Every Artist is a Scientist

POINTS OF REFERENCE

Origins of STEM - Dr. Reagan Flowers

National Push towards STEM Education in schools

What I'm Working on around STEM in Harlem

Music Engineers & Math

Mae Jemison's TED Talk

STEM & STEAM

The Dream School

I am often going on about what I would do if I had a school. It's 2010 and there are now schools that include each of the things I list below.

Philosophy - Exposure

• Practice – Hatha yoga, Transcendental Meditation, Tai Chi, martial arts (sport & dance)
• Weekly Creative Professionals Talks
• Travel abroad program (one summer or winter break is mandatory)
• Inspire Learning program – teaching youth about financial literacy and wealth building through real world application
• Mentorship, Apprenticeship and Internship programs

Educational Model - Creation

• Project-based learning that is cross-disciplinary and includes community engagement & real world application
• All Assessment is performance-based
• Dream MGMT – each child has a Dream Mgr that aids them in repeated actualization of dreams, goals, & aspirations (i.e. the science of achievement and the art of fulfillment)
• Advisors – each child has a staff advisor that monitors and supports academic achievement and serves as point of contact for parents
• Educators team-teach and are provided with supports and resources to successfully implement ideas

Environment - Impact

• Organic cafeteria food, largely from local farmers and grown in community or rooftop garden
• Green school: i.e. no waste lunch program, Carbon-Neutral, Net-Zero Energy Building;
• Facilities are tailored to individual and small-group learning
• State of the art Arts Program & Center – including modern visual, performing, & fine arts and exhibition, studio, performance and practice spaces
• Gift shop with products imagined and manufactured by students and staff
• Every child receives a laptop (or iPad) with software and applications to support acquisition of resources, teaching & learning; school is wireless

Check out these schools:

• Big Picture Learning
• El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice
• High School for Recording Arts
• High Tech High
• Puget Sound Community School
• Sudbury Valley School
• Urban Assembly

What is your school vision?

The 5 W's and an H of Standardized Testing

I'll be honest. I hadn't a clue about - and very little interest in - the "No Child Left Behind Act." It has been the butt of so many jokes, that I had to very recently have my first experience with reading policy. (OMG! I NEVER want to write policy. How brutal.)

The short.

Act: No Child Left Behind

Title: Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged

The Statement of Purpose:

to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State academic achievement standards and state academic assessments.

WHO?

Students as young as 7 years old (2nd grade).

WHAT?

Standardized tests take the form of a series of questions with multiple choice answers which can be filled out by thousands of test takers at once and quickly graded using scanning machines. Standardized tests can either be on paper or on a computer. The test taker is provided with a question, statement, or problem, and expected to select one of the choices "below" it as an answer. (Source: WiseGeek)

WHEN?

Elementary and secondary schools generally test once per year in alternating years. There are Independent School Entrance Examinations and Secondary School Admission Tests students would only take once for entrance into a school. AP exams are most often given at the completion of an Advanced Placement class for college credit. College admission exams and the General Educational Development Test can be taken as many times as the test-taker needs or wants to.

WHERE?

In sterile classrooms, under fluorescent lighting, in hard back chairs throughout the country.

WHY?

The test is designed to measure test takers against each other and a standard, and standardized tests are used to assess progress in schools, ability to attend institutions of higher education, and to place students in programs suited to their abilities. In the case of "high stakes" testing, scores are used to evaluate grade promotion and graduation.

HOW?

The most common K-12 standardized tests are the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) developed by Riverside Publishing, a division of Houghlin Mifflin, the TerraNova developed by CTB/McGraw-Hill, and the Stanford Achievement Test developed by Harcourt, Brace Inc.; all three companies are private for profit companies. The two major college exams are the ACT, developed by ACT, Inc., and the SAT, developed by Educational Testing Service. Both of these companies are private not-for-profit companies. (Source: Essortment)

The most common scores reported to parents from these tests are National Percentile (NP), stanine and Grade Equivalency (GE). These scores can be utilized to evaluate a school district, a school, a particular education program, a teacher, and a student.

