Some disturbing observations

Today is Sunday so it's not a travel day. But I felt the need to log in. I read a very disturbing article today titled "American kids, dumber than dirt/Warning: The next generation might just be the biggest pile of idiots in U.S. history." It was by By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist. You can read it here.

It's a sad look at how teens our leaving our educational systems today. Looking at it from my vantage point of teaching for many years and visiting so many schools, I know many of the basic components needed to turn things around are either in place or in need of some basic tweaking. We have beautiful schools in many places, teachers who I know from experience give up so much of their lives for kids, innovative programs that have the ability to inspire kids.

What we lack is additional teacher training to help teachers connect with students so that they want to learn, want to go to school, want to succeed. I was lucky enough to train with some of the most successful busines people in the world and I was able to test out their strategies first hand in my own classroom over 25 in over 25 different classes. The difference in traditional training vs. these methods was stunnning.

We also lack a place in each school for teens to turn to for a positive compass, one that teaches them the common sense strategies that they often now miss from busy parents and the omnipresent media. I saw the advantage of this first hand as well when I taught my Strategies of Success program.

I had a conversation this past weekend with a twenty something. I told him about my program and he said that even though he felt he went to a good high school, young adults and teens his age were lost souls with no compass, two parents working, no positive guidance. His eyes lit up with the idea of what it would have been like to have been in a class such as mine.

If you've read any of the comments on this blog, you know that my journey is to place this program in every high school in th US. I will train the teachers, create a positive website for the teens to communicate with me for guidance, whatever it takes to turn the message of the article in the beginning of this blog around.

If you're a parent, a principal, a teacher, a teen, a media source....won't you help me make this a reality?

Massachusetts on a fall day

I planned to stay home today to catch up because I'm a bit behind but the weather looked bad for tomorrow so I headed out even if it was later than I'd like to leave.

What another great day! I'm in mid Massachusetts now - Oxford High School (would you believe they were paving the entrance so I had to go over someone's lawn - with their permission), Blackstone High School (loved the parking space for the Teacher of the Month), Sutton, Northboro and Shrewsbury. What a school that was! It had about a one mile entrance blasted out of rock. The schools was at the top of a high hill and was so impressive.

I'm very impressed with the schools in Massachusetts. Many are really spectacular. It sure does help to have schools that are new and inviting. Life is tough for teens today and having beautiful schools certainly doesn't hurt.

I really enjoy talking to the secretaries and the students that I run in to. Teens are so great! Miss working with them daily but hopefully taking on this mission of sharing this program will ultimately make their lives better.

Two more days

I forgot to journal my school visits last Thursday. It was a short day - only got to Wrentham (they were having a police/fire incident and the secretaries seemed glad for the positive boost), Mansfield and Brockton. As usual, things take longer than I expect but I also learned some things that made today go much smoother.

I hadn't been able to maximize how to do this procedure. I have no office help at this time because all my money is going into supplies, training and gas to get the word out so for now, I do all the steps. But what I decided after last week's trip was to print out the envelopes and have enough materials for the entire state of Massachusetts (quite a pretty state by the way!). That way I can pick a main road and grab all the envelopes of towns along the way. If I see a sign for a town that I might have missed on the map, then I can just grab that envelope and visit that school too.

With that new strategy, I made it to 7 schools today - my best record yet! And I was done by 1:00, in time to make it home for a meeting I had for the web design part of my life (something has to pay the bills until schools realize that what I have really does work).

So today was Foxborough (I forgot to drop off the principal's letter), Walpole, Sharon, Dedham, Norwood (great pathway to the front entrance with commemorative bricks and seats), Canton, and Stoughton. I'm learning quite a bit about schools and their websites. In fact, I don't know if anyone's interested, but I'm going to start a page on my website where I offer suggestions to schools from the visitor's standpoint. There most likely aren't too many people who have my educational background, my web design knowledge and the chance to visit so many sites. I won't mention negatively any schools but I will commend some of the positive things that really helped me find what I needed. Look for that page in the next entry.

Off to line up tomorrow's day...I'm excited now that I can do so many in one day. Got to get as many in as possible before the weather gets nasty!

Back on the road

I finally got back on the road today after a week layoff. I got back to an area where I missed a few schools - Hingham, Scituate, Fairhaven, Carver and Middleborough - all in Massachusetts. Another beautiful day on the road, another day of smiling faces in the offices I visited. I'm getting more comfortable with my visits which is making it easier. I do enjoy the surprised looks and the appreciation. Who could't use a nice surprise in a busy day?

The GPS is working great. It's taking me places I've never been before. It cuts me through neighborhoods but not for long because it's finding me the direct routes to the nearest highway. New England certainly is beautiful even in the late fall with many of the leaves off the trees.

Time is passing quickly. I'm planning to go out again tomorrow but didn't want to stay overnight anywhere tonight because it's Halloween. Last week was productive even though I wasn't on the road (too many nights staying up late watching my Boston Red Sox win the World Series - why don't they have earlier games so kids can watch them??). I got a lot more supplies lined up. Everything takes longer than I think so between printing out the Stress Reduction strategies for the high school secretaries, finding the names of the high school principals, charting out a course, filling the little candy bags with 5 candies and a smile eraser, it's good in a way that I have some non driving days.

Time for some late lunch and then can get ready for tomorrow's destinations, make the changes I needed today (keeping a notebook for mileage, schools visited and reminder postcards to be mailed out in 2 weeks).

Hope all the educators survived Halloween in school today which is always challenging to be sure and of course, I hope they have a fun night!