Model the Practice: Featured Detroit Partner Friends of Detroit & Tri-County (Club Technology)

Summary View-Point on Creative Cities Summit

Creative Cities Summit 2.0 Recap by Arnold Weinfeld
Director of Public Policy & Federal Affairs for the League

Monday

October 13, 2008

This week, the second-ever Creative Cities Summit will be taking place in Detroit at the Renaissance Center. The League has been working with event founder Peter Kageyama and a host of other organizations over the last several months on putting together an event that will feature speakers from around the world with knowledge and experience in creating vibrant communities. I'm looking forward to hearing from people such as Richard Florida, Charles Landry, John Howkins, Doug Farr, Bill Strickand and a host of others. Session content covers a wide array of topics from cities and universities; attracting and retaining talent (this one features League CEO Dan Gilmartin); design; marketing and media; transportation; music and creativity; and sustainability, just to mention a few. It all starts today and runs through Wednesday. I'll be reporting highlights throughout the week. For a full agenda check out www.creativecitiessummit.com.

Tuesday

October 14, 2008

As the Creative Cities Summit opened on Monday in Detroit, Karen Gagnon, Cool Cities director and CCS2 (Creative Cities Summit 2) co-producer, asked people to take away one big idea. Yet the first day speakers revealed several concepts that when woven together bring to mind the big idea that cities hold the key to creating the environment necessary for creativity.

As Pier Giorgio Di Cicco, author of The Municipal Mind noted, creativity is impossible without the civil encounter, for the city is the place where one discovers his/her destiny through others. Di Cicco also spoke about how risk taking is essential to creative economies as much as good urban citizenship is a key to knowledge economy. He was followed by John Howkins, one of the first to publish ideas on creativity and innovation in the 2001 work, The Creative Economy, and a consultant who has worked in over 30 countries—most recently in China. He began by noting how China will achieve in 30 years, the kind of urbanization it took Europe nearly 2,000 years. Howkins said the creative economy sees more failures than the service or manufacturing economies and that global competition in the 21st century is minds vs minds and copyright vs copyright, or minds working with other minds. He set forth his principles of 'creative ecology' whereby everyone is considered to be creative; creativity needs freedom and freedom needs markets. Howkins said creativity is not simply art or innovation but imagination, dreams, new concepts, design, culture, style, and meaning.

Freedom is dialogue, collaboration, education, training, learning, and acceptance by family/friends/society. The market is the marketplace of ideas as evidenced through information content and the internet. The creative ecology is one where diverse individuals express themselves in a systematic and adaptive way using ideas to produce new ideas. According to Howkins, the six indicators of the creative ecology are systems, diversity, change, learning, adaptation, and sustainability. The next billion of those looking for work will go to creative cities to join the creative ecology.

Bill Strickland concluded with his inspirational story of the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild and Bidwell Training Center in Pittsburgh, PA. Strickland's story and his vision are built around the premise that provided the right environment, people will go into the world as assets, not liabilities. To say the least, the first day of the summit was a day for listening and learning. Tuesday we'll hear more thoughts on the creative economy, creative city, and creative design from thinkers such as Richard Florida and Charles Landry, sustainable urbanist Doug Farr, as well as Ben Hecht of Living Cities and Tom Wujec of Autodesk, with breakout session topics covering LEED neighborhood development, transportation, and a discussion on the Midwest as a mega-region. Something tells me that it will be another day of big ideas. Stay tuned to more from the 'D' on these and other goings on at the CCS2!

Wednesday

October 15, 2008

You'll recall that I mentioned yesterday that if Monday's sessions were any indication then those speaking Tuesday would also have some big ideas for us to consider. Well I and those in attendance were not disappointed! The day began with Tom Wujec of Autodesk. Autodesk is the Oscar-winning industry leader in 3D computer animation technology. Tom discussed how teams foster their creativity, that innovation is the capacity to encourage imagination. He was followed by Ben Hecht, President and CEO of Living Cities. Living Cities is a national community redevelopment initiative that looks to improve the built environment in under-developed neighborhoods. Ben sees cities as the solution for solving America's problems—leading us into the green economy and building a new urban ecosystem through strong neighborhoods. He noted that venture capitalists are funding 'clean technology' initiatives right behind information technology and bio tech.

We then heard from Doug Farr, a Detroit native and an architect, planner, and author of the book Sustainable Urbanism. Doug spoke about the foundations of sustainable urbanism—smart growth, green buildings, and new urbanism. He said that we need to change our culture and our systems when it comes to thinking about efficiency and sustainability, including fixing codes and reversing regulations. He noted that a part of the 2030 Communities Campaign is to reduce vehicle miles traveled; it is wrong to think we can all buy fuel efficient vehicles and drive more or build larger buildings simply because they’re 'green'.

Richard Florida was the lunch keynote speaker, and although he made the circuit a few times a number of years ago after penning the book The Rise of the Creative Class, it was the first time this writer had seen him speak. He has a new book out now titled Who's Your City? and his speech ran the gamut of topics from the current financial crisis to the role cities must play in providing the means for creativity. Florida opined that we are in the midst of a fundamental economic transformation and that the current worldwide financial crisis is not analogous to 1929, but rather to the late 1800s—the last time the world saw great economic system change. The change taking place now according to Florida is the move to a creative economy where the only real capital left is human capital or creativity. The old models of recovery are bankrupt and the only way out is through our communities. He noted that at the turn of the 20th century only five percent of the US was in creative economy; even in 1980 it was only 15-20 percent...now it is 33 percent. Creativity doesn't respect social boundaries...it has nothing to do with race, disabilities; etc. Rather than a “melting pot” he said we are now a “mosaic society” where an individual can keep their culture, their identity, and enjoy the culture and identity of others. Arts, culture, and entertainment are as important today as business, finance, and technology. In order to provide the means for fostering creativity, cities must provide 1) physical and economic security; 2) economic and civic opportunity; 3) leadership to activate the creativity; 4) open mindedness and being welcoming to all; and 5) quality of place including integration with the natural environment. And this just got us through lunch! I'll continue with more tomorrow including thoughts from Charles Landry and a historic roundtable discussion.

Thursday

October 16, 2008

Day 2- Part 2

When I left off yesterday, Richard Florida had just given his manifesto of the way things are now and the way they should be. And, whether you’re a Richard Florida fan or not he definitely gives one something to think about.