FOR v. AGAINST
Proponents: Assessments are tools used to measure student learning; the tests hold the teacher and student accountable. They are cheap, very quick to grade, and they allow analysts to look at a wide sample of individuals. They provide valuable feedback/information for teachers, parents, schools and states. Read these comments in the Eagle Tribune.

Opponents: Standardized tests are inherently unfair - using a single assessment given on a single day to evaluate a student's entire year of learning is. Studies on the format of standardized tests have suggested that many of them contain embedded cultural biases Standardized tests do not allow a student to demonstrate his or her skills of reasoning, deductive logic, critical thinking, and creativity. Read this Alfie Kohn article for expansion on the opposition.

What say you?

See a list of standardized tests HERE.

(*Side note: I found it fascinating that there was a Google result titled, "Does Scripture Support Standardized Testing." #Realtalk Google it yourself! No linking this one. Second, an earlier post about SAT scores and income is a great follow up read.)

What does it mean to "Go In"?

I am guilty of disappearing for days at a time. There are times when I'm completely overwhelmed with sadness (usually over a love lost). But largely, my "getting ghost" has to do with a passion for what I'm doing that is so great, I do not want to stop... for anything. This has been the source of many of those failed relationships - giving myself over more readily to the ecstasy I feel when pursuing something new or challenging than to the expectations or responsibilities of a relationship.

It wasn't until reading excerpts of Daniel Pink's DRIVE, and watching Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's talk on TED about "flow", that I got insight into my disappearing acts. Csikszentmihalyi is a pioneer in our understanding of happiness, creativity, human fulfillment, and "flow". In order to explain what is happening to us when we are completely engaged in creating something new, he starts by sharing about the nervous system.

He explains that the nervous system cannot process more than 110 bits of information per second; and to simply hear someone speak and understand the message it takes about 60 bits, or more than half of our capacity. Which, he expounds, is why we cannot hear and understand two people talking to us at the same time. When immersed in the process of creating, he says, we do not have enough attention left to monitor how our body feels, problems at home, cannot feel hunger or exhaustion.

"Identity disappears from consciousness; existence is temporarily suspended."

This is important for those of you who cannot understand how your children can sit for hours at a time on a video game, or why your husband is locked in his studio, or why your girlfriend would rather paint all weekend than take a road trip. You, too, should find yourself in this state of euphoric "flow", at least every once in a while. Remember: The closest we can get to our divinity is to be a creator.

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Teaching Science & Art

In February of 2002, Mae Jemison gave a TED Talk about the importance of teaching the arts and sciences together. She started with three quotes. The one that caught my attention was by Zora Neale Hurston from IN DUST TRACKS ON A ROAD: "Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with purpose."

Four years later, Tony Robbins gave a talk at TED looking at why we do what we do. In it he mentions "the science of achievement" and "the art of fulfillment". I had never heard those expressions.

Taking the two ideas from Jemison and Robbins, I am beginning to craft a training model, a curriculum of sorts, on how to teach Dream Fulfillment. This "poking and prying with purpose" is where practice and passion are realized. [Enough P's for you?]

I want to ensure that youth life coaches take a class on The Science of Achievement and one on The Art of Fulfillment. The fun part is structuring the reading and assignments. What do you think should be included on the syllabi?

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Education in the Obama Era, Part I

"America will not remain true to its highest ideals—and America's place as a global economic leader will be put at risk...if we don't do a far better job than we've been doing of educating our sons and daughters; unless we give them the knowledge and skills they need in this new and changing world." -President Barack Obama, March 10, 2009

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, or Recovery Act), which President Obama signed into law on February 17, 2009, provided a total of $98.2 billion in funding for the Department of Education. One month later, he outlined five pillars for reforming our schools that are guiding both the implementation of the Recovery Act and the President's fiscal year 2010 budget request for the Department of Education:

1. Investing in early childhood education and expanding access to quality childcare.

2. Challenging states to adopt world-class college- and career-ready academic standards and assessments.

3. Recruiting, preparing, and rewarding effective teachers.

4. Promoting innovation and excellence in America's schools by expanding charter schools, extending learning time, and turning around low-performing schools.

