Three questions to engage our youth and spark reflective thinking

Perhaps no generation has been under fire like this current group of teenagers.  In my opinion, much of the criticism is unfounded and much of what we criticize is the result of lax parenting by members of my generation.  I believe this generation has as much potential as any previous generation and has encountered challenges unprecedented until now.  Moreover, I strongly believe that many, many members of my generation have largely failed to provide leadership, mentoring, and guidance for these young people.  That is not to say that these young people are not responsible for what they do and leave undone, but rather we need to assist them along the way and engage them rather than lecture and point out shortcomings.  I believe there are three questions central to engaging our young people and getting them to assume ownership of their future and their future success or failure.

            

Who are you?  This question is essential and must be asked first in order to spark their thinking.  Who are you--what different identities do you claim?  The initial response(s) may be surface level, but we need to dig deeper and provoke these students to think beyond surface level identities.  Are you the kid most people believed to be destined for success or are you the person other people doubt?  Are you the person that knows what it means to go to bed hungry and has had to fight and claw to gain an advantage their entire life?  Are you the person who embraces struggle and overcomes obstacles others cannot even begin to fathom?  Are you the person who gets up each and every time they are knocked down?  Or, are you the person willing to accept setbacks when life tells you that you were just not good enough this time?  Who are you?  Do you have any idea?  You need to start thinking about it; what you find has the potential to keep you humble and grounded when you most need these attributes.  Moreover, it may serve to motivate you when you need that extra little push to get you over the hump.  Finally, knowing who you are and where you came from allows you to celebrate progress toward becoming the person you wish to be.

            

Who do you represent?  You obviously represent yourself, but who else has a stake in your behavior, has a stake in your eventual failure or success?  How about your parents?  You did not get here all by your lonesome, so how often do you consider how your actions will affect those people responsible for giving you life?  What about your siblings and extended family?  Don’t they matter?  Are they not concerned with your life’s outcomes?  If you are an African-American you have a burden that people from other ethnic groups largely do not understand; you are frequently asked to provide the representative viewpoint for your ethnic group when in the presence of other ethnicities.  As if all African-Americans thought the same and were in lockstep on all issues, no matter how trivial or how important they may be.  Are you on a team?  Then you certainly represent your teammates and coaches.  Have you ever stopped to consider how your actions may impact them and their success or failure?  In short, it is time to think about how your actions, or lack of action, affect all the people directly and indirectly connected to you.  People care about you and they care about your future; with that in mind you need to think about all the people and groups you represent.

Who do you want to become?  Is there a better question to ask our youth?  Who among us doesn’t like to dream about the future?  Our youth still possess the ability to completely turn their respective ships around, no matter the direction they are currently heading.  That is extremely important, because we want those heading in the right direction to keep heading that way full steam ahead, but we need those heading in the wrong direction to think about where they may end up.  We need to ask them if what they are doing, their present set of cumulative behaviors, is going to get them where they want to go; and we need to revisit this question over and over with them.  Nobody wants to be a failure; they simply fail to see the eventual effects of their current behaviors and change course?  Who do you want to become?  Our communities are starved for leaders, so why not strive to make a difference?  Or, are you content to fall into the paradigms so many embrace for people of your ethnicity, gender, or socio-economic class?  Why not break the mold?  Why not strive for that which others believe to be impossible?  I don’t believe you were created to be ordinary; at worse, you were created to do ordinary things in extraordinary ways. 

            

Our youth need our guidance, support, and leadership, not our condemnation.  I have no doubt they have heard what they cannot do often enough to believe it; I also have no doubt they could greatly benefit from hearing what we believe them to be capable of doing.  However, this, alone, is not enough.  We need to get them to think about who they are, who they represent, and who they want to become.  In short, we need to assist them in taking ownership of their lives.  Too often they view themselves as victims of circumstances, constrained by the circumstances they inherited.  We, all of us, know this to be false.  Time and again we have seen individuals rise to heights far beyond what they believed themselves capable of reaching, all because someone took an interest in them and their future.

Create a great day!

