A Shifting Paradigm

Moving from intentions to actions

2009-01-31T16:19:00.000-08:00

"No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he only had good intentions. He had money as well." -
Margaret Thatcher

Leadership by Example

2009-01-31T12:38:00.000-08:00

Should we really question what the financial institutions are doing when they are only following the example set for them by our country's leaders?
Please research the fact that the Democratic Leadership is screaming about extras such as Citi Bank's New Jet, the remodeling of offices at Merrill Lynch, etc. and yet Pelosi has her private jet to take her around the country and Obama has a decorator from the stars in Hollywood redecorating the White House and lets not forget the 140-150 million that was just spent on the innaugaration. We must have leadership by example in America .Is this why we need the stimulus? or is it part of the stimulus?

A closer look at our current conditions

2009-01-29T19:25:00.000-08:00

Everywhere You Look:
Big Government Spending
As President Obama settles into his new office, it is imperative that we encourage him and Congress to exercise prudence when attempting to rescue the economy. Massive deficit spending will only throw our country further into economic shambles, as the current stimulus and SCHIP bills do little more than increase our debt and healthcare costs. Consider the following issues with the "stimulus" bill:

1) The $825 billion bill would dump $10,520 of new debt per household into the laps of our children and grandchildren. The interest on this debt ($347 billion) will dump even more.

2) Under the stimulus, new groups of children and adults would be eligible for Medicaid, the welfare program for the poor. These expansions are on top of spending $89 billion to bailout out failing state Medicaid programs.

3) The current "stimulus" bill will be the largest spending bill ever enacted by Congress, making the New Deal look small, accounting for inflation.

4) President Obama anticipates that spending over $800 billion will create 3.7 million new jobs. That means each job will cost more than $200,000, which is roughly equivalent to 5 times what the average American worker earns!

5) The bill is full of wasteful spending, including $21 million on new sod for the National Mall in Washington, $600 million on cars for government bureaucrats, and $650 million for digital television converters.

Also in Congress this week is the SCHIP bill that would essentially allow states to cover children of any income level, and even some adults and immigrants. This bill and the Medicaid expansions found in the economic stimulus package are moving the country closer to the tipping point where government will control more health care spending than the private sector, giving individuals and families less freedom over their personal health care decisions.

Many commentators and politicians have rushed to compare our current economic situation with the epic struggles endured by Americans during the Great Depression. However, it is often forgotten that even members of FDR’s Cabinet admitted that the vast amount of federal spending that defined the New Deal was not the solution necessary for economic recovery. Real stimulation will come from the private sector, who can create wealth to restore our economy—not the government, who can only redistribute wealth by taxing and borrowing.

http://www.askheritage.org/Default.aspx?utm_source=HannityWebSite728x90&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=AskHeritageCreative&utm_campaign=2009RadioCampaign

And people wonder why we need a new way of thinking

2009-01-29T19:12:00.000-08:00

Unions and liberal activist groups are pressuring key Republican senators to get on board with the Obama administration's economic stimulus proposal, after every Republican in the House voted against the plan Wednesday.

MoveOn.org, along with the Service Employees International Union and other groups, announced Thursday they will run a set of ads in five states urging Republican senators up for election in two years to support the plan, which passed the House despite GOP opposition.

The ad feature clips of President Obama talking about how his plan will save or create at least 3 million jobs and get the economy back on track.

"Tell Senator ... to support the Obama plan for jobs, not the failed policies of the past," the announcer says.

The ad will target Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine; Olympia Snowe, R-Maine; Judd Gregg, R-N.H.; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

Adding to the pressure, committees in the House have released data breaking down funding in the stimulus package by state.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office also put out a statement saying Republicans were voting against job creation and tax cuts.

Pelosi told reporters Republicans in Washington were out of touch with Republicans in their own districts.

"Republicans in the country support this legislation. ... Whatever the tactics of the Republicans in Washington is another thing," she said.

But Republican leaders say the stimulus does little to create jobs and did not incorporate their ideas despite pledges from Democrats of bipartisan cooperation.

taken from http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/01/29/activist-groups-pressure-republican-senators-stimulus/

Will anyone stop the chanting?

2009-01-29T18:54:00.000-08:00

"We must get the stimulus plan passed as soon as possible" are words we are hearing chanted across Washington and the press over the past few weeks. With every announcement of a company laying off more employees the chant grows louder and more passionate. Who can dismiss over 80,000 people so far this week losing their job without wanting to find a solution? How can Pelosi, Reid and Obama stand with straight faces saying their stimulus plan is going to provide an answer to our economies problems when the bill originally had money for grass, condomns, STD education, the arts and many causes that might be "nice" but are not items that will provide jobs or a boost to the economy. The stimulus plan has turned out to be instead of something that will be provide CPR to a dieing economy a final death blow of pet projects. Every citizen needs to read what is attempting to be passed off as the answer to the problems of our economy without Political Party allegiances. Then common sense must prevail and individuals must speak out against the insanity of the chanting that this must be passed when only twelve cents on the dollar of the "stimulus" plan has anything to do with increasing jobs and providing a boost to the economy.

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Where the Jobs are a new paradigm

2009-01-29T05:49:00.000-08:00

Herman Trend Alert: Where the Jobs Are and Will Be January 28, 2009

Though the media in the United States is filled will news of layoffs, what is not being widely reported is some companies are still hiring---notably Whole Foods, Boston Consulting Group, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Fuld and Company, Scotts LawnService, URS, and more. The company that made it to the top of Fortune's "100 Best Places to Work" list this year, NetApp, which sells innovative storage and data management solutions, is also hiring.

The other companies that are hiring are in a wide variety of fields. Convenience stores like 7-Eleven which is looking for employees in operations, accounting, information systems, merchandising, and marketing.

Do you love animals? Here is an employer for you. Banfield, the largest general veterinary practice treating pets in the world, is currently looking for veterinarians, pet nurses, office managers, and client service coordinators.

If you are job hunting, there are two sectors that stand out---insurance and healthcare. State Farm, HealthMarkets, and Farmers Insurance are all looking for employees. Farmers is particularly looking for bilingual associates, while State Farm seeks a wide range of candidates including people to work in claims, underwriting, and systems/information technology. HealthMarkets, a nationwide health insurance provider, is recruiting agents to sell to self-employed individuals and their families.

In the realm of healthcare, Gentiva Health Services, a provider of home care services, is looking for a range of highly skilled employees, including nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists and other clinicians; as well as sales, management and administrative support professionals. Sutter Health, a group of doctors, not-for-profit hospitals, and other healthcare service providers, is also seeking a variety of people to provide bedside care, implement lifesaving technology, and take administrative positions.

Since we value our mobile phones more highly than our laptops. (See http://www.hermangroup.com/alert/archive_3-19-2008.html.), it will come as no shock that the sales of cell phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants) have not diminished significantly. Verizon and AT&T continue to hire sales people and store managers, especially those with language skills.

The only employers seeking unskilled workers right now are in the insurance and call center areas. Our forecast is highly skilled workers will continue to enjoy opportunities, no matter how high unemployment goes. Next week, we will cover the Green Job opportunities

A New Paradigm is needed in our Press...

2009-01-25T07:45:00.000-08:00

Below is a segment of an article that was written by the Associated Press, "Obama Breaks from Bush avoids divisiveness". I did not agree with much that Bush did in his last months but how can this be journalism? It shows bias from the start. Is now the press just a marketing tool for the new administration? I want Obama's Presidency to work but if there is no objectivity in the Press how will we know the truth about what is happening in our country? How will we be any different than Russia or China with state run media? Has the Associated Press become the same thing as the National Enquirer now?

Below is a segment of the article that I have referred to ...

Obama breaks from Bush, avoids divisiveness
President focuses on economy, world image and cleaning up government

updated 2:29 a.m. CT, Sun., Jan. 25, 2009
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama opened his presidency by breaking sharply from George W. Bush's unpopular administration, but he mostly avoided divisive partisan and ideological stands. He focused instead on fixing the economy, repairing a battered world image and cleaning up government.

"What an opportunity we have to change this country," the Democrat told his senior staff after his inauguration. "The American people are really counting on us now. Let's make sure we take advantage of it."

In the highly scripted first days of his administration, Obama overturned a slew of Bush policies with great fanfare. He largely avoided cultural issues; the exception was reversing one abortion-related policy, a predictable move done in a very low-profile way.

What is the rush?

2009-01-24T15:10:00.000-08:00

Today the Associated Press article, "Obama touts aid plan's impact on average Americans" shares what President Obama is doing to market his economic plan. It seems that he is using the paradigm that if one "states the same thing enough time maybe it will become true." Already last week both the Democrats and Republicans were told that much of this economic plan would not be effective to 2010 at the earliest. Yet Obama is saying that it is a must for it to be passed now! What is a couple of days for evaluation and discussion when the plan might not have any effect till late 2010 at the earliest? The marketing of this is almost like the new transition team of Obama, Pelosi and Reid are scared that to many questions will be asked if people have to much time to think about the plan! So let's rush it through before people have time to understand its full ramifications. What is even more scarey when the United States can not even afford this "stimulus" plan is that this article stated that the Obama regime is trying to decide if and when they should bring out their second stimulus plan! If they are already seeing the need for a second one maybe the first one might not be all it should be?

A Leader's Inner Circle

2009-01-24T02:37:00.000-08:00

A Leader's Inner Circle
By Dr. John C. Maxwell
Months before President Obama took the oath of office he began assembling an inner circle of advisors. He and his transition team painstakingly pored over the qualifications of candidates to identify the strongest leaders for cabinet posts. In methodically vetting future leaders of his administration, President Obama demonstrated that he understands the law of the inner circle: A leader's potential is determined by those closest to him or her.

Past presidents have learned the hard way that failures of a leader's trusted advisors can bring disaster. During the Clinton administration, investigations into the conduct of five cabinet members eroded public perception of the President's judgment. The indictments and allegations gave ammunition to Clinton's foes and cast doubts on his character, especially after the Monica Lewinsky scandal came to light.

Likewise, President George W. Bush faced embarrassment when the man he appointed as head of FEMA, Michael D. Brown, failed to provide strong federal leadership in the aftermath Hurricane Katrina. Inexperienced in emergency management, Brown was overwhelmed by the crisis. During the height of the disaster, he fretted about finding a dogsitter and fussed about his attire. His unpreparedness and inaction left the Bush Administration vulnerable to scathing accusations of neglect and indifference.

Five questions to ask when forming your inner circle:
Do they display exemplary character in everything they do?

Deception eats away at a leadership team like cancer. Dishonesty on the part of one member of an inner circle can bring shame and disaster to all. Entire organizations have toppled from the misbehavior of one bad apple.

Do they bring complementary gifts to the table?

Imbalance within an inner circle can attune a leader's ear to only one side of an argument. When putting together an inner circle, prioritize diversity of personality and perspective. By doing so, you widen the range of your vision and the breadth of your influence.

Do they hold a strategic position and have influence within the organization?

Members of the inner circle must have the platform and influence to implement a leader's decisions. If they cannot be relied upon to execute a chosen strategy, then they shouldn't be entrusted with a spot on the leadership team. In addition, inviting uninfluential advisors into the inner circle disrupts the political balance of an organization. High performers suffer a motivational blow when they see a less deserving colleague granted special access to top leadership.

Do they add value to the organization and to the leader?

When considering someone for the inner circle, you should be able to articulate clearly the value they will bring. Ask yourself the following questions: What will they infuse into discussion? Where do they have expertise? What unique skills can they be counted on to bring to the table?

Do they positively impact other members of the inner circle?

If you've ever inhabited a house with a feuding husband and wife, then you can understand the need for leaders in close proximity to get along. Infighting saps energy and focus from a senior leader, forcing him or her to mediate conflicts with time that could be better spent elsewhere. Differences of opinion signal healthy debate, but personal animosities destroy a leadership team. Make sure members of your inner circle have the emotional intelligence to keep arguments from becoming too personal.

We've looked at the questions to consider when gathering a team of trusted advisors, I'd also like to offer thoughts on the two traps you can fall into when forming their inner circle.

Two common errors in constructing the inner circle:
Soliciting praise instead of candor.

Stacking an inner circle with flatters and "yes" men ranks among the lousiest decisions you can make as a leader. Doing so restricts your perspective, exposes you to blind spots, and leaves you on an island when do-or-die decisions must be made. When picking members of your inner circle, be sure they have the gumption to voice dissent. You'll rely on them to question your assumptions, to focus you on the mission, and to measure the integrity and worthiness of your ideas.

Driving away talent so that your power isn't threatened.