5. Increasing the number of people pursuing higher education and earning a postsecondary degree or certificate.

In this six-part series, we will look at each pillar, asking difficult and necessary questions of our lower-level involvement to ensure that the aforementioned is realized.

Since Obama took office we have seen:
-Sir Ken Robinson's "Schools Kill Creativity" has been downloaded 4 million times.
-In its 4th week out, indie film "Waiting for Superman" made over $4 million dollars.
-Anti-gay bullying spotlighted after teen suicides.
-DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee resigned after 3 years due to lack of support for her reform efforts.

What do we do as average Americans?

(Read the entire FY 2010 Education Budget Summary HERE.)

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Show Me the Money!

A good friend of mine Antoine Kinch, who is actively working to ensure that Caribbean musicians receive the monetary rewards for their international influence, recently posted a status update on Facebook. He was listening to Pandora and saddened by what he feels is a missing in music today. His post quickly became a plea for arts in schools. In a comment he wrote: "How did they have money for music programs back in the day...?"

To which I replied: "38–44% of tax revenues go to the Department of Defense; that's between $880 billion and $1.03 trillion in fiscal year 2010. (check Wikipedia on this one). Education? $98.2 billion. Our instruments are... guns."



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Children Live in a World that they Create

In this RSA animation "The Secret Powers of Time," Professor Philip Zimbardo breaks down the impact our varied perspectives on Time have on our way of life. Through his analysis, he is able to articulate what is required for us to educate 21st Century children.

"By the time a boy is 21 years old, he has spent 10,000 hours playing video games alone...it means that they live in a world that they create....which is exciting. Their brains are being digitally rewired. They will never fit in a traditional classroom, which is analogue. Someone talks at you without even the nice pictures. Meaning: it's boring. You control nothing; you sit there passively. If you want to change the curriculum, Traditionalists say you have to go back to Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. Disaster! These kids will never fit into that. They have to be in a situation where they are controlling something. And school is set up so you control nothing. School is set up to delay gratification - endlessly."

Watch!



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Purposeful Ed

I had a conversation with Kahlil Almustafa years ago about the difference in education from elementary school through graduate levels. We agreed that:
- K-5 should lay a foundation for all forms of education to be received
- Junior high or middle school should begin providing content and largely encourage critical thinking
- High school should inspire youth to begin creating their own styles of expression through academics, the arts, and kinesthetic outlets
- Undergrad is where students should learn the power of networking, how-to access and utilize resources, and what it looks like to begin laying out life-long professional goals
- Graduate school is where you begin to master your craft, where you become knowledgable about all the thinking that precede you in your field, and
- Doctoral level education is where you are supposed to offer your contribution

This is what we thought was "true" education in a 2002 conversation. I am returning to it because I can see, yet again the value of life coaching or dream management in 21st century education. If every child by ten years old knew what it took to go from idea, to plan, to action, they would go through every level of education with the power to get straight As, meet the president, win an big award, or start their own social enterprise.

How purposeful is our education today toward a future we'd like to have?

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Seth Godin on Education

I am focused on ensuring there is a life coach in every public school in America. I believe that every American should be given the opportunity to consider what contribution they want to offer the world, the chance to be self-directed in their pursuit of education and fulfillment, and the tools and skills to go after any dream they have throughout their lifetime.

Seth Godin is one of those people whose passion and research has made a significant impact on the way entire industries are being run. From a marketing perspective, he has been able to make considerable contributions to small business, marketing/advertising, social networking, and the workplace. And with this linked video/podcast, we can hear his thoughts on education. It is thought-provoking and adds yet another layer of support to my vision for educating our children.

Enjoy.

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Daniel Pink - Illustrated

I recently read Daniel Pink's Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. I found it at a cab stand and purchased it for a dollar. After reading Seth Godin's Linchpin, I dusted Pink's book off and began to read. I, for the first time since college, busted out index cards and began making flash cards from the goldmine of information in the book. It was the perfect book to begin another look at "why life coaches in public schools?"