Which takes us to after lunch on Tuesday and Charles Landry. Landry is known for his work on creativity and its uses and how city futures are shaped by paying attention to the culture of a place. He too has written books, his most recent, The Art of City Making focuses on how cities can be more "creative for the world." His comments reflected that belief as he noted that the art of city making in the 21st century is the art of living together. He said that there are many ways to look at a city but that first and foremost is its history and creativity. Having a strong arts and cultural heritage is synonymous with the creative economy. He noted that one of the challenges facing us is what to do with smaller 2nd-6th level cities. What is the emerging advantage when every city is chasing talent and being creative—it is values driven development connecting to a bigger picture. Cities need to learn to keep the best and reinvent the rest through capital assessments.

Landry also dug down into city organization providing a means by which cities must be open through a "creative bureaucracy" or one which is strategically principled but tactically flexible. One that is open to collaboration and partnership with its citizens and greater community.

Following Landry was a roundtable discussion which, for the first time, brought together the three people—Landry, John Howkins and Richard Florida—who for the past decade have spent their time writing and speaking about the creative economy, creative class, and creative city. The discussion was moderated by CEOs for Cities director Carol Coletta and a lively discussion ensued weaving together the thoughts of these thinkers. Some of the comments included Florida saying that the most basic right of any person is to be able to fully explore your talent through self expression and that cities must stop doing dumb things. They need to conserve resources, empower community groups. Reflecting on the current worldwide situation he noted that "a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” John Howkins noted that creativity needs freedom and that we need to be investing in people. Landry noted that we have to shift the rule system away from the plantation mentality of the industrial system.

As full as the morning and afternoon session were, there was a after-dinner session with representatives from Google, MSU, U-M and WSU as well as private business and Lansing Mayor and MML Board member Virg Bernero to discuss cities, universities, and talent. Nearly everyone agreed that all need to work better together at retaining talent in Michigan.

Tuesday CCS2 sessions were about as full as they get with concepts and ideas on how we need to move forward to secure a better future. And after hearing speakers for the first two days, one thing is indeed clear... the world economic platform has changed to one in which brains are the new capital, not brawn. Those cities, states, regions, and countries that understand this and put in place systems that will encourage creative activity and growth in their communities will grow themselves.

Friday

October 17, 2008

After two days of speakers and presenters giving us more than one "big idea," the last day of the CCS2 was drill down day as many session speakers were from organizations working on the ground implementing those very ideas that help to create vibrant cities. In the opening plenary session, Doug Rothwell (president of Detroit Renaissance) and Kelly Lee (executive vice president of Innovation Philadelphia) spoke to their respective efforts at working to create places that will attract young, talented people. That was followed by breakout sessions involving such topics as music and economic development, planning for the creative city, and race and the creative city. This last topic explored the challenges, triumphs, and lessons learned from urban, creative professionals as they worked through racial barriers to spur social and economic innovation. The luncheon speaker was Diana Lind, editor of the magazine Next American City which seeks to link young, urban organizations around the country in an effort to engage that constituency in a quest for more livable cities. The afternoon sessions included discussions on storytelling or how to relate the authenticity of a place; the future of creative expression for cities; creative industry incubators; and a session on the city's role in attracting and retaining talent, featuring League CEO Dan Gilmartin.

The final keynote speaker of the conference was Majora Carter. A life-long resident of the South Bronx, Majora spoke of her belief that one should not have to move out of your neighborhood to live in a better one, and acted upon that belief by founding the non-profit environmental justice solutions corporation, Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx). Her first project was obtaining a federal planning grant for the South Bronx Greenway Project which led to the first new South Bronx water front park in over 60 years. She has continued to work on projects to improve her neighborhood, one of the poorest in New York City. Since starting the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training Program in 2003, an urban green-collar job training and placement system, she has since partnered with Van Jones on a national green-collar job agenda. Majora is a inspiration to anyone working to make their corner of the world a better place.

For me, this three-day conference re-affirmed my belief that communities hold the key economic prosperity. It helped to coalesce those ideas and strategies that will help me in my work with communities in Michigan. One thing is clear, public and private sector leaders and citizens must understand that a new economic platform is upon us—one that is based around knowledge and creativity, where human capital is the most important element. Those that do and who work together to put in place systems that will encourage creative activity and growth; these are the places that will grow themselves.

I'm glad to be part of an organization that is working with communities in Michigan to help them move forward. Join us.

AT OUR CORE: A Quantum Jump or Leap of Faith

ASCERTAINMENT!

ON the ACT and ART of "FREELY REVEALING"
http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/evhippel-voluntaryinfospillover.pdf

Yapo CLC Board Meeting Minutes 10-1-08

YAPO Technology Committee Meeting 10-6-2008

Meeting of the Technology Committee

Terrance Bryant
Yohannes Bolds
John Iras
Jim Ross


Overview Discussion regarding YAPO Computer Learning Center


Upgrades currently being installed and identification of old computers needing to be replaced.

*Yohannes will work with Terrance to bring in replacement computers and software

Discussed the WPM Board meeting issue. And the appropriate preparations necessary for robust presentation. It was agreed that a student-centered demonstration would be preferred and Terrance has agreed to speak to Terry and contact the YAPO Junior Board to arrange a meeting to discuss the possibilities to engage them in our presentation and program development efforts.

Additionally, we were able to move the Videoconferencing System from Karen Court #3 to the computer lab.
*We need to schedule a conversation with Cindy at Huntington Management to ask if we can get a broadband connection for the videoconferencing system. (We will carry the associated costs)

We will schedule another meeting to coincide with the YAPO Junior Board.

Best,

Jim

Critical Thinking, Judgment, Complex Problem Solving, Creative Thinking, Communicaton and Collaboration

Wed, Sep 10, 2008

Report: Teach 21st Century Skills - or U.S. Will Fail

Business Leaders draws link between education, economy. U.S. schools must teach 21st-century skills for the nation to be globally competitive, it says.

From eSchool News staff and wire service reports

A new report urges U.S. schools to create 21st-century environments in classrooms.

Creating a 21st-century education system that prepares students, workers, and citizens to triumph in the global skills race is the central economic competitiveness issue currently facing the United States, according to a new report from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21). The report provides a sobering wake-up call for the nation's civic and education leaders.

The report, called "21st Century Skills, Education, and Competitiveness," argues that for the United States to be globally competitive--and for states to attract growth industries and create jobs--the nation requires a fresh approach to education that recognizes the critical role 21st-century skills play in the workplace.

The report summarizes the challenges and opportunities that, if left unaddressed, would curtail U.S. competitiveness and diminish the nation's standing in the world economy. It urges policy makers and leaders in business, education, and workforce development to use the report as a resource for shaping policies that are attuned to competitive needs.

