Happen!

Once again, 60 Minutes has run a piece I just have to share. Last night they showed us what Geoffrey Canada is doing at the Harlem Children's Zone's Promise Academy in the middle of Harlem. If you missed the show, watch what is happening:


Watch CBS News Videos Online

According to the video, the achievement gap has closed for primary school students many adults had already given up on. It is always inspiring to watch what young people can do when given the opportunity to succeed.

Now, skeptics might say, "Everybody doesn't want or need to go to college." Others say things like, "This is nothing more than a private school for black children." To see some interesting viewpoints, read the comments by clicking here. In reading the comments, it amazes me how some people can see a positive story and turn it into a negative.

I think they miss the point. As I see it, the point is about taking a negative situation and helping young people turn their lives around by giving them an opportunity to get an education to work their way out of poverty. How can that be bad?

That being said, I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

Riane Eisler's View

I heard an interview last week with the eminent social scientist, Riane Eisler, and was very impressed with her ideas and way of thinking. She was promoting her latest book, The Real Wealth of Nations and she struck a cord with me. I just spent an hour reading several of her articles learning about her philosophy of education and changes she feels are necessary in our ever-changing world. You can go to her website by clicking here.

As I have stated in previous posts, I like listening to other speakers. As I listened to Dr. Eisler, I realized I was listening to an extraordinary woman. I read one article that goes into detail on what she calls the Six Keys To Partnership Education. You can read the whole article by clicking here.

Here are her six keys:

Tools
Values
Structures
Science
Integration
Inspiration

I encourage you to check out this article, and others you can find on this page, just click here. I found all of her articles very informative.

In her sister website, The Partnership Education Institute, Dr. Eisler states, "If we prepare today's children to meet the unprecedented challenges they face, if we help them begin to lay the foundations for a partnership world, then tomorrow's children will have the potential to create a new era of evolution."

I couldn't agree more. Change is one thing we must all address. How we handle it will be the key. Funny, that sounds like another familiar quote, "The problem isn't the issue, the issue if how we deal with the issue." I knew there was a reason why I liked what she was saying.

Later,

Mike