My Top 5 Practices for 2013

I have never been one to create New Year’s resolutions, and it just dawned on me why I never set them.  You know how we all start going to the gym in January but lose steam by March?  Not wanting to face the disappointment-in-myself-in-March equivalent was what kept me from setting any New Year’s resolutions.  It was out of self-preservation, really.  If I didn’t set any, I wouldn’t have to feel bad about myself for yet again not achieving what I had hoped.  Pragmatic and somewhat defeatist?  Sure.  At all inspiring and any way to live?  Heavens, no. 

After a year of much self-awareness development, reflection, and hard work in 2012, I have a different outlook on the whole “resolution” thing and aim to adapt it to be more forgiving and meaningful – for me, anyway.

So, what does 2013 look like for me?  I’ve decided that the best practices I can adopt are those that encourage the development of being – of being MYSELF.  (When you’ve spent your life trying to be the person you think others want you to be, this is quite a leap.)  There are five practices that I have either already started to adopt and will continue or will adopt for the New Year:

1.  Write a letter to myself.  Tomorrow, January 1^st, I will write a letter to myself to be opened on Dec. 31^st, 2013.  It will be about what I want the year to look like and the kind of person I will hope to be.  Benjamin Zander, the author of The Art of Possibility uses the concept of ‘Giving An A. ‘ It’s the idea that the students all receive an A at the start of the course under the condition that they write a letter dated for the end of the course outlining why they got that A.  My letter will have the same principle.

2.  Meditation/Mindfulness.  This is an easy one to TOTALLY let slip.  I know, as it has slipped for me.  I will commit to some sort of mindful practice each day.  I’ll give myself permission for it to be a minute in the shower, maybe 10 deep breaths before I go to sleep, or an actual time set aside to quiet my mind.  Whenever I have done this, it has had an extraordinary affect on me.  I highly recommend it for everyone else.

3.  Seek inspiration.  I want this year to be one of purposeful inspiration.  It is mostly about being aware of the world around us because we can find inspiration anywhere, AND it can also come from other people, books, experiences, etc.  Recently, I re-connected with my first-year college roommate, who I haven’t seen since college, and it was one of the most inspiring, wonderful conversations.  I cherished those two hours with her.  I have registered for the World Domination Summit in July, which from what I was told about last year’s summit, it should be a phenomenally inspiring event.  Then, there is just the simple act of going for a walk on the trails or going to the beach.  It’s amazing the inspiration we can find in nature.  No wonder that so many designers of all sorts often look to natur

4.  Move.  “A body in motion stays in motion.”  Newton knew what he was talking about.  Yes, I am prone to a few hours of mind-numbing television.  That’s not helping my brain cells, nor my body, as I get older.  After injuring my hip, which sidelined my running and almost all other forms of exercise, I had too good of an excuse for not doing anything.  Fortunately, I have just gotten a dog, and he will at least get me outside a little bit each day.  We’ll see how this goes when it’s raining.  Like with all other practices, I won’t set hard boundaries or definitions on what this has to look like.  I just know that it’s critical to my physical, mental and emotional health and well-being to keep on movin’!

5.  Read.  I am doing a lot of reading for school, and I love learning.  One of the things I loved about living in London was the fact that I got through a book a week just from the 20-minute Tube ride to and from work each day.  When I’m done with school (in six months, but who’s counting?), reading for pleasure and interest will be re-adopted.  (And no, I will not set a target of one book per week.  That’s plain silly if War and Peace is on the list!)

Those are my Top 5 Practices for 2013.  I’ll periodically keep you posted on how it’s all going.  I’ll be honest if something isn’t working too well and will ask for your advice.  In fact, let’s start now.  What do you think of those 5?  What are you adopting as a way to transform your life – even just something small? 

One of my all-time favorite quotes from Goethe is:

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it!  

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

Here’s to a little magic for all of us in 2013!

Our education system and the widening gaps

A few days ago, I wrote about the cost and the implications of not investing in our education system.  On the cover of today's New York Times, Jason DeParle wrote a piece about the gap widening between high- and low-income students.  Greg J. Duncan, an economist at the University of California, Irvine, was quoted as saying, "Everyone wants to think of education as an equalizer - the place where upward mobility gets started, but on virtually every measure we have, the gaps between high- and low-income kids are widening.  It's very disheartening."

