What art really teaches

My local school district, like so many others, is struggling with difficult budget choices.  As is typical, the arts become an easy target for financial cuts because we do not understand how or why they matter.  The arts somehow seem superfluous.  I wish that were not so.  Here is a letter I composed and shared with school board members; perhaps others might find it helpful too.

Dear Board of Education member:

As you grapple with budget choices and curriculum trade-offs related to the arts, I’d like to share a quote from Larry Rosenstock who leads High Tech High, a San Diego school started by a group of local tech executives frustrated by a lack of skilled workers.  “There is no test for the future that we can teach to.  What we do know, however, is that being able to make new things is still going to be the way to succeed.  Creativity is a skill that never goes out of style.”   As school environments get ever more rigid and test oriented, arts is the area which advances the traits needed for the future—how to cope with complexity and connect ideas, how to develop grit and determination, how to find your voice and say something– whether with music, words, dance or art.  I can think of nothing more essential for the children of our community.  Please preserve the arts as a critical element of education.

Parent Report Card

In the great dice game of life, I won the parent lottery.  I had audaciously awesome parents who told me every day that they loved me, that I was beautiful, and capable of anything I put my mind to.  Like most kids, I thought my parents were crazy.  But I also thought that if they could be fooled, it was possible that someday I might find one other person capable of similar delusions.  Lucky for me, I found just the man: a wonderfully supportive and loving spouse.  Now we are raising two kids together, and of course the expectations I have for my own parenting are impossibly high.  I’m measuring against the standard of audaciously awesome.  But here’s the thing: my only audience is my kids.  So it really doesn’t matter what the world’s standard is, or what the grandparents or neighbors or people at the park think.  What matters is what my kids think, measured against the standard that I set.

A few years ago, when my children were nine and twelve, I developed a parent report card.  Here’s my daughter’s review from last year.

Offering this report card to my kids in effect told them what I think my job description is.  And it gave them a chance to say how they think I’m doing.  Clearly I have some things to work on– no surprise there.  Now I know where to focus my efforts.   What do you want to be measured on?  And by whom?

Here’s a blank version to use as a starter for crafting your own report card. Please consider sharing what you create so we can continue to learn from each other.   Create your own parent report card

© May 2012 by Pam Daniels.  All rights reserved.

To copy or to iterate?

An article in a recent issue of The Economist argued that being good at copying is at least as important as being innovative.  Here’s my take on it.

Schumpeter’s recent piece on Pretty Profitable Parrots seemed to confuse iteration with copying.  Building on the ideas of others is how the world gets better.  All progress stems from what preceded it.  Sir Isaac Newton captured this concept, saying  “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”  It can be both brilliant and noble to seek and reapply ideas from one field to another (as in the case of Victoria’s Secret) or to envision an interface so elegant and simple that it transforms a technology (as with Apple and the MP3 player).  But it is not the same as being a copycat.  Copying is taking what is not yours and claiming it as your own, as illustrated by the image of a student leaning over to view his classmate’s work so he can scribble it down on his own test.  Iteration is listening well and contributing something to the conversation.

What do you think?

© May 2012 by Pam Daniels.  All rights reserved.

If Dr. Seuss had been an accountant

Most of us at some point embrace the notion that we should let go of childhood dreams and settle for the conventional and safe.  Along the way, we begin to believe that it is selfish to follow our hearts.  We start to think it makes sense to abandon our love of writing and illustrating and that the responsible thing to do is to get a job in finance or accounting.  Is it really responsible to abandon your dreams?  If debit-left-credit-right lights you up, then go for it. Grow up and be a Certified Public Accountant.  But if your heart is elsewhere, honor that.  Passion is an indicator and a path marker, much like the emergency evacuation lights onboard an aircraft which illuminate to lead you to the exits.  When we find an activity which brings a brightness to our eyes, and an energy to our living, we are wise to lean into it and follow that path.  Doing what we love is a way of living in harmony with our hearts, and it honors both who we are and the people around us.   Putting our true talents to use can be glorious.  How might we better nurture that divine spark of passion in ourselves and each other, and find the courage to lead with our hearts?

I for one am glad that Theodor Geisel did not grow up to be an accountant.  I doubt we would gather around at bedtime to look with triumph at the tax savings achieved for Mrs. Williamson if Theodor had become a CPA.  But lucky for us, Theodor grew up to be a writer and illustrator called Dr. Seuss.  He had the courage to open a window into his imagination and transcribe it with pen and ink so the rest of us could see what he saw.  What a gift!  He even left us a story to remind us that the same possibility is open to us.  We pick our path.  We choose our contribution.  We have brains in our head.   And feet in our shoes.  And we can steer ourselves any direction we choose.  So… let’s make like Dr. Seuss and get on our way!

© March 2012 by Pam Daniels. All rights reserved. References to Oh, the Places You’ll Go! ©1990 by Dr. Seuss, published by Random House.

Make It Montessori

The community in which I live is considering construction of a new school.  If built, the school will be located in an area of town whose neighborhood school closed in the 1960s to achieve integration through busing the minority children who live there to other schools in the district.  I am enthusiastic about the prospect of what it will mean for the children and families in this area to have a school nearby again, and believe that being able to design a school from scratch offers a unique opportunity to re-imagine every facet of the school environment.  My hope is that the new public school will adopt a Montessori curriculum, and that the building and grounds will be developed with this unique educational approach in mind.

