Statistics show that by the time they graduate high school, students spend the equivalent of one year of their educational experience under the tutelage of a substitute teacher. Still, we remain an enigma. Few understand and appreciate our true roles.
For example, many of my students are amazed when I explain that we are required to have college degrees and undergo training that’s similar in nature to everyday educators. They’re baffled by the mere notion that the majority of us work as substitutes not because we can’t quite cut it as regular teachers, but because of the freedom this type of lifestyle affords.
I confess that I too was unenlightened until about 6 years ago, when I lost my P.R. Job as an office manager, and decided to opt for a gig with more flexibility.
I must admit, T.V. episodes of Boston Public and Saved By the Bell were no preparation for what I’ve encountered. Most days the experience would more closely parallel an episode of the reality show Survivor. And I’m in it to win it! To date, I’ve been threatened, propositioned, “punked”, pranked, and patronized (and that’s usually before my lunch break)!
Here’s the scenario. Imagine a nightclub or disco. Imagine loud conversations, cramped space, and high levels of energy. Take away the booze and the latest dance moves.What you’ve got is your typical high school setting in any big city.
Believe me when I tell you, it takes a special person to enter this arena daily and dare to make a difference. Yet, teachers do it every day under unspeakable conditions: rule breaking, broken spirits, raging hormones, identity issues, gang activity, medical problems, behavioral problems, short attention spans, short fuses, and a lack of resources.
There’s always a lack of resources--- not enough time to impart important lessons, not enough space, not enough parental involvement, and not enough viable solutions. Not to mention, social dynamics very different than the ones we grew up with in generations before.
Substitute teachers step into this same arena for half the pay and perks, and twice the grief. Adding insult to injury, is that in this field, I find some of my old high school anxieties resurfacing as well. When I travel to the different schools, I sometimes angst over whether my outfit is “cool” enough and whether I’ll be liked.
Still...love us or hate us, we’re here to stay. We are partners in education---not “children of a lesser God”. Substitute teachers allow full-time educators to take time off for much needed “mental health days”, thereby avoiding burnout. Our presence provides for continuity of instruction, so students won’t fall behind in their studies, or lack the mastery of certain skills.
We are the under study to major “players”, but just the same, our role is vitally important. In the words of Maya Angelou, “I wouldn’t take nothing for my journey.” I have a job where I‘m making a difference while making a living. Even if it’s a small difference. Even if it’s just with a few kids a day. And even when my nerves are so shot that I sometimes contemplate giving it up and becoming a beach bum. And to my surprise, it has helped me to redefine success. As Ralph Waldo Emerson states, success is a matter of choosing how you will spend your days.
For me, I’ve chosen freedom. No two days are exactly alike. Today, I stayed at home in my P.J.s, drank hot chocolate, watched Oprah, and worked on some literary projects on my computer. Tomorrow I’m back in the trenches---where very few dare to go. I’ll help to mold thoughts, hold a few emotional hands, and have a few laughs at my own expense. I’ll escape the “rat race”, office politics, neurotic bosses, overtime hours, and spiritual burnout.
I’ll teach and I’ll learn. I’ll learn about the latest hip-hop artists, and how our youth feel about immigration issues, and cafeteria food, and war, and what’s going on in their world. I’ll learn patience, discipline, compassion, and a dose of psychology too.
The teaching keeps me young and on my toes, while freelance writing keeps me sane. Besides, what other gig would allow you to be a social worker, surrogate parent, guru, and role model in a six-hour day? It may not be a glamorous career choice for many, but helping kids to reach their full potential is as “real” a job as I ever hope to have.
Monday, August 31, 2009
A Sports Hall of Fame is Fun, But Not Necessarily a Family Bonding Experience
I took a hiatus from blogging to do writing and research for my new book, Tip Offs, a story that revolves partly around girl's high school basketball. One of my stops was the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame located in Springfield, Massachusetts. I had been to the previous incarnation of the hall twelve years ago; the current building opened seven years ago.
I'm writing about my trip and visits to sports halls of fame, because they're so much a part of the summer family educational experience. Running a sports hall of fame must be a very difficult challenge. As curator you must accommodate famous athletes and host them for their special day, and the days after that. You must keep them involved in your collections and fund raising. You must provide exhibits that will reach all ages. That, to me, is the trickiest part.
In addition to the basketball hall, I have been to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, most recently last year. Having been to the most recent versions of both museums, there are some interesting contrasts that go beyond the athletes and their sports.
Baseball does a better job of promoting and reinforcing the careers of now-deceased legends of their game. I'd bet you can find more kids who can answer a question about Babe Ruth than adults who actually saw him play. The best players of the past, such as Cobb, Ruth and Gehrig feel larger than life when you see their bats and uniforms.
The baseball hall also does two things well: it helps you compare statistics of the modern players and it takes you through every era and the history of every team, even the newest franchises such as the Diamondbacks and Rays. The baseball hall does not need to sell baseball memorabilia because the building anchors a downtown of stores that make collectibles their business. Parents and kids can bond through baseball. Not so with the basketball hall. It is better designed so that kids can shoot baskets, then grab a meal with their parents after they're done walking the museum.
Basketball's hall does some things very well. For one thing, it treats its inductees better than baseball. The players, coaches and contributors get more than just plaques; they get the entire upper ring of the building where their bios and portraits are mixed with their memorabilia. Touch and button and you see a better portrait, if you remember to look up. The ceiling ring has all of the larger portraits on a wall too high to reach.
The basketball hall treats coaches well; active coaches can be honored after twenty five years of service. Exhibits highlight coaching personalities and signature plays; this was the most valuable purpose of my visit, since I was there to research for a book. But I doubt that father and son come to a basketball hall to huddle over a diagram of the Triangle Offense unless they're both coaches.
The basketball hall also respects the college game even though mens and womens college basketball have their own halls of fame in Kansas City and Knoxville respectively. After I went to the hall's web site I saw why. Basketball was invented on the Springfield College campus--oddly enough, I later learned that volleyball was invented there, too--and the college was the home of the first facility. Major league baseball, by comparison, ignores the contributions of the college programs to their game.
But I was bothered by two things with the basketball hall. One was the absence of exhibits on the great teams of each era. Some of this information is available as you tour the ring of inductees, but you have to really look to find it. I would have liked to see team-by-team exhibits for each professional franchise, as well as lists of their greatest players and statistical leaders.
The other bother is the homage paid to Michael Jordan. The older building had an exclusive Jordan exhibit,too. But this one could not be topped. It had a Jordan theatre surrounded by a wall of championship rings surrounded by another wall with a history of Air Jordan sneakers and MJ's career highlights. This hall has literally fallen on its face to promote the man. All that's missing are the TV commercials.
I can understand some of the reasons why: he's being inducted in September and his brand has outlasted his athletic career. But the over-devotion of space to one player leaves the illusion that one man has carried the reputation of a sport on his shoulders. Adding to that illusion is the fact that Jordan, unlike Babe Ruth or Jackie Robinson, is very much alive.
But maybe the basketball hall has the right idea for taking care of the young and restless. I was forced to ask myself: if I were hired to design this museum what would I do? My answer: Jordan would be downstairs next to center court where kids could shoot baskets and play with other fitness toys in a supervised space. Then parents can take their time viewing the players from their eras in peace. But so much for family bonding through basketball.
I'm writing about my trip and visits to sports halls of fame, because they're so much a part of the summer family educational experience. Running a sports hall of fame must be a very difficult challenge. As curator you must accommodate famous athletes and host them for their special day, and the days after that. You must keep them involved in your collections and fund raising. You must provide exhibits that will reach all ages. That, to me, is the trickiest part.
In addition to the basketball hall, I have been to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, most recently last year. Having been to the most recent versions of both museums, there are some interesting contrasts that go beyond the athletes and their sports.
Baseball does a better job of promoting and reinforcing the careers of now-deceased legends of their game. I'd bet you can find more kids who can answer a question about Babe Ruth than adults who actually saw him play. The best players of the past, such as Cobb, Ruth and Gehrig feel larger than life when you see their bats and uniforms.
The baseball hall also does two things well: it helps you compare statistics of the modern players and it takes you through every era and the history of every team, even the newest franchises such as the Diamondbacks and Rays. The baseball hall does not need to sell baseball memorabilia because the building anchors a downtown of stores that make collectibles their business. Parents and kids can bond through baseball. Not so with the basketball hall. It is better designed so that kids can shoot baskets, then grab a meal with their parents after they're done walking the museum.
Basketball's hall does some things very well. For one thing, it treats its inductees better than baseball. The players, coaches and contributors get more than just plaques; they get the entire upper ring of the building where their bios and portraits are mixed with their memorabilia. Touch and button and you see a better portrait, if you remember to look up. The ceiling ring has all of the larger portraits on a wall too high to reach.
The basketball hall treats coaches well; active coaches can be honored after twenty five years of service. Exhibits highlight coaching personalities and signature plays; this was the most valuable purpose of my visit, since I was there to research for a book. But I doubt that father and son come to a basketball hall to huddle over a diagram of the Triangle Offense unless they're both coaches.
The basketball hall also respects the college game even though mens and womens college basketball have their own halls of fame in Kansas City and Knoxville respectively. After I went to the hall's web site I saw why. Basketball was invented on the Springfield College campus--oddly enough, I later learned that volleyball was invented there, too--and the college was the home of the first facility. Major league baseball, by comparison, ignores the contributions of the college programs to their game.
But I was bothered by two things with the basketball hall. One was the absence of exhibits on the great teams of each era. Some of this information is available as you tour the ring of inductees, but you have to really look to find it. I would have liked to see team-by-team exhibits for each professional franchise, as well as lists of their greatest players and statistical leaders.
The other bother is the homage paid to Michael Jordan. The older building had an exclusive Jordan exhibit,too. But this one could not be topped. It had a Jordan theatre surrounded by a wall of championship rings surrounded by another wall with a history of Air Jordan sneakers and MJ's career highlights. This hall has literally fallen on its face to promote the man. All that's missing are the TV commercials.
I can understand some of the reasons why: he's being inducted in September and his brand has outlasted his athletic career. But the over-devotion of space to one player leaves the illusion that one man has carried the reputation of a sport on his shoulders. Adding to that illusion is the fact that Jordan, unlike Babe Ruth or Jackie Robinson, is very much alive.
But maybe the basketball hall has the right idea for taking care of the young and restless. I was forced to ask myself: if I were hired to design this museum what would I do? My answer: Jordan would be downstairs next to center court where kids could shoot baskets and play with other fitness toys in a supervised space. Then parents can take their time viewing the players from their eras in peace. But so much for family bonding through basketball.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
The Story of the Child Who Loved School … Once We Pried Her Hands Off the Steering Wheel by Ashley Olson Rosen
My friend, Ashley Olson Rosen, is a former journalist, now blogger, who has written often on education and parenting. Visit her blog, Funnier With Wine, for more original commentary. I am taking a few days R and R from blogging, so I invited her to post some guest posts. This is her third of three pieces on back-to-school.
Yesterday, I told you about my oldest’s easy segue from preschooler to Kindergartener. I think you’ll enjoy the story of my youngest – Lis – and her first week as a Shining Star. It’s a whole lot funnier in hindsight!
Actually, we were really surprised at how well she’d done her first three days. Thankfully, they started with a short week. She was only 4 when the school year started due to her late birthday and we worried about the long days leading to bouts of her medical condition, SDIB or Sleep Deprivation-Induced Bitchiness.
But she started out great. Until Monday. I should have known when we got into the car and I strapped her into her booster seat that this wasn’t going to work.
As we left the driveway, she kicked the back of my seat, hard. Apparently she wasn’t in the mood to get my attention by saying “mom.” Red flag. “My socks are turned wrong.” Red flag waving. Whenever she could feel the seams on her socks against her toes in preschool, it was followed by a knock-down, drag-out fight, not necessarily about socks.
If she’d only known how hideous her mommy-trimmed bangs looked, her socks would have been no issue.
But I addressed the sock problem head on. I had my 7-year-old fix them.
Minutes later, we were in carpool line and Lis crossed her arms and said, “I’m not going to school today.”
“Of course you are,” I said with one eye on her in the rearview mirror as I inched forward in the line that was constantly moving, albeit slowly. “You love your teachers. Remember how much fun you had last week?”
“N-O-O!” Suddenly she shouted and her face was turning red. We were almost at the front door.
“Lis, just go on into class – you sister is going to walk you there – and if you’re not having fun by lunchtime, your teacher will call me.”
So when we got to the front of the drop-off line, she got out of the backseat like she was acquiescing and I breathed a sigh of relief. Then the front passenger door opened and she popped in.
OK, when I mentioned that this carpool line moved continuously, I failed to mention that if it ceased moving, for any reason whatsoever, all the sweet little mommies hopped up on Starbucks immediately transformed into New York cab drivers. They could get pretty ugly.
When she landed in the front seat, I remember saying, “What are you doing up here?” or something to that effect and wondering why I sounded like I was delivering a line from a bad horror movie.
She said something about kissing me goodbye (another red flag – she’s not a kisser) and leaned over. Well, before I could think, her hands latched onto the steering wheel like a Titanic survivor to a lifeboat. She was only 4, but she was strong.
People were honking now. I tried to reason with her for a full two minutes – I know, because I was watching the clock as it eeked closer and closer to 9:05 and the start of school. I tried to tell her that she was making ALL those kids in ALL those cars behind us tardy to school, which was really a smart idea – look, you’re just a little kid and ALL those big kids already HATE you. Now go walk in front of them so they know who to hate.
While we were talking, I was literally trying to pry her little toddler fingers off the wheel, but as soon as I’d get one hand loose, the other would grasp anew. My older daughter, she who would NEVER break a rule like being late to school, was pacing agitatedly in my peripheral vision, the pink Barbie backpack flashing with each turn.
I think it was at this point that the traffic report on the 50,000-watt, clear channel radio station mentioned that there was a long back up on Highway 22 near Goose Creek Road. That would be us and the hissing, honking housewives.
“Grab her feet and pull,” I shouted to my other daughter. No, I’m not proud of that decision, but I wasn’t thinking too clearly.
I can only imagine what the scene looked like to those behind us: A short, scrawny girl in a Barbie backpack and glasses leaning back and yanking at the feet of a child who is seemingly levitating above the front seat, parallel to the ground. And I’m not being too gentle anymore – I’m pounding on her fingers on the steering wheel.
Finally, she released and there was a blur of Barbie and Power Ranger backpacks in mid-air, my older daughter’s arms doing the backstroke as she propelled backward and the Kindergarten-bound and REALLY pissed off daughter bulleting out of the car wailing.
Then they both got up, collected their backpacks and stomped into school. It was 9:04 and I think the line behind us was too dumbfounded to honk anymore. I wheeled out of there like Patty Hearst when her banking chores were done for the day.
The next evening, her teacher called the house to see if she was OK. She said she could tell that Lis had been crying before school – and that’s all it took. Once the kid knew that the teacher cared enough to call – which I have to admit, sold me on the school all over again – things were fine.
Today she had her first day as a senior in high school. And she forgot to text me to let me know that she made it there OK this morning. I hope she got out of the car.
The good news is, she wore flip-flops. No socks.