There are a whole host of reasons that contribute to this.  From my first in the series of these education posts, I surmised that teaching to the test is having significant unintended consequences.  I discussed the lack of developing our children's creativity and problem solving skills.  There is another way that teaching to the test is creating deficiencies in our schools.  The rise of charter schools, vouchers, and the like are siphoning motivated kids from the public schools.  The original intent of charter schools -to bring innovation to the public school system was admirable.  However, because funding is dependent on test scores, public schools are seeing their funding decrease due to being left with a greater proportion of students requiring greater resources (such as ESL, special needs, etc.).  Diane Ravitch wrote a book about this called The Death and Life of the Great American School System:  How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education.  As we are seeing across so many areas of our society, the chasm between the have's and the have-not's is creating significant implications.  Sean Reardon, a sociologist at Stanford, said in Mr. DeParle's article, "It's becoming increasingly unlikely that a low-income student, no matter how intrinsically bright moves up the socioeconomic ladder.  What we're talking about is a threat to the American dream."  Sound familiar?  I noted the same sentiment in my last post from Condeleeza Rice and Joel Klein's task force.  Our education system is threatening our national identity and the belief in the America dream - the chance that everyone has equal opportunity.


I come from an extreme place of privilege, and I recognize that it is easy for me to sit on my very own laptop, having received a top education, expounding on the state of our education system.  While I had financial aid - both work study and student loans - they did not cripple me.  It was a tough period for my parents, but they handled it with such grace and discretion that my sister and I never fully knew how tough it was.  I can not imagine the hurdles that so many students have to face just to get a fair shot.

I believe in the power of this country.
I believe in our ability to change, evolve, and learn from our mistakes.  
I believe that if we focus on education, we ALL win.
I believe that no one person has all of the answers, but if enough of us try, we just might turn this aircraft carrier.
I believe in EVERYONE's potential.
Call me an idealist.

********

Thank you for letting me interrupt my "regularly scheduled programming" for this 3-part essay on the state of our education and some of the connections I see.  I will return to the personal paths and destinations of some of the people around us.  I hope you'll be surprised, delighted, and maybe even learn a thing or two about your own journey.

From time to time, I might get struck by the urge to pontificate about various topics.  I hope you'll stick with me and join in the conversation because your voice adds richness and perspective that is good for us all to hear.

Happy Holidays and I shall return soon!  May 2013 be filled with much joy and laughter.  I will leave you with these two questions:

1.  How can we begin to address our education system?
2.  What is one, small act you can make to help?

Education, the Federal Budget, & Oreos

I will admit, I like the bumper sticker that says:

What I like to read into this is that there is great value in investing in education, and that it would be nice to prioritize our schools a bit more.  It doesn't have to be an either/or situation, as I'll describe in a bit, but if we put education a little higher on the totem pole, we might feel the benefits even more as a society.

I come from a family of educators.  I have seen first-hand how much they dedicate themselves to educating the youth of our country - trying to prepare them for an ever-increasingly complex world.  It's not easy, and as we sadly experienced in Connecticut, it can be deadly.  Teachers are having to spend more and more of their own money (which they typically have very little) to provide even the basic materials for their classrooms - pencils, erasers, crayons, paper, etc.  As more kids require assistance such as free lunch, breakfast, and even dinner, more is being expected of and relied upon from our teachers.  If we actually give education a few more "cookies," we could make a real difference.  I'll explain.

On the very first day of my MBA program, Ben Cohen, of Ben & Jerry's fame (yes, THE Ben), was one of our guest executives for the weekend.  While I was sorely disappointed that he didn't bring any Phish Food (my favorite Ben & Jerry's flavor), he did bring a few Oreo's and demonstrated what our federal budget looks like using Oreo's: 1 Oreo=$10 Billion.  Given the heated talks happening in Washington about the budget and the fiscal cliff right now, I thought it might be worthwhile to revisit Ben's visualization for a bit of guidance.  The video below is from 2007, so the numbers aren't in today's dollars.  However, the proportions are still very much the same.  It provides an interesting visual of our discretionary budget and what the impact could be just by shifting a few Oreo's.

Ben's Oreo Budget Demonstration
photo credit:  Brooke Van Roekel

A few "cookies can go a long way in helping solve some of our great issues.  Granted, I don't believe in merely throwing money at a problem because that certainly isn't the answer.  If we were just to start with re-building our schools, which many of them are in dire conditions, we could start to make some headway.  Maybe then, our teachers wouldn't be so strapped just trying to provide the basics such as pencils for their students, and they could focus on what they love and should be doing:  educating our children.

Seeing "cookies" being moved from the Pentagon can scare a few people, and I get that.  What was particularly interesting to me was that in May 2012, Condeleeza Rice, our former Secretary of State under Bush, and Joel Klein, the former chancellor of the NYC Public Schools, co-chaired a task force that "looked into the relationship between education reform and America's national security."  Our failure to invest and reform our education system is threatening our "economic future, physical safety, ability to protect cyber assets, awareness of other cultures, and the country's sense of unity" as told in the US News and World Report article.  We need to be offering courses such as foreign language courses and computer programming, but as we become so focused on standardized test scores which do not include those subjects, they are getting cut at exponential rates.  The article also cites a report by the Department of Defense:

The Department of Defense estimates that 75 percent of young Americans are not eligible to serve in the military because they didn't graduate from high school, are obese, or have criminal records.  "Among recent high school graduates who are eligible to apply, 30 percent score too low on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery to be recruited."