The wisdom of accumulating a talented inner circle may seem intuitive, but a rising star may threaten insecure leaders. Leaders should not be, and cannot be, the utmost authorities on all matters germane to the organization. Invariably, people have weaknesses. Wise leaders staff around their weaknesses, and welcome talent in areas where they lack strength.

Summary
Questions to Ask of Candidates for Your Inner Circle:

Do they display exemplary character in everything they do?
Do they bring complementary gifts to the table?
Do they hold a strategic position and have influence within the organization?
Do they add value to the organization and to the leader?
Do they positively impact other members of the inner circle?
Traps to Avoid when Staffing Your Inner Circle:

Soliciting praise instead of candor.
Driving away talent so that your power isn't threatened.
About
John C. Maxwell is an internationally recognized leadership expert, speaker, and author who has sold over 16 million books. His organizations have trained more than 2 million leaders worldwide. Dr. Maxwell is the founder of EQUIP and INJOY Stewardship Services. Every year he speaks to Fortune 500 companies, international government leaders, and audiences as diverse as the United States Military Academy at West Point, the National Football League, and ambassadors at the United Nations. A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Week best-selling author, Maxwell was named the World's Top Leadership Guru by Leadershipgurus.net. He was also one of only 25 authors and artists named to Amazon.com's 10th Anniversary Hall of Fame. Three of his books, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Developing the Leader Within You, and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader have each sold over a million copies.

Printed from the GiANT Impact website (www.giantimpact.com).

The online version of this article can be found at
http://www.giantimpact.com/articles/read/article_a_leaders_inner_circle/

Content from this article may be used, but must be accompanied by the following credit line in its entirety: "This article is used by permission from GiANT Impact. Find other leadership content, resources, training, and events at www.giantimpact.com."

GM fell behind Toyota in 2008

2009-01-23T06:40:00.001-08:00

MSNBC.com

GM fell behind Toyota in 2008
U.S. carmaker loses sales crown to Asian rival after 77-year reign
msnbc.com news services
updated 10:50 a.m. CT, Wed., Jan. 21, 2009
NEW YORK - General Motors sold fewer cars globally than Toyota last year, as the Japanese automaker passed its Detroit rival for the first time, bringing to an end GM’s 77-year run as the world’s largest automaker.

GM, now struggling to restructure under a $13.4 billion U.S. government bailout, had held the title as the global auto industry leader for over seven decades and used the line in its marketing.

But for 2008, Detroit-based GM said its sales decreased to 8.35 million vehicles, pressured by tightening credit and a slowdown that began in the United States and spread to emerging markets where GM has been stronger.

Earlier this week, Toyota said its global sales for 2008 had slipped 4 percent to 8.97 million vehicles as it also battled a costly slowdown in key markets.

Both GM and Toyota downplayed the significance of the shift in market leadership.

“Share doesn’t always pay the bills,” Don Esmond, Toyota’s senior vice president for U.S. operations, said at an industry conference when asked about Toyota capturing the No. 1 spot.

GM’s sales analyst Mike DiGiovanni said 2009 was starting on a weak note in the U.S. market, the world’s single largest.

With sales to car rental agencies down sharply, the U.S. auto market could slip below 10 million units on an annualized basis for January, DiGiovanni said.

That would be down from 10.3 million units in December and less than the 10.5 million unit level that GM is targeting as the basis of its revised turnaround plan to be submitted to U.S. officials next month.

DiGiovanni said GM expected that fiscal stimulus expected from the United States, China and other governments would boost demand in the second half of the year.

“We feel we’ve weathered one hell of a storm, and we’re cautiously optimistic as we move into ’09 that we can stabilize and grow again,” he said.

GM and Toyota ended 2007 with a virtual tie.

GM sold 9.369 million vehicles, including those sold through SAIC-GM-Wuling, a commercial vehicle joint-venture in China in which the U.S. automaker has a minority stake.

Toyota sold 9.366 million vehicles for 2007.

GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner had vowed to defend the company’s global sales leadership, saying the title was a point of pride for the automaker.

But with GM reliant on federal funding to avoid bankruptcy, GM Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson said late Tuesday that the automaker had been forced to focus on other measures of the success of its turnaround.

“I actually noticed that they passed us in market capitalization, profitability and cash flow long ago,” Henderson said of Toyota.

More on General Motors | automotive industry

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28771215/

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A New Era of Responsibility? from the Fox Forum

2009-01-22T20:23:00.000-08:00

A New Era Of Responsibility? The Conundrum That Is Barack Obama

By Jon Kraushar
Communications Consultant

We’re only a few days into Barack Obama’s presidency and already the plans and people he is committing himself (and the country) to raise questions about the “new era of responsibility” he called for in his inaugural address.

How responsible is it for Obama to select Timothy Geithner as his treasury secretary — one of the architects of a fiasco of money mismanagement and unaccountable federal bailouts whose cost is ballooning toward one trillion dollars?

Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner delivers his opening statement on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 21,2009, during his nomination hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Obama wants to put Geithner, an admitted tax scofflaw, in charge of our tax system. How does this square with his inaugural pledge that, “…those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account—to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day”?

In his inaugural address, Obama also said:

“The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act—not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth.”

Obama’s economic stimulation plan is being compared to President Roosevelt’s in the Depression. FDR, like Obama, maintained that government “make work” infrastructure projects would employ millions and grow the economy. However, in FDR’s time, the nation only revived with the “jolt” of World War II, which revved up manufacturing and employed people both in and out of the military.

Culture Wars

2009-01-22T20:20:00.000-08:00

THE FIRST 100 DAYS:
There May Be a New President But the Culture Wars Are Far From Over
By Peter Roff
Conservative Commentator/Former Senior Political Writer, United Press International

Barack Obama’s election may have tamped down the so-called “culture war” that was a hallmark of the Bush presidency but it has not ended it.

Up to now, the pro-abortion rights lobby has carefully couched its activities in the language of personal choice. “The decision to have an abortion,” they say, “is a matter of personal conscience, between a woman and her doctor.”

A new federal rule promulgated by the Bush administration and set to go into effect on January 20 is, in essence, a guarantee for doctors and other health care workers that they shall not have to perform or participate in abortions if they have a personal moral or religious objection to the practice.

It a new wrinkle in America’s abortion debate, one of the cornerstones of the aforementioned “culture war.” Up to now, the pro-abortion rights lobby has carefully couched its activities in the language of personal choice. “The decision to have an abortion,” they say, “is a matter of personal conscience, between a woman and her doctor.”

The rule seeks to clarify, according to the Bush-era Department of Health and Human Services that “non- discrimination protections apply to institutional health care providers as well as to individual employees working for recipients of certain funds” from HHS. It also requires those receiving federal fund to certify their compliance with “provider conscience rights” and opens up a channel within the Department to receive complaints if the new rule is being violated.

At stake are millions of dollars in federal public health money that states and local governments who refuse to abide by the new rule could lose.

Last Thursday seven states — led by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat — filed suit in a Hartford, Ct., court seeking to enjoin the rule from going into effect. The plaintiffs claim the new rule would supersede state laws guaranteeing a woman’s access to birth control, emergency contraception and abortion.

Setting aside the issue of being “for” or “against” abortion rights, the state’s lawsuit creates a new twist on the old “Your right to swing your hand wherever you want stops at the end of my nose” discussion. One can argue that forcing doctors and nurses to perform or participate in abortions over their personal moral or religious objections is an offense against the same “right of personal choice” under which abortion itself is justified.

Whether or not Blumenthal and the states he is acting for ultimately prevail, the lawsuit is a sure indication that the culture war will continue.

The Opacity of Hope

2009-01-19T22:45:00.000-08:00

The Opacity of Hope

A President of great personal talents but public elusiveness

Barack Obama takes the oath of office today amid a sense of expectation and opportunity rare even for new Presidents. Partly this is due to his heritage and the historic nature of his triumph, partly to our current economic troubles, and partly to a nation looking for a fresh start after the difficulties of the Bush era. The paradox is that in order to succeed Mr. Obama will soon need to turn the opacity of his hope into clear and often difficult choices, some of which will upset his most passionate supporters.

APThe Illinois Democrat brings impressive talents to the White House -- not least the self-confidence that he can do the job. Though only four years out of the state Senate, he seems remarkably undaunted by the task and the moment. His rhetorical gifts are formidable, no small virtue in a job whose influence depends chiefly on the power to persuade. The President-elect's transition has also gone more smoothly than most, certainly in contrast to Bill Clinton's in 1993.
Mr. Obama is likewise equipped with a first-class temperament. He wore the pressures of an epic campaign as lightly as anyone since Ronald Reagan. While his opponents lurched amid this or that headline, the man from Hawaii via Harvard and Chicago never lost his cool. This equanimity will serve him well amid the crises to come, assuming his confidence doesn't slide into an arrogance that sometimes attends 70% Presidential job approval.
Yet for all of those personal virtues, there remains an elusiveness, an opacity, to Mr. Obama's political character. This is in contrast to Reagan, who was personally distant but publicly well defined. Mr. Obama won the primaries and then the White House with a campaign based on the gauzy promise of change more than on a clear agenda. He became a political Everyman into whom Democrats, independents and even many Republicans could pour their great expectations.
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This lack of definition has also marked his personnel choices. When given the chance to pick someone from one policy camp or another, Mr. Obama has typically chosen both: Free-trader Ron Kirk and protectionist Hilda Solis; command-and-control regulator Carol Browner and more market-oriented Cass Sunstein; Tim Geithner, who has voted to open the monetary floodgates, and Paul Volcker, who is worried about the dollar; Tom Daschle, who wants to nationalize all U.S. health care, and Peter Orszag, who believes current entitlements must be reformed.
Soon Mr. Obama will have to choose. That is especially true on the struggling economy, which is the main reason he won so handily. For 25 years from the moment the Reagan policy mix took hold in 1983, the U.S. has had a run of economic expansion marred only by two mild recessions. Younger Americans have grown accustomed to rising incomes and growing 401(k)s. Mr. Obama was elected on his promise to restore that middle-class prosperity. He can best serve the country, and his own Presidency, by focusing his political capital on policies that promote growth.
Yet over that same 25 years Mr. Obama's political coalition has amassed a wish-list of regulatory and redistributionist ideas that would undercut that effort. The global warming crowd wants a huge new carbon tax that would hit the South and Midwest especially hard. Big Labor wants to make union organizing easier, which would slow job creation. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is agitating to raise taxes immediately, even amid recession, to finance a spending spree we haven't seen since LBJ's Great Society. Part of Mr. Obama's success will depend on whether he says no to these liberal interests. If he does, he will make it easier for the economy's natural recuperative powers to work -- and he and his party will benefit.
Mr. Obama can also go a long way toward removing the bile from the debate over national security. For some on the left, the Bush era must be repudiated with prosecutions and a return to the pre-9/11 status quo. John Conyers and the New York Times want heads on pikes. Down this road lies wasted political capital for the new President, and risks for U.S. security.
Mr. Obama seems to recognize this, given his recent comments that he prefers to "look forward" rather than back; that Guantanamo may take his entire first term to close down; and that "Dick Cheney's advice was good" to assess Bush policies before leaping to undo them. Now that he is responsible for American security, Mr. Obama is in a position to validate the Bush programs that have kept us safe, perhaps with some political window dressing that mutes the opposition from the anti-antiterror left.
Mr. Obama is also uniquely placed to ask Americans of all races and incomes to show a greater sense of personal responsibility. His own rise to the White House is a walking affirmation of American opportunity. His reaching out to evangelical pastor Rick Warren, both in the campaign and for his Inaugural, is a shrewd and welcome sign that he wants to temper the social furies. Our particular hope is that he will also find a way to take on the teachers unions as the main obstacle to inner-city opportunity. He could revolutionize the school reform debate in an instant.
As a matter of political character, many of these questions hang on Mr. Obama's toughness. We know he is intelligent and clever. What we don't know is if he can make a difficult decision in the national interest that is unpopular, and then endure the consequences. Reagan showed his steel by staring down the Patco strike at home and Soviet scare-tactics against missile deployments abroad. Whatever his mistakes in Iraq, George W. Bush's "surge" was a lonely call that has proven to be right. As far as we know, Mr. Obama has had to make no such decision in his short public life.
The complicated nature of our world means that every modern Presidency is to some extent a leap into the unknown. Mr. Obama's meteoric rise makes him a bigger leap than most. We don't know if he is a genuine man of the left, or a more traditional pragmatist. The audacity of our hope is that as President he will use his considerable talents to return his party to the policies of growth, opportunity and the vigorous defense of U.S. interests that marked it the last time the country had such great expectations for a Democratic President -- under JFK.

New Era of Responsibility----not just my idea!