Yesterday, I told you about my oldest’s easy segue from preschooler to Kindergartener. I think you’ll enjoy the story of my youngest – Lis – and her first week as a Shining Star. It’s a whole lot funnier in hindsight!
Actually, we were really surprised at how well she’d done her first three days. Thankfully, they started with a short week. She was only 4 when the school year started due to her late birthday and we worried about the long days leading to bouts of her medical condition, SDIB or Sleep Deprivation-Induced Bitchiness.
But she started out great. Until Monday. I should have known when we got into the car and I strapped her into her booster seat that this wasn’t going to work.
As we left the driveway, she kicked the back of my seat, hard. Apparently she wasn’t in the mood to get my attention by saying “mom.” Red flag. “My socks are turned wrong.” Red flag waving. Whenever she could feel the seams on her socks against her toes in preschool, it was followed by a knock-down, drag-out fight, not necessarily about socks.
If she’d only known how hideous her mommy-trimmed bangs looked, her socks would have been no issue.
But I addressed the sock problem head on. I had my 7-year-old fix them.
Minutes later, we were in carpool line and Lis crossed her arms and said, “I’m not going to school today.”
“Of course you are,” I said with one eye on her in the rearview mirror as I inched forward in the line that was constantly moving, albeit slowly. “You love your teachers. Remember how much fun you had last week?”
“N-O-O!” Suddenly she shouted and her face was turning red. We were almost at the front door.
“Lis, just go on into class – you sister is going to walk you there – and if you’re not having fun by lunchtime, your teacher will call me.”
So when we got to the front of the drop-off line, she got out of the backseat like she was acquiescing and I breathed a sigh of relief. Then the front passenger door opened and she popped in.
OK, when I mentioned that this carpool line moved continuously, I failed to mention that if it ceased moving, for any reason whatsoever, all the sweet little mommies hopped up on Starbucks immediately transformed into New York cab drivers. They could get pretty ugly.
When she landed in the front seat, I remember saying, “What are you doing up here?” or something to that effect and wondering why I sounded like I was delivering a line from a bad horror movie.
She said something about kissing me goodbye (another red flag – she’s not a kisser) and leaned over. Well, before I could think, her hands latched onto the steering wheel like a Titanic survivor to a lifeboat. She was only 4, but she was strong.
People were honking now. I tried to reason with her for a full two minutes – I know, because I was watching the clock as it eeked closer and closer to 9:05 and the start of school. I tried to tell her that she was making ALL those kids in ALL those cars behind us tardy to school, which was really a smart idea – look, you’re just a little kid and ALL those big kids already HATE you. Now go walk in front of them so they know who to hate.
While we were talking, I was literally trying to pry her little toddler fingers off the wheel, but as soon as I’d get one hand loose, the other would grasp anew. My older daughter, she who would NEVER break a rule like being late to school, was pacing agitatedly in my peripheral vision, the pink Barbie backpack flashing with each turn.
I think it was at this point that the traffic report on the 50,000-watt, clear channel radio station mentioned that there was a long back up on Highway 22 near Goose Creek Road. That would be us and the hissing, honking housewives.
“Grab her feet and pull,” I shouted to my other daughter. No, I’m not proud of that decision, but I wasn’t thinking too clearly.
I can only imagine what the scene looked like to those behind us: A short, scrawny girl in a Barbie backpack and glasses leaning back and yanking at the feet of a child who is seemingly levitating above the front seat, parallel to the ground. And I’m not being too gentle anymore – I’m pounding on her fingers on the steering wheel.
Finally, she released and there was a blur of Barbie and Power Ranger backpacks in mid-air, my older daughter’s arms doing the backstroke as she propelled backward and the Kindergarten-bound and REALLY pissed off daughter bulleting out of the car wailing.
Then they both got up, collected their backpacks and stomped into school. It was 9:04 and I think the line behind us was too dumbfounded to honk anymore. I wheeled out of there like Patty Hearst when her banking chores were done for the day.
The next evening, her teacher called the house to see if she was OK. She said she could tell that Lis had been crying before school – and that’s all it took. Once the kid knew that the teacher cared enough to call – which I have to admit, sold me on the school all over again – things were fine.
Today she had her first day as a senior in high school. And she forgot to text me to let me know that she made it there OK this morning. I hope she got out of the car.
The good news is, she wore flip-flops. No socks.
Monday, August 24, 2009
It’s Entirely Possible to Avoid Crying When Your Oldest Starts Kindergarten. Almost Entirely.
My friend, Ashley Olson Rosen, is a former journalist, now blogger, who has written often on education and parenting. Visit her blog, Funnier With Wine, for more original commentary. I am taking a few days R and R from blogging, so I invited her to post some guest posts. This is a second piece on back-to-school. I posted the first last week.
Last week, I told you about my early days of first grade, and I thank you for your sincere sympathy. Now that I’ve vented about it, I’ve again tucked the memory to the back of my mind, where it shares a little “special day” cubby with My Gory Wisdom Teeth Extraction and
The Day I Stuck Two Fingers In a Vicious Window Fan.
But for my older daughter, now a college student, the first day of school was a great day. For her, at least. For me? Not so good. I had promised myself that I wouldn’t cry when she started school. And I almost didn’t.
I bought her a new outfit and the whole family took her shopping for all her supplies. She had them neatly stowed in her backpack, all except the Kleenex, which didn’t fit because it isn’t a school supply. (I think teachers ask for dish detergent and Kleenex and paper towels to stock their own pantries, but that’s another topic.)
Anyway, we really wanted to make her first day special. I think I was trying to make up for the fact that when she was six weeks old, I took her to daycare and then totally forgot about her when it was time to pick her up. It’s not as bad as it sounds, but it was pretty bad. I mean, I’d been out on maternity leave and had a lot of catching up to do.
Thank God the receptionist spoke up at 5:30 and asked what time I needed to pick up the baby. The baby! Crap! I have a baby! So I flew across town and got her right at closing time. It was actually good that she was the only one left, though, because the whole way there I was worried that I wouldn’t recognize her. I mean, newborns, asleep, all wrapped up in blankets... I know people must start to take the wrong kid all the time. But day one was fine.
The ugly truth is, though, that I was late picking her up pretty often. When she was about 10, we were at a Catholic picnic and an odd man kept staring at her. I was getting really nervous. Then he approached. “Aren’t you Samantha?” he asked. She nodded, confused too.
“I was the janitor at Kindercare when you were a baby. I’d know you anywhere. I was the one who usually stayed with you until your mother got there.” OK, that’s bad. I’ll admit it. Luckily, he was a nice guy.
Well, before you judge me – I worked a LONG way from the daycare and traffic was awful. And anyway, back to my point, this kid was adaptable. She loved every preschool experience she had, ruled every mother’s day out in town and was very psyched about starting school. New people to boss around.
So of course, she refused to hold my hand as we walked into the building. We got right in front of the office, then suddenly she stopped. (I think she needed the audience.)
“Where are you going?” she asked, hands on hips, tossing her ponytail off her shoulder.
“I’m walking you to the Shining Stars room. It’s right up here.”
“I know where the Shining Stars room is, mom. I was here for orientation two days ago. Do you remember?”
“Duh, yeah, I remember. Do you think I’m stupid?” Now I had my hand on my hip.
So we’re in this face-off kind of thing in the middle of the hall and all around us, kindergarten kids are parading into the Shining Stars room holding their mommies’ hands. Then the moms are leaving the room, obviously holding back tears.
Finally, sick of the stand-off, I said, “OK, fine. You go on in by yourself. But if the teacher asks you, you tell her that your mom wanted to walk in with you.” She nodded and turned.
But then she turned back. “Uh, mom?”
I knew it. “Yeah. Change your mind? It’s OK.”
“Nope. I need the Kleenex.”
So yeah, I cried a little – but only because I lost the argument. That doesn’t make me a crybaby.
As I left the building, though, a bit despondent, one of the other moms grabbed me and whispered “Mimosa party – my house, twenty minutes.”
I drank a toast to my independent-minded kid. That wasn’t so bad, I thought. It would’ve been worse if she’d gone in kicking and screaming, right?
Well, I’d have a point of comparison in just two short years…
Last week, I told you about my early days of first grade, and I thank you for your sincere sympathy. Now that I’ve vented about it, I’ve again tucked the memory to the back of my mind, where it shares a little “special day” cubby with My Gory Wisdom Teeth Extraction and
The Day I Stuck Two Fingers In a Vicious Window Fan.
But for my older daughter, now a college student, the first day of school was a great day. For her, at least. For me? Not so good. I had promised myself that I wouldn’t cry when she started school. And I almost didn’t.
I bought her a new outfit and the whole family took her shopping for all her supplies. She had them neatly stowed in her backpack, all except the Kleenex, which didn’t fit because it isn’t a school supply. (I think teachers ask for dish detergent and Kleenex and paper towels to stock their own pantries, but that’s another topic.)
Anyway, we really wanted to make her first day special. I think I was trying to make up for the fact that when she was six weeks old, I took her to daycare and then totally forgot about her when it was time to pick her up. It’s not as bad as it sounds, but it was pretty bad. I mean, I’d been out on maternity leave and had a lot of catching up to do.
Thank God the receptionist spoke up at 5:30 and asked what time I needed to pick up the baby. The baby! Crap! I have a baby! So I flew across town and got her right at closing time. It was actually good that she was the only one left, though, because the whole way there I was worried that I wouldn’t recognize her. I mean, newborns, asleep, all wrapped up in blankets... I know people must start to take the wrong kid all the time. But day one was fine.
The ugly truth is, though, that I was late picking her up pretty often. When she was about 10, we were at a Catholic picnic and an odd man kept staring at her. I was getting really nervous. Then he approached. “Aren’t you Samantha?” he asked. She nodded, confused too.
“I was the janitor at Kindercare when you were a baby. I’d know you anywhere. I was the one who usually stayed with you until your mother got there.” OK, that’s bad. I’ll admit it. Luckily, he was a nice guy.
Well, before you judge me – I worked a LONG way from the daycare and traffic was awful. And anyway, back to my point, this kid was adaptable. She loved every preschool experience she had, ruled every mother’s day out in town and was very psyched about starting school. New people to boss around.
So of course, she refused to hold my hand as we walked into the building. We got right in front of the office, then suddenly she stopped. (I think she needed the audience.)
“Where are you going?” she asked, hands on hips, tossing her ponytail off her shoulder.
“I’m walking you to the Shining Stars room. It’s right up here.”
“I know where the Shining Stars room is, mom. I was here for orientation two days ago. Do you remember?”
“Duh, yeah, I remember. Do you think I’m stupid?” Now I had my hand on my hip.
So we’re in this face-off kind of thing in the middle of the hall and all around us, kindergarten kids are parading into the Shining Stars room holding their mommies’ hands. Then the moms are leaving the room, obviously holding back tears.
Finally, sick of the stand-off, I said, “OK, fine. You go on in by yourself. But if the teacher asks you, you tell her that your mom wanted to walk in with you.” She nodded and turned.
But then she turned back. “Uh, mom?”
I knew it. “Yeah. Change your mind? It’s OK.”
“Nope. I need the Kleenex.”
So yeah, I cried a little – but only because I lost the argument. That doesn’t make me a crybaby.
As I left the building, though, a bit despondent, one of the other moms grabbed me and whispered “Mimosa party – my house, twenty minutes.”
I drank a toast to my independent-minded kid. That wasn’t so bad, I thought. It would’ve been worse if she’d gone in kicking and screaming, right?
Well, I’d have a point of comparison in just two short years…
Monday, August 17, 2009
A Long, Long Ago First Day of School and the Meanest Teacher EVER! Guest Post by Ashley Olson Rosen
My friend, Ashley Olson Rosen, is a former journalist, now blogger, who has written often on education and parenting. Visit her blog, Funnier With Wine, for more original commentary. I am taking a few days R and R from blogging, so I invited her to post some guest posts. This is the first, and I'll be back next week with the next one.
My high-schooler starts back to school this week, and it got me to thinking about first days of school. They are so different for each child, for each parent, and from each perspective.
So as the first in a three-part series, (not to be confused with “Roots” or “The Thorn Birds,” here are the scraps of memory that I have of my own early school days. Tomorrow and Wednesday I’ll tell you about my two daughters’ first days of kindergarten.
Now, to put myself in the 1965 mode…
I remember being REALLY excited about going to school because my brother had started two years prior and regaled me with story upon story about the huge, delicious lunches that people served to you, hot and gloppy. You even got dessert with lunch! Dessert at LUNCH? No way! Count me in.
We went shopping for supplies the week before school started. Oh, how I treasured the little cigar box (aptly labeled a “school box”) where I stashed all my perfectly sharpened pencils – I think we had to whittle them for the first day, then at school I discovered the second coolest thing, the crank pencil sharpener mounted to the wall that had a dial that accommodated any and all pencil sizes! Wow. And kids today think that the I Phone is a big deal. I remember my First Grade Tablet and the crayons that were mine and mine alone. Hands off, big brother! Don’t eat them little sister (she preferred cigarette butts anyway) – these were MINE.
So the first day, I got on the bus in my brand-new, blue plaid dress with smocking on the front. Yes, I said smocking. Finished the ensemble with a new pair of Susie tights, my shiny buckle shoes and my stunning blue horn-rims. Watch out boys!
About halfway to school, one of the older kids in the back of the bus started to make fun of some lady behind the bus. Many years later, I found out that it was my mother, following the bus in her battle green Ford Fairlane and sobbing uncontrollably. Good thing I didn’t know. It may have dented my suave demeanor. But now I think it was sweet.
I strode confidently into the elementary school, probably coming up to most people’s elbow. (If you’re picturing Webster now, you’re not far off.) I remember being awed by the long, shiny hallways filled with gaily decorated bulletin boards framed with that wavy corrugated paper. Wow! If the lunch with dessert was anything like the opulence of the hallways, I was in. I was a student.
Someone must have seen the short kid in the horn rims and asked me where I belonged, because the next thing I remember, I was gently turned away from the Hallway to Heaven and guided out the back door. Past the Port-O-Lets and the dumpster to a trailer beached on a bare spot on the back lawn. OK, they called it a Portable … but it was a trailer.
Still alright. I was unflappable. I proudly sat in the seat that had a crisply folded paper bearing my name – ah, my first place card. This, this is my name. I belong here.
But why was mine blue and not pink like the other girls’? Well, that mystery was solved when the teacher (whose name I’m sure I could safely use because she had to be 90 back then) looked at me with her hand on her chest and exclaimed, “Oh, NO! You’re a girl!”
OK, I was one of the original Ashleys and I guess she was expecting maybe Ashley Wilkes. So before I’d even gotten to the room I’d screwed up the whole boy-girl-boy-girl lineup in row 2.
Don’t hate me lady! I’m a total kiss-up! Look – I have thick glasses already! And I can read!
Never worked. About three times that day, grumpy teacher with the male-female pattern syndrome yelled at me. She’d be facing the board, writing, talking a mile a minute, and there’d be announcements coming over the intercom and kids drumming on their desks and suddenly, like she’d heard a giant thunderclap, she’d stop. Still facing the board, she’d announce (in, what I have to say now was a very bitchy voice) … “TALKING, SECOND ROW, THIRD SEAT.”
The first time I thought my face was going to explode. I think even my legs turned red under my ½” thick Susie tights. The second time I started to cry, but subtly, and the third time I crossed my arms on my desk and buried my head in them.