"We need to recognize that a 21st-century education is the bedrock of competitiveness--the engine, not simply an input, of the economy," the report says.

It notes that the country's economic output has changed dramatically over the past 30 years, and there is no sign this trend will stop.

In 1967, the production of material goods (such as cars and equipment) and the delivery of material services (such as transportation and construction) accounted for nearly 54 percent of the country's economic output. However, by 1997, the development of information products (such as computers) and the delivery of information services (such as financial and broadcast services) accounted for 63 percent of the country's output.

As the world continues to shift from an industrial economy to a service economy driven by information, knowledge, and innovation, cultivating 21st-century skills is vital to economic success, the report states.

While the global economy has been changing, the United States has focused primarily on closing domestic achievement gaps and largely has ignored the growing necessity of graduating students capable of filling emerging job sectors, according to the report.

And while focusing nationally on closing achievement gaps between the lowest and highest performing students has been a legitimate and useful agenda, the report asserts that this goal has skirted the competitive demand for advanced skills.

"Equally important to the domestic achievement gap is the global achievement gap between U.S. students--even top performers--and their international counterparts," said Paige Kuni, worldwide manager of K-12 education for Intel Corp. and P21 chair.

"Quite simply, for the United States to stay economically viable and remain a world leader, the country must make closing all achievement gaps a national priority."

Creating a 21st-century education system that prepares students, workers, and citizens to triumph in the global skills race is the central economic competitiveness issue currently facing the United States, according to a new report from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21). The report provides a sobering wake-up call for the nation's civic and education leaders.

Abroad, developed and competing nations have focused on imparting a different set of skills--21st-century skills--to their graduates, because these skills increasingly power the wealth of nations, the report says. Furthermore, businesses now require workers who can handle more responsibility and contribute more to productivity and innovation. In fact, from 1995 to 2005, the United States lost three million manufacturing jobs, but, during that same time, 17 million service-sector jobs were created. It is critical that the United States graduate students capable of filling those jobs and keeping pace with the change in skill demands, the report warns.

"It has become apparent that there isn't a lack of employees who are technically proficient, but a lack of employees who can adequately communicate and collaborate, innovate, and think critically," said Ken Kay, P21 president.

"At this pivotal moment in our nation's history, legislators and policy makers must focus on the outcomes we know produce graduates capable of competing in the 21st century and forging a viable economic future."

The report says every aspect of the U.S. education system--from pre-kindergarten to postsecondary and adult education, including after-school and teacher preparation programs--"must be aligned to prepare citizens with the 21st-century skills they need to compete."

It encourages U.S. schools to do a better job of teaching and measuring advanced, 21st-century skills beyond simply assessing science, reading, and math. In addition, it outlines several actions at the national, state, and local levels that U.S. leaders must undertake to improve economic results and better prepare citizens to participate in the 21st-century economy.

"All Americans, not just an elite few, need 21st-century skills that will increase their marketability, employability, and readiness for citizenship," the report says. These skills include critical thinking and judgment, complex problem solving, creative thinking, and communication and collaboration.

P21 is a national advocacy group focused on infusing 21st-century skills into education. The report is sponsored by the Ford Motor Company Fund, KnowledgeWorks Foundation, and the National Education Association.

Link: "21st Century Skills, Education, and Competitiveness"
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/documents/21st_century_skills_education_and_competitiveness_guide.pdf

Who, What, Where, When, Why?

Model the Practice (BLOG)

Dear all:

Following up with our board meeting, Lauretta agrees that the Yapo CLC Board should cordially invite the Walton Park Manor Board to a program held in the Yapo CLC. As we agreed, the purpose of the invitation is to impress upon the WPM Board the importance of the Yapo CLC to the programs and events it currently sponsors, as well as the future programs it will be pivol to in educating children.

With that goal in mind, please respond accordingly by October 3, 2008:

Lauretta, please confirm that the date and time of the WPM Board is Friday, October 17, 2008 at 3:00 p.m.

Phyl, please draft an invitation with the opposite side of the invitation laying out a program for the meeting in the Yapo CLC on October 17, 2008 beginning at 4:30.

Jim, please forward to Phyllis an outline of the highlights of the Yapo CLC, as you and the IT team are leading the discussion

Terri, please forward to Phyllis an outline of the programs currently in place at the Yapo CLC, as well any upcoming programs, as you will also be part of the program

Marc, please plan on making the introductions of the Yapo CLC Board to the WPM Board.

Any questions or conflicts, please let me know PDQ!

--
Cheryl Yapo Morais
(248) 399-3577 (home)
(586) 946-0991 (cell)

Hello Cheryl,

I will be in attendance for the meeting October 17, 2008 and will have an introduction for the meeting situated. Thank you for arranging the meeting between the two boards and I look forward to seeing you all.

Best Regards,

YAPO CLC Board of Drictors Meeting October 1, 2008

Meeting Minutes 10-1-2008

Convene 5:50PM

Adopt Agenda
Motion Jim Ross
Second Mark Alexander

Adopt Minutes 8-6-2008 Meeting
Motion Mark Alexander
Second Cheryl Morais

(MORE MINTUES TO COME)

TAP-IN to OUR CREATIVE SUBCONSCIOUS!

Article location:http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/129/rewiring-the-creative-mind.html

September 17, 2008

Neuroscience Sheds New Light on Creativity

By Gregory Berns

Close your eyes and visualize the sun setting over a beach.

How detailed was your image? Did you envision a bland orb sinking below calm waters, or did you call up an image filled with activity -- palm trees swaying gently, waves lapping at your feet, perhaps a loved one holding your hand?

Now imagine you're standing on the surface of Pluto. What would a sunset look like from there? Notice how hard you had to work to imagine this

scene. Did you picture a featureless ball of ice with the sun a speck of light barely brighter than a star along the horizon? Did you envision frozen lakes of exotic chemicals or icy fjords glimmering in the starlight?

What you conjured illuminates how our brains work, why it can be so hard to come up with new ideas -- and how you can rewire your mind to open up the holy grail of creativity. Recent advances in neuroscience, driven by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that lets scientists watch brain activity as never before, have changed what we know about key attributes of creativity. These advances, for example, have swept away the idea that there is a pleasure center in the brain that somehow acts as an accelerator to the engine of human behavior. Rather, chemicals such as dopamine shuttle between neurons in ways that look remarkably like the calculations modern robots perform.