2009-01-19T22:16:00.000-08:00

JANUARY 20, 2009, 12:47 A.M. ET

Obama to Call for a New Era of Responsibility

Huge Crowds Gather as First African-American President Takes Office; Aides Expect Steps on Iraq War, Bank Policy This Week

By LAURA MECKLER and JONATHAN WEISMAN
Landov

On the eve of his inauguration as the 44th president, Barack Obama visited Monday with children at a Washington school in observance of the National Day of Service Project.
WASHINGTON -- Americans poured into the nation's capital to celebrate the inauguration of their first black president. But with the U.S. in its worst economic crisis since the Depression and at war on two fronts, Barack Obama was expected to call on the country to embrace a new culture of responsibility when he takes office at noon.
The inaugural crowd Tuesday could reach two million people, one of the largest gatherings in Washington's history. Millions more will be watching across the U.S. and around the world, with outdoor video screens planned for public squares.
Mr. Obama will take the oath of office with his hand on the Bible that once belonged to the last president to hail from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln. The 44th president will stand opposite the Lincoln Memorial, two miles away, where 45 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. called upon the nation to judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. Mr. Obama spent Monday celebrating Dr. King's birthday as a day of service, while street vendors sold memorabilia juxtaposing the images of the two black leaders.
Little official business is expected Tuesday in Washington. The real work of the new president will begin Wednesday, Mr. Obama's first full day in office. Aides said one of the new president's first actions will be summoning his national security team to begin preparing for a 16-month withdrawal of combat forces from Iraq, one of the main promises of his two-year-long campaign for the presidency.

News, photos and background on key players and issues in the Obama administration's first 100 days from the WSJ and across the Web.
The Inauguration
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COMPLETE COVERAGE of Inauguration Day
That's just one of the new policies symbolizing the change to come as Washington shifts from eight years of Republican rule under George W. Bush. Within days, Mr. Obama also is expected to issue executive orders to begin closing the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, one of the most controversial symbols of the Bush administration's war on terror; reversing Mr. Bush's restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, and restoring funding for family-planning programs overseas.
On the economic front, Mr. Obama's administration is likely to soon issue new regulations forcing recipients of Wall Street bailout funds to be more transparent with the money, an aide said. The most-ailing financial institutions won't be forced to lend immediately, but healthier banks will be under pressure to move money from their vaults into the economy. "Transparency is going to make a big difference," the aide said.
The inauguration caps a weekend of events and pageantry, and officials predict as many as two million people will seek a spot on the National Mall. The inauguration will join Washington's biggest events, ranking with Dr. King's 1963 March on Washington, Lyndon Johnson's 1965 inauguration, and protests against the Vietnam War in the late 1960s.
Jumbotron screens were in place along the grassy lawn. Attendees, many of whom arrived by bus from around the country, were advised to dress for temperatures forecast near freezing.
Stuck in Traffic
The National Mall was already crowded Monday afternoon, with buses stuck in traffic and tourists taking photos. Visitors made their way through a maze of crowd-control barriers and past dozens of sellers hawking wrist bands, T-shirts and a Spider-Man comic featuring Mr. Obama on the cover.
"If you are black in America right now, that's all the inspiration you need -- a black president!" said David Reed, 39 years old, an African-American from Lexington, Ky., who was selling the comics.
View Full ImageAssociated Press
Paul Locke of Richmond, Va., was among those selling Obama-themed Merchandise -- he had inauguration pins for $5 -- Monday in Washington.

Britt Loudd of Charlotte, N.C., said that as a precinct organizer she made more than 2,200 calls for the campaign. Her three children, who joined her in Washington, also volunteered. "There was no choice," said Mrs. Loudd. "We had to be here."
Mr. Obama on Monday spoke the message he will deliver at his swearing-in: The time has come for a new culture of public service, as well as a new national unity after years of bitter partisan political division.
Pitching In
"Given the crisis that we're in and the hardships that so many people are going through, we can't allow any idle hands," Mr. Obama said, taking a break from painting a dormitory at Sasha Bruce House, a shelter for homeless teens. "Everybody's got to be involved. Everybody's going to have to pitch in, and I think the American people are ready for that."
Mr. Obama will begin his inaugural day with coffee at the White House with Mr. Bush. The swearing-in will be followed by a luncheon at the Capitol and a parade featuring high-school marching bands, drill teams and floats. The evening will conclude with 10 official inaugural balls and countless unofficial parties.
At the swearing-in ceremony, seated behind Mr. Obama, will be his chosen cabinet, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, expected to be confirmed as secretary of state later Tuesday. Also behind him will be his defeated election opponent, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain.
Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the oath of office to Mr. Obama following the swearing in of his vice president, Joe Biden, by Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.
President Bush will be there, too, departing immediately after the ceremony on a Marine chopper en route to Texas, where he will begin the next chapter of his life as an ex-president.
Before Mr. Obama speaks, the evangelical Rev. Rick Warren will deliver the invocation, a choice that infuriated gay-rights activists but signaled the new president's interest in reaching out to Americans who are not part of his political base.
Throughout his campaign, Mr. Obama stressed that a nation that should have been rallied to service after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, instead drifted to complacency and consumerism. One of his first political promises was a $3.5 billion-a-year service plan to expand the AmeriCorps program established by President Bill Clinton by 250,000 slots, double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011, expand the Foreign Service, and create an Energy Corps to conduct renewable-energy and environmental-cleanup projects.
During appearances on Monday, Mr. Obama returned to the themes of unity and self-reliance.
"I am making a commitment to you as the next president, that we are going to make government work," he told volunteers at Coolidge High. "But I can't do it by myself. Michelle can't do it by herself. Government can only do so much....If we're waiting for someone else to do something, it never gets done."—T.W. Farnam contributed to this article.
Write to Laura Meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com and Jonathan Weisman at jonathan.weisman@wsj.com

Example of someone who became involved to start a new PARADIGM

2009-01-19T22:13:00.000-08:00

January 19, 2009 - 07:38 PM
"My Unforeseen Political Journey"
by Lori Jungling, Iowa Coordinator
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I was born and raised on a dairy farm outside of a small town of about 700 people in a conservative party of Iowa. It was there that I was raised to rely on God, family, friends, and community (in that order) to get you through life. I was taught I was responsible for my own actions and that strong traditional values is what makes a community and society strong. I am now 38-years-old and a latecomer to the political process. I live in the state with First in the Nation status but couldn't even tell you up until last year when or what the caucus was. I usually just showed up to vote in the general election. That all changed in the fall of 2007 when my husband said, "You have got to check out this Mike Huckabee guy."
Supporting Governor Huckabee led me to my first political donation, my first political rally, my first caucus, and my first time volunteering to do phone calls for a candidate. I believed that the ideas and values he was fighting for was what the Republican party was all about and what America needed. When his campaign ended, I knew deep down that it was just the beginning of the movement. Too many people recognized that the message of Mike Huckabee transcended any election cycle.
After the primary season ended, me and six other Iowans who met on Huck's Army got together to form The Iowa Brigade in hopes of fighting for these same conservative issues at the local level and supporting like-minded candidates. I am thankful for these passionate and dedicated individuals because together we have collaborated on an Iowa blog that has been rated as one of the top political blogs in Iowa. (Just so you know, last year at this time I didn't even know how to copy and paste. So, if any of you doubt that you can't get the new technology down of blogging, facebook, and twitter, put your fears aside because it is amazing what you can accomplish if you have the passion.) I really think that we are making a difference in Iowa politics.
I am excited about being a regional coordinator for the National Volunteer Team and working with other Iowans in furthering the cause that we started fighting for in the Mike Huckabee campaign and continue to do with Huck PAC. Supporting the issues of life, family, limited government, tax reform, and 2nd amendment rights while striving for what America needs and not what politicians want is what this battle is all about and I invite you to join me at http://www.huckpacvolunteer.com/.

A shift in Paradigm is needed for truth in Politics and a stop to cover up or "spin"

2009-01-19T21:56:00.000-08:00

Biden tries to shush wife after state-VP slip

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer Nedra Pickler, Associated Press Writer 36 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Joe Biden's wife said Monday that he had his pick of being Barack Obama's running mate or the secretary of state nomination that eventually went to Hillary Rodham Clinton, a slip that the vice president-elect immediately tried to shush.
Jill Biden's comment came during an appearance with her husband on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," taped at Washington's Kennedy Center on the eve of the inauguration.
"Joe had the choice to be secretary of state or vice president," she said. Her husband turned to his wife with his finger to his lips and a "Shhhh!" that sent the audience into laughter. "OK, he did," Jill Biden said in her defense.
The vice president-elect blushed, grimaced and gave his wife a hug while the audience continued to erupt in laughter. "That's right," he finally said to his wife. "Go ahead."
Mrs. Biden said she told him vice president would be better for the family.
"If you're secretary of state, you'll be away, we'll never see you, you know," she said. "I'll see you at a state dinner once in a while."
After the exchange aired on television three hours later, Biden spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander denied Jill Biden's account in a statement e-mailed to reporters.
"To be clear, President-elect Obama offered Vice President-elect Biden one job only — to be his running mate," the statement said. "And the vice president-elect was thrilled to accept the offer."
While the statement denies that Obama ever offered Biden the secretary of state job, it doesn't rule out that the two discussed the possibility. Obama's transition office did not respond to questions about their private discussions.
Clinton's spokesman declined to comment about the suggestion that she was the second choice.
Obama made no reference to the comments Monday night, when he praised the Bidens at a dinner honoring his running mate at Washington's Union Station. Obama invited the two on stage, where he kissed Jill Biden's cheek and hugged her husband.
On Winfrey's program, Joe Biden said he didn't immediately take the vice presidential offer since he wasn't sure it was the best place for him to serve. But Biden, who ran against Obama in the Democratic primary race, said he agreed after getting some assurances from Obama about his role.
"This is a partnership," Biden said. "He's president of the United States, but as I said to him when he asked me, I said, `Barack, don't ask me unless the reason you're asking me is you're asking me for my judgment. I get to be the last guy in the room when you make every important decision. You're president. Any decision you make, I will back.'
"He said he wanted to have a confidant and somebody who wouldn't be a yes man. He's pretty sure about that last part," Biden said with a laugh.
Alexander's statement said, "Like anyone who followed the presidential campaign this summer, Dr. Jill Biden knew there was a chance that President-elect Obama might ask her husband to serve in some capacity and that, given his background, the positions of vice president and secretary of state were possibilities. Dr. Biden's point to Oprah today was that being vice president would be a better fit for their family because they would get to see him more and get to participate in serving more."
The Bidens made a surprise appearance on Winfrey's show. The celebrity-filled show also included the premiere of "America's Song," performed by Faith Hill, Seal, Bono, Mary J. Blige, Will.i.am and David Foster in honor of the occasion and available for free download on Winfrey's Web site for 24 hours.
Winfrey also interviewed movie star couple Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher about how Obama has inspired them to pledge to help end slave labor around the world and encourage other people to make a pledge to improve their communities. Other celebrities, including Scarlett Johansson, Justin Timberlake and Forest Whitaker appeared by videotape to talk about what Obama's election means to them.
Winfrey, who made her first ever presidential endorsement for Obama, heralded the significance of the moment particularly coming the day after Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
"I feel like I am better because of his being elected," Winfrey said. "And I think that the country is going to be better. I feel like it is a beautiful thing, and we all start to see ourselves differently, the possibility."
___
On the Net:
http://www.oprah.com
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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An example of action to influence paradigms

2009-01-19T21:52:00.000-08:00

Below is a letter that I wrote to The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President and Author Dr. Al Mohler. I wrote it as a way of seeking to get people that do have a platform in the media and writing as well as responsible for training our future leaders for swimming up stream against the "anything goes" and lack of critical thinking about what is happening in our world that is accompanying the changing of the guard with this new Administration...please read this and consider what you could do that might influence intelligent conservatism and not "gotcha" conservatism...below is the letter and consider what your thoughts are as we enter this time in our country...___________________________________________

Today on Glen Beck's new show on Fox he had Joel Olsteen. Yes I think his speaking and teaching is spiritual pablum and most times plagiarism passed off as original material. If you get the video you will see that one of the top religous individuals of our time if you consider ratings, size of church and dollars made through book sells had the intelligence and depth of Caroline Kennedy. He could not answer with any depth basic softball questions that Glenn Beck asked. My question is to you as a Seminary President are the current and future students of Southern able to think critically and analytically to the point of answering basic questions with depth and clarity? We have cried against critical exegesis yet I feel one of the things that it has led to is being afraid of critically understanding and depth of thought. It is what I feel has hurt conservatives is the lack of intelligent conservativism. Yes, you display that but are we producing leaders of tomorrow that can think with depth and clarity. Joel Olsteen had someone "in his corner" so if he could not answer with substantial depth Glenn Beck's questions how can his followers be challenged to know what they believe and why? This time in our history demands clarity of thought and individuals to be able to speak out not as one that is intentionally devisive but one that can speak with confidence and facts. One of his answers bordered on Universalism and different religions worshipping all the same God. Maybe Mr. Olsteen was nervous and we can give him the benefit of the doubt or maybe he is part of the product of our times where everyone and no one does anything wrong. If nothing is wrong why is one way better than another? Follow his thinking to a logical conclusion! Or are we afraid to think any more? Is it wrong to ask questions?I am afraid we are at a time much like the children's book "The Emperor's New Clothes". We all see the problems and know these new ideas for these times are suppose to be the best like the Emperor's New Clothes but no one is willing to say anything about them...what if no one speaks up like the child did in the story? Where will this leave us as a country and a world? Please use your platform to speak out on these issues...
Richard Reynolds M.Div.,M.Ed.,Ed.S.Southern Class of 1987

Are all paradigms good or do some go in the wrong direction?