How does your best day start?  Seriously, have you ever taken the time to deconstruct or reverse-engineer your best days?  If not, I encourage you to do so as soon as humanly possible.  Think about what happens or does not happen when you have a great day.  What variables contribute to this idea: Does it mean exercising before work?  Eating breakfast?  Constructing your morning routine in such a way that you do not feel rushed or stressed prior to arriving at work?  What is it that you do that results in you having a great day?

Last year I spoke to my middle school students about this concept.  As children, so many of them see the quality of their day, for that matter, the quality of their lives, as dependent upon the words and actions of others.  I don’t believe this makes them unique; I believe most people believe the quality of their day is largely up to chance and dependent upon the circumstances of the particular day and the actions, or lack of actions, on the part of others.  Is it possible to have a sadder paradigm of life?  People believing this would often see themselves as victims of circumstance.  They would not see themselves as in control of their lives and they certainly would not see themselves as William Ernest Henley saw himself:

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

This poem, Invictus, resonated with Nelson Mandela during his nearly 30 years in prison.  Mandela refused to view himself as a victim of circumstance, but rather became a conqueror of his circumstances.

           

There is a famous quote attributed to Charles Swindoll that also emphasizes the importance of attitude when facing the challenges that come our way: “The longer I lIve, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company...a church....a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude...I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our attitudes.”  So, based upon the poem and the quote, it appears that attitude certainly plays a role in determining the quality of our respective days, but I believe there is still more that goes into determining whether or not we judge our day to be great, good, average, or poor.

            How many of us spend time preparing for the day ahead?  I am not simply referring to a to-do list for the day ahead of us, but, rather taking time well in advance to control all that we can control in an effort to ensure that we are adequately prepared for the day, thereby drastically increasing the likelihood of having a great day?  Doesn't it seem logical that if we properly prepare for the many variables under our control then the probability of having a great day rises dramatically?  For example, each of us most likely is forced to interact with co-workers, students, etc. that we would likely label as difficult; that is, given the opportunity we would avoid them.  However, it is not always possible to avoid them, thus we need to create strategies to deal with them.  The most proactive among us do this when it comes to traffic.  We leave at a time that assists us in avoiding the worst traffic, or we devise alternate routes in order to avoid the irritation of sitting in traffic jams.  I am willing to bet that many of us also devise strategies to minimize the frustrations associated with meetings.  Perhaps we schedule meeting that are predisposed to “go long” toward the end of the day so that the co-worker who will just not stop talking feels some peer pressure to wrap it up so that everybody can leave the office at a decent hour.  Or we schedule the meeting that we do not really want to see on our daily schedule just prior to a meeting or commitment that we must attend, thereby providing us with a reason for bringing the bothersome meeting to a timely end.

            I shared with my students that I begin preparing for the week ahead during the weekend.  My preparation for a week full of great days begins long before the week begins.  Among other things, I make sure my clothing is washed, ironed, and prepared prior to Monday morning.  In addition, I lay out my clothing the night before in the spare bedroom in an effort to minimize any noise I may make while getting ready (my wife does not like my version of the 5:00AM alarm clock).  This preparation is the beginning of my morning routine and ensures I have adequate time to walk the dogs, eat breakfast, and catch a few minutes of Morning Joe prior to departing for work.  Occasionally, this even provides me the opportunity to run prior to work, which really gets my day started off on the right foot.  When I make prior preparations for my workweek my chances of having a great day increase greatly and I find that I am much happier and much more enjoyable to be around.  I owe it to myself, and to those I love and work with, to make sure I provide myself with every possible advantage when it comes to this idea.

Where do we look for help?

A few weeks ago while scrolling through my Twitter feed I noticed the following editorial on NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune: Life shouldn't be so dangerous for children in New Orleans.  These articles are heartbreaking, but they are all too common and often no longer cause the average citizen to sit up and take notice.  In fact, I suspect a large percentage of those reading the article will not even pause to give it a second thought as they view this as a normal outcome given the geographic location and the ethnicity of those involved.