Creativity and imagination begin with perception. Neuroscientists have come to realize that how you perceive something isn't simply a product of what your eyes and ears transmit to your brain. It's a product of your brain itself. And iconoclasts, a class of people I define as those who do something that others say can't be done -- think Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, or Florence Nightingale -- see things differently. Literally. Some iconoclasts are born that way, but we all can learn how to see things not for what they are, but for what they might be.

Perception and imagination are linked because the brain uses the same neural circuits for both functions. Imagination is like running perception in reverse. The reason it's so difficult to imagine truly novel ideas has to do with how the brain interprets signals from your eyes. The images that strike your retina do not, by themselves, tell you with certainty what you are seeing. Visual perception is largely a result of statistical expectations, the brain's way of explaining ambiguous visual signals in the most likely way. And the likelihood of these explanations is a direct result of past experience.

Entire books have been written about learning, but the important elements for creative thinkers can be boiled down to this: Experience modifies the connections between neurons so that they become more efficient at processing information. Neuroscientists have observed that while an entire network of neurons might process a stimulus initially, by about the sixth presentation, the heavy lifting is performed by only a subset of neurons. Because fewer neurons are being used, the network becomes more efficient in carrying out its function.

The brain is fundamentally a lazy piece of meat. It doesn't want to waste energy. That's why there is a striking lack of imagination in most people's visualization of a beach sunset. It's an iconic image, so your brain simply takes the path of least resistance and reactivates neurons that have been optimized to process this sort of scene. If you imagine something that you have never actually seen, like a Pluto sunset, the possibilities for creative thinking become much greater because the brain can no longer rely on connections shaped by past experience.

In order to think creatively, you must develop new neural pathways and break out of the cycle of experience-dependent categorization. As Mark Twain said, "Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned." For most people, this does not come naturally. Often, the harder you try to think differently, the more rigid the categories become.

Most corporate off-sites, for example, are ineffective idea generators, because they're scheduled rather than organic; the brain has time to predict the future, which means the potential novelty will be diminished. Transplanting the same mix of people to a different location, even an exotic one, then dropping them into a conference room much like the one back home doesn't create an environment that leads to new insights. No, new insights come from new people and new environments -- any circumstance in which the brain has a hard time predicting what will happen next.

Fortunately, the networks that govern both perception and imagination can be reprogrammed. By deploying your attention differently, the frontal cortex, which contains rules for decision making, can reconfigure neural networks so that you can see things that you didn't see before. You need a novel stimulus -- either a new piece of information or an unfamiliar environment -- to jolt attentional systems awake. The more radical the change, the greater the likelihood of fresh insights.

Some of the most startling breakthroughs have had their origins in exactly these types of novel circumstances. Chemist Kary Mullis came up with the basic principle of the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR -- the fundamental technology that makes genetic tests possible -- not hunched over his lab bench, but on a spring evening while he was driving up the northern California coast. Walt Disney was a decent illustrator, but he didn't imagine the possibilities of animation until he saw his advertising illustrations projected onto the screen in a movie theater. In an extreme example, the preeminent glass artist Dale Chihuly didn't discover his sculptural genius until a car accident led to the loss of an eye and literally forced him to see the world differently. Only when the brain is confronted with stimuli that it has not encountered before does it start to reorganize perception. The surest way to provoke the imagination, then, is to seek out environments you have no experience with. They may have nothing to do with your area of expertise. It doesn't matter. Because the same systems in the brain carry out both perception and imagination, there will be cross talk.

Novel experiences are so effective at unleashing the imagination because they force the perceptual system out of categorization, the tendency of the brain to take shortcuts. You have to confront these categories directly. Try this: When your brain is categorizing a person or an idea, just jot down the categories that come to mind. Use analogies. You will find that you naturally fall back on the things you are familiar with. Then allow yourself the freedom to write down gut feelings, even if they're vague or visceral, such as "stupid" or "hot." Only when you consciously confront your brain's shortcuts will you be able to imagine outside of its boundaries.

Adapted from the book Iconoclast, by Gregory Berns, by permission of Harvard Business Press. Copyright 2008 Harvard Business School Publishing Corp. All Rights Reserved.

21st CENTURY CLASSROOM DESIGN with the GENERATIVE END IN MIND!

21st Century Classrooms: What's the Look and Feel?
by Leslie Wilson

We've talked to death the characteristics of the able 21st century learner. We can well name the skills and qualities required for students to successfully engage and contribute today and for the future. Let’s not forget to mention the shift in pedagogy that must occur to accomplish all of this. And, of course, there’s the great need to infuse technology in a seamless manner.

But what does this mean – practically and tactically? It’s time to commit this conversation to authentic models of real-live schools, classrooms, students, teachers and tools. One-to-One Institute has begun the process of pulling around concrete examples so that we have working archetypes of the 21^st century education environment. Following provides an outline of this effort. For this blog, I’ll provide this overview. In upcoming pieces I will dive deeper into key concepts.

First, why is there this imperative to create this ramped up and retooled environment? Aside from the numerous reasons we can recite, consider the huge increases that globally exist for accessing the Internet over the past eight years. Statistics follow.

Country	Population 2008 est	Internet Usage Growth 2000-08
Africa	955,206,348	1,031.2 %
Asia	3,776,181,949	406.1 %
Europe	800,401,065	266.0 %
Middle East	197,090,443	1,176.8 %
North America	337,167,248	129.6 %
Latin America & Caribbean	576,091,673	669.3 %
Oceania / Australia	33,981,562	165.1 %
Total	6,676,120,288	305.5 %

(Source: Internet World Stats - Miniwatts marketing group 2001-08 ©)

If we aren’t compelled by the Internet effects in our own neighborhoods and communities, think about the numbers of people in all parts of our world who are accessing, sharing, collaborating, purchasing, downloading, and adding information. The train is traveling so fast that we are pressed to get on at any one station!

Other reasons? How about the manner in which our world has shrunk due to emerging technologies and the ‘twitch’ factor of today’s learners (and me) meaning ‘I want the information now and fast’ with precious little tolerance for even a minimal delay in exchange? How about the fact that today’s students will have around 12 to 15 careers in their life spans – requiring skills for adapting and flexing to be successful in those shifts and within unique environments? These students/workers will be ‘producers’ of content and knowledge – not passive recipients. The entrepreneurial spirit will be required for successful innovation and accommodation within the work world.

Second, pedagogy has to retool to get at 21^st century skill development. The move to student-centric instead of teacher-centric classrooms is required. Teachers become facilitators, organizers – really orchestra directors if you will. They need to know each student’s sweet spot in order to accordingly organize the day’s learning experiences and resources. Students will become self-directed and engaged as evidenced by recent research.