Maria Montessori observed that human beings are wildly capable creatures.  She saw this in the transformation of children in her care as she removed barriers to their discovery.  Children who had been dubbed “uneducable” began to read and write. Why?

Montessori-style learning offers an approach which deeply honors the individual student and builds creativity and confidence.  There have been a few recent articles about how the leaders of today’s most innovative organizations were Montessori educated—the founders of Google, Amazon.com, and Wikipedia to name just a few.  (See The Wall Street Journal article by Peter Sims at http://on.wsj.com/hwdbDJ).  Montessori-educated children are equipped to function in an environment of uncertainty and unprecedented complexity.  They learn to ask questions, discover answers, and feel capable of participating in reshaping the world.  Isn’t this precisely what is required today?  Contrast this with the educational approaches typically geared to at-risk kids, such as Kipp, with its focus on drills, discipline, pay for performance, and extended days.

A few tenets of the Montessori approach include:
-  A carefully prepared environment, more closely emulating a home than an institution
-  Self-directed work and tailored individual plans for each child, with a teacher acting as guide to discovery
-  A cooperative, hands-on approach which leads to exploration and development of total potential vs. achieving set targets—an approach built on intrinsic motivation, designed to align with the normal development of the child and centered around his or her interests, leading to lifelong learning.

A study comparing outcomes of children at a public inner-city Montessori school with children who attended traditional schools indicates that Montessori education leads to children with better social and academic skills.  The study appears in the Sept. 29, 2006 issue of the journal Science.  “Among the 5-year-olds, Montessori students proved to be significantly better prepared for elementary school in reading and math skills than the non-Montessori children. They also tested better on ‘executive function,’ the ability to adapt to changing and more complex problems, an indicator of future school and life success.”

“Montessori children also displayed better abilities on the social and behavioral tests, demonstrating a greater sense of justice and fairness. And on the playground they were much more likely to engage in emotionally positive play with peers, and less likely to engage in rough play.”

Approximately 200 public schools in the U.S. and Canada offer Montessori programs, and the number is growing every year.  The cost per student is typically less than other public schools.  My sense is that Montessori is going to grow in prominence as we explore viable alternatives to the current US educational system.

Peter Sims closes his Wall Street Journal article with this : “We can change the way we’ve been trained to think.  That begins in small, achievable ways, with increased experimentation and inquisitiveness.”  Let’s bring that new thinking to our public schools and begin to align our educational approach with what will best enable the achievement of human potential, especially for chronically underserved and underprivileged children.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Montessori approach, you can find more here:

Evaluating Montessori Education, Journal of Science, Angeline Lillard and Nicole Else-Quest, July 2006.  http://bit.ly/xS3WHK

FAQs on Montessori Education, referenced by The International Montessori Index, Michael Olaf, http://bit.ly/vc6O5U

A Comparison of Montessori and Traditional Middle Schools:  Motivation, Quality of Experience, and Social Context; NAMTA Journal, Kevin Rathunde, 2003.  http://bit.ly/xE75Iv

© February 2012 by Pam Daniels.  All rights reserved.

Keeping it Real

As part of Chicago Ideas Week leading up to TEDxMidwest, I had the
opportunity to visit 37 Signals,a Chicago-based software firm, and
meet co-founder Jason Fried. Jason is also co-author of the book
Rework, which was published last March and writes Inc.’s Get Real
column.

Jason is an interesting guy, and I though others might like to hear a
bit of what he said:

37 Signals believes in staying small – they have just 9 developers and
5 designers. They typically pair 2 programmers with one designer to
create a feedback loop for broaching the inevitable tradeoffs which
occur in product development

Jason’s leadership style can be boiled down to this: get to know
people, find out what matters to them, and give them interesting
things to do. Everyone occasionally rotates through product support
to both build empathy and stay in touch with customers.

It’s consistent actions which define a culture.

It’s important that companies have a point of view… Be honest and
open about what you believe in. It’s going to turn some people off an
light up others. That’s OK.

It’s about principles and not plans.

People get hired at 37 signals by doing a week-long project for which
they are paid $1500. They also use a personality test called Caliper
to evaluate fit of candidates.

Career paths are flat. It’s not the right place for people who want
to be managers. 37 Signals values people who are good at their craft
and want to keep doing it. Salaries keep going up so people are paid
like managers, but keep doing the work they love to do.

Product roasts were recently initiated inviting all to poke fun at
current offerings. More here

http://www.inc.com/magazine/201110/jason-fried-on-learning-what-your-employees-think.html

His closing thoughts? Solve real problems, not imaginary ones.

© October 2011 by Pam Daniels.  All rights reserved.

thank you, Netflix

Earlier this week I received a welcome note from Netflix.

Subject line: DVDs will be staying at netflix.com

Text: It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.  This means no change: one website, one account, one password…in other words, no Qwikster.

Netflix, thank you for listening.

© October 2011 by Pam Daniels.  All rights reserved.