This article piqued my interest because the authors primarily addressed the role and responsibility of Louisiana—the government—in remedying the issue of youth homicide.  While I certainly believe there are steps federal, state, and local government can take to address this issue, government intervention is rarely the answer to the problems plaguing our communities and this situation is no different.

There is a cultural dysfunction present in many of our urban areas and it results in the death and incarceration of a disproportionate number of young black males.  I do not believe the government is capable of adequately addressing this problem nor do I believe government offers the best solution(s) to the elimination of this problem.  I believe the solutions to this problem reside in the communities themselves, but before I get too far ahead of myself, let me provide you with some examples of cultural dysfunction in our inner-cities.

This year was the 38^th annual Crim race.  Shortly after passing mile three I passed a male teenager standing on the corner wearing a t-shirt with the slogan “Flint Above Everything” emblazoned across the chest.  On the surface this may appear to be relatively harmless, but I think it is a manifestation of the twisted thinking that pervades our inner-cities.  I immediately began to wonder what that particular slogan meant to the young man wearing the t-shirt: Flint above family?  Flint above God?  Flint above future success?  In short, was this guy seriously “ride or die” for a city he most likely did not choose to live in, but rather lived within its geographic boundaries due to his or his family’s limited financial means?  I also have tremendous concern about the folks printing, selling, and wearing this t-shirt.  People choose to purchase and wear these t-shirts for a reason; that is, what people choose to wear is indicative of how they think.  Young people are attempting to project an image when they wear such clothing and this image is part of the dysfunction we must address.  Finally, shame on those profiting from this dysfunction that results in the deaths of our youth.

What does this shirt say about the person wearing it?

My wife and I were walking down Saginaw Street in downtown Flint a while back and we passed a younger, perhaps 18-24, African-American male walking a Golden Retriever puppy on the sidewalk.  We immediately looked at one another and didn’t have to say a word.  Here is what we were thinking—“That is unusual.”  You see, the stereotypical dog breed for that demographic in Flint, MI is a Pit Bull with a chain around its neck straining against its leash with the owner trailing behind barely able to keep the dog under control.  Why is this so?  I believe it is another manifestation of the cultural dysfunction present in urban areas.  It is toughness by transference: my dog is tough and intimidating; therefore I am tough and intimidating.  Manliness or toughness is not dependent upon the dog at the end of a leash, but that is far too often the belief.  I am the proud owner both a Pit Bull and a Miniature Golden Doodle (go ahead, start the jokes)—neither serve to make me any more or less tough. 

Two of my babies

We must address this twisted view of toughness and manliness.  Toughness is doing what you should do even when you don’t feel like doing it, day-in and day-out.  It is going to a job you greatly dislike because you know your family is counting on your check to pay the rent, keep the lights on, and put food on the table.  Being a man is taking responsibility for your actions, owning your mistakes, and working to make it better.  Government cannot help us inculcate this type of thinking into our communities. 

Asking our government to develop solutions to the problems facing our nation’s inner-cities is simply not the answer.  First, I would suggest our government has consistently displayed very little interest in the well-being of our urban areas.  In addition, the steps they have taken to address past problems have largely proven to be ineffectual and in many cases exacerbated existing challenges or created new challenges.  In all seriousness, how is the government supposed to affect a paradigm shift that eliminates violence as a viable solution to solving problems in our cities?  Would you suggest that some public service announcements by President Obama might do the trick?  Perhaps we could start a "Just say no" campaign for violence similar to what we did with the use of narcotics—this is obviously said with tongue planted firmly in cheek.  Second, the solution to the problem is best developed by those most familiar with the problem or those experiencing the problem first-hand.  Third, in order to adequately address the problem, there must be support from the community plagued by the problem.  Thus, I believe it would work best if the solution was not handed down from lawmakers drastically distanced from these communities, but rather formulated within the area afflicted.  Our urban areas are facing serious issues, and while I do not know where the solutions will originate, I do know they will not come from Washington D.C. or our state capitols.