And to this day, I’ll swear to you I wasn’t talking. I know who it was but I won’t rat her out. She sat next to me and she had WHITE horn rims. I even got a C in conduct the first semester of first grade and it was … the other girl … who was talking.
Things did get better. By second grade I was out of the portable, my teacher actually looked at the line that said M or F and seated me accordingly, and I learned how to throw my voice.
My high-schooler starts back to school this week, and it got me to thinking about first days of school. They are so different for each child, for each parent, and from each perspective.
So as the first in a three-part series, (not to be confused with “Roots” or “The Thorn Birds,” here are the scraps of memory that I have of my own early school days. Tomorrow and Wednesday I’ll tell you about my two daughters’ first days of kindergarten.
Now, to put myself in the 1965 mode…
I remember being REALLY excited about going to school because my brother had started two years prior and regaled me with story upon story about the huge, delicious lunches that people served to you, hot and gloppy. You even got dessert with lunch! Dessert at LUNCH? No way! Count me in.
We went shopping for supplies the week before school started. Oh, how I treasured the little cigar box (aptly labeled a “school box”) where I stashed all my perfectly sharpened pencils – I think we had to whittle them for the first day, then at school I discovered the second coolest thing, the crank pencil sharpener mounted to the wall that had a dial that accommodated any and all pencil sizes! Wow. And kids today think that the I Phone is a big deal. I remember my First Grade Tablet and the crayons that were mine and mine alone. Hands off, big brother! Don’t eat them little sister (she preferred cigarette butts anyway) – these were MINE.
So the first day, I got on the bus in my brand-new, blue plaid dress with smocking on the front. Yes, I said smocking. Finished the ensemble with a new pair of Susie tights, my shiny buckle shoes and my stunning blue horn-rims. Watch out boys!
About halfway to school, one of the older kids in the back of the bus started to make fun of some lady behind the bus. Many years later, I found out that it was my mother, following the bus in her battle green Ford Fairlane and sobbing uncontrollably. Good thing I didn’t know. It may have dented my suave demeanor. But now I think it was sweet.
I strode confidently into the elementary school, probably coming up to most people’s elbow. (If you’re picturing Webster now, you’re not far off.) I remember being awed by the long, shiny hallways filled with gaily decorated bulletin boards framed with that wavy corrugated paper. Wow! If the lunch with dessert was anything like the opulence of the hallways, I was in. I was a student.
Someone must have seen the short kid in the horn rims and asked me where I belonged, because the next thing I remember, I was gently turned away from the Hallway to Heaven and guided out the back door. Past the Port-O-Lets and the dumpster to a trailer beached on a bare spot on the back lawn. OK, they called it a Portable … but it was a trailer.
Still alright. I was unflappable. I proudly sat in the seat that had a crisply folded paper bearing my name – ah, my first place card. This, this is my name. I belong here.
But why was mine blue and not pink like the other girls’? Well, that mystery was solved when the teacher (whose name I’m sure I could safely use because she had to be 90 back then) looked at me with her hand on her chest and exclaimed, “Oh, NO! You’re a girl!”
OK, I was one of the original Ashleys and I guess she was expecting maybe Ashley Wilkes. So before I’d even gotten to the room I’d screwed up the whole boy-girl-boy-girl lineup in row 2.
Don’t hate me lady! I’m a total kiss-up! Look – I have thick glasses already! And I can read!
Never worked. About three times that day, grumpy teacher with the male-female pattern syndrome yelled at me. She’d be facing the board, writing, talking a mile a minute, and there’d be announcements coming over the intercom and kids drumming on their desks and suddenly, like she’d heard a giant thunderclap, she’d stop. Still facing the board, she’d announce (in, what I have to say now was a very bitchy voice) … “TALKING, SECOND ROW, THIRD SEAT.”
The first time I thought my face was going to explode. I think even my legs turned red under my ½” thick Susie tights. The second time I started to cry, but subtly, and the third time I crossed my arms on my desk and buried my head in them.
And to this day, I’ll swear to you I wasn’t talking. I know who it was but I won’t rat her out. She sat next to me and she had WHITE horn rims. I even got a C in conduct the first semester of first grade and it was … the other girl … who was talking.
Things did get better. By second grade I was out of the portable, my teacher actually looked at the line that said M or F and seated me accordingly, and I learned how to throw my voice.
Health e-Lunch Kids Brings Nutrition to School
This month's Inc. had an interesting story about a company, Health e-Lunch Kids, that was seeking $1 million to invest in technology, marketing and inventory. This company might provide a cure for a disease that ails most public schools: the sour expressions and unsatiated bellies from school lunches
Health e-Lunch Kids has a scalable, socially sound, business model, but like most Web-based companies has few assets, a difficult proposition for institutional investors. The model is this: parents order nutritious prepared lunches online that are delivered fresh to their children at camp or at school. According to the company, the prepared meals meet or exceed federal nutrition standards.
This company has a model that appealed to the businessperson in me, so I decided to write about it. Who knows, there might be an angel investor reading this story who is waiting in the wings.
From a parent-child-school perspective this is an interesting idea. The school does not have to prepare food (including mystery meat) that kids might not like to eat, parents know their children get a good meal and the kids get a broader choice of meals online than they would have gotten from the school cafeteria. Possible minuses: parents might pay more for school lunches.
According to the Inc. story, the Falls Church (Va) based company made $360,000 in 2008 and was expected to nearly quadruple its revenues in 2009.
The company wants to break into the public school market. However, the ideas of best intentions often become thwarted by public school bureaucracies. Cafeteria workers, no doubt, do not want to be laid off, or turned into grocer's freezer counter workers. The best bets for this company are where their business is: charter schools, private schools and sports activities.
But I like this idea, and do not plan to compete, so here are some thoughts:
+ Become approved by publicly supported school lunch programs. The program would send money equal to the number of students qualified for school lunches to Health e-Lunch Kids. This number might need to be an annual high for a school year, as the number of students in schools that have a high percentage of students in a school lunch program is more likely to fluctuate than in a school that does not. However, their families will need Internet access. Availability must be studied and confirmed within the community.
+ Develop a branded product line that includes hot items, so the cafeteria workers do not need to be taken out of the loop. Layoffs are unpopular, even when teaching jobs are saved at the expense of non-educational jobs. A branded line also means that schools have another nutrition option.
+ Develop an ordering system around cafeteria managers. This takes out one nice feature of the business model: parents and kids pick the meals. It does, however, cover for them when they forget to pick the meal online. A cafeteria manager based ordering system also takes out the concern of serving families who do not have Internet access.
Health e-Lunch Kids has a scalable, socially sound, business model, but like most Web-based companies has few assets, a difficult proposition for institutional investors. The model is this: parents order nutritious prepared lunches online that are delivered fresh to their children at camp or at school. According to the company, the prepared meals meet or exceed federal nutrition standards.
This company has a model that appealed to the businessperson in me, so I decided to write about it. Who knows, there might be an angel investor reading this story who is waiting in the wings.
From a parent-child-school perspective this is an interesting idea. The school does not have to prepare food (including mystery meat) that kids might not like to eat, parents know their children get a good meal and the kids get a broader choice of meals online than they would have gotten from the school cafeteria. Possible minuses: parents might pay more for school lunches.
According to the Inc. story, the Falls Church (Va) based company made $360,000 in 2008 and was expected to nearly quadruple its revenues in 2009.
The company wants to break into the public school market. However, the ideas of best intentions often become thwarted by public school bureaucracies. Cafeteria workers, no doubt, do not want to be laid off, or turned into grocer's freezer counter workers. The best bets for this company are where their business is: charter schools, private schools and sports activities.
But I like this idea, and do not plan to compete, so here are some thoughts:
+ Become approved by publicly supported school lunch programs. The program would send money equal to the number of students qualified for school lunches to Health e-Lunch Kids. This number might need to be an annual high for a school year, as the number of students in schools that have a high percentage of students in a school lunch program is more likely to fluctuate than in a school that does not. However, their families will need Internet access. Availability must be studied and confirmed within the community.
+ Develop a branded product line that includes hot items, so the cafeteria workers do not need to be taken out of the loop. Layoffs are unpopular, even when teaching jobs are saved at the expense of non-educational jobs. A branded line also means that schools have another nutrition option.
+ Develop an ordering system around cafeteria managers. This takes out one nice feature of the business model: parents and kids pick the meals. It does, however, cover for them when they forget to pick the meal online. A cafeteria manager based ordering system also takes out the concern of serving families who do not have Internet access.
Should Biblical History Be Taught In the Public Schools?
Today's USA Today Forum focused on the question of teaching about the historical development of the Bible and religion in the public schools.
My feeling is: why not, as long as a teacher does not promote a single interpretation of the Bible over others. Religious history and thought are already taught this way in colleges, including publicly supported schools. Biblical history study is not the same as Bible study in the church or synagogue.
But there are some questions:
+ Do school systems have the time to add another subject to their curriculum? Public schools have already increased the amount of time for test preparation under No Child Left Behind, and other subjects, notably the arts and physical education, have already suffered. Adding a subject could also mean a longer school day. Will teacher's unions go along?
+ Would a state government try to impose biblical history instruction as an unfunded mandate? Unfunded state mandates are quite unpopular with state school boards. They might be forced to make cuts in other programs to comply. All of a sudden, an idea that might be popular with parents will force school systems to make choices over other popular programs to cut.
+ Would state government take a dramatic step of mandating a text book, as the Alabama state Board of Education has done? Biblical history is a natural application for open source text books because an open source text could capture varied religious and historic viewpoints, and be cost effective for a public school system. The text approved by Alabama's board is produced by the Bible Literacy Project and relied on contributions from 42 scholars of various faiths. There have been no lawsuits over this book to date, but school systems would likely appreciate a choice of educational materials.
+ How much time is required to certify teachers? It is possible that social studies teachers could be certified to teach a biblical history course, but they will need time to study biblical history, too, if it had not been part of their academic instruction. Otherwise, a teacher is simply passing on information from a textbook, which is not the best way for students to learn. In addition, teachers need to learn how to grade assignments in a course like this, because interpretations among students are likely to be quite different. Teachers cannot be placed in the position of challenging what their students might be learning in church.
+ Can religious figures be brought in as guest speakers? I don't know the constitutional issues of bringing a minister, priest or rabbi in to discuss their faith in a secular classroom. And some large cities, New York being one example, have residents of so many religious faiths that it might not be possible to accommodate all of them.
+ How would a biblical history curriculum treat intelligent design and other challenges between science and religion. These challenges are part of religious history. Sometimes organized religion prevailed--the Scopes Trial is one example--and sometimes it did not. This information was part of the public news of the past, so why shouldn't it be part of history education, too?
I am sure there are other questions as well; this idea has been under consideration for some time. But parents and educators need proper time to think them through. Biblical history is, like sex education, a subject that cannot be taught in a biased or half-hearted manner.
My feeling is: why not, as long as a teacher does not promote a single interpretation of the Bible over others. Religious history and thought are already taught this way in colleges, including publicly supported schools. Biblical history study is not the same as Bible study in the church or synagogue.
But there are some questions:
+ Do school systems have the time to add another subject to their curriculum? Public schools have already increased the amount of time for test preparation under No Child Left Behind, and other subjects, notably the arts and physical education, have already suffered. Adding a subject could also mean a longer school day. Will teacher's unions go along?
+ Would a state government try to impose biblical history instruction as an unfunded mandate? Unfunded state mandates are quite unpopular with state school boards. They might be forced to make cuts in other programs to comply. All of a sudden, an idea that might be popular with parents will force school systems to make choices over other popular programs to cut.
+ Would state government take a dramatic step of mandating a text book, as the Alabama state Board of Education has done? Biblical history is a natural application for open source text books because an open source text could capture varied religious and historic viewpoints, and be cost effective for a public school system. The text approved by Alabama's board is produced by the Bible Literacy Project and relied on contributions from 42 scholars of various faiths. There have been no lawsuits over this book to date, but school systems would likely appreciate a choice of educational materials.
+ How much time is required to certify teachers? It is possible that social studies teachers could be certified to teach a biblical history course, but they will need time to study biblical history, too, if it had not been part of their academic instruction. Otherwise, a teacher is simply passing on information from a textbook, which is not the best way for students to learn. In addition, teachers need to learn how to grade assignments in a course like this, because interpretations among students are likely to be quite different. Teachers cannot be placed in the position of challenging what their students might be learning in church.
+ Can religious figures be brought in as guest speakers? I don't know the constitutional issues of bringing a minister, priest or rabbi in to discuss their faith in a secular classroom. And some large cities, New York being one example, have residents of so many religious faiths that it might not be possible to accommodate all of them.
+ How would a biblical history curriculum treat intelligent design and other challenges between science and religion. These challenges are part of religious history. Sometimes organized religion prevailed--the Scopes Trial is one example--and sometimes it did not. This information was part of the public news of the past, so why shouldn't it be part of history education, too?
I am sure there are other questions as well; this idea has been under consideration for some time. But parents and educators need proper time to think them through. Biblical history is, like sex education, a subject that cannot be taught in a biased or half-hearted manner.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Some Interesting Numbers About Military Recruiting
This month's Mother Jones has an interesting story, Data Minefield, that discusses the marketing tactics used in military recruiting. I follow this closely because of the release of my new book, Defending College Heights.
There are also several statistics that I didn't know until I read the story. For instance:
+ The U.S Army spends $24,500 to recruit every GI. The story puts this in contrast with four-year colleges that spend an average of $2,000 per new student. Based on my prior work with schools, the Army spends more than triple the cost that a private employer spends on an entry level hire.
+ The Pentagon has a national student database which holds 34 million names, some of students as young as 15. This is in addition to data collected by the U.S. Selective Service. You have to wonder why two data collection efforts are needed when you have the Internet. You also need to wonder how many students listed will actually be eligible for military service.
+ The Pentagon also spends $600,000 to commercial data brokers to add to their lists.
+ The Army spends slightly more than $1 million on a Web site called March2Success.com that includes test taking tips for college admissions exams. That site collects 17,000 registrants per month.
+ In 2008, more than 641,000 high school students took the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. Ninety percent had their score sent to military recruiters. The test in mandatory at 1,000 high schools, although 12,000 administer the test nationally.
+ Last year, in New York City, 45,000 students opted out of sharing contact information with military recruiters. There are approximately 2.8 million students in the New York City public schools.
+ Parents are considered the biggest obstacle to military recruiters. Only five percent of parents, according to the Army's data, would recommend military service to their kids. No need to ask readers why. But what would have happened if U.S. energies were concentrated strictly on Afghanistan, with no involvement in Iraq?
I don't find the numbers shocking. The country needs a strong military and military service is voluntary. The armed forces need to have a message, just like any other employer. And they do a good job reinforcing it. But I have to wonder if some of this money might have been better spent to protect a soldier who wanted to serve instead of pursuing young men and women who didn't.
There are also several statistics that I didn't know until I read the story. For instance:
+ The U.S Army spends $24,500 to recruit every GI. The story puts this in contrast with four-year colleges that spend an average of $2,000 per new student. Based on my prior work with schools, the Army spends more than triple the cost that a private employer spends on an entry level hire.