As Joel Klein further noted, our fading education system is eroding our national identity.  If our identity goes, we don't have a Plan B.

Thinking about national identity, I think of when I lived in Amsterdam.  I loved Amsterdam.  It is one of the most beautiful and charming cities.  As a visitor, the Dutch are very friendly.  Living there can be another matter.  As an ex-pat, one of the most common phrases I heard was, "that's not possible." I'd be on the phone with the bank and be told, "that's not possible" in response to my question.  All of the ex-pats became extremely familiar with this phrase.  It was then that I realized what one of the most valuable qualities that Americans' possess:  our "can do!" attitude.  That is why I believe that we can address some of these big, hairy, audacious issues.

National security isn't the only reason why a focus on education would do us good.  As I mentioned in my previous post, there is a great economic need for creative thinking.  One of my favorite authors, Daniel Pink, identified this in his book, A Whole New Mind:  Why Right Brainers will Rule the Future.  Oprah loved the book so much, she gave 4500 copies of it to the graduating class at Stanford when she was the commencement speaker.  You can see parts I and II of her interview with Dan Pink on his book here and here.

In the book, he outlined the fact that there are three causes that contribute to the growth and need for right-brain thinkers.  They are:  abundance, Asia, and automation.  Abundance refers to the fact that our left-brain has made us rich and given us everything we could possibly imagine (take the abundance of pet stores and dog sweaters -- really?)  Pink stated, "For businesses, it's no longer enough to create a product that's reasonably priced and adequately functional.  It must also be beautiful, unique, and meaningful."  There will be an increasing demand not just for "stuff" but for stuff that is beautiful and is relevant.  Our left brains know how to produce things.  Our right brains know how to make them pretty and worthwhile.

His reference is exactly what you may suspect when you see Asia on his list of reasons why right-brain thinking will be so critical for us.  Jobs have moved overseas - particularly the outsourcing of a number of jobs that used to be done exclusively in the US.  Just as we saw manufacturing jobs move overseas because of lower wages, we're seeing white-collar programming jobs, for instance, also move overseas; thereby generating a greater need for the creative, right-brain thinking to make us competitive.

Finally, his third reason is automation.  Almost everything is becoming automated, requiring less human skill.  We need to develop ALL of our cognitive skills - our creative and big-picture thinking in addition to logical and linear thinking.

By just investing a few more dollars (or "cookies") in education and ensuring that we're helping our children fully develop all of their cognitive abilities, we will be able to adequately compete, develop innovative ideas to address our global challenges, and quite possibly do some good along the way.  Not bad, I think, and no bake sale needed - for anyone.

A slight divergence: An "op-ed" on education

What is going on?

I am going to temporarily diverge from my normal blog focus because I can’t get the unbelievably horrific event in Connecticut out of my heart and head.  Like everyone else, I keep wondering, “How did this happen?”  “What could have been done?”  “Where do we go from here?”  I will return to the original focus of personal journeys and 'What Do People Do All Day?' pretty soon as there are some very fun ones on the horizon.

When I start to think about all of the facets of our society that led to this tragedy, I can’t help but return to one place - our priorities, and more specifically, education.

I come from a family of educators.  Both my grandmother and mother were high school English teachers.  After my sister and I were old enough to take care of ourselves after school, my mother became an instructional assistant working with Down Syndrome and autistic children.  I have aunts and uncles who have been teachers and administrators across decades and districts.  Education is highly valued in our family.  

Nelson Mandela 2008
credit: creative commons

In addition to my family’s influence, my studies have led me to also support the idea that education can help solve many of our world’s greatest problems.  Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which can use to change the world.” I agree with Mr. Mandela.  If we are to change our world, we must educate ourselves, and most importantly, we must educate our children.  I’m just a little fearful of what we are teaching our children.  I just learned that by 2014, our education system will replace texts like To Kill A Mockingbird and Catcher In The Rye with instruction manuals.  As Margaret Mead said, “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”  Instruction manuals certainly don’t teach them how to think.  If our society is to innovate, if we are to improve our connectivity not just through wires and technology, we need to foster creativity.  Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk on creativity speaks directly to this:

I also feel that we need to teach empathy and compassion - in both the home and the schools.  It certainly won't come from teaching the California Invasive Plant Council's Invasive Plant Inventory as the new standards suggest.  It was Aristotle who said, "Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all."  It makes me wonder why we fight against some of the wisdom that has already been gained.  Why must we ignore the tried and true and how do we re-introduce this?