A lesson from middle school

Well, we are well into the academic year here in Michigan and I am betting that quite a few teachers have identified the students they would already like to see removed from their classrooms.  Those students that if they were absent tomorrow would be living examples of addition by subtraction: subtracting them from the classroom setting adds something to the quality of the educational experience for the rest of the class.  I get it: some students make our lives immeasurably more difficult and make us question our career choice.  However, before we judge these students too harshly, or give up on them, let me share a story with you.

Some things you hear in a school just break your heart.  Last year I was talking to a 6^th grader about his plans for Thanksgiving break when I heard something that really hit me hard.  The student I was talking to was explaining to me how he was journeying to Detroit with his father to spend the weekend with family.  I replied that it sounded like fun when he proceeded to tell me “Yeah, they have a PS3 and I really like playing it.  I used to have a PS3, but my mom had to pawn it for money and she forgot to go back and get it.” 

I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that most of you reading this post have never had one of their belongings pawned to help mom make ends meet.  It may come as no surprise to you this particular student often struggles to behave properly during the school day and is frequently reprimanded, punished, and removed from class.  In fact, I am willing to bet that most of his teachers would have identified him as their most significant challenge.

That day, prior to releasing our staff for Thanksgiving break, I shared this story with our staff.  I asked them to think about this particular student’s day-to-day life at home.  I asked them to think about how the context of this student’s life might influence the behavior we see at school.  In my opinion there is no doubt that context influences, if not directly determines, behavior.  Every person has a story, and each and every person we encounter is fighting some type of battle.  Be gentle; be kind; and be understanding.  Have a great school year and continue making a difference.

Can MOOCs and blended learning serve to shrink the achievement gap?

Can MOOCs and blended learning serve to shrink the achievement gap in American education?  This is a question I began to ask myself while listening to a podcast from Econ Talk from the Library of Economics and Liberty.  This is one of my favorite podcasts and one I listen to weekly.  This podcast featured Dr. Daphne Koller, Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University and one of the founders of Coursera along with Andrew Ng.  Click here for a link to the Econ Talk website or here for a link to the podcast via iTunes.

I am optimistic regarding the potential benefits of MOOCs and of blended learning.  I believe these modes of education do offer potential benefits that could assist us in shrinking the achievement gap in our country.  Daphne Koller argues that “MOOCs can be a significant factor in opening doors to opportunity” and I agree with her wholeheartedly.  MOOCs possess the power to reach the most marginalized student and to serve as a leveling mechanism in education.  I believe we will see more and more education providers begin to take advantage of the potential benefits of this mode of education as we move forward.  In addition, I believe blended learning may be utilized to overcome many of the challenges we encounter in urban education.  For example, increasingly we hear a great deal about the the flipped classroom and  how it assist in the completion of homework, maximizes class time, and how it is being used to increase academic outcomes.  Here is a link to a pdf file that discusses the basics of a flipped classroom in case you are interested.  

Three things charter schools do that the Detroit Free Press did not mention

The Detroit Free Press is running a series on charter schools in Michigan and you can click here to see what they have to say.  Thus far they are less than complimentary, but I am hoping they devote as much space to the positives associated with charter schools as they have so far to the negatives.  Whatever the case, I plan to beat them to the punch by discussing three things charters do that work together to increase the overall efficiency and effectiveness of primary and secondary education in Michigan.

            Charter schools drive experimentation.  Let’s face it, many, if not most, charters have a niche that attracts families to what they are offering.  Charter schools must offer something different or there would be no reason for families to move their students to charters.  But here is the great thing about charter schools, their very existence forced traditional public schools—as well as many private schools—to critically examine their practices and attempt to discover ways they can better serve the children under their care.  In this scenario the customer, Michigan’s families and their students, wins.

            Charter schools increase evaluation.  There is no doubt that more folks are “keeping score” since the advent of legislation that made charter schools possible.  Parents are more informed and more involved than ever before and this is a great thing as they subsequently become very informed consumers.  Thus, schools—charters, traditional public, and private—must consistently strive to achieve high results in order to attract more students to their respective buildings.  This is not a good thing, it is a great thing. 