Third, the leadership required for the ‘new’ environment must be ‘generative’ (Klimek, Ritzenhein, Sullivan 2008). Beyond developing the shared vision, supporting and empowering, today’s leader must construct opportunities for creating.

Defined, generativity is ‘the capacity or ability to create, produce, or give rise to new constructs, new possibilities’. The generative leader understands that the 21^st century school is a dynamic system. Each person within it is integral to the present and future. These leaders focus on innovation, ideas and creativity and are able to be directive when needed. They possess a productive spirit with a focus on the future.

Fourth, the classroom has no walls. Maybe this is true from a physical standpoint. It is definitely true from a virtual perspective. Because technology is ubiquitous, it is part of the fabric of teaching, learning, exploring, problem-solving, collaborating, seeking and sharing knowledge. It is a busy, often noisy, robust environment.

Students are sharing and moving about the school and classroom to devour their daily learning. Collaborative relationships and partnerships are apparent across the globe, region, throughout the school and community. Learning is relevant through a constructivist approach.

Project-based learning is a common foundation for instruction. What adults call Web 2.0 tools, students engage for relationship building and networking on a variety of fronts.

There is more to share about the ‘reality’ of a 21^st century learning and teaching environment. I will share that information in my next blog. As always, I welcome your comments and questions!

Leslie Wilson is President of One-to-One Institute (OTO), a national not-for-profit serving schools, districts, states and countries in their implementation of 21^st century teaching and learning. OTO’s genesis is Michigan’s Freedom to Learn, one-to-one teaching and learning program. Ms. Wilson’s consultancy, Wilson Public Sector Consulting, LLC, serves the education industry. She holds a BS Ed and completed Ed Leadership doctoral work from the University of Michigan, Sp Ed Administration endorsement from Eastern Michigan University and M. Ed in Instructional Technology from Wayne State University. lesliew@one-to-oneinstitute.org

Dalton Sherman

COMING to a SCHOOL and "Community Center" Near You Soon!

IN OUR OPINION

DPS board, superintendent need to make their peace

August 13, 2008

The parallels are growing between the current Detroit Board of Education and some of the legendarily backward school boards of old.

This embarrassing situation will be made only worse if a board cabal follows through on a rumored plan to topple Superintendent Connie Calloway, who is to receive her one-year evaluation in a closed-door session tonight.

No one would speak Tuesday for the record, so maybe this is just another urban legend. City parents and taxpayers should hope so. And the board should publicly lay it to rest.

Already on economic and academic life support, the school district needs to move into its new academic year focused on students and finances, not consumed by the consequences of an ill-timed power play.

It would be foolish and fiscally irresponsible to dump Calloway now. At $280,000 a year, she earns more than Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Gov. Jennifer Granholm, and has a contract that could ensure, depending on terms of dismissal, compensation through June 30, 2010.

Of course, the board, as Calloway's employer, has a right and, indeed, a duty to evaluate her performance. It's spelled out in a contract that also calls for an annual meeting with the board, "prior to May 1," to develop a list of academic, budget and financial priorities, including "the development of a five- and ten- year master plan."

In fact, there is little public evidence that this board and Calloway have worked together closely on any agenda and certainly not in a timely manner. That's a responsibility both sides share. In the same way that Calloway has been accountable to community stakeholders, she has to be more publicly savvy in communicating and partnering with the board and the Detroit Federation of Teachers. It would help to see her direct some of the candor she's shown about rampant fraud and mismanagement in the district toward her big-picture vision for DPS. It's well past time.

"She may have some academic prowess," said board member Tyrone Winfrey, an early Calloway supporter, who was also on the search committee that brought her to Detroit. "But her management and leadership style has rubbed against the board. I don't feel like going down the road of another superintendent search, but unless we can come together fast, the kids and these families in Detroit are more important to me than one person."

Calloway has to remember that she works for the board. The board has to remember that she was hired to do a job and needs to be empowered to get it done. The board also has to acknowledge that with all the district's problems, this is no time for a costly change in leadership based on personalities, not principles. This is about doing right by children and doing well by taxpayers. Calloway and the board have to be able to come together on that much; there are no sides to pick on those core issues.

Continuity in the superintendent's office sends an important message to the community. It starts with board members sticking to the call for reform and resisting the sad tradition of turning immediately on the leaders they themselves select. The last time the Detroit schools had a leadership crisis, the state abolished the elected school board for five-plus years. Is that what this board wants?


ROCHELLE RILEY

Put an end to feuding, just educate

BY ROCHELLE RILEY • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • August 13, 2008

Hell froze over.

Instead of a boxing match, some Detroit school board members hope to use tonight's evaluation of Superintendent Connie Calloway's first year on the job to improve a relationship that has been volatile at worst, contentious at best and a detriment to the district, at least.

Board member Tyrone Winfrey, who has had mixed feelings about the superintendent, said Tuesday that the board and Calloway must "chart a new path" to work together to put children first.

"I'm realistically trying to say, 'Let's work together,' " he said. "It's been tough. Her demeanor and character makes it seem like she wants to control the board. But we're trying to work together here."

Calloway declined to comment.

Evaluation on the heels of rumors

Calloway's evaluation comes two days before the board heads to Port Huron for a two-day retreat. There, they will set district goals the board can approve and Calloway can achieve. Calloway also will be expected to outline her reinvention of schools in the area of the city with the densest student populations.

The evaluation also comes as rumors spread about the board buying the superintendent out of her contract. Board members denied that Tuesday.

"She's only been here for a year, and I think that a year is not long enough," said board member Annie Carter. "And I can't see us going through superintendent after superintendent. ... There are some school districts that have gone through five superintendents in six years. We can't do that.

"I think Dr. Calloway needs help. She needs to ask for help," Carter said.

Carter could not have said it better. A failing district that has lost half -- and graduates a third -- of its students can't afford to throw away a person whose harshest critics concede is a good educator.


No plans to remove Calloway

So what should the board and superintendent do?

Focus on the children. Communicate better, on both sides. Spend, as I've said before, less time on the business of educating children and more time educating children.

This city's schools are on the front lines of saving urban children before they are lost.

We are losing the war.

"We need to talk about her first year where we can improve our relations ... and come up with some strong things to spend our energy and very limited resources on," board president Carla Scott said.