2009-01-19T20:43:00.000-08:00

State exams now count towards high school grades for many Missouri students
By Valerie Schremp Hahn
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Thursday, Jan. 15 2009
It's a dirty little high school secret.For as much as state and federal officials rely on standardized test scores to rate and compare high school quality, they know the exam results are flawed.The reality is that students — particularly those in high school — have known for years that a bad score on a state standardized exam may mean a lot to a principal or teacher, but little to them. So it was tempting for some students not to care too much about how they performed, or to even resort to random bubble-filling.But that's all changing this year.For the first time in Missouri, high school students could see their grade take a hit in certain subjects if they disregard state standardized exams.Under the new system, state exams, now called end-of-course exams, will be part of semester finals for many classes. And the state highly encourages districts to make exams count for at least 10 percent but no more than 25 percent of a student's final class grade.State education officials and St. Louis area school administrators applaud the move as a way to invest students in a state school assessment."There was a value attached to it," said Ron Helms, principal of Lindbergh High School, where students recently took their first end-of-course exams. "The kids didn't look at it as a state assessment alone. They saw it as a part of their final exam."The test also makes it easier for teachers to see exactly what students learned in the course. If a particular teacher or school gets especially good results, others can learn why — though schools shouldn't use the scores to evaluate teachers, says Ann Jarrett, teaching and learning director with the Missouri National Education Association. But some educators say the approach has drawbacks, including scheduling state exams to conform with a district's calendar. Because it could take a week or so to get results, schools have to schedule exam times earlier in order to tally final grades — especially important for graduating seniors or students who might have to enroll in summer school. And while educators agree it's good to test kids on what the state wants them to learn, there's some danger in focusing too much on that goal. A biology teacher, for example, may have less flexibility to personalize her instruction, because she has to administer an exam given to every other biology student in the state. "There is that pitfall of 'I'm only going to teach to this level of the test' rather than 'let's make this a rigorous course,'" said Sara Torres, a supervisory director with the Science Teachers of Missouri. But overall, said Torres, teachers generally think the new tests are a move in the right direction.The Missouri State Board of Education approved the new rules in February 2007, and gave the go-ahead to develop exams for Algebra I, English II and biology. Exams for at least seven other classes are being developed to use next school year and beyond. The changes do not affect testing in elementary or middle school grades.The new high school exams replace the Missouri Assessment Program tests given to sophomores for math and juniors for science and communication arts. Aside from concerns about students not taking tests seriously, critics say the old system didn't test students at the right time, sometimes months after they had covered a topic.Illinois has tried a different approach to making high school exams more meaningful for students. The Prairie State Achievement Exam is built around the ACT college entrance exam. Students who take the exam also receive an ACT score, giving them a motive to perform well. All Missouri public high schools will experience the change by spring. Some are getting the first taste now, because certain courses are structured to end after the fall semester. About 70 of the state's 524 school districts have given their first end-of-course exams this semester. Brentwood High School students took the exams this week. On Wednesday morning, teacher Kelly Javier cheerfully distributed pencils, rulers and even peppermints to her honors Algebra I students before handing out their end-of-course exam. Students knew it would count for 20 percent of their final grade."You always ask me, 'Can I have a drink? Can I go to the bathroom?'" she said. "You better do that. You better hustle. I need all of you and your brain cells before you start."Afterward, students said they found the test challenging but not too tough, and some said the wording was different than what they're used to.Chris Reichert, 15, said that while he took the old MAP exam seriously, it was hard to study for it because nobody knew exactly what would be on it and it covered a huge range of topics. "This is a lot better because it will tell how much we learned in class," he said.Nationwide, more states are turning toward end-of-course exams or exit exams, says the Center on Education Policy. While it's a challenge for some districts to fit so many separate exams into their schedule, many expect the exams to improve accountability and give students immediate feedback on what they have learned."There's a great attraction to these exams, because they seem to be like capstones," said Jack Jennings, founder of the Center on Education Policy, a nonprofit group that researches education issues. And educators hope the exams will result in higher scores."In the end, that should result in better, cleaner data about what is the quality of instruction at the high school," said Michael Muenks, coordinator of curriculum and assessment for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. "We expect that we should see higher numbers of kids being proficient. It should be fascinating to watch."vhahn@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8228
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New Paradigms a Must for Changing Society

2009-01-19T20:34:00.000-08:00

Gambling may have played a role in Riverview Superintendent Henry Williams' theft
By David Hunn
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Friday, Jan. 16 2009
To completely understand why a former school superintendent siphoned more than $100,000 from a struggling north St. Louis County district, prosecutors say, you must also understand his gambling.Henry P. Williams liked the slots.Williams gambled the day he signed his first employment contract with the district. He gambled before or after school board meetings. He often gambled 20 days or more per month. In fact, over the five years he led Riverview Gardens School District, Williams gambled more than 900 days — nearly 190 days a year — and lost as much as $176,000, according to court records just made public. All the while, the 8,000-student district was falling into economic and academic failure.Williams, 67, was driven out of the district almost two years ago after being accused of funneling more than $100,000 in school money into a personal life insurance fund, understating his income and double-dipping on district travel reimbursement. He pleaded no contest in September to two counts of felony theft and three counts of tax fraud.Early this month, Williams was sentenced in St. Louis County court to 30 days in jail and ordered to pay $102,724.87 in restitution to the district.He would not discuss his gambling publicly, and rejected multiple interview requests. But court documents made public after Williams' sentencing reveal what prosecutors believe, in part, motivated his thievery. They describe a man who repeatedly tapped into his district-funded life insurance policies, and gambled away similar amounts at the casinos — almost entirely on slot machines."He stole from the kids to support a habit. That's not right," Riverview Gardens School Board treasurer Selena Melton said. "At least we're getting some of the money back. That gives me some satisfaction." PUZZLING FINANCESSt. Louis County prosecutors subpoenaed district records in early 2006, following police tips, and soon realized that Williams was stealing district funds.But what prosecutors didn't immediately know was why he wanted the money.As superintendent of Riverview, Williams made $135,000 his first year and $160,000 his last.His contract also stipulated extras: a life insurance policy, $3,000 toward other insurance, a car allowance, mileage, 50 vacation and sick days, and $15,000 to $25,000 each year for his tax-sheltered annuity.It was Williams' management of that annuity benefit that raised suspicions.He asked district workers to send the checks not to a tax-sheltered annuity, but to his whole life insurance policies at The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. And, as soon as the district had deposited the money, Williams was borrowing against those policies, investigators said. He asked the district to pay the policy premiums, plus the interest on the loans. By the end of 2005, he had $180,000 in outstanding loans against his Guardian policies, according to court records.Where was that money going? One place, investigators discovered, could have been to cover back taxes. According to liens filed with the county, Williams still owes nearly $250,000 in federal taxes. None show they've been paid off, and one, for $24,915, was just filed in November.Then, on a tip, the prosecutor's office also checked to see if Williams was spending money at local casinos.'7 STARS CLUB'The court records begin with a printout from the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles.In January 2002, just a few months before Williams started as superintendent in Riverview Gardens, casino records subpoenaed by prosecutors show he gambled 21 of 31 days. In February, he gambled 27 of 28 days.He began work that fall, and continued gambling. In 2003, records show Williams began frequenting a second casino, Harrah's St. Louis, just downriver in Maryland Heights. His yearly visits increased a bit.In 2005, Riverview Gardens was in tumult: Williams declared teacher morale at its lowest. More than 700 students marched on the district office after a popular principal was fired. Parents, fearing financial mismanagement, demanded a state audit. Graduation rates, attendance and test scores all dipped.That year, Williams visited either Ameristar or Harrah's more than 220 days, or nearly two-thirds of the year. There is little in the documents to suggest Williams was spending school hours at the casinos. Indeed, some school officials now say he was a present administrator who worked a full week.Still, successful school districts often have leaders who work far more than 40-hour weeks, said William Rebore, chair of the educational leadership department at St. Louis University. "A great deal of information has to flow through the superintendent and the superintendent's desk," Rebore said. "Superintendents who are unsuccessful are those who do not spend sufficient time on the job."By November 2006, the last month of records held by the court, Williams had visited Ameristar and Harrah's more than 930 times over five years, lost $42,529 in total at Ameristar and $133,704 at Harrah's, and spent in excess of 1,100 hours at Harrah's slot machines alone.That means, on average, he lost $122 every hour he gambled at Harrah's. It is possible, industry insiders say, those totals could have been inflated by "free" money the casinos sent to Williams as incentives. However, they say, it's unlikely incentives would have represented a large chunk of the losses.Representatives from the casinos wouldn't clarify the documents or discuss generalities.But there are other hints as to Williams' spending. The court records show he played high-dollar slots with $2,500, $5,000 or even $10,000 payouts, in rooms that now have signs warning gamblers: "This area is reserved for high limit guests only."The records also show that Williams earned thousands of dollars in freebies, far beyond those won by recreational gamblers. He got hotel rooms, cash back, and meals at virtually every eatery at Harrah's. But even more so, Williams' account at Harrah's was specially marked. It was tagged "7 Stars Club" — the rewards tier reserved only for elite gamblers, those who played at least $500,000 on slots in one year. THE ENDThe Riverview board removed Williams from office in March 2007, after state and Post-Dispatch investigations revealed many transgressions: District money directed to his daughter, girlfriend and her family. Thousands of school dollars spent on his office art, cash advances, theater tickets and trips — to London, South Africa, and many U.S. cities. Worse, Williams left the district in ruins. Riverview savings had dipped from $12 million to less than $2 million, and academics had sunk to the point that the district met just three of 14 state accreditation standards. Most district leaders say that they are moving on, and declined to discuss Williams and his legacy. But Riverview employees report seeing Williams at the casinos since he left the district.One said she saw him a few months after he was fired, in what she called the "high-rollers'" room.Another said she saw him at the slots, with a woman.And district custodian Roy Mullen said he saw Williams this winter. "I was just looking for some of my friends," Mullen said. "I come around the corner and say, 'Holy cow!' I can't believe who I see sitting there."It was on the weekend, Mullen said, just before Williams was set to be sentenced. dhunn@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8411
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How can a pessimist create a new paradigm?

2009-01-19T20:29:00.000-08:00

Are You An Optimist or a Pessimist?
by Margaret Paul, Ph.D.