+ The Pentagon has a national student database which holds 34 million names, some of students as young as 15. This is in addition to data collected by the U.S. Selective Service. You have to wonder why two data collection efforts are needed when you have the Internet. You also need to wonder how many students listed will actually be eligible for military service.
+ The Pentagon also spends $600,000 to commercial data brokers to add to their lists.
+ The Army spends slightly more than $1 million on a Web site called March2Success.com that includes test taking tips for college admissions exams. That site collects 17,000 registrants per month.
+ In 2008, more than 641,000 high school students took the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. Ninety percent had their score sent to military recruiters. The test in mandatory at 1,000 high schools, although 12,000 administer the test nationally.
+ Last year, in New York City, 45,000 students opted out of sharing contact information with military recruiters. There are approximately 2.8 million students in the New York City public schools.
+ Parents are considered the biggest obstacle to military recruiters. Only five percent of parents, according to the Army's data, would recommend military service to their kids. No need to ask readers why. But what would have happened if U.S. energies were concentrated strictly on Afghanistan, with no involvement in Iraq?
I don't find the numbers shocking. The country needs a strong military and military service is voluntary. The armed forces need to have a message, just like any other employer. And they do a good job reinforcing it. But I have to wonder if some of this money might have been better spent to protect a soldier who wanted to serve instead of pursuing young men and women who didn't.
Camps At College, An NFL Tradition is Disappearing
Last night was the first episode of the season's edition of Hard Knocks, HBO's inside look at training camp with an NFL team.
This year it's the Cincinnati Bengals who need all of the positive press they can get. But Bengals fans be warned: no NFL team featured on the show has ever made the playoffs during their season on-camera with the series. Last season's hosts were the Dallas Cowboys, and while they have considerable talent, they stayed home for the postseason.
But the Bengals were an interesting choice in another way. They are one of the remaining teams to open camp on a college campus, as opposed to a practice facility near the home stadium. I realize that the growing trend is to host camp closer to home: more fans are there, they can find the stadium and the team saves money by using their own facilities. But I hope the college campus tradition doesn't go away for good. It brings pro football down to a human scale in small-town America.
The Bengals train at Georgetown College, a liberal arts school just outside of Lexington, Kentucky. During the off-season, Georgetown is more famous for the Toyota plant; it makes the Camry, one of the best-selling cars in America. But during pre-season, they openly welcome the Bengals; the team is always a winner in their eyes. From what I saw Georgetown has some very modern dormitories, meeting facilities and football practice fields. It looks like a very nice place to go to college. It is also nice that the community helps out. On Hard Knocks kids move yard markers, sanding and retrieving footballs. The Bengals made them a part of their training camp team.
And the Bengals are not the most memorable college tenant, because they are one of the newer NFL franchises; they were founded in 1968 while other teams date back to the 1920s. Green Bay Packer players, who have trained at St. Norbert College (WI) even before the Lombardi Era, still ride kid's bicycles through DePere to the first day of practice. The Steelers, long-time tenants at St. Vincent College (PA) host thousands of fans for free for a scrimmage at the local high school. Only the Oakland Raiders close their practices to the public.
The tradition of the small-town college training camp makes pro football more accessible to the fans. It is one of the few opportunities to get an autograph, and possibly a free moment, with a favorite player. It is a chance to watch the pros up-close, as opposed to the more distant stands in the home stadium. This is a tradition that should not go away.
This year it's the Cincinnati Bengals who need all of the positive press they can get. But Bengals fans be warned: no NFL team featured on the show has ever made the playoffs during their season on-camera with the series. Last season's hosts were the Dallas Cowboys, and while they have considerable talent, they stayed home for the postseason.
But the Bengals were an interesting choice in another way. They are one of the remaining teams to open camp on a college campus, as opposed to a practice facility near the home stadium. I realize that the growing trend is to host camp closer to home: more fans are there, they can find the stadium and the team saves money by using their own facilities. But I hope the college campus tradition doesn't go away for good. It brings pro football down to a human scale in small-town America.
The Bengals train at Georgetown College, a liberal arts school just outside of Lexington, Kentucky. During the off-season, Georgetown is more famous for the Toyota plant; it makes the Camry, one of the best-selling cars in America. But during pre-season, they openly welcome the Bengals; the team is always a winner in their eyes. From what I saw Georgetown has some very modern dormitories, meeting facilities and football practice fields. It looks like a very nice place to go to college. It is also nice that the community helps out. On Hard Knocks kids move yard markers, sanding and retrieving footballs. The Bengals made them a part of their training camp team.
And the Bengals are not the most memorable college tenant, because they are one of the newer NFL franchises; they were founded in 1968 while other teams date back to the 1920s. Green Bay Packer players, who have trained at St. Norbert College (WI) even before the Lombardi Era, still ride kid's bicycles through DePere to the first day of practice. The Steelers, long-time tenants at St. Vincent College (PA) host thousands of fans for free for a scrimmage at the local high school. Only the Oakland Raiders close their practices to the public.
The tradition of the small-town college training camp makes pro football more accessible to the fans. It is one of the few opportunities to get an autograph, and possibly a free moment, with a favorite player. It is a chance to watch the pros up-close, as opposed to the more distant stands in the home stadium. This is a tradition that should not go away.
Interview on Working Writers
I would like to thank Cherie Burbach, editor of Working Writers for featuring me as one of today's author interviews. And I also appreciate the kind words for the Website.
Cherie is an author, blogger, poet, crocheter, and self-proclaimed geek. She is an author of six books, an online columnist, and a blogger with a 20-year background in marketing and business. Her print work includes Deca Dimensions, Wisconsin Woman, Succeed Magazine, Daily Reporter, and Happen Magazine. Readers have resonated with Cherie’s “This I Believe” essay, which is the second-most popular out of over 50,000 entries on the NPR website.
I hope you will stop by and check it out, to learn more about my goals for my books and the blog. And check out the Cherie's interviews and services to writers as well.
Cherie is an author, blogger, poet, crocheter, and self-proclaimed geek. She is an author of six books, an online columnist, and a blogger with a 20-year background in marketing and business. Her print work includes Deca Dimensions, Wisconsin Woman, Succeed Magazine, Daily Reporter, and Happen Magazine. Readers have resonated with Cherie’s “This I Believe” essay, which is the second-most popular out of over 50,000 entries on the NPR website.
I hope you will stop by and check it out, to learn more about my goals for my books and the blog. And check out the Cherie's interviews and services to writers as well.
Book Review: Everything Sucks, Losing My Mind and Finding Myself in a High School Quest for Cool
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In writing about education it's only natural to read what the kids read about school- day life whether they attend a suburban public school or a prestigious private school. I'm curious to know what they think. And parents should be curious to see the messages they are getting from the bookshelves as well as the television, the media and the fashion merchandisers.
Everything Sucks looked like a young adult fiction story when I picked up a copy at BookExpo in New York. But as the saying goes: don't judge a book by its cover. This is a memoir, and it's only the first part of the author's journey through boarding school. Part Two comes later.
This story is a mix of Mean Girls, High School Musical and Beverly Hills 90210 (the version I watched ages ago, not today's show), but it's very well written.
The main character is familiar: an attractive, but brilliant girl who does not want to be associated with the nerds, yet she has some sympathy for them, too. But Hannah's early life, being homeschooled on a tour bus with hippie musicians and her father's attempts to blend in with her school life by trying to form a rock band on-campus adds some flavor to an otherwise familiar recipe of teen angst.
I am not a father myself, though I have several nieces and nephews. So, I have gotten an inkling of how real parts of this story might be. I don't feel anything for Hannah as a character in her own story; she comes across as too spoiled. But I can't deny that this story will sell, or become the basis of a popular teen movie. Parents should read this, and become a little concerned.
Draftee Doctor: Another Catch Phrase in the Health Care Winds
This month congressmen and senators are on their educated quests to learn what their constituents think of the latest health care bill. I have to say this: Round 1 goes to the Republicans; they've delayed a vote and come up with a good catch phrase, as usual.
The catch phrase "death panels" obscures everything, even the best intentions on both sides. It's not that the right is right; it's that catch phrases such as "socialized medicine" or "government bureaucrat" are very easy to remember. So, I'd like to contribute to the debate with a catch phrase of my own: draftee doctor.
This phrase, like death panels, is not in a health care bill. Draftee doctors is a floater over the plate, like a badly pitched knuckleball. I chose the phrase because of my research into military recruiting for Defending College Heights, as well as my interests in education and post-graduate employment.
Here's how the draftee doctor policy might work. Doctors fresh from residency would be conscripted into government service for a period of 18 to 24 months then two weeks a year for the next ten years. They would be assigned to places in need of medical care: a veteran's hospital, an inner city or rural clinic, or similar facility. If the doctor is married, he serves close to home. During that time doctors receive a salary and credit towards their loans. If the doctor remains in public service full-time, more debt is cleared.
What are some of the good points?
+ There is an influx of new doctors in places of need.
+ The facilities and communities in need don't need to pay their salaries.
+ They get doctors who have not been disillusioned-yet.
+ The doctors gain more appreciation of each other, just as soldiers do.
+ The doctors end up with less debt.
What are some of the bad points?
+ All of the moral issues about conscription: the country's needs take priority over the needs of the individual doctors and their families.
+ There is no assurance that the quality of care would improve.
+ Some residency specialties, like general surgery, take a long time to complete. There is a risk that fewer people might pursue these specialties.
+ Government spending goes up because the doctors are on the public payroll and the government is assuming a portion of their debt.
This is a clear, simple concept, with a two-word catch phrase. If you're old enough to remember M*A*S*H, then you already know that Hawkeye, BJ and Charles were draftee doctors. Only now, under my floater, the doctors would not serve in the military.
So, comment anyway you like on draftee doctors. I'm curious to know what people in the left, middle and right think about this new catch phrase.
The catch phrase "death panels" obscures everything, even the best intentions on both sides. It's not that the right is right; it's that catch phrases such as "socialized medicine" or "government bureaucrat" are very easy to remember. So, I'd like to contribute to the debate with a catch phrase of my own: draftee doctor.
This phrase, like death panels, is not in a health care bill. Draftee doctors is a floater over the plate, like a badly pitched knuckleball. I chose the phrase because of my research into military recruiting for Defending College Heights, as well as my interests in education and post-graduate employment.
Here's how the draftee doctor policy might work. Doctors fresh from residency would be conscripted into government service for a period of 18 to 24 months then two weeks a year for the next ten years. They would be assigned to places in need of medical care: a veteran's hospital, an inner city or rural clinic, or similar facility. If the doctor is married, he serves close to home. During that time doctors receive a salary and credit towards their loans. If the doctor remains in public service full-time, more debt is cleared.
What are some of the good points?
+ There is an influx of new doctors in places of need.
+ The facilities and communities in need don't need to pay their salaries.
+ They get doctors who have not been disillusioned-yet.
+ The doctors gain more appreciation of each other, just as soldiers do.
+ The doctors end up with less debt.
What are some of the bad points?
+ All of the moral issues about conscription: the country's needs take priority over the needs of the individual doctors and their families.
+ There is no assurance that the quality of care would improve.
+ Some residency specialties, like general surgery, take a long time to complete. There is a risk that fewer people might pursue these specialties.
+ Government spending goes up because the doctors are on the public payroll and the government is assuming a portion of their debt.
This is a clear, simple concept, with a two-word catch phrase. If you're old enough to remember M*A*S*H, then you already know that Hawkeye, BJ and Charles were draftee doctors. Only now, under my floater, the doctors would not serve in the military.
So, comment anyway you like on draftee doctors. I'm curious to know what people in the left, middle and right think about this new catch phrase.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Time for Americans to Adopt Their Monuments
This is the time of year when families are taking off for vacations; children have their last fleeting moments of freedom before the school bell rings again. While the beach, a woods cabin or a resort might be popular destinations, some families try to combine vacation and education together. Dinah Shore first popularized this in 1952 in when she sang for Americans to See the U.S.A in your Chevrolet, because America was asking them to call.
When I was younger all of our family vacations took place through the car window. We saw natural wonders and historic sites, though honestly I was too young to appreciate them. I've tried to revisit the ones close by, the natural and preserved landmarks as well as the schlock in adulthood. And I have two concerns. One is how schlock operators build brands with the history, but I can't do anything about that, and besides, they're not claiming authenticity with their products. The other is that history, in some places, has been thrown away.
Early my first "working life" in urban planning, I met a man, Charles Cummings, who was a librarian as well as one of New Jersey's leading historians. Charles' expertise included the history of the city of Newark, the fourth oldest city in the United State. Everyone in the business community liked Charles, respected him and his knowledge. And he had a passion that was important to him: to save monuments that had been damaged by time, as well as human intervention. He took me through a city park and showed examples that lingered for a while. Most important, he taught me that no community should throw away their history.
So, if you're visiting historic sites on your vacation, drop a small donation at the door to allow others to see what you saw. Or join the National Trust for Historic Preservation Or, at the very least, take a flattering picture and put it up on Facebook or MySpace, so that your friends can contemplate a visit. Our government, through the National Park Service and other agencies, as well as educators do their part to preserve and protect out history. They deserve our support.
When I was younger all of our family vacations took place through the car window. We saw natural wonders and historic sites, though honestly I was too young to appreciate them. I've tried to revisit the ones close by, the natural and preserved landmarks as well as the schlock in adulthood. And I have two concerns. One is how schlock operators build brands with the history, but I can't do anything about that, and besides, they're not claiming authenticity with their products. The other is that history, in some places, has been thrown away.
Early my first "working life" in urban planning, I met a man, Charles Cummings, who was a librarian as well as one of New Jersey's leading historians. Charles' expertise included the history of the city of Newark, the fourth oldest city in the United State. Everyone in the business community liked Charles, respected him and his knowledge. And he had a passion that was important to him: to save monuments that had been damaged by time, as well as human intervention. He took me through a city park and showed examples that lingered for a while. Most important, he taught me that no community should throw away their history.
So, if you're visiting historic sites on your vacation, drop a small donation at the door to allow others to see what you saw. Or join the National Trust for Historic Preservation Or, at the very least, take a flattering picture and put it up on Facebook or MySpace, so that your friends can contemplate a visit. Our government, through the National Park Service and other agencies, as well as educators do their part to preserve and protect out history. They deserve our support.
Julie and Julia: A Book, A Movie and A Blog
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This weekend my wife and I saw Julie and Julia, which is really two stories in one. In one part, we saw how Julia Child first became a famous chef and in the other we see how Julie Powell, a once-discouraged writer, became a blogger and a servantless cook. Powell's blog is a day-to-day account of her efforts to make every recipe in the first volume of Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, 524 recipes in 365 days. Talk about an educated quest.
After we saw the movie, I read Powell's book as well as a few pages of her blog, The Julie/Julia Project. I am no chef; my talents are pretty much limited to ready-to-eats, boiling water and making reservations, but I've watched many episodes of Hell's Kitchen and Top Chef, watching celebrity wannabees try to earn a higher place. And I've also eaten many strombolis at Stuf Yur Face near Rutgers where Mario Batali once rolled the dough, among many things. But I enjoyed her writing. And I appreciate how she tried to become a good cook, as opposed to a Top Chef, by following a cook book.