Critics on the board said they have no plans to try to remove Calloway. Even Jimmy Womack, her harshest critic, said Tuesday: "I did not vote for Dr. Calloway to come, and I will not vote for her to leave. I need Dr. Calloway to do her job and the board to do its job."

Scott said she hopes board members are sincere about changing and working better with the super.

"I don't think people understand that when bad things are said about the superintendent, it reflects poorly on the board. And when bad things are said about the board, it reflects badly on the district."

Yes, it does.

Join the conversation about this column at www/freep.com/rochelleriley.


FROM OUR READERS

Students leaving elementary, middle schools need exit tests

August 13, 2008

If Michigan is really serious about installing one of the nation's toughest high school curriculums, here is a good place to start ("Test scores show need to get more help to students," Aug. 11). We absolutely need some kind of an exit exam before a student leaves elementary school and middle school. Or at the very least require mandatory summer school before promotion.

The present practice of "social promotions," where a student is promoted to the next grade, even when he/she flunks practically every subject, must be addressed. In many cases the students actually refuse to learn the subject matter. There are known strategies to deal with this effectively.

As a retired high school teacher, I've seen the total shock on many ninth-graders' faces when they get to high school and realize they actually have to do the work and pass the subject.

Why do we have to wait until high school to discover that a student is not worthy of a diploma? Shouldn't this be caught earlier? If a student doesn't understand math fundamentals, can't write a coherent sentence, or understand a short written paragraph, it is a recipe for failure in high school.

Daniel Dlugas

Temperance
More problems to consider

Your editorial on failing test scores and possible solutions does not even mention two serious problems in Michigan today.

The first problem can be fixed with money. In an attempt to get "more bang for their buck," even remedial classes are now at maximum capacity with 30 to 35 students. In large, crowded classes, teachers find it impossible to give struggling students the individualized help they need.

Furthermore, in large, crowded classrooms students feel ignored. They don't feel the teacher cares about them or knows them. Large classes lead to high dropout rates.

Consider that a high school teacher is expected to teach 30 students an hour for five hours a day -- perhaps 150 students. How does a teacher possibly individualize? How does a teacher read and evaluate all that writing? No wonder the writing scores are 40% in the state!

The second problem, however, cannot be fixed with money. Unfortunately, we have become a nation that expects learning to be fun. But like Olympic athletes, successful students learn at an early age that success in academics is no different than success in the sports world. They both require discipline, practice, and self- sacrifice. These are attitudes that must be developed in the home from an early age.

Debra Hoepfner

Macomb


Exams don't tell all

Singular reliance on Merit exams and other mass produced testing instruments is the true disappointment in education. It is alleged that the teens have failed and are struggling to meet expectations. How do you know this is true? A number produced and compared year over year demonstrates absolutely nothing except the blind ignorance of all those highly intelligent individuals who profess to be experts in educational assessment.

These are no doubt the same individuals who expect that all students will perform above average, all the time, and achieve 100% proficiency by 2014. Not!

Look around and observe what is working: small schools, integrated curriculums, performance of mastery, assessment over time using multiple methods, teachers and school buildings with local autonomy, variable school hours at the secondary level -- methods that provide opportunities for success and a desire for lifelong learning.

Chuck Fellows

South Lyon

REGIONAL NSF ITEST STEM GRANT INTENTION!

ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW

Switch to smarter higher ed funding

BY STATE SEN. WAYNE KUIPERS • August 11, 2008

The Kalamazoo Promise launched a nationwide discussion of private funding for public higher education and efforts in Michigan to take the concept statewide. And while the unknown benefactor of the Kalamazoo Promise deserves praise for doing what many only talk about -- providing financial incentives for children to pursue higher education -- larger problems still must be addressed at the state level.

The legislation that has reached the Michigan Senate would create "Promise Zones" in poor areas of the state where all or some of the cost of college would be covered with state and local dollars. The problem, as I see it, is that the dollars are not directed to the students, but to the Michigan higher education system.

Right now, the state spends $1.6 billion to help students take advantage of higher education opportunities in Michigan. However, because this money goes directly to the schools, not the students, it limits their opportunity to use it for the university that best meets their needs and chosen course discipline. The Promise Zone legislation also provides no incentive for students to stay in school beyond their "experimental" freshmen year.

Given the condition of Michigan's economy, we need a bold plan that makes higher education more affordable and rewards students for completing their degrees.

I propose that we establish a system by which we put the money in the hands of the students and let them use our state's tax dollars to attend the university that best meets their needs. Each Michigan university would be compensated based on the number of students it attracts and graduates. This would represent a huge improvement on the current system, in which the presidents of our 15 state universities come to Lansing every year and lobby for a raise in funding.

In the system I am proposing, the onus would be on the universities and their ability to provide curriculum and training programs that will allow our students to meet the demands of the marketplace and successfully find careers. Those schools that continually meet the needs of and attract more students will get a higher level of funding.

Under the New University Funding Plan, freshmen attending a public university in Michigan would receive $5,000 to $6,000. The amount would increase each year they continue in school until the student graduates.

The plan also addresses the huge brain drain of students leaving the state immediately after graduation. Companies now in the state and those looking to move here are complaining there are not enough qualified employees in Michigan to fill their available and future positions. Under the new funding plan, students who continue to work in Michigan after they graduate, would also have access to more than $150 million in low or interest-free loans to help make college more affordable. The primary overall goal of the plan, obviously, is to encourage more Michigan students to go to college by making it more affordable.

I recently presented this plan to Lou Glazier, president of Michigan Future, and members of his board of directors. They, too, share my belief that getting more kids in our universities is tantamount to the future economic recovery of Michigan.

"The most prosperous places in the country are those with the highest proportion of adults with a four-year degree or more. Unfortunately, Michigan ranks 34th in college attainment. So finding better ways of encouraging far more of our kids to graduate from college and stay here after college is economic growth priority No. 1," Glazer said.

Of course, there are many details still to be hashed out; including the possibility of providing tax incentives for Michigan-based companies to hire Michigan graduates. But embarking now on a market-based system that gives high school graduates more options in higher education is not only good for our educational system, but the Michigan economy.

WAYNE KUIPERS, R-Holland, 47, represents the 30th state Senate district, encompassing Ottawa County plus Grandville and Sparta Township in Kent County. He chairs the Senate Education Committee. Contact him at SenWKuipers@senate.michigan.gov.

A "Ticket to Ride!"

IN OUR OPINION

United Way takes lead in preventing dropouts

August 11, 2008

Leadership requires more than just talking about a problem. It takes commitment and action.