"I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else." - Winston Churchill
When you notice your thoughts, which kind of thoughts predominate? Do you find yourself often thinking pessimistic thoughts such as:
* I'll never get where I want to go. I'm a loser.* I'm not smart enough to achieve what I want to achieve.* God is there for others but not for me.* I'm going to end up losing what I have.* The world is very unsafe so I have to always be vigilant.* Why reach out to others? No one really likes me.* Why put forth effort? There is no point since I don't have the talent or ability to success.* Some people just have good luck, but I don't.* Things are going too well. I just know that something bad is going to happen.* Life is too much for me to handle.* I'm going to end up alone.* Life for me will always be a disaster.* There is no point in eating well or exercising - my genetics are against me.* I'm not emotionally or physically healthy, and this is just the way it is. There is nothing I can do about it.* I don't deserve to be happy.* I don't deserve to be loved.
And so on...
Or, do you find yourself often thinking optimistic thoughts such as:
* If I work hard enough and stay focused, I will get where I want to go.* My intelligence and abilities increase with learning.* No one ever succeeds without a lot of effort, and I can put in as much effort as anyone who has ever succeeded.* If I stay tuned into and trust my own inner knowing, I can feel safe.* I am a good and kind person so of course people like me.* It is not luck that causes people to succeed, but belief in themselves.* When bad things happen, these are opportunities for learning and growth.* Life's challenges present me with incredible learning opportunities.* When I am ready for partnership, someone will show up.* Regardless of how physically or emotionally unhealthy my parents were, I can make choices that result in physical and emotional health.* Everyone deserves to be happy, including me.* Everyone deserves to be loved, and everyone is loved by God.
YOU GET TO CHOOSE!
Do you realize that you have free will, which means that you get to choose how you want to think? You get to choose whether you want to be an optimist or a pessimist, and which one you choose determines your feelings and actions.
When you look at the pessimist list, can you see that thinking these kinds of thoughts create depression, procrastination, and continued failure? Can you see when you look at the optimist list how thinking these thoughts create motivation, loving action, and ultimate success in work and life?
YOU ARE NOT A VICTIM!
Instead of seeing yourself as a victim of circumstances, of your past, of your parents, of events or of luck, why not start to monitor your thoughts and consciously change them from negative to positive? You will likely discover that changing your thoughts changes your feelings and actions, as well as outcomes.
You have everything to gain and nothing to lose by experimenting with changing your thoughts!
Filed under: Attitude , Beliefs , Choices , Motivation , Self-Awareness
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About Margaret Paul, Ph.D.
Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is a best-selling author of 8 books and co-creator of the powerful Inner Bonding® healing process. Are you are ready to heal your pain and discover your joy? Learn Inner Bonding now! Click here for a FREE Inner Bonding Course, and visit our website at http://www.innerbonding.com/ for more articles and help.

Ralp Waldo Emerson

2009-01-19T20:15:00.000-08:00

"If one has to submit, it is wasteful not to do so with the best grace possible."
- Ralph WaldoEmerson

Changing the mind to change paradigms...

2009-01-19T20:11:00.000-08:00

Rote Writing with a Twist
by Carrie Fleharty

Do you remember way back when you were in elementary school, the big pencils, Big Chief Tablet ®, crayons, with a very strict teacher? When you were caught talking too much or throwing paper and that strict teacher made you write 100 times: "I will not talk in class" or "will not throw spit wads." Do you remember? Did you understand then what he/she was attempting to do? Because now that I understand to some degree; I am using that method to help me attract the desires of my heart. In other words I'm twisting that punishment into working for me to learn the Law of Attraction.
That very strict teacher was helping to change your thoughts. After all thought precedes form, and our thoughts do control our lives. The teacher was using that rote writing punishment to retrain your brain. Teachers who used that method were trying to use repetition to help you to change your bad habits. Let's look at this closer. What if the teacher would have you write "I will pay attention in class" or "I will allow myself and others to learn." Would that have been a little different? I'm sure that you were pretty tired of writing all of those 100 sentences, because I know I was.
The other day, I was trying to figure out what I'm not doing, or what is blocking me from receiving the desires of my heart. I refuse to go to that part of myself that says: "this doesn?t work. What do you think you're trying to do?" It's just a hoax. I believe, and I believe, but nothing is happening." When we go to this part of ourselves we are creating more negativity, and more unwanted feelings. I keep visualizing, and I keep imagining having what I want, but nothing's coming to me. (Well, not totally, I don't know what's going on cosmically.) I do understand that I have an attachment issue, and that's another article for later.
While I was pondering my dilemma, the thought came to me to write with positive words my desires and wants much like those of that were given to me by that strict elementary school teacher. Instead of writing down "I will not talk in class," I would write such things as: "I am worthy. I will receive the desires of my heart. I enjoy receiving money freely. I enjoy giving money away freely to those in need." I began to have an inkling of understanding that like attracts like, and there cannot be any doubt whatsoever!
These sentences would be me setting forth my attractions in a new way, but a way that I can transform my thought waves. I would use the repetition to help me learn to attract what I truly want, and let go of what I don?t want. Over time I will be reprogrammed to actually believe that I deserve my own precious desires.
I took my journal out, and began to write. I wrote statements such as these:* I believe* I know Truth* I believe in the truth* The Law of Attraction works* I am deserving of my desires* I am loved.* I trust* I believe in Miracles* I believe that I can receive Miracles* Thinking makes it so* My desires manifest before me.* I feel ecstatic as I see my desires manifest in front of me.
Those simple statements written down time after time will help a person who is struggling with the notion that the Law of Attraction does not work. Many people say that the movie "The Secret" is a hoax. Believe me, I can easily go there, and by going there I will receive nothing except more negativity. I have experienced that easily. I need and must reprogram myself. This idea is working for me. I no longer have that nagging sensation in me that would say: "Ha you don't deserve anything. Who are you to expect your desires? It's never happened before, why should it now?"
I have written these statements above many times, and I've been doing this now for about one week. What's really bizarre or funny, is that each day, I look forward to oopening my journal and writing those new thoughts down. I want to change my thoughts. My thoughts formed from my childhood past keep me from dreaming and believing in my desires. That my dear friends must change; for I am deserving.
Hats off to those strict elementary school teachers for making me write those horrible sentence writings. I now can use that same idea in a more positive twist to my benefit. I am creating a new and wonderful person who believes in the Law of Attraction and knows that "Thoughts Control Our Lives." Those thoughts need to bring into manifestation wants, desires and dreams. Dream and write dear folks, dream and write, for our thoughts create form.
Filed under: Abundance , Beliefs , Change , Habits , Law of Attraction
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About Carrie Fleharty
Carrie Fleharty by day is a mild mannered school librarian, but at night she's become a successful author. She is now a practicing Personal Life Coach. She enjoys helping people become successful in any endeavor that they feel is important to them. She enjoys and embraces change and sees it as a way to improve herself. She intends to keep improving her life, and keeps challenging herself to become a better person. She thoroughly enjoys expressing herself through the written word. And has written two books "Changes and Shifts: a Personal Journey" and "A Poet's Mind and Soul."
Her soul ignites through spiritual fire. She understands that the right spark can take a person to new meanings and new beginnings through a deeper sense of self. She is a seeker; she seeks Truth, the Devine, Spirituality, and Love. She believes that a spark will flame up to spread Truth. This Truth will be made known to all who seek.
After all "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure." A Return to Love: Reflections on a Course in Miracles by Marianne Williamson. Sometimes all it takes is a helping hand. I will be that helping hand in either personal, spiritual, health and wellness or being a mentor.

Time

2009-01-18T06:31:00.000-08:00

"It's not the hours you put in, but what you put into the hours, that counts." -

E. James Rohn

Another Selection from John Piper's blog with ideas that could be used for any leader and not just Pastors

2009-01-18T05:22:00.000-08:00

6 Reasons Pastors Should BlogMarch 31, 2008 By: Abraham Piper Category: Commentary
In this article I want to convince as many pastors as possible to sit down and start a blog today. If I can’t convince them, then I want to convince churchgoers to hound their pastor until he does.
OK, all that’s overstatement, perhaps. You can still be a good pastor and not blog.
However, here’s why I think it would be good for you and your congregation if you did.
Pastors should blog…
1. …to write.
If you’re a pastor, you probably already know the value writing has for thinking. Through writing, you delve into new ideas and new insights. If you strive to write well, you will at the same time be striving to think well.
Then when you share new ideas and new insights, readers can come along with you wherever your good writing and good thinking bring you.
There is no better way to simply and quickly share your writing than by maintaining a blog. And if you’re serious about your blog, it will help you not only in your thinking, but in your discipline as well, as people begin to regularly expect quality insight from you.
2. …to teach.
Most pastors I’ve run into love to talk. Many of them laugh at themselves about how long-winded they’re sometimes tempted to be.
Enter Blog.
Here is where a pastor has an outlet for whatever he didn’t get to say on Sunday. Your blog is where you can pass on that perfect analogy you only just thought of; that hilarious yet meaningful story you couldn’t connect to your text no matter how hard you tried; that last point you skipped over even though you needed it to complete your 8-point acrostic sermon that almost spelled HUMILITY.
And more than just a catch-all for sermon spill-over, a blog is a perfect place for those 30-second nuggets of truth that come in your devotions or while you’re reading the newspaper. You may never write a full-fledged article about these brief insights or preach a whole sermon, but via your blog, your people can still learn from them just like you did.
3. …to recommend.
With every counseling session or after-service conversation, a pastor is recommending something. Sometimes it’s a book or a charity. Maybe it’s a bed-and-breakfast for that couple he can tell really needs to get away. And sometimes it’s simply Jesus.
With a blog, you can recommend something to hundreds of people instead of just a few. Some recommendations may be specific to certain people, but that seems like it would be rare. It’s more likely to be the case that if one man asks you whether you know of any good help for a pornography addiction, then dozens of other men out there also need to know, but aren’t asking.
Blog it.
Recommendation, however, is more than pointing people to helpful things. It’s a tone of voice, an overall aura that good blogs cultivate.
Blogs are not generally good places to be didactic. Rather, they’re ideal for suggesting and commending. I’ve learned, after I write, to go back and cut those lines that sound like commands or even overbearing suggestions, no matter how right they may be. Because if it’s true for my audience, it’s true for me, so why not word it in such a way that I’m the weak one, rather than them?
People want to know that their pastor knows he is an ordinary, imperfect human being. They want to know that you’re recommending things that have helped you in your own weakness. If you say, “When I struggled with weight-loss, I did such-and-such,” it will come across very differently than if you say, “Do such-and-such if you’re over-weight…”
If you use your blog to encourage people through suggesting and commending everything from local restaurants to Jesus Christ, it will complement the biblical authority that you rightly assume when you stand behind the pulpit.
4. …to interact.
There are a lot of ways for a pastor to keep his finger on the pulse of his people. A blog is by no means necessary in this regard. However, it does add a helpful new way to stay abreast of people’s opinions and questions.
Who knows what sermon series might arise after a pastor hears some surprising feedback about one of his 30-second-nuggets-of-truth?
5. …to develop an eye for what is meaningful.
For good or ill, most committed bloggers live with the constant question in their mind: Is this bloggable? This could become a neurosis, but I’ll put a positive spin on it: It nurtures a habit of looking for insight and wisdom and value in every situation, no matter how mundane.
If you live life looking for what is worthwhile in every little thing, you will see more of what God has to teach you. And the more he teaches you, the more you can teach others. As you begin to be inspired and to collect ideas, you will find that the new things you’ve seen and learned enrich far more of your life than just your blog.
6. …to be known.
This is where I see the greatest advantage for blogging pastors.
Your people hear you teach a lot; it’s probably the main way that most of them know you. You preach on Sundays, teach on Wednesdays, give messages at weddings, funerals, youth events, retreats, etc.
This is good—it’s your job. But it’s not all you are. Not that you need to be told this, but you are far more than your ideas. Ideas are a crucial part of your identity, but still just a part.
You’re a husband and a father. You’re some people’s friend and other people’s enemy. Maybe you love the Nittany Lions. Maybe you hate fruity salad. Maybe you struggle to pray. Maybe listening to the kids’ choir last weekend was—to your surprise—the most moving worship experience you’ve ever had.
These are the things that make you the man that leads your church. They’re the windows into your personality that perhaps stay shuttered when you’re teaching the Bible. Sometimes your people need to look in—not all the way in, and not into every room—but your people need some access to you as a person. A blog is one way to help them.
You can’t be everybody’s friend, and keeping a blog is not a way of pretending that you can. It’s simply a way for your people to know you as a human being, even if you can’t know them back. This is valuable, not because you’re so extraordinary, but because leadership is more than the words you say. If you practice the kind of holiness that your people expect of you, then your life itself opened before them is good leadership—even when you fail.
Conclusion
For most of you, anything you post online will only be a small piece in the grand scheme of your pastoral leadership. But if you can maintain a blog that is both compelling and personal, it can be an important small piece.
It will give you access to your people’s minds and hearts in a unique way by giving them a chance to know you as a well-rounded person. You will no longer be only a preacher and a teacher, but also a guy who had a hard time putting together a swing-set for his kids last weekend. People will open up for you as you open up like this for them. Letting people catch an honest glimpse of your life will add authenticity to your teaching and depth to your ministry,
* * *

Recommendation for ideas--JOHN PIPER

2009-01-18T05:09:00.001-08:00

How Barack Obama Will Make Christ a Minister of CondemnationJanuary 17, 2009 By: John Piper Category: Commentary
At Barack Obama’s request, tomorrow in the Lincoln Memorial, Gene Robinson, the first openly non-celibate homosexual bishop in the Episcopal Church, will deliver the invocation for the inauguration kick-off.
This is tragic not mainly because Obama is willing to hold up the legitimacy of homosexual intercourse, but because he is willing to get behind the church endorsement of sexual intercourse between men.
It is one thing to say: Two men may legally have sex. It is another to say: The Christian church acted acceptably in blessing Robinson’s sex with men.
The implications of this are serious.
It means that Barack Obama is willing, not just to tolerate, but to feature a person and a viewpoint that makes the church a minister of damnation. Again, the tragedy here is not that many people in public life hold views (like atheism) that lead to damnation, but that Obama is making the church the minister of damnation.
The apostle Paul says,
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves , nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
What is Paul saying about things like adultery, greed, stealing, and homosexual practice? As J. I. Packer puts it, “They are ways of sin that, if not repented of and forsaken, will keep people out of God’s kingdom of salvation.” (Christianity Today, January 2003, p. 48).
In other words, to bless people in these sins, instead of offering them forgiveness and deliverance from them, is to minister damnation to them, not salvation.
The gospel, with its forgiveness and deliverance from homosexual practice, offers salvation. Gene Robinson, with his blessing and approval of homosexual practice, offers damnation. And he does it in the name of Christ.
It is as though Obama sought out a church which blessed stealing and adultery, and then chose its most well-known thief and adulterer, and asked him to pray.
One more time: The issue here is not that presidents may need to tolerate things they don’t approve of. The issue is this: In linking the Christian ministry to the approval of homosexual activity, Christ is made a minister of condemnation.