I sent Daniel Pink an e-mail asking for his mailing address - I had to send him a letter of gratitude. By putting together the research of decades and decades of scholars, economist, physicians, etc, he had rocked my world by providing irrefutable evidence for why our educational model is failing our children. Though the book is focused largely on the impacts the research on motivation has on the workplace, it can easily be translated to the impacts on children in schools.

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) does it again with this animation of Daniel Pink's talk on DRIVE. CLICK HERE to watch.

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The Key to Life according to Will Smith

At the 18th Annual Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in 2005, Will Smith received the award for Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie in Shark Tale. His "The Key to Life: Running & Reading" Speech (remixed and posted on YouTube by TeamJonny5) is an inspiration for children and adults alike.



"...young I realized that the person that works the hardest wins." - Will Smith

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Ask Nyree, #2

Why, when asked, “What do you want to do or be when you grow up,” do so many young people respond with, “I don’t know”?

Because we don’t. A lot of us want the pipe dream, but because we don’t think it will happen we don’t say. Like, I know a kid that really wants to be a basketball player, but he won’t say it because people say “Do you know how many people want to be basketball players; it’s not gonna happen for all of you.”

We don’t say “artist” or “photographer” because folks say you won’t get paid for it. But the world is changing. There are so many things we can do nowadays. And you CAN get paid to do those things; most just don’t know it.

I’m good at a lot, so I don’t know. Us, kids today, we’re just talented. There are so many options.

Lesson in Youth Development

Be supportive of kids' dreams. Every dream. If you think a child will not be successful as an NBA player, but they love basketball, encourage their passion for the game. Expose them to the many careers affiliated with the sport. That way, if they ever get to a point where their lack of skill becomes overwhelmingly apparent, they won't feel that they have to redirect their love to something outside of the game. It can be channeled.

And as Nyree so aptly put it, "you CAN get paid [as an artist]; most just don’t know it." Which is why Jamilah Seifullah and I created The Stoop - to introduce Brooklyn junior high and high school students to successful creative professionals.

*Ask Nyree is a weekly response to the questions you always wanted answered by a teen.

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Creating a Bookless Nation

I had a heated FB dialogue via chat a few months ago. He was upset that his niece did not know how to spell tongue. Though I cannot remember the conversation word for word (and FB chat doesn’t have anything on gchat), I remember the key points I brought up for him to consider.

Him: I’m not one of her friends. She’s not going to be texting to me in that broken English, like I’m one of her friends.
Me: Tongue is a difficult word to spell. It is what educators call a sight word – if you don’t know it by sight, it will be nearly impossible to sound it out or spell it. Where the hell does the “u” “e” come from anyway?! (I’m sure there’s a linguistic, etymological history, like it’s French or something.)

And they are growing up in a text culture. I don’t blame them for short-handing everything. I’ve seen some pretty clever writing due to the need to shorten texts, tweets and status updates.

Him: They can’t write papers like that. They can’t get a job writing like that.
Me: In a January 2010 Stoop, Tina Wells (Buzz Marketing) encouraged one young lady to write her paper from the perspective of a young girl sending texts. I thought it was brilliant. And to be honest, outside of high school and college papers, most Americans are not writing essays. It isn’t necessary for the work most people do.

Him: Are you arguing against children learning to write?! And in my work, even in entertainment, I have to write proposals and coherent e-mails.
Me: I’m not saying we do not need to know how to write. I’m simply saying that we are creating a world where video reigns supreme and we’re asked to keep articles to under 250 words, and our ideas are supposed to be communicated in a certain number of characters.

Him: I’m not buying that.
Me: Look, they do what we do. If we are not whipping out books to read, they aren’t. If we navigate in the world in 140 characters or less, and get our information from CNN video clips, so will they. Do you read with her? I never see you reading, though there are books on the shelf. You watch television.

Him: I know how to write.

I ask you: how do we ensure that our children have mastery over use of the English language, and have the ability to convey their thoughts and ideas in a society that is valuing literature less and less?