            Charter schools spark evolution.  The experimentation and evaluation discussed earlier do not occur in a vacuum.  All schools are well aware of what their competitors are doing, or not doing, and they are analyzing, assessing, and critiquing their efforts and those of their competitors in an effort to become better tomorrow than they were today.    Charter schools played an integral role in making this happen and our students are better served as a result.

Absent charter schools I have little faith that much would have changed in education.  Monopolies do not change unless they are forced to and I suggest that traditional public schools were a very dominant monopoly prior to charter schools.  Charter schools changed the game, for the better.  Families now have choices and choices are among the best things in life to have at your disposal.  Previously only those families with significant financial means were able to consider options for their child’s education.  Thankfully, that option is now available to each and every family in our state.  

There are more important issues to discuss

Let me speak plainly, I believe the hullabaloo over the moronic owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Donald Sterling, is stupid.  While I certainly do not agree with his apparent views on race and ethnicity and I, like so many others, believe they were uttered out of complete stupidity, I also do not find them particularly hurtful or surprising.

First, I believe it is important to consider the source.  This is an old man running around with a much, much younger gold digger: this guy is not exactly one we should look to for wisdom on any subject other than how to purchase an undervalued franchise and potentially make anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion off it when forced to sell said franchise.  By and large, Donald Sterling does not matter unless he does something stupid or makes a donation to the Los Angeles branch of the NAACP..  Second, this man has a history of incidents involving prejudice and bigotry.  Click here to listen to Bomani Jones give a brilliant take on this entire situation.  This is far from his first go-round with unacceptable comments or behavior.  Finally, I believe racism is far more prevalent in our society than what many people would care to admit.  Prejudice and bigotry plays a role in each of our lives every moment of every day.  It will continue to do so, and become more difficult to eliminate, due to our failure to properly and adequately address this issue.  Folks this issue is the elephant in the room that we all do our best to ignore.  Thus, I do not find what he said to be particularly surprising.

Our nation would be much better served by discussing the soft racism of low expectations our society holds for people of color.  This soft racism is prevalent in all segments of our nation and many people of color hold it just as strongly as others do.  Donald Sterling is an idiot, but he is an idiot that will go away.  The real danger is the racism that goes unnoticed and unaddressed and is allowed to permeate the very fabric of our culture.

"It is the leader's job!"

“Chris, it is the leader’s job.”  That is what the owner of the moving company we hired told me when we were discussing one of the challenges we experienced with moving day (it took much longer than a day, but that is a different story).  Moving, as I found out, can be quite a stressful event.  Even if all goes according to plan, the situation is stressful.  But when things go awry, it can really challenge those involved.  However, thanks to my experience moving, I learned a very valuable leadership lesson.

Our two movers were great guys.  They arrived early, worked hard, and did their absolute best to protect our items from any possible damage.  I even sent a text message to me wife during the process saying, “These guys are good.”  All seemed to be progressing nicely and we were able to get from the old house to the new house without any significant hiccups.

Arriving at the old house we began unloading, unpacking, and doing our best to put things in their proper place as quickly and as efficiently as possible.  This is when we experienced a setback.  While moving items into my daughter’s new room one of the movers, Will, noticed that he could not locate the hardware to put my daughter’s bed back together.  Now, this was going to present a problem.  My wife and I do are absolute best to keep our daughter on a strict schedule and we adhere to the established bedtimes.  This is a win-win for us as it results in a happy, cheerful child the next day along with two well-rested adults (we like our sleep).  Now we were facing a situation that would most likely push bedtime back or even result in Sloane sleeping in the ‘big girl bed' with mommy and daddy.  This was most definitely not a win-win situation.

Long story short, a day later the owner of the company was at our home--after purchasing the requisite parts--and we were discussing the moving experience.  This is when I learned a very valuable lesson in leadership.  It was readily apparent that Ben, the owner, was mildly upset with his crew, especially the crew leader, Mike.  I explained to Ben that Mike was, in fact, not the person who disassembled my daughter’s bed and was therefore not the person responsible for losing or misplacing the missing parts.  This is when the learning took place.  “Chris,” Ben replied, “it was Mike’s responsibility as the crew leader.  In fact, he should have been the one to disassemble the bed as he possesses the greater experience and that is a task you have to get right.”  He went on to state, “Disassembling the furniture is a task he does not like performing, but it is too critical to pass it off to a newer, much lesser experienced employee.”