Seeing Potential is the key for a new Paradigm

2009-01-18T04:47:00.000-08:00

Jul 14, 2008
Potential, Vision, and Commitment

from Steve Farrar - Articles by Steve Farrar
In the late 1800’s, a distinguished member of the British Parliament traveled to Scotland to give a speech. On the way, his carriage became hopelessly mired in the thick mud of a rural road. A young Scottish farm boy suddenly appeared on the scene with a team of large draft horses. He quickly had the carriage out of its dilemma and ready to resume the journey.
The gentleman insisted on paying the young man, but the lad refused. He was simply being a good neighbor. The English lawmaker was immediately taken with the young man and his attitude. “Are you sure I can’t pay you for your time and effort?” the gentleman asked.
“Thank you, sir, but it was the least that I could do. It was a privilege to help such an important person as yourself.” The boy replied. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” asked the man. “I’d like to be a doctor, but I doubt that will happen since my family does not have the money for such an education.”
“Then I will help you become a doctor,” said the politician.
Nearly fifty years later, another famous English statesman lay dangerously close to death due to pneumonia. Winston Churchill had become ill while attending a wartime conference, and England desperately needed his leadership as Hitler threatened to destroy their nation. Churchill miraculously recovered because his physician gave him an injection of a new wonder drug called penicillin. Penicillin had recently been discovered by the brilliant medical doctor, Alexander Fleming.
Alexander Fleming was the young boy who had pulled the stalled carriage from the mud. And the man who promised to return the favor by sending him to medical school was Winston Churchill’s father, Sir Randolph Churchill.
Randolph Churchill saw what no one else had seen in the face of that young Scottish farm boy. He saw potential. And his commitment to helping that young man reach his potential saved the life of his own son nearly half a century later. And by saving the life of Winston Churchill, indeed, he may have saved all of England.
—Steve Farrar

Another idea from www.tompeters.com

2009-01-15T17:11:00.000-08:00

PRAISE BE!
The management of high performing creative-types is certainly on the agenda for many of my clients. Who else can we rely on to come up with the next breakthrough idea in our organisations, but our high performing "talent"? But, as Lucy Kellaway in London's Financial Times recently wrote, there is an important balance to be struck in dealing with such folks.
There is something almost mystical about real talent, whether it be artistic, scientific, sporting, or creative, but as Lucy points out in her article, adulation and excessive appreciation alone can result in the creation of a monster. We end up with someone who feels able to make excessive demands, without any resulting requirement for performance improvement!
The article made me think about the delicate balance that my singing teacher manages to pull off. She typically manages to leave me with the feeling that I am making progress, and sounding good, but that there is another level to which I should be aspiring. So I am generally left feeling energised and excited, but certainly not complacent. I think that many sporting regimes manage to pull off this approach through the persistent measurement of personal best performance.
What is it about our relationship with our talented professionals in our work organisations that can get in the way of pointing out where (even they!) can improve?
What is your best experience of being encouraged to stretch and develop your talent when there was no obvious need to do so?
Madeleine McGrath posted this on 01/24/08. Comments (18)

Another Good Idea from Tom Peters.com

2009-01-15T17:01:00.000-08:00

dispatches from the new world of work
A Mission Statement Must, Circa 2009

Gerson Barbosa posted a Comment yesterday that included the following: "The mission statement of Johns Hopkins includes 'cultivate their capacity for life-long learning, to foster independent and original research, and to bring the benefits of discovery to the world.'"
It got me thinking. In our rapidly gyrating world (see the two Posts immediately above), learning-for-life is no longer an option. This is true of you at 6 or 26 or 46, and of me at 66 and my great pal Warren Bennis in his 80s. Moreover, explicit focus on "life-long learning" for everyone on board may be the most sustainable advantage an organization of any flavor can have.
Hence, I strongly suggest that "A commitment by all of us to accelerated lifelong learning," or some such be made a formal part of your mission statement. It deserves to be right up there with the likes of superior quality and profitability.
Tom Peters posted this on 01/14/09.

Shifting the thinking about our schools....

2009-01-15T13:43:00.001-08:00

orlandosentinel.com/services/newspaper/printedition/tuesday/localandstate/orl-dropout1309jan13,0,5712907.story

OrlandoSentinel.com
How to keep kids in school?
Christine Armario
The Associated Press
January 13, 2009
CLEARWATER

Mary Jane Henry and her husband are college-educated professionals. She worked for years as a caseworker specializing in children with psychological disorders. He is a computer programmer.Despite their backgrounds and attentiveness to their children, two of their boys dropped out of high school, she said."He was always there, interacting with teachers, interacting with principals," Henry recalls of her husband. "All of those things were in place, and none of it motivated them to stay there."On Monday, Henry and her sons attended the statewide Dropout Prevention Summit hosted by the Florida Department of Education. For two days, parents, students, administrators and advocates will work together to brainstorm ideas to solve a dilemma families are facing nationwide: how to keep a child in school.Across the state, 2.6 percent of high-school students dropped out during the 2007-08 school year, according the state Department of Education. In many places, that figure is significantly higher.The impact is far-reaching: High-school graduates in Florida are twice as likely to be employed as those who don't finish school. Dropouts will likely earn less than their peers and are more likely to be incarcerated or need public assistance, according to figures from the Department of Education presented at the conference.At a time when Florida schools are facing the prospect of even deeper budget cuts, the need to combine resources with community leaders is paramount, several of the participants said."Students and their concerns don't go away because budgets decline," said Kimberly Davis, director of dropout prevention for the Education Department. "We have to still keep working and keep moving forward, but we've got to make sure that we're doing it efficiently."Florida often ranks low in national rankings of high-school graduation. The Quality Counts report released last week ranked the state 44th in the nation, with a graduation rate of 60.8 percent.State education officials say the graduation rate in the 2007-08 school year was actually 75.4 percent. Among other things, Florida includes students who earn general educational development diplomas, which are not counted by many national rankings.For three years, education leaders in Florida have been gathering for workshops on dropout prevention. But this is the first year that students, parents and business and community leaders have come together to develop an action plan, Davis said.
Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel

One more thought about Adult Illiteracy

2009-01-15T13:35:00.000-08:00

Ken, while I understand what you are saying, I don't think that's the point. No one is suggesting that all those people aren't intelligent. The study, the original article (USA Today), and the Lou Dobbs story (CNN) focused on the fact that we have a very high rate of unemployment right now. Illiteracy is just one more hurdle that some people have to cross in order to fully function in society and hold jobs. Life would be a lot easier for those 32 million Americans if they could read and write English. I think America needs to make literacy a priority. Unlike a lot of other issues, there is no downside to helping people learn to read and write.
Posted by: Loraine January 14, 2009 at 03:54 PM

Please make the effort to read modern research on the prevention and remediation of reading disability. Focus information from 2005 and later. Be aware that what we learned about this pre-2000 is far out of date. The key message is that we must do whatever it takes to teach kids to read proficiently by 3rd grade. Use research-based methods. Don't wait, and don't think you know about this because you have teaching experience--make this a professional development priority.
Posted by: Katie January 14, 2009 at 10:33 PM
About 82% of Adults with reading disorders have some type of undiagnosed reading difficulty. When I was a Junior in college I found out that I had Irlen Syndrome. After I was diagnosed I went from a C student to an A - B student. Working with Adults with Disabililties makes me realize just how many people are misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all who may have this condition. If you want to know more about this you can look it up on the internet or contact me and I will explain it to you.
Posted by: Lee Ann Allan January 15, 2009 at 07:21 AM

another post from the ASCD Inservice blog from Professional Educators
http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2009/01/1-in-7-us-adults-struggle-reading-anything-beyond-a-picture-book.html

A rebuttal to the previous post...

2009-01-15T13:31:00.000-08:00

A number of newspaper articles have announced yet another "decline in literacy." This time it's adults, who, it is claimed, have dropped in literacy between 1992 and 2003, with a greater percentage lacking basic literacy.
This has resulted in the usual pious pronouncements about the low quality of our schools, our teachers, and poor teaching methods at all levels. Education Secretary Spellings, for example, was quoted in USA Today as saying that adult literacy programs are "inefficient" and "not using research-based methods" (January 8, 2008).
A look at the actual report shows that these conclusions are completely unjustified.
In 1992, only 24,000 adults in 11 states were actually tested on literacy. In 2003, only 18,500 adults in seven states were tested on literacy, a tiny percentage of the population. Researchers then gathered data on factors known to be connected to literacy, factors such as poverty levels, level of education, and minority status. They then used this data to make an educated guess about levels of literacy for the rest of the population.
In other words, one or more of the values of the predictors changed between 1992 and 2003 (the report does not specify which predictors have changed or how much). The change in the values of the predictors is undoubtedly the major reason for the "decline" of literacy that was reported. Literacy wasn't actually measured for most of the country.
The estimates of adult literacy are probably fairly accurate, and the value of the study is that it gives planners of adult literacy programs some idea of what they are up against.
The study does not, however, tell us whether schools are improving or getting worse, or whether one method of teaching reading is better than another, or whether teachers in general are better or worse than they were. All we really know from the study is that some things have changed between 1993 and 2003, factors that have nothing to do with teaching methods and teachers.
Critics should not blame schools for factors that have nothing to do with schools.
Posted by: STEPHEN KRASHEN January 14, 2009 at 03:49 PM

1 in 7 U.S. Adults Struggle with Reading

2009-01-15T13:26:00.000-08:00

1 in 7 U.S. Adults Struggles with Reading Anything Beyond a Picture Book
A new study concludes that about 32 million adult Americans can't string together English sentences or paragraphs or read anything beyond a picture book. Undiagnosed learning disabilities and readers of other languages make up a portion of this statistic, but high school dropouts play a major factor in this startling number as well.
Struggling to read affects a person's ability to contribute to society, from participating in the democratic process to meeting basic needs. Dropout prevention should be a priority for every school district—or when the next report comes out, the title of this blog post may be, "1 in 5 U.S. Adults Cannot Read."