The United Way for Southeastern Michigan is truly taking a leadership role in attacking the issue of high school dropouts, a critical challenge for the economy and well-being of this region.

For the second time this year, the United Way is putting action behind its expressed concern for improving the educational outcomes of students in high poverty districts. The first step was to host a first-of-its-kind regional summit, to expose the painful societal costs of having 30 of the nation's so-called dropout factories right here in metro Detroit.

The event was an eye-opening success for participants who realized the dropout problem is not confined to Detroit.

Last week came the United Way's tangible long-term commitment to solutions, with the creation of the $10-million Greater Detroit Education Venture Fund to help high schools with dropout rates of 40% or more. The money will be disbursed in competitive grants of up to $80,000 per year over five years and paid to well-vetted third-party educational companies that the United Way will designate to partner with schools.

Ideally, the United Way is looking to align troubled schools with companies nationally recognized for turning them around in cities such as Chicago, Miami, New York and Cleveland. The goal is for the companies to help schools identify their students' challenges and then customize a learning environment that could involve breaking a large school into smaller ones within it.

The project should be a good complement to Gov. Jennifer Granholm's smaller school initiative. And it's likely to have a faster impact, given the absence of partisan bickering and general government bureaucracy. In fact, United Way's fund is already approaching the halfway point toward its $10-million goal, with $4 million committed, including a generous $1-million pledge from AT&T of Michigan and investment from the Skillman Foundation.

AT&T Michigan president Gail Torreano said the company's commitment will come from $100 million that AT&T is donating nationwide to efforts to improve educational preparedness, a key workforce issue for employers.

"We ought to have the expectation as a region that we can create change, a better outcome for students," United Way CEO Mike Brennan said in an interview last week. "This is an urban and a suburban issue, one we are collectively accountable for."

Bravo to Brennan for speaking the truth and for being so committed to leading the region in a united way.



Test scores show need to get more help to students

August 11, 2008

The results from the latest Michigan Merit exam once again expose a gaping hole in the state's strategy to turn out a smarter class of high school graduates.

With more than half the high school juniors tested showing failing scores, the State Board of Education needs to take a closer look at whether school districts are identifying struggling students early enough and linking them with tutoring resources that are supposed to be available under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Michigan can't leave this question unanswered after finally installing one of the nation's toughest high school curriculums. The change remains a smart one for Michigan, but if it's going to pay off, the state has to be equally tough and insistent about aiding students who need help making the academic leap.

The dismal scores students are posting under the tougher exam are somewhat to be expected and will probably improve as school districts more closely align their lesson plans with the state objectives.

But the sea change Michigan is trying to lead in its schools also demands a level of coordination and strategic planning that frankly should include an examination of whether middle schools are adequately preparing students or simply passing future failures off to high school.

Paying more attention to what's happening in middle school strikes at the heart of the state's other academic high hurdle -- stemming the tide of high school dropouts. The decision to quit rarely comes suddenly in high school; it's a product of long academic frustration that can be spotted by looking at indicators much simpler than test scores, such as attendance.

The best way to prevent dropouts is to identify the potential failures early, well before they reach high school. That's also the smartest way for Michigan to protect its investment in the more rigorous curriculum and merit exam.

ONE-D Drop-Out Prevention PROPOSAL WORKSHOP 8-12-2008 8:30AM

Aug 8, 2008 4:33 PM

Subject: T.A. Workshop for School Turnaround Proposals
Mailed-by: uwsem.org

Please join us this Tuesday, August 12, at 8:30 at the United Way for a technical assistance workshop if you are interested in completing an application for high school turnaround. This is a great opportunity to walk through the application process and proposal.

FREE PARKING is available at the parking structure located at 1001 Woodward (at State Street). You must enter the parking structure off of State, which is a one-way street. Please take a parking ticket and remember to bring it into the meeting with you. It must be validated before you leave the United Way building to ensure that the cashier does not charge you a parking fee when you exit the structure (please note that United Way can not cover parking expenses for any other parking lot other than the one located at 1001 Woodward.

A copy of the School Turnaround Proposal can be downloaded at www.oned.org, and more information about this grant is included in the Crain's article, below.

Please confirm your attendance by email annette.grays@uwsem.­org or by phone 313 226-9419 with your plans to attend the T.A. Workshop. I look forward to seeing you.

Mike

Michael F. Tenbusch
Vice President, Educational Preparedness
United Way for Southeastern Michigan
1212 Griswold Street
Detroit, Michigan 48226
w (313) 226-9437
f (313) 226-9324



3:01 am, August 3, 2008

Groups seek funds to raise high school grad rates

By Sherri Begin

United Way for Southeastern Michigan has launched an effort to raise $10 million to help low-performing high schools in the region improve their graduation rates.

The agency and the Detroit-based Skillman Foundation have contributed $1.5 million each.

The AT&T Foundation today is to announce another $1 million grant to the Greater Detroit Education Venture Fund, bringing the total investment to $4 million.

The three organizations plan jointly to pursue additional grants to reach the $10 million mark, said United Way CEO Michael Brennan.

“If we are going to compete as a country in this global society, we have to have a workforce that's ready,” said AT&T Michigan President Gail Torreano, a United Way board member and chair of its Educational Preparedness Council and of the Greater Detroit Education Venture Fund.

Given the needs of Southeast Michigan, AT&T's employment of 12,000 people in Michigan and the AT&T Foundation's launch last spring of a program aimed at strengthening student success and workforce readiness in the U.S., the investment made perfect sense, Torreano said.

“When you look at issues of current and lifetime income, health disparity, incarceration rates, literacy rates — all of that leads to the fundamental foundation that education is one of the key drivers of both economic and emotional and physical success,” said United Way CEO Michael Brennan.

The aim of the program is to turn around the 30 or so Southeast Michigan high schools labeled as “drop-out factories” in a 2007 Johns Hopkins University study because of their graduation rates of 60 percent or less.

The schools are in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

The goal is to increase graduation rates to 80 percent or more of entering students within five years of the program's launch in the 2009-2010 academic year, Brennan said.

“There's no question there's a crisis, particularly at the high school level in Detroit,” said William Hanson, director of communications and technology at Skillman.

The plan is to implement best practices that have worked in Boston and New York and other parts of the country by working with nationally known educational intermediaries to create smaller, more personalized learning environments.

United Way plans today and Tuesday to host a group of nationally recognized intermediary nonprofits at Lawrence Technological University so the target high schools can meet them and learn more about their work.

Many of the intermediaries, which include EdWorks, First Things First and the Institute for Student Achievement, have garnered past funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Brennan said.