I don't know of too many complicated subjects you can learn by reading a dryly written tomb. I would imagine that learning French cooking would be no easier for me than learning physics from a college textbook. And Powell shows in the book and movie, that experiments can often be dangerous and messy. In cooking, as in physics, you really learn to play with fire. Child at least had the advantage of learning French cooking in a kitchen with other French chefs.
Powell not only tried to learn from a textbook; she tried to learn from an old textbook. The first printing of Child's book was in 1961, before several appliances we take for granted came on the market. Child did not have the luxury of working with a microwave or a food processor and she killed lobsters with a knife instead of boiling them in water. Powell tried to stay true to the tried-and-true, except that she boiled the lobsters.
When I think about Powell's story, as someone who writes about education, I find it astounding. I know many people who graduated college who were essentially forced to learn complicated subjects such as calculus, economics, finance and physics, essentially on their own, sometimes without the help of an instructor who spoke fluent English. It takes an awfully smart person to do that, and earn excellent grades. But it takes serious determination to comprehend complicated recipes and make them for a food writer for the New York Times.
Julie Powell began blogging in 2002, before I ever knew what a blog was. Her blog became a book, then a very good movie. She's a role model for any blogger/writer, myself included.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Book Review: You're Teaching My Child What? A Physician Exposes the Lies of Sex Education and How They Harm Your Child by Dr. Miriam Grossman M.D.
It's been almost two years since the release of my first novel, The Sex Ed Chronicles, but I still follow issues and read books about sex education in the schools. Now I've read the first one that challenges the medical accuracy of the information offered in print and online to students by sex educators.
I am not a MD like Miriam Grossman, so I am not prepared to challenge her challenges to the information that she has collected from advocacy organizations such as Advocates for Youth, Planned Parenthood, and the Sex Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS) as well as university-affilated organizations.
And, in this book, Grossman is not challenging the need for age-appropriate, medically-accurate sex education, or rejecting it in favor of an abstinence-only approach. Rather, she is advancing the cause of the advocates whose information she challenges. This is all well and good; debate has been, and will always be, important to the advancement of science and medical knowledge.
But the challenge when you take a viewpoint is to find an audience that wants to hear it. Grossman reports in this book that advocates have either ignored or rejected her. So, she uses the pro-abstinence forums instead. Visit her Web site and you will find columns in such conservative outlets as Townhall.com and the National Review Online, among others.
In addition, and I quote from page 8 in the book, she refers to sex education advocates as a social movement, as opposed to a resource. The quotes appear below.
What these 'experts' are hiding is their goal of bringing about radical social change, one child at a time. Their mission is to mold each student into what is considered a 'sexually healthy' adult--as if there was universal agreement on what that is. From a review of many of today's sex-ed curricula and websites, it would appear that a 'sexually healthy' individual is one who has been 'desensitized,' who is without any sense of embarrassment or shame (what some might consider 'modesty'), whose sexuality is always 'positive' and 'open,' who respects and accepts 'diverse' lifestyles, and who practices 'safer sex' with every 'partner'.
This is not about health, folks. This is about indoctrination.
This is the sort of language that weakens Grossman's major points about medical accuracy, but it is also the sort of language that gets you noticed by a large audience in the conservative media. I don't begrudge someone for looking for an audience, but Dr. Grossman should be careful of some of the media company she keeps. They are as likely to twist her message as the advocates she critiques in the book. I must also note that she mentions nothing about pro-abstinence programs such as purity balls or dramatic theatrical assemblies that are too often substituted for sex education.
Nonetheless, I respect Dr. Grossman for writing this book. Aside from quotes like the one above, it could be a useful volume for educated parents. It could also be a useful work if both sides of this culture war call a truce on some of the issues where they actually agree. Just as President Obama has repeatedly tried to advance discussion on race, strong leadership can resolve issues on sex education where reasonably educated parties agree.
I know of no organization who does not want to fight the spread of STDs or the recent bump in teen pregnancies. I know of no organization that would not prefer that thirteen or fourteen year olds abstain from sexual intercourse. And I know of none that oppose policies against child abuse or child pornography. And I also know that it is difficult to find an approach where students will listen and take the information seriously. And I also realize that science makes past thoughts out-of-date.
It takes commitment, and courage, to write a book like this. I can understand why Dr. Grossman would not want to be a lone voice on issues important to her. And I am sure that Dr. Grossman would agree with a point that I have made repeatedly: sex education is a subject that, like driver's education, should be taught with nothing less than excellence. Life lessons are offered, but when you make a serious mistake you can crash.
I am not a MD like Miriam Grossman, so I am not prepared to challenge her challenges to the information that she has collected from advocacy organizations such as Advocates for Youth, Planned Parenthood, and the Sex Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS) as well as university-affilated organizations.
And, in this book, Grossman is not challenging the need for age-appropriate, medically-accurate sex education, or rejecting it in favor of an abstinence-only approach. Rather, she is advancing the cause of the advocates whose information she challenges. This is all well and good; debate has been, and will always be, important to the advancement of science and medical knowledge.
But the challenge when you take a viewpoint is to find an audience that wants to hear it. Grossman reports in this book that advocates have either ignored or rejected her. So, she uses the pro-abstinence forums instead. Visit her Web site and you will find columns in such conservative outlets as Townhall.com and the National Review Online, among others.
In addition, and I quote from page 8 in the book, she refers to sex education advocates as a social movement, as opposed to a resource. The quotes appear below.
What these 'experts' are hiding is their goal of bringing about radical social change, one child at a time. Their mission is to mold each student into what is considered a 'sexually healthy' adult--as if there was universal agreement on what that is. From a review of many of today's sex-ed curricula and websites, it would appear that a 'sexually healthy' individual is one who has been 'desensitized,' who is without any sense of embarrassment or shame (what some might consider 'modesty'), whose sexuality is always 'positive' and 'open,' who respects and accepts 'diverse' lifestyles, and who practices 'safer sex' with every 'partner'.
This is not about health, folks. This is about indoctrination.
This is the sort of language that weakens Grossman's major points about medical accuracy, but it is also the sort of language that gets you noticed by a large audience in the conservative media. I don't begrudge someone for looking for an audience, but Dr. Grossman should be careful of some of the media company she keeps. They are as likely to twist her message as the advocates she critiques in the book. I must also note that she mentions nothing about pro-abstinence programs such as purity balls or dramatic theatrical assemblies that are too often substituted for sex education.
Nonetheless, I respect Dr. Grossman for writing this book. Aside from quotes like the one above, it could be a useful volume for educated parents. It could also be a useful work if both sides of this culture war call a truce on some of the issues where they actually agree. Just as President Obama has repeatedly tried to advance discussion on race, strong leadership can resolve issues on sex education where reasonably educated parties agree.
I know of no organization who does not want to fight the spread of STDs or the recent bump in teen pregnancies. I know of no organization that would not prefer that thirteen or fourteen year olds abstain from sexual intercourse. And I know of none that oppose policies against child abuse or child pornography. And I also know that it is difficult to find an approach where students will listen and take the information seriously. And I also realize that science makes past thoughts out-of-date.
It takes commitment, and courage, to write a book like this. I can understand why Dr. Grossman would not want to be a lone voice on issues important to her. And I am sure that Dr. Grossman would agree with a point that I have made repeatedly: sex education is a subject that, like driver's education, should be taught with nothing less than excellence. Life lessons are offered, but when you make a serious mistake you can crash.
Monday, August 10, 2009
What Does One "Do" With an Undergraduate Physics Degree?
I live in the Princeton (NJ) area, home not only to Princeton University, but also many science and technology companies and privately sponsored research laboratories. Albert Einstein did much of his thinking here, as did John Forbes Nash, the Nobel Laureate played by Russell Crowe in the movie A Beautiful Mind.
Even our representative in Congress, Rush Holt is a scientist. He earned his undergraduate degree in physics from Carleton College (MN) and his masters and doctorate from NYU. Rep. Holt is one of the leading advocates for increased funding for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in the House.
It's hard to be opposed to increased funding for STEM subjects; it adds to the intellectual capital of the nation, education, and commerce. Whether at war or at peace, a nation's future is driven by its intellectual capital. However, there is another concern; an over-emphasis on STEM subjects could lead to less interest in a liberal arts undergraduate education and more towards career-focused subjects such as computer science and engineering.
Liberal arts colleges counter by offering undergraduate degrees in biology, chemistry and physics, as well as combinations of these disciplines. However it is less clear what graduates "do" with degrees in these subjects. To me, this was especially true of physics. Introductory courses in physics are required for engineering, nursing and pre-med students, among others, but few continue onto physics degrees. Curious, I asked a physicist.
David Saltzberg, PhD. is Professor of Physics and Astronomy at UCLA. He received his Bachelor's degree in Physics from Princeton and his doctorate from the University of Chicago. David has partially shifted his research towards neutrino astronomy, using radio detection techniques. He recently completed a scientific balloon mission looking for the electromagnetic pulses from neutrino interactions in the Antarctic Ice. He is also Science Consultant for the television sit-com: The Big Bang Theory.
While David is a scientist, he also has an undergraduate liberal arts education which made him the right person to ask: what does one "do" with a physics degree? He has not only taught many students, but has friends who chose less traditional pursuits. And he advises future educators at a leading university.
Why should college students consider majoring in physics?
I think there is only one reason to major in physics, and that is because you really like it. I majored in physics because I always liked my classes and wanted to learn more. Along the way, you meet some really smart people who also love physics in relatively small classes. You work together in labs and generally spend a lot of time together. It is a great way to go through college.
What have your former college classmates and students done (besides doctoral study) after earning their undergraduate degrees in physics?
It is all over the map. Various types of engineering are all possible. I even have one friend that designs robots. Others have gone into science journalism. Another friend with a physics major joined the Air Force and flies planes.
How has undergraduate instruction in physics changed since you were a student? (for example, new courses, new technology)
Amazingly little has changed about how we teach in physics to the physics majors. Unlike biology, I could teach first year physics out of a book that is nearly 100 years old and the curriculum would be almost the same. The books now are thicker and full of color photographs about careers in physics, but the main content is the same once you dig it out.
There is a move afoot now to teach non-physics majors in a more interactive way than the lecture format. Electronic devices called "clickers" allow students to answer multiple choice questions in real time so the professor can spend more or less time on the topic.
When budgets allow, smaller classes that focus on problem solving are formed which are terrific if a university can afford to do that. For while there was a attempt to formalize how students learned from their peers by forcing them to work on short questions together in class.
I've read that physics majors often double-major in subjects such as math, computer science and education. Is this still the case?
We have people double-majoring or taking a minor. Since you don't need this to graduate it is largely just a bureaucratic hurdle. The relevant thing is that you took the extra courses and have the interest. Our own university merged together curricula from the biology and physics department to form a biophysics major which has been popular among the students. The idea is that these learn both real biology and real physics. But for every course a student takes, that represents another course they do not take to graduate. So while the double major may add depth in math and physics, it probably comes at the expense of breadth of exposure to other topics.
Do you believe that increased public spending in STEM subjects (science,technology, engineering and math) will encourage more students to major in physics, or are they more likely to major in other subjects?
I don't know. It probably could not hurt.
Do you believe that the demand for doctorates in physics in the U.S. will increase, decrease or remain about the same over the next ten years?
What I do know is that universities have been cutting back their admissions to physics graduate school because of budget cuts. That will reduce the number of physics Ph.D.'s in about five years.
For example, The Department of Education did not renew our GAANN fellowship program which encouraged traditionally underrepresented groups to attend graduate school and will directly reduce our number of students.
It seems counter-productive to be cutting back on graduate programs when we are trying to stimulate the economy. A graduate student spends nearly every dollar they earn; while in school they do not take a job from someone else; and when they graduate they are often part of the cutting edge workforce that creates new fields and jobs.
Even our representative in Congress, Rush Holt is a scientist. He earned his undergraduate degree in physics from Carleton College (MN) and his masters and doctorate from NYU. Rep. Holt is one of the leading advocates for increased funding for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in the House.
It's hard to be opposed to increased funding for STEM subjects; it adds to the intellectual capital of the nation, education, and commerce. Whether at war or at peace, a nation's future is driven by its intellectual capital. However, there is another concern; an over-emphasis on STEM subjects could lead to less interest in a liberal arts undergraduate education and more towards career-focused subjects such as computer science and engineering.
Liberal arts colleges counter by offering undergraduate degrees in biology, chemistry and physics, as well as combinations of these disciplines. However it is less clear what graduates "do" with degrees in these subjects. To me, this was especially true of physics. Introductory courses in physics are required for engineering, nursing and pre-med students, among others, but few continue onto physics degrees. Curious, I asked a physicist.
David Saltzberg, PhD. is Professor of Physics and Astronomy at UCLA. He received his Bachelor's degree in Physics from Princeton and his doctorate from the University of Chicago. David has partially shifted his research towards neutrino astronomy, using radio detection techniques. He recently completed a scientific balloon mission looking for the electromagnetic pulses from neutrino interactions in the Antarctic Ice. He is also Science Consultant for the television sit-com: The Big Bang Theory.
While David is a scientist, he also has an undergraduate liberal arts education which made him the right person to ask: what does one "do" with a physics degree? He has not only taught many students, but has friends who chose less traditional pursuits. And he advises future educators at a leading university.
Why should college students consider majoring in physics?
I think there is only one reason to major in physics, and that is because you really like it. I majored in physics because I always liked my classes and wanted to learn more. Along the way, you meet some really smart people who also love physics in relatively small classes. You work together in labs and generally spend a lot of time together. It is a great way to go through college.
What have your former college classmates and students done (besides doctoral study) after earning their undergraduate degrees in physics?
It is all over the map. Various types of engineering are all possible. I even have one friend that designs robots. Others have gone into science journalism. Another friend with a physics major joined the Air Force and flies planes.
How has undergraduate instruction in physics changed since you were a student? (for example, new courses, new technology)
Amazingly little has changed about how we teach in physics to the physics majors. Unlike biology, I could teach first year physics out of a book that is nearly 100 years old and the curriculum would be almost the same. The books now are thicker and full of color photographs about careers in physics, but the main content is the same once you dig it out.
There is a move afoot now to teach non-physics majors in a more interactive way than the lecture format. Electronic devices called "clickers" allow students to answer multiple choice questions in real time so the professor can spend more or less time on the topic.
When budgets allow, smaller classes that focus on problem solving are formed which are terrific if a university can afford to do that. For while there was a attempt to formalize how students learned from their peers by forcing them to work on short questions together in class.
I've read that physics majors often double-major in subjects such as math, computer science and education. Is this still the case?
We have people double-majoring or taking a minor. Since you don't need this to graduate it is largely just a bureaucratic hurdle. The relevant thing is that you took the extra courses and have the interest. Our own university merged together curricula from the biology and physics department to form a biophysics major which has been popular among the students. The idea is that these learn both real biology and real physics. But for every course a student takes, that represents another course they do not take to graduate. So while the double major may add depth in math and physics, it probably comes at the expense of breadth of exposure to other topics.
Do you believe that increased public spending in STEM subjects (science,technology, engineering and math) will encourage more students to major in physics, or are they more likely to major in other subjects?
I don't know. It probably could not hurt.
Do you believe that the demand for doctorates in physics in the U.S. will increase, decrease or remain about the same over the next ten years?
What I do know is that universities have been cutting back their admissions to physics graduate school because of budget cuts. That will reduce the number of physics Ph.D.'s in about five years.