Are 32 million adults falling through the cracks of early literacy efforts, or do these efforts fail to carry into later grades? How surprised are you that one in seven Americans essentially cannot read English?

taken from: http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2009/01/1-in-7-us-adults-struggle-reading-anything-beyond-a-picture-book.html
ASCD is a professional Educators organization

Fiction Reading is up Survey Shows

2009-01-15T13:22:00.000-08:00

Unexpected Twist: Fiction Reading Is Up Survey Shows Reversal Of Longstanding Trend
By Bob ThompsonWashington Post Staff WriterMonday, January 12, 2009; C01
There's good news about reading, says the National Endowment for the Arts in a report the agency is releasing today.
For the first time since the NEA began surveying American reading habits in 1982 -- and less than five years after it issued its famously gloomy "Reading at Risk" report -- the percentage of American adults who report reading "novels, short stories, poems or plays" has risen instead of declining: from 46.7 percent in 2002 to 50.2 percent in 2008.
"Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy" is the triumphant headline on the new report. In a preface, outgoing NEA Chairman Dana Gioia called it a "turning point in recent American cultural history" and emphasized that "the most significant growth has been among young adults," the group previously showing the biggest reading declines.
Yet the survey contains bad news as well.
The percentage of American adults who report reading any book not required for work or school during the previous year is still declining. It fell from 56.6 percent in 2002 to 54.3 percent in 2008.
Meanwhile, no one can say why the number of Americans reporting what the NEA calls "literary reading" rose -- though Gioia didn't hesitate to suggest an explanation.
"Over the past six years there has been a new sense of urgency in the United States about the cultural disaster represented by the decline in reading," he said in an interview last week. As a result, "millions of teachers, librarians, parents," politicians and others put their energies into reversing the trend.
Gioia said he likes to think that the NEA's surveys "played a catalytic role" and that NEA programs such as the Big Read -- through which the agency encourages American communities to sponsor the reading and discussion of a single book -- have been important.
What are concerned reading advocates, accustomed to hearing that the literary sky is falling, to make of this news?
Fielding questions in the chairman's office in the Old Post Office Pavilion, Gioia and NEA Research Director Sunil Iyengar tried to clear up any possible confusion.
When considering the category in which the turnaround occurred, it's important to know that "literary" isn't meant to imply "highbrow." The NEA survey includes all fiction genres, including thrillers and romance novels. Mysteries emerged this year as the most popular genre.
It's also notable that the gain came entirely from prose fiction. The percentage of adults reading drama and poetry declined during the period studied.
But what about prose nonfiction? Why did the NEA decide to single out the "literary" category in the first place?
"Because we're the National Endowment for the Arts," Gioia said. When the agency did its first survey, in 1982, it excluded nonfiction from consideration, and that's the long-term database it has to work with. Questions about overall book reading were added later, but the data don't go back as far.
This is understandable, but the result is confusing. It means, for example, that reading Barack Obama's "Dreams From My Father" won't get you counted as a "literary reader" by the NEA.
The confusion is only made worse by the decline the NEA found -- but chose not to emphasize -- in the percentage of adults reading any book.
Why wasn't that the headline?
"We're not interested in the format of this, we're just interested in the activity," Gioia said. But it's true that "the literary reading seems to be going up, and the general reading seems to be going down."
The rise in literary reading, Iyengar pointed out, was the first really significant positive trend the NEA had seen in five surveys done over 26 years. The spike was "aberrational to us," he said. "We were like, 'What's going on with this?' "
One possibility is implied by Gioia's point about format. Could an increase in online reading -- or in the reporting of online reading by survey respondents -- be a factor? After all, the new survey asked specifically about Internet reading for the first time, and nearly 15 percent of adults said they read literature online.
It's not a question the NEA numbers can really answer, Iyengar said. But he pointed out that the overall reading question was asked early in the survey (as it always has been) and thus the later query about online reading would not have influenced responses.
The spike in reading in the 18-24 age range being so high -- it accounted for nearly 40 percent of the overall growth in reported literary reading -- raises another question: Was the "Harry Potter" phenomenon a major factor? The final volume of J.K. Rowling's series came out early in the 12 months covered by the survey, and in the years since the first "Harry" arrived, the young-adult sector has become one of publishing's main growth areas.
Maybe. But Gioia pointed out that Potter books were in stores when the NEA's literary reading rates were still tanking. He was happy, however, to spread around credit for the fiction-reading uptick.
"It's 'Harry Potter' and 'Twilight' and Oprah and the Big Read and the Internet," he said -- though he's not planning to declare victory as he returns to the private sector later this month.
"We've turned around a war that we were losing," Gioia said. "But victory is a long way off."

Redouble High School Improvement Push States Told

2009-01-15T13:14:00.000-08:00

taken from EDUCATION WEEK

Published Online: January 13, 2009
Updated: January 14, 2009
Redouble High School Improvement Push, States Told
By Catherine Gewertz

Washington
Despite tougher coursework requirements and other improvements, states need to do much more to make sure that U.S. high school students are poised for success, including better defining what constitutes readiness for career and college, according to a national report released Jan. 13.
“Certifying that a high school graduate is college- and career ready can be a confusing process,” says “Accelerating the Agenda,” a call to action released jointly by the National Governors Association, National Conference of State Legislatures, Council of Chief State School Officers, and the National Association of State Boards of Education.
The study reports on what states have done since 2005, when the NGA and Achieve Inc., a group that advocates higher standards and better accountability, released their “action agenda” for improving high schools. ("High Schools in Limelight for Summit," Feb. 23, 2005.)
Representatives of the four organizations detailed a sweeping agenda for high school reform at a news conference here, and urged policymakers to make college and career readiness the “central mission” of their accountability systems. But they acknowledged that the thorny question of how to define and measure readiness is one that will complicate that agenda.
"There are tremendous disparities in terms of expectations,” said Gene Wilhoit, CCSSO’s executive director. “We are getting a lot more specific about success criteria ... there is a lot of work to be done here. But we’ve taken this on.”
The report says, for instance, that 15 states define college readiness by using test scores, curricula, competencies, or content standards. Twenty-six define career readiness by using technical content standards, sets of skills, academic and technical coursework, or assessment performance. A dozen states have both career- and college-readiness definitions; half consider the two sets “substantially” different, and half do not, it said.
Faculty members in entry-level college courses say that students must be masterful analyzers, interpreters, and appliers of knowledge, and must write well, the report said. High-wage employers cite those same strengths as crucial, but add good problem-solving ability and “soft skills” such as communication and collaboration, so career-readiness standards might have to be “separate—and perhaps more complex” than college-readiness standards, it adds.
Aligning Standards
Substantial progress has been made in “restoring the value” of the high school diploma by raising standards and graduation requirements, beefing up course rigor, revamping career and technical education, and expanding access to college-level work, the report said.
Twenty-two states have aligned their English and mathematics standards to “more accurately reflect real-world expectations of colleges and employers,” and 23 more are working to do so, it said.
Twenty states and the District of Columbia now require that in order to get a diploma, all students must take a curriculum that Achieve defines as constituting college and career readiness, something only two states did in 2004, the report said.
The four groups urged states to shorten their list of high-school-level academic standards and make them “clearer in focus and higher in rigor,” and to require students to take a common set of college- and career-ready courses in order to graduate.
States are working to offer a wider choice of high school experiences by adding career academies, charter and virtual courses and schools, and early-college models, the report said. They are evolving in their abilities to build data banks that can form “early warning” systems that let schools monitor—and quickly help—students who get into academic trouble, it said.
Human Capital Needs
According to the report, an area of weakness in building better high schools is improving teacher and principal quality.
“No state has yet undertaken a comprehensive effort to upgrade the effectiveness of their high school teacher and principal workforce,” it said. The report added, “Without a renewed focus on teachers and principals, efforts to fix the American high school will likely fall short.”
To tailor headhunting or training, a state must know what sort of personnel it needs, the report said, and that requires longitudinal data systems that paint a portrait of the education workforce. Georgia, for instance, has a division that reports annually on the production and supply of—and demand for—educators by grade level, subject field, and geographic area.
With such a profile in hand, states can better strengthen teacher-training programs, a much-needed step, since “three-quarters” of traditional teacher-preparation programs fall short of producing effective teachers, the report said, citing a 2006 study by Arthur E. Levine, former president of Teachers College, Columbia University.
An evaluation system that isolates individual teachers’ effects on student performance over time, it said, is “key” to building a corps of effective teachers. And pay and career development can play a role in improving teacher quality, the report said.
It specifically mentioned special compensation for teachers who improve student performance, or who take jobs in high-needs schools or subject-shortage areas. Eleven states, it said, now reward teachers for improving student performance, and 28 offer additional pay to those who work in hard-to-staff schools or shortage subject areas.
Attention to Principals
Building a strong cadre of principals requires freeing them from some duties so they have time to be instructional leaders, and allowing them more authority to decide who works in their buildings, the report said.
In New York City, Massachusetts, and Nevada, for instance, principals can agree to meet certain school performance goals in exchange for more autonomy, the report said. A 2006 California law allows principals in low-performing schools to reject a teacher’s request to transfer into the school if such a move would undermine the school’s improvement plans, it said.
“States can require that high schools be accountable for graduating students on time and prepared for college and careers,” the report said. “Doing so first requires better measures of readiness—such as value-added assessments that more accurately gauge individual student progress over time—as well as careful development of an accountability system.”
“A few states” are creating “robust” accountability policies, the study said. Nine now require students to take tests that are “sufficiently rigorous” to measure college- and career-readiness, and 23 more states are working to do likewise.
Dane Linn, the director of NGA’s education division, said that those states do not share a common definition of what constitutes sufficient rigor; each state has defined that for itself.
Vol. 28, Issue 18
Back to Top
January 15, 2009 RSS All RSS feeds

Education a key to new paradigms

2009-01-13T09:13:00.000-08:00

Forget the Threat of Outsourcing!
Sometimes a thousand well chosen words can change your view of something important. So it was for me with a brief piece in yesterday's New York Times, "Why Is Income Inequality in America So Pronounced? Consider Education," by Tyler Cowan. To make a short story even shorter, Cowan cites several serious academic studies that conclude we've given far too much weight to outsourcing and the riches of the top 1% as cause of rising wage and wealth inequality. The true culprit, to an overwhelming degree, is the growing chasm between the prospects of those who have (or don't have) a college degree. It's almost that simple, and I urge you to read the article.
(NB: The author admits his answer is not for the ages. The growing potency of technology means that even the college sheepskin holders will be under attack fairly soon. But for now that sheepskin matters ... a lot.)
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Recommendation for ideas--Tom Peter's.com

2009-01-13T09:10:00.000-08:00

Education
To subscribe to the Education RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your feed reader or aggregator: http://www.tompeters.com/blogs/main/education.xml

It Takes a (Rather Large) Village ...
An attendee of one of our Brand You Workshops, Steve Wood, shared his wife Cullen's project with us. It's called Cullen's abc's. She's a preschool teacher in California and in her spare time she records what she calls "idea videos" on YouTube. Cullen gives simple information of interest to preschoolers in a clear and friendly way. It's a great use of current technology to share her passion for teaching with the world. What we find fascinating is that, according to Steve, a Chinese news agency has published an article about the videos.
What kind of inspiration does this spark for you? Does it make you want to create your own "idea videos" for something you're passionate about? Does it make you want to find the same type of videos done by preschool teachers in, say, Russia for your children to watch? Let us know.

Some Protect the Ego by Working on Their Excuses

2009-01-12T06:27:00.000-08:00

Some Protect the Ego by Working on Their Excuses

New York Times
Recent research has helped clarify not just who is prone to self-handicapping but also its consequences — and its possible benefits.
Benedict Carey
January 6, 2009

Some Protect the Ego by Working on Their Excuses Early
By Benedict Carey January 6, 2009
Every ugly exam score, blown deadline and failed project provides the opportunity to try out new excuses. It was a blowup at home. A sick cat. An emergency at work.
Not to mention the roadways: if only they hadn’t been so icy.
This kind of talk is so familiar that most people quickly dismiss it, even when it comes out of their own mouth.
This is one reason that genuine excuse artisans — and there are millions of them — don’t wait until after choking to practice their craft. They hobble themselves, in earnest, before pursuing a goal or delivering a performance. Their excuses come preattached: I never went to class. I was hung over at the interview. I had no idea what the college application required.
“This is real self-sabotage, like drinking heavily before a test, skipping practice or using really poor equipment,” said Edward R. Hirt, a psychologist at Indiana University. “Some people do this a lot, and often it’s not clear whether they’re entirely conscious of doing it — or of its costs.”
Psychologists have studied this sort of behavior since at least 1978, when Steven Berglas and Edward E. Jones used the phrase “self-handicapping” to describe students in a study who chose to take a drug that they were told would inhibit their performance on an exam (the drug was actually inert).
The urge goes well beyond a mere lowering of expectations, and it has more to do with protecting self-image than with psychological conflicts rooted in early development, in the Freudian sense. Recent research has helped clarify not just who is prone to self-handicapping but also its consequences — and its possible benefits.
In the original conception, Dr. Berglas and Dr. Jones identified self-handicapping in students who were told they had aced a test made up of impossible-to-answer questions. They had “succeeded” without knowing how or why. “These are the people who are told they are brilliant, without knowing how that inference is derived,” said Dr. Berglas, now an executive coach in the Los Angeles area. He understood the impulse, he said; he himself first experimented with drugs in high school just before taking the SAT, on which he was expected to get a perfect score — a reckless stunt that provided the seed for the theory.
The urge to shoot one’s own foot seems to be stronger in men than in women. In surveys, Dr. Hirt and others have measured the tendency by asking people to rate how well a series of 25 statements describes their own behavior — for example, “I try not to get too intensely involved in competitive activities so it won’t hurt too much if I lose or do poorly.” Men tend to score higher on these measures and, in lab studies, to handicap themselves more severely.
Yet given the opportunity, and a good reason, most people will claim some handicap. In a paper published last summer, Sean McCrea, a psychologist at the University of Konstanz in Germany, described experiments in which he manipulated participants’ scores on a variety of intelligence tests. In some, the subjects could choose to prepare before taking the test or could join the “no practice” group.
Sure enough, Dr. McCrea found that those told they got bad scores blamed a lack of practice, if they could, and that citing this handicap cushioned the blow to their self-confidence.
But the handicap also had another effect. In another experiment, participants who had a good excuse for their poor scores — distracting noises, pumped through headphones they wore during the test — were less motivated to prepare for a subsequent test than those who had no excuse. “The handicap allowed them to say, ‘All things considered, I actually did pretty well,’ ” Dr. McCrea said in a phone interview. “And there’s no drive to get better.”
The burn of embarrassment is, in some sense, the pilot light of motivation.
As a short-term strategy, self-handicapping is often no more than an exercise in self-delusion. Studies of college students have found that habitual handicappers — who skip a lot of classes; who miss deadlines; who don’t buy the textbook — tend to rate themselves in the top 10 percent of the class, though their grades slouch between C and D.
Those who succeed despite their flirtations with disorder typically grow increasingly fond of the handicap itself, whether drink or drugs or defying rules. “With success, expectations go up, and the behavior gets more extreme,” said Dr. Berglas, author of “Reclaiming the Fire: How Successful People Overcome Burnout” (Random House, 2001).
But the tactic doesn’t fool many people. In a recent study, James C. McElroy of Iowa State University and J. Michael Crant of Notre Dame had 246 adults evaluate the behavior of characters in several workplace anecdotes. The participants’ impressions of a character began to sour after the second time the person cited a handicap.
“What happens here is that if you do it often, observers attribute your performance to you, but begin to view it as part of your disposition, i.e., you’re a whiner,” Dr. McElroy wrote in an e-mail message. “But you can avoid this happening if someone else does the handicapping for you, and surprisingly enough, even if they do it often.”
That, too, is well known among the very best of excuse makers: for best results, recruit an apologist.
The important thing for some is, no matter the method, to avoid considering the alternative explanation.
“It’s like the line from the old Brando movie ‘On the Waterfront’: ‘I coulda been a contender,’ ” Dr. Hirt said. “In the long term, that may be easier to live with for some people than to know that they did their very best and failed.”
© Copyright