(Interesting article - "When a Dad Banned Text Messaging" in NYT)

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Grow Experience Economy = Teach the Babies

It’s been said that America’s greatest commodities are cultural – hip hop, Disneyland, McDonald’s. However, far more money is spent attempting to live out or experience the American Dream than are buying Biggie albums or taking pictures with Minnie Mouse.

Emigration points to this fact. People are not continuing to risk their lives to enter onto US soil in an effort to buy more “stuff.” They imagine living a life with more opportunities – for freedoms to express themselves without fear of ridicule or death, for money, for education.

While the American experience is what so many are seeking, our system for educating our youth goes directly counter to foreign dreaming - Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

On Thursday, October 28th, Chris Kazi Rolle, Martha Diaz, and myself are gathering youth visionaries (in education, arts, and leadership development) to discuss our past, present, and future. It will enable us to see where the lines intersect, and offer one another the support we need to make good on the Preamble to the Constitution for our kids.

This is one way to ensure that our children are wealthy by experience economy standards.

A Conversation for Youth Visionaries, Oct 28, 2010, NYU – being the change I wish to see in the world.

Special thank yous to Martha Diaz and the Metropolitan Center for Urban Studies for hosting.

Thank you to the following Visionaries for your time:

Carlos Walton - Apex College Tour

Apex Divine Bradley - Team Revolution

Steadmon Sampson - Moving Mountains Inc.

Karen Bissette - Youth Connect DYCD

Trixie Cordova & Ari Joseph - World Up

Syreeta Gates - The SWT Life

Aaron Lazansky - Hip Hop(e) 4 Healing

Michael Karnjanaprakorn - Skillshare

Nicholas Chan - Blue Engine

Akua Soadwa - Gye Nyame Empowerment Project

Ashley Mui - PlanIt Brooklyn

Allen Kramer & Evan Swartz - FeedForward

Alex Abelin - Google Community Relations

Adriana Villaviencio - Research Alliance for New York City Schools

(Photo by Tamika J., Manny as Stoop Host, October 2007)

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Mine or My Momma's Dream?

I have a dream. It’s a dream deeply rooted in my mom’s passions. I am realizing the more and more I pursue what I feel is my purpose, that its source can be linked to what I saw my mother do in my childhood. She advocated for my brother and I and plenty of other children in the school whose parents were either not as brazen, educated, or available as my mother. She organized Juneteenth and Kwanzaa celebrations and helped run an African Saturday School. She and I sat one day and drew out a plan for what she called The Nguzo Saba Center, which would reflect the seven principles of Kwanzaa in its programming, stakeholders, and even its architecture.

If you were to look at my resume you’d think I am a floater. However, I’m clear that each phase of my educational and professional careers have prepared me to fulfill on the dream spawned from watching my mother be of service.

Today, I dream of schools where each year the students choose projects to work on, where they select measures for growth and go on to hit those goals through collaborating with others. Each child’s strengths, passions, and self-defined purpose would direct what project they commit to and how they participate within the team. Inside of this school, students have an opportunity to sit with a Dream Manager (who serves as Life Coach) at least once a month to gauge where they are in relation to the goals they set for themselves.

This school would start each day with a successful artist, athlete, entrepreneur, innovator, or leader sharing what they do, how they came to do it, and what legacy they hope to leave; then they’d engage in a hands-on activity with the students – offering them an opportunity to experience an aspect of their work. This exposure would feed into an apprenticeship program.

There’d be a store, student-run, that sells products they create. There’d be a rooftop/community garden or greenhouse they all give a number of hours to that provides a major portion of their “cafeteria” food. There’d be trips abroad during summer and winter breaks to round out every school project, and students would be encouraged to visit countries each trip that enabled them to master at least one other language. The school would welcome corporate dollars from brands whose mission was aligned with ours.

And on January 15, 2011, in partnership with Syreeta Gates of The SWT Life, I am producing THE SWT LIFE: a Conversation about passions, strengths and purpose. In an effort to build the school of my dreams, this one-day event will gather 100 NYC 14-16 year olds to aid them in identifying their unique contributions to the world. I will create these types of opportunities and measure outcomes over the coming years in these children’s lives.

Who’s with me?