I thought about our conversation a great deal over the course of the next week.  It made me reflect upon what I do on a daily basis and ask myself if there were any critical tasks I was handing off to my team that should remain my responsibility.  As leaders we need to delegate in order to get things accomplished in an efficient and effective manner, but we must be sure that the person we are handing the task to is ready and capable of completing the task.  Moreover, there are some tasks that must remain our responsibility because they are simply too critical to pass off.  It is the leader’s job to make the appropriate decision and to assume responsibility for the completion of those tasks that are critical to the success of the operation.

From the BBC: Is it good for people to fail occasionally?

This week the BBC had a great piece on their website--Is it good for people to fail occasionally?--and I thought it would be good to provide you with a link to the story.  I believe the more we work toward reframing our view of failure, the better off we will be.  Failure is not to be feared, but rather embraced as a learning opportunity.  Here are some tips on how to reframe failure so it does not appear so daunting:

1. Failure=practice
2. Failure makes us smarter and stronger
3. Failure makes us resilient
4. Failure equips us with leadership skills
5. Failure prepares us for success
6. Failure allows a deeper appreciation of success

Here is a link to my earlier post on failure in case you want to revisit it or you missed it the first time around.  Keep in mind that failure is often only fatal when it comes to parachutes and hand grenades, so get out there and give your best today.  Have a great week!

The Challenge for Charters

Currently there is a battle for students being waged across the state of Michigan.  With a declining population and a stagnant economy, competition for a dwindling number of students is sure to heat up in the days, months, and years to come.  Charter schools must differentiate themselves in the marketplace or they will lose this battle for students.  In fact, in the age of school of choice, traditional public schools located in our state's urban areas must also look for unique ways to position themselves in the marketplace or continue to see an exodus of students to the surrounding suburban schools.

Charters failing to differentiate themselves will lose the battle for students for three primary reasons.  First, more often than not, the buildings housing our state’s charter schools are inferior to the building housing our state’s traditional public schools.  Charter schools are often placed in school buildings that have been closed for years or in buildings that were not originally intended to be utilized as schools.  Moreover, many charters attempt to grow to include a middle or high school, but are in a building designed to house elementary students.  Thus, it is relatively easy to begin to understand the refrain “I want to go to a ‘real’ high school!”  Many of the charter schools I have had the pleasure of visiting often have no space or inadequate space for what they are attempting to do: the gymnasiums are often too small for students in grades 7-12: they do not have adequate outside recreation infrastructure, such as tennis courts, a track, baseball fields, etc.; and parking can prove to be an absolute nightmare as many buildings are simply not designed to accommodate hundreds of parents dropping-off and picking-up their children each and every day.  Second, there is simply a greater array of activities to choose from at most traditional public schools.  Charters are addressing this problem and quickly closing this gap in opportunity, but the fact remains that the traditional public schools often benefit from an economy of scale and this disparity in extracurricular offerings puts charters at a disadvantage when competing against traditional public schools for students.  Finally, charters are suffering from greater teacher turnover than traditional public schools.  This churn can result in a perception of instability and a lack of trust.  Subsequently, families may choose to stay with, or return to, that which they know—their traditional public school.  This often occurs even when the charter they left is far outperforming the traditional public school they are entering.  This point is paramount in that a stable school with low staff turnover can mitigate the negative effects of the first two points.  Parents will send their children to a school they trust despite an inferior building and a lack of extracurricular activities.