For example, The Department of Education did not renew our GAANN fellowship program which encouraged traditionally underrepresented groups to attend graduate school and will directly reduce our number of students.
It seems counter-productive to be cutting back on graduate programs when we are trying to stimulate the economy. A graduate student spends nearly every dollar they earn; while in school they do not take a job from someone else; and when they graduate they are often part of the cutting edge workforce that creates new fields and jobs.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Hope I'm As "Lucky" as Buzz Bissinger
Today's USA Today has a cover story about Gary Gaines, the legendary football coach of the Permian Psnthers of Odessa, Texas. Twenty years ago, the Panthers were the subject of a bestselling sport's book: Buzz Bissinger's Friday Night Lights. Lights later became a hit movie as well as the basis for a highly rated television series. Gaines made the front page today because he is returning to the Permian sidelines after serving in four other jobs in high school and college coaching and athletic administration.
The book was controversial among Odessa adults; they claimed the townspeople were protrayed as rednecks. Gaines refuses to read the book, and in today's story said that he would have reconsidered Bissinger's access to his team. However, the players quoted in the story do not deny Bissinger's analysis.
I paid attention to this story, and similar ones before it, because I am working on a novel, Tip Offs, involving sports and local politics. My chosen sport is girl's basketball, which is gaining more and more fans annually. My chosen community is a place more famous than Odessa: Gettysburg.
Why did I pick such a place? Partly because of the history and partly because the ton has never had a state champion in any sport. While the local high school has had successful football, swimming and wrestling programs, it's most successful single season team was in girl's basketball in 2007-2008. Gettyburg's Lady Warriors reached the final four in their school class. I started Tip Offs before the real team began their season, though I did have a chance to see them play one game in person.
However, I am writing fiction, not the story of the real team whom the community did embrace as they got closer to a championship. They modestly refused the offer for a luxury bus on route to their last game. It would have been deja vu if I had seen them play in the finals at Penn State. However, I had to settle for watching Mercyhurst Prep, the team that vanquished the Gettysburg squad.
My story, like Bissinger's will be about a community and a team. I was curious to answer a "what if," as in how would such a famous small town support a team in a sport that was previously underappreciated. I also want to show a fictional impression of a community that has historical responsibilities shared by few other American towns. Gettysburg has been a tourist destination since 1865, before the end of the Civil War and four score and ten years before Disneyland. Trolley lines circulated across the famous battlefield until the 1920's.
I met several people involved in Gettysburg media and historic preservation, and I realize there will be concerns about how I portray their town. I sincerely hope that the community understands that I am writing fiction, and that I respect much of what they value: history, tourism and family being examples. I hope that I will not receive threats as Bissinger did. But like Bissinger, I have an obligation to share my voice, and I shall. I would be happy to get a small share of his readership, too.
The book was controversial among Odessa adults; they claimed the townspeople were protrayed as rednecks. Gaines refuses to read the book, and in today's story said that he would have reconsidered Bissinger's access to his team. However, the players quoted in the story do not deny Bissinger's analysis.
I paid attention to this story, and similar ones before it, because I am working on a novel, Tip Offs, involving sports and local politics. My chosen sport is girl's basketball, which is gaining more and more fans annually. My chosen community is a place more famous than Odessa: Gettysburg.
Why did I pick such a place? Partly because of the history and partly because the ton has never had a state champion in any sport. While the local high school has had successful football, swimming and wrestling programs, it's most successful single season team was in girl's basketball in 2007-2008. Gettyburg's Lady Warriors reached the final four in their school class. I started Tip Offs before the real team began their season, though I did have a chance to see them play one game in person.
However, I am writing fiction, not the story of the real team whom the community did embrace as they got closer to a championship. They modestly refused the offer for a luxury bus on route to their last game. It would have been deja vu if I had seen them play in the finals at Penn State. However, I had to settle for watching Mercyhurst Prep, the team that vanquished the Gettysburg squad.
My story, like Bissinger's will be about a community and a team. I was curious to answer a "what if," as in how would such a famous small town support a team in a sport that was previously underappreciated. I also want to show a fictional impression of a community that has historical responsibilities shared by few other American towns. Gettysburg has been a tourist destination since 1865, before the end of the Civil War and four score and ten years before Disneyland. Trolley lines circulated across the famous battlefield until the 1920's.
I met several people involved in Gettysburg media and historic preservation, and I realize there will be concerns about how I portray their town. I sincerely hope that the community understands that I am writing fiction, and that I respect much of what they value: history, tourism and family being examples. I hope that I will not receive threats as Bissinger did. But like Bissinger, I have an obligation to share my voice, and I shall. I would be happy to get a small share of his readership, too.
West Point At the Top of Forbes College Rankings
Today, I read a story on Forbes online edition where the magazine has released their version of a college ranking. Under their methodology, West Point is the cream of the crop.
The magazine's methodology differs from other publications such as U.S. News and World Report by allocating 25% of the rank to student ratings of faculty and 25% to post-employment income.
However, the Web-based resources used to develop these portions of each school's overall rank, RateMyProfessors.com and PayScale.com, can come into question. However, this data is not collected by the colleges, so it might be harder to "game" the Forbes ranking.
The remaining weights in the ranking are for average student debt (20%), four-year graduation rate, gap between the average and predicted graduation rate for the school and the number of students and faculty who have won nationally competitive awards, such as Rhodes Scholarships.
The only component in the Forbes ranking that is also used by U.S. News is the average vs. predicted graduation rate. But kudos to Forbes for sticking to the four-year rate (U.S. News uses a six-year rate). A high four-year graduation rate is a positive reflection upon not only the students, but the admissions office as well. It shows that they have done an excellent job in finding the students who best fit the school's culture and educational offerings.
So, naturally a different methodology will lead to a different ranking, in this case one which has two military services academies among the top 30 schools and three as the top publicly funded institutions.
I can see how the military academies score high in this methodology. They charge no tuition and those who make it through the freshman year generally move on to graduate. Punishment for failure or dishonor is very strict, so there is incentive to avoid. And there is incentive to do well: those who rank highest in their class have the greatest choice of jobs after graduation. And lastly, officers who have served with distinction are highly regarded by private industry. They have an easier time transitioning into the workforce than enlisted personnel or officers who have gone through the ROTC programs. Academy graduates also have a large network, especially West Pointers, since their academy has operated since 1802.
The schools that follow West Point are no surprise; Princeton, Cal Tech, Williams and Harvard round out the top five. These schools have history, distinguished faculty, bright students, and they are among the most generous with financial aid. In addition, Princeton requires a junior and senior thesis (I do not know about the other schools) and practically expects its graduates to finish in four years.
I clicked down the top fifty. No surprises. Practically every school in these rankings is among the top 30 in the U.S. News rankings for national liberal arts colleges or national research universities. Only one school (DePauw in Indiana) admits more than half of its applicants and only one (The College of William and Mary in Virginia) is publicly supported.
What this ranking and others go to show is that some schools are always top schools, regardless of the methodology used. An unknown institution is unlikely to sneak up to the top, unless you segment these rankings by region or type of school. Once you segment these rankings further, they become less meaningful.
Being the best regional liberal arts masters-degree school in the South, for example, is very nice, but there is less competition for that honor and you have to work to explain it. It's like being a division champion in major league baseball. You're happy you beat three to five other rivals for a title, but you still need to win the World Series to be champion.
The magazine's methodology differs from other publications such as U.S. News and World Report by allocating 25% of the rank to student ratings of faculty and 25% to post-employment income.
However, the Web-based resources used to develop these portions of each school's overall rank, RateMyProfessors.com and PayScale.com, can come into question. However, this data is not collected by the colleges, so it might be harder to "game" the Forbes ranking.
The remaining weights in the ranking are for average student debt (20%), four-year graduation rate, gap between the average and predicted graduation rate for the school and the number of students and faculty who have won nationally competitive awards, such as Rhodes Scholarships.
The only component in the Forbes ranking that is also used by U.S. News is the average vs. predicted graduation rate. But kudos to Forbes for sticking to the four-year rate (U.S. News uses a six-year rate). A high four-year graduation rate is a positive reflection upon not only the students, but the admissions office as well. It shows that they have done an excellent job in finding the students who best fit the school's culture and educational offerings.
So, naturally a different methodology will lead to a different ranking, in this case one which has two military services academies among the top 30 schools and three as the top publicly funded institutions.
I can see how the military academies score high in this methodology. They charge no tuition and those who make it through the freshman year generally move on to graduate. Punishment for failure or dishonor is very strict, so there is incentive to avoid. And there is incentive to do well: those who rank highest in their class have the greatest choice of jobs after graduation. And lastly, officers who have served with distinction are highly regarded by private industry. They have an easier time transitioning into the workforce than enlisted personnel or officers who have gone through the ROTC programs. Academy graduates also have a large network, especially West Pointers, since their academy has operated since 1802.
The schools that follow West Point are no surprise; Princeton, Cal Tech, Williams and Harvard round out the top five. These schools have history, distinguished faculty, bright students, and they are among the most generous with financial aid. In addition, Princeton requires a junior and senior thesis (I do not know about the other schools) and practically expects its graduates to finish in four years.
I clicked down the top fifty. No surprises. Practically every school in these rankings is among the top 30 in the U.S. News rankings for national liberal arts colleges or national research universities. Only one school (DePauw in Indiana) admits more than half of its applicants and only one (The College of William and Mary in Virginia) is publicly supported.
What this ranking and others go to show is that some schools are always top schools, regardless of the methodology used. An unknown institution is unlikely to sneak up to the top, unless you segment these rankings by region or type of school. Once you segment these rankings further, they become less meaningful.
Being the best regional liberal arts masters-degree school in the South, for example, is very nice, but there is less competition for that honor and you have to work to explain it. It's like being a division champion in major league baseball. You're happy you beat three to five other rivals for a title, but you still need to win the World Series to be champion.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
One Way to Reform School Board Bureaucracy in the Suburbs: Dissolve It
I am reading this story in yesterday's Asbury Park Press, one of my hometown New Jersey papers. The story is about the buyout of the contract of the former superintendent of schools in Hanover Park, a northern New Jersey suburb.
The Hanover Park school system terminated the contract of Paul Arilotta, their former superintendent, in December, 2008. They were set to pay him slightly over $205.000 to buy out the balance of his contract, which was supposed to run through the 2010-2011 school year. The board did not disclose the reasons for Arilotta's dismissal, but placed him on paid leave until his contract could be settled. However, state education commissioner Lucille Davy has rejected the buyout, calling it "excessive."
Arilotta has collected $90,000 in salary since he was placed on paid leave. His salary would have been approximately $170,000 for the school year. Commissioner Davy, who is a former teacher as well as an attorney, states that Arilotta is entitled to only $100,000.
No matter how much money Arilotta ultimately receives, it is based off a lawyer's interpretation of a guaranteed contract. What other individuals get guaranteed contracts these days? Athletes, entertainers, senior corporate executives who are paid based on performance.
This story illustrates an important principal in school board governance. The most important thing that the school board does is hire the superintendent. This is the only contract they can actually set their own terms; a realistic school board does sufficient research, through a headhunter, to learn how much they must pay.
I know that parents dislike the idea of guaranteed contracts in the public sector. The argument is that a senior executive should be paid to perform, not paid to sit on his duff and collect the taxpayer's money. To an extent they're right, but then they should vote out the school board that made the mistake. But when it comes time to exercise the power of the vote, less than ten percent show up.
So, here's what I wonder: why not dissolve the school board and consolidate the non-education functions of a school system with local government? Municipal governments do all of the business functions of the school system: facilities, security, contract negotiations, transportation, food services, purchasing and budgeting. A business administrator could hire an educational Dean of Instruction to manage the academic side, if necessary.
Or, maybe you can eliminate the middle men. Let each school have their own board governed by parents of the students in the school, teacher representatives and alumni, just like a private school.
The board would hire the principal; the salary and benefits are subject to the business administrator's approval. The principal works with teachers who work under a union contract, just as they always have. Teachers would need to indicate their preferences each school year, but they do that anyway. It's up to them to build a positive working relationship with principals and parents. Then again, that's the way it's always been, too.
I constantly read comments on education and political sites about cutting government spending, especially in my home state of New Jersey, which considers home rule sacrilegious. But I also see the duplicity of non-educational functions between a local government and a public school system. I see no reason why these functions cannot be housed in one place. Not do I see why schools cannot become more democratic and accessible to parents. I hope I have presented some thoughts as to hope to accomplish both.
The Hanover Park school system terminated the contract of Paul Arilotta, their former superintendent, in December, 2008. They were set to pay him slightly over $205.000 to buy out the balance of his contract, which was supposed to run through the 2010-2011 school year. The board did not disclose the reasons for Arilotta's dismissal, but placed him on paid leave until his contract could be settled. However, state education commissioner Lucille Davy has rejected the buyout, calling it "excessive."
Arilotta has collected $90,000 in salary since he was placed on paid leave. His salary would have been approximately $170,000 for the school year. Commissioner Davy, who is a former teacher as well as an attorney, states that Arilotta is entitled to only $100,000.
No matter how much money Arilotta ultimately receives, it is based off a lawyer's interpretation of a guaranteed contract. What other individuals get guaranteed contracts these days? Athletes, entertainers, senior corporate executives who are paid based on performance.
This story illustrates an important principal in school board governance. The most important thing that the school board does is hire the superintendent. This is the only contract they can actually set their own terms; a realistic school board does sufficient research, through a headhunter, to learn how much they must pay.
I know that parents dislike the idea of guaranteed contracts in the public sector. The argument is that a senior executive should be paid to perform, not paid to sit on his duff and collect the taxpayer's money. To an extent they're right, but then they should vote out the school board that made the mistake. But when it comes time to exercise the power of the vote, less than ten percent show up.
So, here's what I wonder: why not dissolve the school board and consolidate the non-education functions of a school system with local government? Municipal governments do all of the business functions of the school system: facilities, security, contract negotiations, transportation, food services, purchasing and budgeting. A business administrator could hire an educational Dean of Instruction to manage the academic side, if necessary.
Or, maybe you can eliminate the middle men. Let each school have their own board governed by parents of the students in the school, teacher representatives and alumni, just like a private school.
The board would hire the principal; the salary and benefits are subject to the business administrator's approval. The principal works with teachers who work under a union contract, just as they always have. Teachers would need to indicate their preferences each school year, but they do that anyway. It's up to them to build a positive working relationship with principals and parents. Then again, that's the way it's always been, too.
I constantly read comments on education and political sites about cutting government spending, especially in my home state of New Jersey, which considers home rule sacrilegious. But I also see the duplicity of non-educational functions between a local government and a public school system. I see no reason why these functions cannot be housed in one place. Not do I see why schools cannot become more democratic and accessible to parents. I hope I have presented some thoughts as to hope to accomplish both.
Book Review: Swimming by Nicola Keegan
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This summer, in addition to blogging, I am working on a new novel called Tip Offs, and much of the story involves girl's high school basketball. In writing Tip Offs, I am trying to do something very difficult: write a story involving sports that doesn't sound like a sports book. I just finished one of the best books to help: Swimming by Nicola Keegan.
Most sports stories, Frank Deford's The Entitled and Everybody's All American being two of the best examples, devote considerable space to the behind-the-scenes of sports.