I know I'm an idealist AND I also know that there are a whole host of issues plaguing our schools.  I know our education system is so large that it feels that there's no way we can actually change anything. I also know that many people have many ideas of what should be taught in schools.  I wonder, do you think that we can come together to address this in a civil manner?  It seems to me that the common ground we all would want for EVERY child is to have the best possible education - to be able to think critically, to create, to reason, to have an understanding of the world, and to have compassion for others.  Only then, might we be able to best prepare them for the phenomenally difficult and complex problems that they will face (and we are leaving them).  I also believe that if we get our education system sorted, we end up addressing so many other issues in our society.  

There are many ideas that exist about how to "fix" our education system.  There was one that got me thinking, and it comes from Finland, the country whose students rank #1 in the world.  It was while writing a paper with a classmate on how the market principles of competition (charter schools) and freedom of choice (vouchers) affect education, that we stumbled upon two simple and short videos produced by NBC News for Education Nation.  The first was titled Following Finland's Lead on Education.  What is different in this country?  They place a high value on education, and their practices are remarkable.  In the second video, the Finland Phenomenon, a gentleman featured in Robert Compton's film stated, "Politicians, principals, teachers, universities have all understood that this is actually the only resource that we have in Finland that has to be taken good care of:  the brain, the young people, the education."  To me, this is the kind of priority I would love to see us give education.

Everyone is looking for the one idea that will solve our education system.  The simple fact of the matter is that it doesn't exist.  It is going to take a systems approach to addressing the problem, which will require everyone to be at the table and a commitment from all to achieve our desired outcome of putting education at the top of the list.  Would this even be possible especially as we are in the throes of the fiscal cliff and are facing impending cuts?  

Speaking of money and budgets, I'll next look at ways we might be able to finance this, and it comes from a very unlikely source - the ice cream man.  I can't help but think that investing in education (both brain power to get it sorted and money) would positively impact so much in our society.

Thank you so much for letting me diverge a bit from my story-telling of people's journeys and for letting me share a few ideas with you.  I had so many thoughts running through my head that I just needed to express them.  Please let me know what you think as I firmly believe that dialogue is a place for us all to start.

Finally, my heart goes to the families and community of Newtown, CT.  I am sending every bit of love to you all. 

In conclusion on the "Day of Diamonds..."

“Quality & happy occasions”

As a fun little exercise, I asked each of the staff to pick out a piece or a few pieces of jewelry that represented what Packouz stood for – aside from the many luxury Swiss-made watches.  (*As a note of responsibility – Packouz Jewelers does not carry any conflict gemstones.)

After much thought, Heidi picked out a few Oscar Heyman pieces.  I am not much of a “bling” type of person, but I will say that that the pink sapphire and diamond necklace was exquisite.  I even got to try it on and was it ever weighty!  Given that it was six figures, I certainly was aware that it was clasped around my neck for brief period. 

Oscar Heyman necklace of pink sapphires and diamonds...oh my!
photo credit:  Brooke Van Roekel

Tonya, Rick’s wife and the person handling all of the PR and advertising for the business, picked out an emerald and diamond ring because it was so pure and the quality was unlike what you’d find at many other stores.  She felt that those qualities represented Packouz. 

Just a little emerald and some diamonds
photo credit:  Brooke Van Roekel

Jennifer picked out an entire display that had a mix of new styles along with some classic pieces.  The blending of the new with the classic really captured Packouz Jewelers for her. 

A lovely assortment of classic and contemporary pieces
photo credit:  Brooke Van Roekel

Rick created an assortment of three items with color, quality, and beauty.  They were of the highest quality, were original pieces, brought color or a little flair, and contained a simple, understated beauty – just like Packouz Jewelers. 

Color, quality and elegance
photo credit: Brooke Van Roekel

 Larry, whose business this was for 3 generations of his family, went straight for the bridal cases and made an insightful comment.  He said, “Everyone who comes in, usually comes for happy occasions.”  That is a very good point about the jewelry business.  It is for happy reasons that people purchase jewelry.  There may only be one exception - those who are trying to get out of the doghouse!

A ring that is meant to be shown off!
photo credit:  Brooke Van Roekel

Lovely on any woman's finger!
photo credit:  Brooke Van Roekel

I am grateful to Rick for spending so much time with me on that dreary Monday and for outlining everything he did from one minute to the next.  Keeping up with his brain and all of the many hats he wears puts any haberdasher to shame. Thank you, Rick. 

To the staff who humored me with answering all of my questions, let me wander the store, and happily pulled any item from the case for me to try on, thank you for being so gracious. 

To Larry, who clearly has been an inspiration to so many staff and Portlanders, alike, I now fully understand why Packouz Jewelers is so well established in the community. 

I so enjoyed my time with all of you and am impressed with your deep knowledge and genuine kindness.  Packouz Jewelers will, no doubt, continue to flourish.