The challenge for charter schools is to differentiate and to uniquely position themselves in the marketplace in an effort to attract students.  The vast majority of charter schools are not restricted by collective bargaining agreements reached with the teachers’ union.  They are often only restricted by their lack of creativity.  Thus, even in the presence of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) I believe it is imperative that charter schools meet these standards, but do so in a setting that clearly separates them from traditional public schools.  In fact, I believe that the advent of CCSS increases the opportunity to do so.  In my opinion, charters should look and feel drastically different from traditional public schools.  The differences should not be just window dressing, such as the presence of a school uniform, but rather the differences should be profound--such as a new way of thinking about and addressing student learning.  It would be great to see more schools specialize in specific content areas (all while meeting the requirements associated with CCSS) such as business, entrepreneurship, health and human services, public service, etc.  In addition, we should, of course, see positive differences in student outcomes within a reasonable amount of time.  If we continue to view  education as a commodity then charter schools will struggle to compete against the better-funded, long-established traditional public schools.  However, if charters live up to the promise of providing a better education and work diligently to uniquely position themselves in the marketplace, then they have a chance.  I am hopeful that charters are able to do this because many of them are far outperforming the local districts with which they compete and have the capability of offering students an opportunity for a brighter future.

10 Things Extraordinary People Say Every Day

One of the websites I visit frequently is http://www.inc.com/, which I find to have some very useful articles regarding leadership, management, and personal and professional development.  A while back I signed up for updates from this site and I received an email with a link to this article.  I am passing this along because I believe it is a great reminder about the importance of the words we choose to use--or not use--on a daily basis.  There are a few of these that I am pretty good at using daily, but for the most part I need to pay more attention to using these on a regular basis.  Please let me know if you enjoyed the article and how well you are doing at being extraordinary!

Why I Am Against the Suggested Increase in the Minimum Wage

Raising the federal minimum wage, especially for the reasons put forth by many supporters, is a mistake.  President Obama proposed a 39.31% increase of the federal minimum wage during his State of the Union speech and this proposed wage hike is bad for business, bad for workers, and bad for our country.

If this drastic increase becomes law, employers will simply pass this increase on through higher prices for consumers, decreased training opportunities for current employees, and fewer employment opportunities for lesser-skilled and inexperienced workers.  I wonder, do you think many people will favor a proposed minimum wage hike if it meant higher prices for milk at the grocery store, a more expensive Big Mac, and latte prices far north of $5 at Starbucks?  In addition, would the proponents of an increased minimum wage still support this increase if they realized that it would result in employers offering fewer training opportunities for the workers earning the federally mandated minimum wage?  Research suggests that employers will look to implement tactics such as these in an effort to cut employment costs.  Finally, there are many studies that indicate that even a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage can result in reduced employment for low-skilled workers by 1 to 3 percent.  I do not believe this is what many of the supporters of the $10.10 minimum wage have in mind.

Frequently I hear advocates for an increased minimum wage speak of the need for hourly wage earners to be able to support a family.  In fact, I hear all sorts of claims that are simply not backed up facts.  Here is a link to a US. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, that addresses characteristics for minimum wage workers in 2012.  If you don’t have the time to click it and run through the statistics, I will provide a brief summary for you:

·         *Most minimum wage workers are young, part-time workers, and relatively few live below the poverty line

·         *50 percent are between the ages of 16 to 24

·         *60 percent hold a part-time job

·         *Less than 20% percent are from families below the poverty line

·         *Approximately 25 percent are married

·         *Only about 5 percent of the over 75 million hourly wage earners in our nation are paid the current federally mandated minimum wage or less

·        * Education, as always, matters as about 10 percent of those who had less than a high school diploma earned the federal minimum wage or less, compared with about 4 percent of those who had a high school diploma (with no college) and about 2 percent of college graduates

Raising the minimum wage is not a good idea.  Price floors are antithetical to a free market economy and harmful to low-skilled and inexperienced workers.  In addition, I believe an increase in the minimum wage will result in even fewer employment opportunities for the most marginalized demographic in our society— African American males (click here for some current statistics).  These positions were never intended to support families.  Rather, they served as an opportunity to acquire experience, gain skills from job training, and function as a launching pad for a move to something bigger and better.  If our nation is truly interested in addressing income inequality perhaps they should stop looking to treat the symptoms and look to eradicate the cause(s).