Sportswriters who have covered athletes for years try to bundle up their knowledge into a neat package for sports fans. Those writers often avoid going as deep into true stories; they thrive on access to athletes, coaches and management. The same for ex-jocks like Peter Gent, the former Dallas Cowboy who penned North Dallas Forty. I enjoyed Deford's and Gent's books because I am a baseball and football fan. But people who are not fans would not enjoy them as much as I did.
Swimming is a first person story, from conception to career, about Philomena, aka Pip (a nickname she doesn't like) and aka Mena (a nickname she does) who grows up in landlocked Glenwood, Kansas. Raised around an agrophobic mother, a batty father, a drug-addicted sister, academically educated by dominant nuns but athletically educated by a sincere, but unknowing priest, Pip becomes an Olympic star and Stanford graduate.
There is a lot about swimming and the pressures a young woman faces as she learns a sport, as well how she matures emotionally and physically. But the story is not sports overkill. Rather, the author gets inside Pip's head and tells you what's going on all around her. The originality, in terms of dialogue and character-building is startling. You do not need to be a fan of competitive swimming to appreciate Pip's voice. I am not sure if I like Pip at the end, but I have found her life interesting. I also learn that the highs of being an Olympian come with many lows.
In conclusion, Swimming ranks with James Boice's MVP among the best sports-related books for non-sports fans. Written by non-athletes who are also non-sportswriters, both will let you see how human athletes, their coaches, families, and posses can be. Keegan has raised the bar for the work I have ahead. I thank her for that.
College Career Services On Trial? Part II Filling In Missing Information
Yesterday I wrote a rather lengthy post about Trina Thompson, a recent Monroe College graduate who is suing her alma mater for failure to adequately assist her in the job search. In my analysis, I used a New York Post story that was the most comprehensive piece that I had found; other online media had relied on that story, too.
Then I sent a link to my post to Kathryn Marion,a Denver-based writer who has covered college-to-career topics for 16 years. She wrote an excellent, and complementary, story about Ms. Thompson's opportunities to find an employer. Her story also directed me to a piece on CNN.com that I wished I had seen before.
That piece mentions two very important details that the Post missed.
First, this story revealed that Thompson had a 2.7 GPA. That would not be strong enough for her to get on interview schedules unless she had a much higher GPA in the major or some outstanding project or work experience. Computer-related majors are difficult; GPAs below 3.0 are not uncommon in these fields.
However, the employers see grades as a commitment to a major and a profession. Any recruiter will not ask themselves: "Why does she have such a low GPA?" He or she will just move onto the next resume. There are far more applicants than there are jobs.
A good career counselor would have instructed Thompson to write a strong cover letter and contact target companies directly,not just those that posted jobs to the school. She would have sent Thompson to speak with information systems faculty who could be references or networking contacts. That is, if Thompson gave the counselor a chance. If she expected the counselor to ask like a matchmaker at a temp agency, and hand her a list of contacts, then I can see why she went for the press. Why she didn't seek or listen to the proper advice, I don't know.
The CNN story also mentioned that Thompson did not have legal counsel. She also filed a "poor person order," which exempts her from filing fees associated with the lawsuit.
This is important, as she just weakened her own case. She did the exact opposite of what a lawyer would have told her to do. She spoke to the media before she had retained counsel and she gave Monroe College's counsel information to help their case. She also gave the college an opportunity to respond in the media. Another gift
This leads me to believe that Thompson's actions are either immature or a foolish media stunt. Or both. I doubt that any employer will take this behavior seriously.
Then I sent a link to my post to Kathryn Marion,a Denver-based writer who has covered college-to-career topics for 16 years. She wrote an excellent, and complementary, story about Ms. Thompson's opportunities to find an employer. Her story also directed me to a piece on CNN.com that I wished I had seen before.
That piece mentions two very important details that the Post missed.
First, this story revealed that Thompson had a 2.7 GPA. That would not be strong enough for her to get on interview schedules unless she had a much higher GPA in the major or some outstanding project or work experience. Computer-related majors are difficult; GPAs below 3.0 are not uncommon in these fields.
However, the employers see grades as a commitment to a major and a profession. Any recruiter will not ask themselves: "Why does she have such a low GPA?" He or she will just move onto the next resume. There are far more applicants than there are jobs.
A good career counselor would have instructed Thompson to write a strong cover letter and contact target companies directly,not just those that posted jobs to the school. She would have sent Thompson to speak with information systems faculty who could be references or networking contacts. That is, if Thompson gave the counselor a chance. If she expected the counselor to ask like a matchmaker at a temp agency, and hand her a list of contacts, then I can see why she went for the press. Why she didn't seek or listen to the proper advice, I don't know.
The CNN story also mentioned that Thompson did not have legal counsel. She also filed a "poor person order," which exempts her from filing fees associated with the lawsuit.
This is important, as she just weakened her own case. She did the exact opposite of what a lawyer would have told her to do. She spoke to the media before she had retained counsel and she gave Monroe College's counsel information to help their case. She also gave the college an opportunity to respond in the media. Another gift
This leads me to believe that Thompson's actions are either immature or a foolish media stunt. Or both. I doubt that any employer will take this behavior seriously.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
College Career Services Going to Trial?
This week there is a story in the New York Post about a recent college graduate who is suing her alma mater because her college's career development center did not provide her with adequate assistance in her quest to find a job. She is seeking $70,000, the amount that she spent on tuition.
The Post provided the most extensive coverage of this story but we do not know what the recent graduate, Trina Thompson, 27, of Monroe College (NY) did to work with the career counselors. It's obvious why; she's acting under the advice of her lawyer and there's no reason for her to risk jeopardizing her case by talking too much. I'm curious to know when the case is scheduled to be heard, and I'd love to be there to hear it.
I spent ten years working with career counselors. To the letter, they are serious and sincere about helping their students, and they do not guarantee employment after graduation. However, they help set students in the right direction: to determine their interests, declare a major, draft resumes, prepare for interviews, present employer information sessions, maintain job postings and contact databases, and so.
Career counselors help to put students in a position to successfully find work, but they do not control the local labor market; they cannot beg employers to hire students for full-time, entry-level jobs when there is no demand. More important, they cannot force themselves upon students who do not listen.
If I got to attend this hearing, I would love to know what Ms. Thompson did to find a job, and which career services she utilized in her search. I'd want to know how many times she worked with a counselor on her resume, what the end product was, and how many times she met with an employer on-campus or off-campus before graduation day. I want to know if she responded to jobs posted to her school; most career centers use an online job board. I even want to know if she kept her appointments. If the counselors prove that they did everything they could to help Ms. Thompson, and she didn't listen, then the college should win the case.
I also want to know what kind of student Ms. Thompson was; that didn't make it into the story. Did she have a high GPA and leadership positions on campus, while working part-time? Or did she just slide by? It's not always fair but employers prefer to interview the students with the best grades or outstanding qualities. Determination to finish a degree is tremendous, but it is not enough when you have to compete against equally determined graduates. I checked the career center Web pages for Monroe College and they have a Platinum Club to help market their students. Was Ms. Thompson a member, or did she try to pursue membership?
And I have to ask: if the plaintiff is currently unemployed, then why isn't she devoting more time to the job search, especially since she received an information systems degree? Unless the lawyer is taking this case on a contingency, I do not see how the plaintiff has the time and resources for her lawsuit. She certainly made enough time to get good publicity. Just do a Google on her name and you'll see that the news went national on the 'net over the last three days.
I also wonder: what happens if she finds a job? Human resource experts say that a job seeker needs a month for every $10,000 in salary. If entry level positions in information systems pay $45,000 on average, then the plaintiff would need four and a half months to find work. Assuming she devotes the necessary time to the search. Ms. Thompson graduated at the end of April, less than four and a half months ago. If she finds a job by September 15, she should drop the suit.
I am not a lawyer, but if there is any concern for the college it might be that a mission statement, which is usually adopted by the college's trustees, might be considered an implied warranty of service.
Monroe College's mission statementsays "career-oriented higher education" in the very first line. That's an unusual statement for a not-for-profit college to make; it's more common bravado for a business/secretarial college or a technical school. If there is an obstacle for the college in this case, this is probably it.
A lawyer might try to link career services to the academic offerings of the college--that would be difficult because career services is not an academic department--but they might also try to link that office to the academic missionof the school.
These words: career-oriented, could be interpreted to mean that career services and academics run hand-in-glove. Monroe has career offices on three campuses, and various resources, from what I saw online, so they should be able to prove they work hand in glove. I wish them well.
The Post provided the most extensive coverage of this story but we do not know what the recent graduate, Trina Thompson, 27, of Monroe College (NY) did to work with the career counselors. It's obvious why; she's acting under the advice of her lawyer and there's no reason for her to risk jeopardizing her case by talking too much. I'm curious to know when the case is scheduled to be heard, and I'd love to be there to hear it.
I spent ten years working with career counselors. To the letter, they are serious and sincere about helping their students, and they do not guarantee employment after graduation. However, they help set students in the right direction: to determine their interests, declare a major, draft resumes, prepare for interviews, present employer information sessions, maintain job postings and contact databases, and so.
Career counselors help to put students in a position to successfully find work, but they do not control the local labor market; they cannot beg employers to hire students for full-time, entry-level jobs when there is no demand. More important, they cannot force themselves upon students who do not listen.
If I got to attend this hearing, I would love to know what Ms. Thompson did to find a job, and which career services she utilized in her search. I'd want to know how many times she worked with a counselor on her resume, what the end product was, and how many times she met with an employer on-campus or off-campus before graduation day. I want to know if she responded to jobs posted to her school; most career centers use an online job board. I even want to know if she kept her appointments. If the counselors prove that they did everything they could to help Ms. Thompson, and she didn't listen, then the college should win the case.
I also want to know what kind of student Ms. Thompson was; that didn't make it into the story. Did she have a high GPA and leadership positions on campus, while working part-time? Or did she just slide by? It's not always fair but employers prefer to interview the students with the best grades or outstanding qualities. Determination to finish a degree is tremendous, but it is not enough when you have to compete against equally determined graduates. I checked the career center Web pages for Monroe College and they have a Platinum Club to help market their students. Was Ms. Thompson a member, or did she try to pursue membership?
And I have to ask: if the plaintiff is currently unemployed, then why isn't she devoting more time to the job search, especially since she received an information systems degree? Unless the lawyer is taking this case on a contingency, I do not see how the plaintiff has the time and resources for her lawsuit. She certainly made enough time to get good publicity. Just do a Google on her name and you'll see that the news went national on the 'net over the last three days.
I also wonder: what happens if she finds a job? Human resource experts say that a job seeker needs a month for every $10,000 in salary. If entry level positions in information systems pay $45,000 on average, then the plaintiff would need four and a half months to find work. Assuming she devotes the necessary time to the search. Ms. Thompson graduated at the end of April, less than four and a half months ago. If she finds a job by September 15, she should drop the suit.
I am not a lawyer, but if there is any concern for the college it might be that a mission statement, which is usually adopted by the college's trustees, might be considered an implied warranty of service.
Monroe College's mission statementsays "career-oriented higher education" in the very first line. That's an unusual statement for a not-for-profit college to make; it's more common bravado for a business/secretarial college or a technical school. If there is an obstacle for the college in this case, this is probably it.
A lawyer might try to link career services to the academic offerings of the college--that would be difficult because career services is not an academic department--but they might also try to link that office to the academic missionof the school.
These words: career-oriented, could be interpreted to mean that career services and academics run hand-in-glove. Monroe has career offices on three campuses, and various resources, from what I saw online, so they should be able to prove they work hand in glove. I wish them well.
How to Find a Safe College Campus
Today's Inside Higher Ed has an interesting story about campus safety and emergency management. It cites a study conducted by a Northwestern State (LA) professor who reviewed emergency management plans prepared by 28 universities. She wanted to see how they aligned with the guidelines and recommendations for educational institutions made by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Education Department's Emergency Response and Crisis Management Technical Assistance Center.
What was interesting was that writer of the study had attempted to learn about 40 institutions, only these 28 had their emergency management plan posted online. That sounded scary to me. Terrorists and thieves are often very smart people.
If I ran a college I would make sure that my emergency management professionals: campus security, facilities managers, student affairs, health services and community affairs all knew the plan and would provide them with the appropriate funds for signage, safety, security devices and so on. However, I would not share my plan with the public, outside of the police and fire departments. Why take the chance that my plan could be turned against me?
However, I would want to present the perception of a safe campus, and this is an area where I can speak with some authority. I used to be an urban planner and I also served as staff to a city's public-private security task force.
I'll share a little of what I learned, in the hope that it will help parents find a safe campus for their college-bound students.
+ Lighting: Colleges will usually light their most visited, as well as their most historically significant buildings. Historic buildings are lit not only for beauty but also because they are located at heavily trafficked spots on campus. Paths will be well lit, not a bulb missing. Bulbs are white, not yellow. Helps you see better. Especially in a parking lot.
+ Sidewalks: The safest campuses are walking campuses. They have amply wide sidewalks that are rarely cracked. Pedestrians plan alternate routes when sidewalks are cracked.
+ Signage: Campus signage includes lettering and directional markers that can easily be seen at night. Damaged lettering and markers are rarely allowed to be seen more than once. This is another application of the "broken window" theory. If you fix the signs quickly the vandals will get discouraged. Signs are also stolen regularly on college campuses; they are considered a bounty for fraternities, among others. The smart campus managers put up a new sign quickly. Better to pay for a new sign than to risk people getting lost.
+ Doors: I've found that buildings built during the late 60s and through the 70s like student centers, concert halls and sports arenas were built with front entrances that had multiple doors that open and closed or revolved. Eventually, you'd find that all but two to four doors, or all but the revolving doors, were permanently locked. Locked doors might create a perception of safety to some, but they also create the reality of pedestrian traffic congestion. This increases the likelihood of petty theft, too. Doors propped open are also a bad sign. That increases the likelihood of petty theft and property theft.
+ Gardens and parks. People feel safe on grounds that are clean and well-manicured, and they respect the property. Compare any college campus with old buildings to the last historic site you visited. Historic site managers like the National Park Service pay strict attention to detail; historic preservation is part of their mission. The same is true of those who manage campuses that have a history. They manage their gardens as if they were landmarks.
+ Call boxes. They have to look undamaged and unspoiled by graffiti and they have to work all the time. Period.
+ Police presence. Look for a mix of bicycle and foot patrols in the more trafficked areas, cars at the perimeter of campus. A police car parked in the main quad on a school day afternoon creates a perception that something has happened, or is about to happen. It's one thing when the car is there in response to an event, like a protest rally, that has been announced in advance. It's another thing when the car is there while nothing has been announced.
All of these items should be part of any campus security plan, and they are evidence that a plan is in place.
What was interesting was that writer of the study had attempted to learn about 40 institutions, only these 28 had their emergency management plan posted online. That sounded scary to me. Terrorists and thieves are often very smart people.
If I ran a college I would make sure that my emergency management professionals: campus security, facilities managers, student affairs, health services and community affairs all knew the plan and would provide them with the appropriate funds for signage, safety, security devices and so on. However, I would not share my plan with the public, outside of the police and fire departments. Why take the chance that my plan could be turned against me?