THE SWT LIFE: a conversation about passion, strengths and purpose, Jan 15, 2011 – being the change I wish to see in the world.

(Photo "Great Destination" By Henry Z)

T-N-T on Halloween

I produced an event in the middle of October – Fall for Fall: a clothing swap for the temperature drop. Somewhere in the middle of a woman’s dream - basically bring $5 and leave with whatever you can fit into your bag - two girls entered with their aunt to swap.

Meet Tijera (10, on the left above) and Trinity (9, on the right above).

“Shop ‘til you drop, or can’t carry any more!” I told them as they entered. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched Tijera’s eyes scan the room full of clothes and stylish Brooklyn women. They, I learned, had traveled from Harlem to participate.

I saw them as they left. Tijera carried a big brown bag, barely able to wrap her arms fully around the circumference, and eyes peeking over the top.

“Did you find anything you like?” I asked.

“Uh hunh,” Trinity nods and gestures to her sister, who is clumsily making her way out the door.

“They had a great time!” their aunt tells me.

I recently spent an evening with them. Over cheese pizza and cups of Sprite I got to hear the girls speak of writing screenplays, designing clothes and creating a Youtube channel. (Remember, they are 9 and 10 years old.) I watched in amazement as they performed a musical rendition of [youtube song about rapist] and a synchronized Jamba juice jingle.

At some point they had to take baths and get their clothes ready for school. Tijera put on her black and grey jersey sweater, a white, tiered ruffle shirt, short jean skirt, and black leggings. She modeled and asked what her aunt thought. I was shocked. It took her all of 3 minutes to pick it out, put it on and ask for an opinion. It looked like she stepped off of a page in a children’s catalogue. I immediately called my girl Tyrice who is working on a style blog and they do an impromptu phone interview – Tijera’s pointers on Fall children’s fashion!

Then Tiffany (the aunt) begins telling me about Trinity’s Powerpoint prowess. “She is bad Sallomé. She can do the most amazing things with it – animated messages to family, presentations for school. I’m telling you… you have to see it.” By the end of the night I had.

But by then I was convinced - they are stars. And I committed to working with them to start their blog, their Youtube channel, and write letters requesting start-up capital for a business. Their aunt and mom were as excited as the girls and I were. At no point did either of them dampen the joy – they encouraged the two girls’ planning and vision creation. While I explained how to grow a blog, Tijera asked: “What happens if you stop blogging?” After prodding a bit, she explained the source of the question; “I don’t want to do this forever.” “Already thinking about retirement?!” her mom jokes.

I took a bathroom break in there somewhere. I nearly sat on the tiled floor and cried. This is my passion. This is my purpose. No matter how long the girls are able to keep the Youtube channel going, no matter how much traffic they get to their blog, they will have learned as many tools and tactics as I can impart in one day with them: ask for what you want from the people you think can help you get them, create a plan of action, learn as much as you can about the technology or business involved with actualizing your dream, and follow through – your word is where magic should seek residence.

I’ll be spending Halloween with them. Be afraid; be very afraid. T-N-T shakes things up!

A Case Study in Dream Management with Tijera and Trinity, Oct 31, 2010 – being the change I wish to see in the world.

Your Silence is Complicit

How many times have you been on the train, train platform, bus or bus stop and been disgusted by the language or conversation of teenagers? Now, there are also times where adults piss me off with their outrageous phone conversations, verbally abuse, and obnoxious smartphone deejay selections. But when groups of teens are going in in public spaces, it makes me feel sick.

I always look first to see who else is around. Never fails – a few small children, an older man or woman, a corporate-type, and blue-collar worker. The latter two will often move away to avoid inadvertently going off on someone’s child.

Nyree begins sucking her teeth when we hear or see this behavior and myself and/or her mother (Jamilah) are around. She knows we are about to put on invisible capes and do our due diligence to save the youth from being judged as unschooled, lacking home training, lost, an example of a hopeless future, or outright ignorant.

Recently on the Clinton/Washington Euclid bound C train I expertly tied my invisible kente cape and swiftly moved to action. Two pairs of teens were competing for the Worst Language Used in Public Talking About Some Ridiculousness Award. The pair of girls were winning. I stepped to the young men first.