Administered by United Way, the Greater Detroit Education Venture Fund will make annual grants of $320,000 directly to the intermediary partners of larger high schools and $80,000 to smaller high schools with 500 or fewer students.

The grants would be renewable for up to five years and are being made to intermediaries to keep them accountable, Brennan said.

The 30 or so “drop-out factories” in metro Detroit will compete for the dollars, he said, by demonstrating leadership support and readiness within the school and a partnership with a proven intermediary.

United Way has invited the schools to submit a turnaround proposal to qualify for funding, Brennan said.

With $10 million in hand, the fund expects to begin making grants for turnaround efforts at six large high schools of about 1,500 to 2,000 students or more in the 2009-2010 academic year, Brennan said.

The plan is to break those six schools into smaller schools of 500 students or fewer to give students a more targeted and personalized approach. The smaller schools could have an academic focus more geared to students' abilities, such as math and science or arts, he said.

The intermediaries also would help implement best practices such as site-based management of academic performance and instruction and stronger and more targeted relationships with the student population that would help those schools increase their graduation rates to 80 percent within five years, Brennan said.

The program will entail a year of preparation to get schools lined up for the turnaround work scheduled to begin the fall of 2009, he said.

“We certainly hope that with a clear demonstration of local private funding ... it will put us in a position to attract national foundation funds for the Venture Fund,” Brennan said.

Sherri Begin: (313) 4460-1694, sbegin@crain.com

© 2007 Crain Communications Inc.

A Students 2.0 Perspective on THINKING DIFFERENTLY and a PREREQUISITE for INNOVATION!

Think Different

Posted: 07 Aug 2008 11:14 AM CDT

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy. How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels? We make tools for these kinds of people. While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Some of you may recognise that as the famous Apple ‘Think Different’ text, others may not, but I guess whether you’ve read it before or have read it for the first time there, we can pretty much all agree that it’s an inspiring piece of text. The thing that surprised me was that when reading through it I realised that all you need to do is change one tiny piece of the text to change the whole context of it.

“We make tools for educate these kinds of people”

In my mind, that’s now one hell of a motto for a better education system.

Let’s face it; the current education system just doesn’t know how to handle these kinds of people. “The round pegs in the square holes,” as Apple refers to them. The system doesn’t understand creativity. It robs all students of their creative consciousness and replaces it with structure, structure, and more structure, only to prepare them for a 9-to-5 job, Monday to Friday, every week of every year for the rest of their lives. Art, Music, Drama… you name it, the current system has a course for it. But that course doesn’t do any form of justice to the many greats that have over hundreds of years created amazing works and done incredible things, demonstrating how beautiful these arts can be. Students aren’t told to let passion drive them forward, or let their inspiration flow and their imagination stop at nothing. They are told to follow the rules, and do whatever it takes to get a ‘pass.’ Where would we be if Bach was told his Brandenburg concertos ‘didn’t quite meet the required standard’? What would have happened if Van Gogh was told his paintings just ‘didn’t make sense’?

It doesn’t stop at the arts. The suppression of creativity is seen in all fields of learning within the current system, giving no room for our real geniuses to shine. And why? Because the system has an obsession with testing, and at the end of the day you can’t test real genius, because you just can’t grade it. Who really has the right to say that a piece of music is an A or B or whatever else? Why should someone sitting in a fancy government office be able to sit there and write the rules that decide whether this piece of writing would make the grade or not? Why can’t the people deciding our futures for us be content with having some classes that have no exams? Classes that are solely there to help stimulate the different skills we all possess, without having to put us under the constant pressure of being bombarded with test after test and grade after grade. Do they see this as ‘non-educational’?

Think of the wealth of talent that is being and has been squandered due to this system. How many people would have become the next great composer if they had been given just that little bit more leeway? How many people would have had the courage to write their own novel, because they wouldn’t have been told they ‘weren’t good enough’? How many people failed to ever recognise their own potential because they were too busy striving for the best grades possible? Only so they could get a ‘good’ job in an office, with a ‘good’ salary.

Don’t get me wrong, we need the people in offices to do the things that keep our public services running and our economy going, but we also need the people who create, invent, and change things. We need the people who “sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written,” because Apple is right; they push the human race forward, and have done for as long as the human race has been around. But they can’t continue to do so if we don’t help them realise they are capable of doing so. They can’t invent the cure for cancer, or compose a great symphony, or write a magnificent piece of literature if our education system tells them exactly how everything should be, and what they should learn, and what they are aiming to do with their lives. Give them the opportunity. Let them decide.

We make the mistake of thinking that the people that do well in school are the ‘smart’ ones, but that isn’t always the case. These people may just be good at retaining information and reciting it back under pressure, or may just be good at problem solving. Our schools teach these kinds of people well, because they know how to deal with them. All you need to do with these people is throw facts and figures at them and tell them they need to know them to pass, and get become qualified to get a good job... which is not even proper learning. There is no regard there for our creative ones, or even the ‘smart’ ones who can probably do so much more given the opportunity. There is no other option, no fork in the road, not even a way to have the best of both worlds. Just one path for everyone to follow, with the same goal in mind—to fit in, and become another round peg in a round hole.

Let me make myself clear right now that this is not a dig at teachers, who do a superb job. What it is, however, is a cry out to the people in suits who decide what we learn and how we learn it to change their philosophy. To realise that some people can achieve more, and that the people who will eventually find the cure for cancer, or create the next breakthrough piece of technology, or discover new planets and galaxies are in our schools. These children/students or whatever you want to call them are waiting on these people to realise and do something to help them on their way to greatness. To give them the opportunity to shine, and achieve things that both us and them can’t even imagine yet.

It really is time for our education system to start ‘Thinking Differently.’

The Bass Player

YAPO CLC Board of Driectors Meeting 8-6-2008

YAPO COMPUTER LEARNING CENTER
an authorized Neighborhood Network Center

Meeting Agenda

August 6, 2008

26 Leanne Lane
Pontiac, MI 48340
(248) 338-7346/(248) 338-4771 (fax)

Call to Order
Roll Call
Adoption of Agenda
Approval of Yapo CLC Board of Directors’ Minutes – July 2, 2008

Executive Director’s Report

Old Business

Website
NSF ITEST Grant
Invitation to Walton Park Manor Board

Treasurer’s Report
Corporate Book
Budget
Fundraisers
Community Activities

New Business
Incident occurring July 11, 2008

Announcements

Adjourn!

ONE-D Drop-Out Prevention Reach-Out Out-Reach!