However, I would want to present the perception of a safe campus, and this is an area where I can speak with some authority. I used to be an urban planner and I also served as staff to a city's public-private security task force.
I'll share a little of what I learned, in the hope that it will help parents find a safe campus for their college-bound students.
+ Lighting: Colleges will usually light their most visited, as well as their most historically significant buildings. Historic buildings are lit not only for beauty but also because they are located at heavily trafficked spots on campus. Paths will be well lit, not a bulb missing. Bulbs are white, not yellow. Helps you see better. Especially in a parking lot.
+ Sidewalks: The safest campuses are walking campuses. They have amply wide sidewalks that are rarely cracked. Pedestrians plan alternate routes when sidewalks are cracked.
+ Signage: Campus signage includes lettering and directional markers that can easily be seen at night. Damaged lettering and markers are rarely allowed to be seen more than once. This is another application of the "broken window" theory. If you fix the signs quickly the vandals will get discouraged. Signs are also stolen regularly on college campuses; they are considered a bounty for fraternities, among others. The smart campus managers put up a new sign quickly. Better to pay for a new sign than to risk people getting lost.
+ Doors: I've found that buildings built during the late 60s and through the 70s like student centers, concert halls and sports arenas were built with front entrances that had multiple doors that open and closed or revolved. Eventually, you'd find that all but two to four doors, or all but the revolving doors, were permanently locked. Locked doors might create a perception of safety to some, but they also create the reality of pedestrian traffic congestion. This increases the likelihood of petty theft, too. Doors propped open are also a bad sign. That increases the likelihood of petty theft and property theft.
+ Gardens and parks. People feel safe on grounds that are clean and well-manicured, and they respect the property. Compare any college campus with old buildings to the last historic site you visited. Historic site managers like the National Park Service pay strict attention to detail; historic preservation is part of their mission. The same is true of those who manage campuses that have a history. They manage their gardens as if they were landmarks.
+ Call boxes. They have to look undamaged and unspoiled by graffiti and they have to work all the time. Period.
+ Police presence. Look for a mix of bicycle and foot patrols in the more trafficked areas, cars at the perimeter of campus. A police car parked in the main quad on a school day afternoon creates a perception that something has happened, or is about to happen. It's one thing when the car is there in response to an event, like a protest rally, that has been announced in advance. It's another thing when the car is there while nothing has been announced.
All of these items should be part of any campus security plan, and they are evidence that a plan is in place.
Book Review: What Else But Home by Michael Rosen
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The story begins when Ripton Rosen, a seven year-old boy from a well-to-do New York family invites five other boys from the project to come home and play Nintendo after a baseball game. Ripton's parents, Micheal and Leslie, become more than welcoming. They end up essentially raising the five boys, all black and Hispanic, as if they were their own sons. The Rosens do not adopt the boys, per se, but they share generosity and advice as if they were true parents. More admirable, Michael and Leslie share this role even as they reconsider their own marriage.
For me, this is not an unfamiliar story. When I worked in the economic development world I knew of similarly generous individuals who gave considerable time and money to help young people from dissimilar backgrounds with their schooling, and sometimes with extracurricular activities, including after-school sports. But my acquaintances with these men and women were brief. I did not know if their efforts succeeded and I never asked. I just assumed they did. After reading Michael Rosen's story, I got some answers.
What makes this story "work" is the writing. Academically trained as an anthropologist, Michael Rosen did not write a memoir about his parenting experience as much as the relationship between the boys and his older son. While Michael the father does not want his son to pick up some of the boys' bad habits (language being one) he does respect how they include his son on the ballfield and encourage his play.
Michael also writes extensively on how the boys' neighborhood has affected their attitudes and behavior. While they are essentially "good" boys, they are rudderless. They have nothing close to a father figure in their lives. Until meeting him. But they respond to Micheael's direction, to make them study and take the proper steps to get into college, only when they're under Michael's roof. When the Rosens speak to authorities within the New York City public school system, they find nothing but disinterest and disappointment. The exception is a non-profit organization called The Door.
Read this story and you'll see how challenging being a father, or a mentor, can be. Even when you have the money to help.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Parents, Teenage Drivers and the Clunker Law
This week, there is much abuzz in Washington about the federal "clunker law" where auto dealers are given $3,500 to $4,500 in incentives to take aging, and supposedly over-polluting, cars off the streets.
The clunker law is a win for the car manufacturers and the dealers. They sell new cars and hopefully get to lock their customers into new car loans as well. But some people come out the losers, including newly licensed teenage drivers who were hoping to get their parent's car as a hand-me-down. But when mom and dad got an added incentive to part with their gas guzzler, they turned the keys over to the dealer.
Some may say this is a good thing for parents. They got an extra $3,500 to $4,500 towards their down payment that they would not have gotten a year or two before. And they can feel good about making a positive contribution to the environment and public safety: their gas guzzlin' high pollutin' car is taken off the road and not into the hands of a young, inexperienced driver.
But, I wonder, how does this law have a negative affect parent-teen relations. Some questions for you to ponder:
Does your son or daughter cry as the old car sits in the back of the dealer's lot awaiting it's fate? Possibly, the old car was a known commodity.
Now let's say you want to extend your generosity and buy your child a $3,500 to $4,500 car. Will you find one as good or better than the one you traded in?
Or will you have another clunker in your driveway that you'll be lucky to sell for scrap a year later?
Will you become reluctant to hand the keys to your new car to your kids? When you let them drive the old car, you were concerned about driver and passenger safety, but the car was an old car. With the new car it's natural to be concerned about the vehicle, too.
What is the projected increase in your insurance for you and your teenage drivers if you replace the old car with a new one? Does it outweigh the savings in gas?
I'm a car buff and I'm also a realist. America runs on cars and the health of its auto industry, among other business sectors. And this law has led to the sale of a more than a quarter million new cars.
But I'm curious to know if there are any unhappy teenagers out there because of this law, and if a few might cast their first Congressional votes in the Republican column. Assuming they exercise their right to vote.
The clunker law is a win for the car manufacturers and the dealers. They sell new cars and hopefully get to lock their customers into new car loans as well. But some people come out the losers, including newly licensed teenage drivers who were hoping to get their parent's car as a hand-me-down. But when mom and dad got an added incentive to part with their gas guzzler, they turned the keys over to the dealer.
Some may say this is a good thing for parents. They got an extra $3,500 to $4,500 towards their down payment that they would not have gotten a year or two before. And they can feel good about making a positive contribution to the environment and public safety: their gas guzzlin' high pollutin' car is taken off the road and not into the hands of a young, inexperienced driver.
But, I wonder, how does this law have a negative affect parent-teen relations. Some questions for you to ponder:
Does your son or daughter cry as the old car sits in the back of the dealer's lot awaiting it's fate? Possibly, the old car was a known commodity.
Now let's say you want to extend your generosity and buy your child a $3,500 to $4,500 car. Will you find one as good or better than the one you traded in?
Or will you have another clunker in your driveway that you'll be lucky to sell for scrap a year later?
Will you become reluctant to hand the keys to your new car to your kids? When you let them drive the old car, you were concerned about driver and passenger safety, but the car was an old car. With the new car it's natural to be concerned about the vehicle, too.
What is the projected increase in your insurance for you and your teenage drivers if you replace the old car with a new one? Does it outweigh the savings in gas?
I'm a car buff and I'm also a realist. America runs on cars and the health of its auto industry, among other business sectors. And this law has led to the sale of a more than a quarter million new cars.
But I'm curious to know if there are any unhappy teenagers out there because of this law, and if a few might cast their first Congressional votes in the Republican column. Assuming they exercise their right to vote.
Book Review: The Siege by Stephen White
The Siege comes across the Educated Quest desk because it is a thriller based on a college campus. In this story, it's Yale, though Stephen White has changed some of the landmarks on campus to carry the storyline.
The Siege revolves around a series of murders at the site of Book and Snake, a Yale secret society that taps the children of the elite for membership. Secret societies from what I've read in other stories follow a Woody Allen credo: eighty percent of success is just showing up on campus. You don't have to be the best student, or the best athlete, though it helps. But it helps to have family connections. Book and Snake is a sister society to organizations such as Skull and Bones which pledged both former presidents Bush as well as former presidential candidate John Kerry.
An assailant who says he is "America" hold members of Book and Snake hostage. There is no discernible pattern as to which hostages are released and which die. But the sons of the secretary of the army and the newest Supreme Court justice remain inside Book and Snake's windowless building. Which brings in reinforcements: the CIA, the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team and Sam Purdy, a suspended Boulder detective who has been asked by the family of another hostage to become involved. Yale's police force remains fairly uninvolved in this case while the New Haven police's hostage negotiator is on the scene with the FBI.
I felt that a clear story became complicated with the introduction of too many "good guys." The lead FBI and CIA agents on the case are anti-terrorist professionals and all-too-infrequent lovers; their tensions are added in the mix. I was left to ask myself if the story would have been better had the agent lovers, or Purdy, had been left out. The imprecise pattern of the murders, as well as the fear that precious Yale-owned books would be lost in a rescue attempt was enough for me. The procedural stuff, such as zip-lines into Book and Snake, was interesting and described in sufficient detail that I would not mistake the story for a police procedural.
But then, I write about education, so I'm more interested in seeing how the school is weaved into the plot. I thought that Yale and the secret society were too-innocent bystanders. I would have expected the president of Yale to be heavily involved as well as elite alumni who were members of Book and Snake. Both had legacies to protect. But this is not part of The Siege.
On the other hand, the intervention of a powerful alumnus would have made this story too much like other school-based stories, such as my own Defending College Heights or a Sydney Bauer novel I just finished called The Alibi. But White is an author who is considered to set standards, not copy them.
Yale's police appear almost quiet in this story, too. I found this a surprise because I closely followed the murder investigation at Virginia Tech, and the campus police chief was very much front and center with the public. White shows Yale police helping to secure the campus--after all, they know the place better than the federal agents--but they do not put the public face on the story. I'm not sure that would happen if this incident were real.
If you have prior knowledge about Yale or secret societies, you'll find The Siege a good summer beach read. If you had little-to-no exposure to the venue or societies then you won't learn much about either. The windowless home of Book and Snake will seem more like a haunted house than a campus institution. I'm curious to see how this story will play in New Haven and if new stories about secret societies will emerge from the Yale campus.
The Siege revolves around a series of murders at the site of Book and Snake, a Yale secret society that taps the children of the elite for membership. Secret societies from what I've read in other stories follow a Woody Allen credo: eighty percent of success is just showing up on campus. You don't have to be the best student, or the best athlete, though it helps. But it helps to have family connections. Book and Snake is a sister society to organizations such as Skull and Bones which pledged both former presidents Bush as well as former presidential candidate John Kerry.
An assailant who says he is "America" hold members of Book and Snake hostage. There is no discernible pattern as to which hostages are released and which die. But the sons of the secretary of the army and the newest Supreme Court justice remain inside Book and Snake's windowless building. Which brings in reinforcements: the CIA, the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team and Sam Purdy, a suspended Boulder detective who has been asked by the family of another hostage to become involved. Yale's police force remains fairly uninvolved in this case while the New Haven police's hostage negotiator is on the scene with the FBI.
I felt that a clear story became complicated with the introduction of too many "good guys." The lead FBI and CIA agents on the case are anti-terrorist professionals and all-too-infrequent lovers; their tensions are added in the mix. I was left to ask myself if the story would have been better had the agent lovers, or Purdy, had been left out. The imprecise pattern of the murders, as well as the fear that precious Yale-owned books would be lost in a rescue attempt was enough for me. The procedural stuff, such as zip-lines into Book and Snake, was interesting and described in sufficient detail that I would not mistake the story for a police procedural.
But then, I write about education, so I'm more interested in seeing how the school is weaved into the plot. I thought that Yale and the secret society were too-innocent bystanders. I would have expected the president of Yale to be heavily involved as well as elite alumni who were members of Book and Snake. Both had legacies to protect. But this is not part of The Siege.
On the other hand, the intervention of a powerful alumnus would have made this story too much like other school-based stories, such as my own Defending College Heights or a Sydney Bauer novel I just finished called The Alibi. But White is an author who is considered to set standards, not copy them.
Yale's police appear almost quiet in this story, too. I found this a surprise because I closely followed the murder investigation at Virginia Tech, and the campus police chief was very much front and center with the public. White shows Yale police helping to secure the campus--after all, they know the place better than the federal agents--but they do not put the public face on the story. I'm not sure that would happen if this incident were real.
If you have prior knowledge about Yale or secret societies, you'll find The Siege a good summer beach read. If you had little-to-no exposure to the venue or societies then you won't learn much about either. The windowless home of Book and Snake will seem more like a haunted house than a campus institution. I'm curious to see how this story will play in New Haven and if new stories about secret societies will emerge from the Yale campus.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Book Review: Next Stop, Reloville by Peter T. Kilborn
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Since I am beginning the week by talking about the entry level job search, I thought that I would post a review about the future for these job seekers as they move up the ladder. Reloville is an account of how families cope with mobility as their breadwinner is asked to move frequently to move up the corporate ladder.
Moving up by moving is not new. My father, as well as my father in law, worked for Fortune 500 companies at the start of their careers and they expected to move, or be placed on temporary assignments away from home. Our families, however, were lucky; we stopped moving before children entered elementary school. However, this is less true today, which is one point of this book.
The author, a former New York Times reporter, points out that today's corporate soldiers are frequently graduates of state schools, more often than not in the Midwest or Southwest, and usually vote Republican. They also like to move into new homes, hoping to profit, and possibly upgrade, from the home they've left behind. But they also move approximately once every three years, so they never establish roots in a community.
The reputation of communities as Relovilles was not necessarily bad, until last year as mortgage markets collapsed. Executives could easily sell their homes for a profit, find a mortgage attractive to short-term residence (interest only mortgages were popular in this market segment), and find a mover, with the help of their employer.
But when layoffs happen, this chain of events break down. The now-jobless executive must find a position where he lives or be willing to relocate again, and potentially sell their home at a loss. Relovilles in regions that have experienced job losses, while clean, high-end neighborhoods, have an over-abundance of for-sale signs. And new industry may not come to replace the jobs that have been lost.
Plano, Texas, the home of J.C. Penney, and one of the older Relovilles in this book, took a different tactic to keep jobs. They raised taxes to start a development fund to lure businesses to stay. They snared Capital One with more than $1 million in incentives, plus a property tax cut through the year 2017. In return, the company agreed to pay the community $200 for every job that fell short of its goal of 1,000 employees.
The financial services company got a sweetheart deal, but you have to wonder how much of a corporate benefactor they will be, especially if that site is a loan processing center or a call center. Kilborn does not discuss the debate over the tax increase or the incentives passed onto Capital One, but I have to ask if such a debate took place. On paper, it looks like Plano paid little to get 1,000 jobs, but they got an operation that's easy for a bank to relocate.
I used to be an urban planner, so I found this book interesting. If I were to take its points to heart, I would prefer to have a community where employers have too much stake to pull up roots. Investment firms remain close to Wall Street to be close to the stock exchanges. High technology firms and pharmaceutical companies like regions where there are top science and engineering schools. And while the U.S. auto industry has had its problems, the Japanese and Korean manufacturers with U.S. plants have invested too much to walk away.
I have to wonder how Relovilles, with their portable employers and employees,can live long and prosper.
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