“Fellas,” I started. “I apologize for interrupting, but do you see those two little girls just getting out of school?” I pointed to the uniformed girls on the bench, sitting next to the elder woman and they look over my shoulder. “Can you please, for their sake, refrain from using such abrasive language? I’m not saying you can’t ever curse. I’m just asking that you hold off until you are out of earshot of others so they don’t get the wrong idea about you. That cool?” One nods, and looks away quickly, wanting to have me disappear. The other looked shocked, then embarrassed. I imagined he had very loving and involved parents at home.

Then I walked to the girls.

“Excuse me for a minute ladies.” Then I looked at the young lady doing all of the cursing, “You are gorgeous.” She was! “But the words coming out of your mouth are mmm mmm mmm,” I shook my head and closed my eyes for emphasis. “Do you see those two little girls? Can you please provide a better example for them? You know they look up to beautiful older girls like you two, right? And you never know who is around you. I could be ready to give one of you a contract or an opportunity or something, but after hearing your conversation would refrain from stepping to you.” The young lady who wasn’t cursing asks, “You know any lawyers?”

I ended up giving her my card and promising that if she e-mailed me and reminded me of the request to connect her to an attorney, I’d make good on that. (In hindsight, and as a lesson to folks working with teens and adults, I should have taken her number, e-mail and Facebook info – most people suck at follow through.)

A Public Service Announcement: If you see something, say something. Assume that anyone wildin’ out in public spaces is an amazing person with talents, passions, dreams, and a deep desire to be loved and to belong. If you get up the courage to call them out on the behavior (littering, playing music loud, etc) or language, do it with respect.


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Do as I Do

Children do as you do, not as you say. If they are exhibiting behavior you do not like, consider it is their interpretation of something you are doing.

Your Problem: Your teenager comes home with cell phone in hand talking to someone, drops bag on the floor, and turns on the television. You look in their room; it’s a mess. You ask if they’ve done their homework, they grumble something about not having any (again). You watch them grab Cheetos out of their bag and power on the computer (while on the phone with the television on). You’re thinking WTF?!

Their Problem: You come home later than you said you would, and it meant you missed the grocery store before it closed. You yell from your room – as you wrestle off your heels and elastic waist skirt – asking if homework is done, if the room is clean, and if they’ve eaten. Before your child can answer your barrage of questions your best friend calls to ask how your day/your presentation/your conversation with your man went. You share, loudly, as you whip up something quickly in the kitchen to eat. They’re thinking, WTF?!

Before getting upset about the behavior of your children, take inventory of your behaviors and actions. This 'I’m the adult; they just need to do as I say' value system is out-dated, damaging and will result in your children needing to go to the Landmark Forum at 8 years old to simply avoid becoming bitter 11 year olds. And at the end of the day, the truth is that everything you want from them you should be doing. If you think they should be doing homework after they’ve spent 6-8 hours in school, you should be doing something to expand your mind after work. And as far as the room is concerned, I’ve learned that displaying integrity in all areas of your life will increase the chances of your children doing the same.

A Public Service Announcement: If you want to see a shift in your children, play Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” and apply accordingly.

[NOTE: Integrity should be read here to mean whole, complete, nothing missing. So, to demonstrate integrity inside of family would include spending quality time, creating opportunities to grow as an individual and as a unit, celebration, reflection, and wellness mentally, physically, emotionally and materially.]

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Ken Robinson - Illustrated

If you know me well, you know that Sir Ken Robinson is one of my heroes. Just as Howard Gardner rocked my world as an Urban Education student in 2000 (attending Bank Street College of Education in New York City) with Multiple Intelligences, Robinson has brilliantly articulated so much of what I am clear must change in public education.

Bring on the Learning Revolution was the follow up to Do Schools Kill Creativity? on TED Talks. And as much as I love watching this British guy go in on the way the world is educating the children who will be retiring in 2050 (an era with needs we can't even fathom), I am completely in love with the way that the Royal Society for the encouragement of, Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) animated his talk.

Watch it Now!