Paradigms start with literacy and education

2009-01-12T04:53:00.001-08:00

Literacy study: 1 in 7 U.S. adults are unable to read this story
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
A long-awaited federal study finds that an estimated 32 million adults in the USA — about one in seven — are saddled with such low literacy skills that it would be tough for them to read anything more challenging than a children's picture book or to understand a medication's side effects listed on a pill bottle.
ON THE WEB: Read the findings
Though many communities are making strides to tackle the problem, it's worsening elsewhere — in some cases significantly.
Overall, the study finds, the nation hasn't made a dent in its adult-literacy problem: From 1992 to 2003, it shows, the USA added about 23 million adults to its population; in that period, an estimated 3.6 million more joined the ranks of adults with low literacy skills.
LOCATION: Seattle, Minneapolis most literate big cities
How low? It would be a challenge to read this newspaper article or deconstruct a fuel bill.
"They really cannot read … paragraphs (or) sentences that are connected," says Sheida White, a researcher at the U.S. Education Department.
The findings come from the department's National Assessment of Adult Literacy, a survey of more than 19,000 Americans ages 16 and older. The 2003 survey is a follow-up to a similar one in 1992 and for the first time lets the public see literacy rates as far down as county levels.
In many cases, states made sizable gains. In Mississippi, the percentage of adults with low skills dropped 9 percentage points, from 25% to 16%. In every one of its 82 counties, low-skill rates dropped — in a few cases by 20 percentage points or more.
By contrast, in several large states — California, New York, Florida and Nevada, for instance — the number of adults with low skills rose.
David Harvey, president and CEO of ProLiteracy, an adult-literacy organization, says Mississippi "invested more in education … and they have done innovative programming. We need much more of that."
U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings says efforts in adult literacy are inefficient and "scattered" across government agencies.
"We're not using research-based practices, broadly applied," she says.
Harvey cites undiagnosed learning disabilities, immigration and high school dropouts as reasons for the poor literacy numbers.
The findings are published online at nces.ed.gov/naal/estimates/index.aspx.

Find this article at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-01-08-adult-literacy_N.htm

An example of the desperate need for new paradigms

2009-01-09T14:16:00.000-08:00

Why Do I Teach?As any teacher knows, there will always come a time when you ask yourself, "Why do I teach?" When one teacher asked herself that question, she got an answer. It began when teachers in a Maryland school district agreed in early December to give up a 5% pay raise for the coming school year to help their district cope with the impact that current economic conditions have had on their schools. After the local paper wrote a story on their decision, she received the following e-mail from the student body co-president who read the article.
Dear Mrs. G.,Not until after coming across this article in the paper yesterday did I become aware of the great sacrifice that the teachers, faculty, and staff of our county have made in order to ensure the stability of our public school system. I was pleasantly surprised by this heroic act of altruism and would like to extend my utmost appreciation to the employees at-large of our county, but most importantly, to the teachers, faculty, and staff of our high school. In these times of economic instability, I, as well as the rest of the BHS and district student bodies, should be honored that we have been of priority concern in the minds of our teachers, even as they may be dealing with hardships of their own. Best wishes to you and the rest of the BHS teachers, faculty, and staff for a wonderful holiday season—you all deserve it!

Is this a changed paradigm?

2009-01-09T13:08:00.000-08:00

Switching Terms from a "bailout"

to a more Politically Correct

Term..."stimulous package"

Not a changed paradigm...just

a different word for the same idea!

Will we learn....

The first "bailout" with the financial industry was done with a doomsday fear painted to us by both parties. Now we hear complaints about a deficit that is growing and a new economic stimulus (notice the name change for PC purposes) that we are being told again that needs to be shoved through at NASCAR speeds through Washington. On one side we are told that there can be suggestions, ideas etc. but it must be done by preferably the day after Obama's Inauguration. Pelosi is even threatening as the Principal of the House that if it is not finished by late January to make the people in Congress work on the weekends and even more severe of losing some of their holidays. The key is to the Democratic Trinity of Obama, Pelosi and Reid is to push it through quick as possible before anyone is able to ask any questions.

Shouldn't we have learned from the first doomsday rush failure that haste makes waste?

The key with every paradigm is to think things through which we might not be doing currently at this time in our country...Obama is looking for projects that are "shovel ready" (his words) but we may be getting things that are just be shoveled at us ....we must stop an think!

Can you spot paradigms and distinguish between ones that need to never change and those that will change with time?

2009-01-09T07:51:00.000-08:00

There are paradigms in every sector of our society. Below is what I wrote in "sports speak" or the lingo of the sporting world to several people and publications.

As I look back on it I see that what we are dealing with is really "paradigms" and shifting to new ways of thinking. See what I am talking about in the words below. Can you spot the paradigms either referred to directly or indirectly in my writing?

Here is what I wrote...

Florida showed last night why the smack-talk of the Big Twelve was just that...talk! What happened to that 60plus point prolific offense that no one could stop? This shows why it was wrong to give the Oklahoma Quarterback the Heisman! Anyone could have put up the yards and points that he did this season if they were playing against "pop warner Big Twelve Defenses". I guess Stoops got stooped!

We need to be able to spot paradigms and see them in most cases as not being set in stone. Yes, murder being wrong is a paradigm that is consistent and should never change but the Big Twelve Quarterbacks being superior to the rest of the Quarterbacks in college football is an example of a paradigm that can change. We are in a day of shifting paradigms...we must be able to spot the things that are constant or unchangeable and those that we must be flexible on ....what do you think?

Becoming a life long learner

2009-01-09T07:06:00.000-08:00

Through this blog ideas and information will be given that might be helpful for handling the many new paradigms that each of us are faced with daily...

An old saying is ,"...knowledge is power!" How does one obtain that knowledge? This knowledge is not obtained through a diploma or degree. It is not obtained at a final time and place. Knowledge itself has a new paradigm that many have not absorbed as part of their life's mission and purpose. Knowledge now has changed from a high school diploma, advanced degree or technical degree. The theory that "knowlege is power" is true only if one is a "life long learner." What is a life long learner? It is setting about to live life with the strategy of learning a little every day, every week and every month of life striving to never rely solely on what one has learned in the past. This comes with the understanding that knowledge is never stagnant and therefore one can not stand still with this abstract concept of knowledge or he or she will be left behind as the world continues to progress and change.

Below is one example of an easy way to be a life long learner. You can click on the links below and sign up for a "Daily PowerWord". Unless one creates a process for gaining knowledge like one might for paying bills then a few months will go by before you realize you have not kept up with your goal to be a life long learner. I get no financial compensation for this recommendation....Think about if not this way,what will be your specific plan to be a life long learner?

Daily PowerWord
Graphical version: <http://www.success.bz/newsletters/16466>

Other newsletters: <http://www.success.bz/newsletters>
* * * * *
Turpitude (TUR-pi-tood, -tyood) n. - inherent vile act; depravity
Example: A moral turpitude is a criminal behaviour that gravely infringes on the moral sentimentsof the community.

We all have shifted our paradigms...

2009-01-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

We all have shifted our paradigms ...We just did not realize

that was what we were doing!

"By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong." - Charles Wadworth

We need to not be afraid of things just because we may not understand the terminology or the full implications of an idea. Many are afraid of new ideas and change when change and new ideas have been apart of everyone's life since the time they were handed off from the doctor to their parents in the hospital at birth!

Shifting into a new paradigm ....how?

2009-01-07T09:45:00.001-08:00

"There are no rules here -- we're trying to accomplish something." -

Thomas Alva Edison

Pelosi's words as she opens congress- Second in a series

2009-01-07T04:10:00.000-08:00

Pelosi's words as she opens congress-

Second in a series

notice again the words that Pelosi uses which instead of being inspirational and motivational spurring on the leaders of our country to handle all our issues "as one" have "jabs" to the other party and their past leaders...Pelosi must see the need to shift to a new paradigm of leadership and conflict management before she destroys the country....see what you think about her words with the actual transcript of her words from January 6,2009 as she opened

“Thank you, Leader Boehner.
“Together, we welcome the many new Members of Congress who today join the House of Representatives of the United States of America. Congratulations to all of our new Members and our re-elected Members.
“Your constituents have placed great trust in you. Your families have given you the love and support to make your leadership possible. Let us join together to salute our families of the 111th Congress.
“I also want to thank my family: my husband of 45 years, Paul Pelosi; our children – Nancy Corinne, Christine, Jacqueline, Paul, and Alexandra; my grandchildren –Alexander, Madeleine, Liam, Sean, Ryan, Paulie, and Thomas. I also want to acknowledge my brother Tommy D’Alesandro III, former Mayor of Baltimore.
“I want to express my appreciation to the people of San Francisco for granting me the privilege of representing them and serving them in Congress.
“And thank you to my caucus for granting me the historic opportunity of breaking the marble ceiling and to serve, once again, as the first woman Speaker of the House.
“Leader Boehner: thank you for your generous words and for your commitment to put country ahead of party. Without reservation, let us stand together–not just today, but in the days ahead–to live up to that resolve.
“Few Congresses and few Presidents in history have been given the responsibility and the privilege of serving the nation in a time of such profound challenge.
“We do so renewed and refreshed by the new Members who join our ranks today.
“It is in that spirit that I pledge to you–let us all pledge to the American people that: we will look forward, not backward; we will join hands, not point fingers; we will rise to the challenge, recognizing that our love of country is stronger than any issue which may divide us.
“This is the lesson and legacy of the last election: the American people demanded a new era of change and accountability.
“Yes, we have problems as grave as our country has faced in generations. But now we enter a new Congress and a new era with a powerful sense of hope and pride in our great country.
“Two weeks from today, as Mr. Boehner indicated, on the steps of this Capitol, we will inaugurate the 44th President of the United States. From the inaugural platform he will look down the long stretch of the National Mall and see the steps of the Lincoln Memorial from which Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. called us to the deepest truth of our founding dream.
“When Barack Obama raises his right hand and takes the oath of office, we will know and the world will witness how far America has come. We will celebrate that moment, but recognize that it is only a beginning.
“Together, with our new President, we as a Congress and as a country must fulfill the rest of America’s promise. All of that promise will not be redeemed quickly or easily. But it must be pursued urgently–with spirited debate, and without partisan deadlock or delay.
“Hardworking, and still hopeful Americans who are losing their jobs, businesses, retirement savings, homes, or are facing foreclosure, cannot wait any longer for us to move from the depths of a recession to the solid ground of honest and fair prosperity for the many and not just the few.
“We need action and we need action now.
“Families and children without health care, and millions more who fear losing coverage or are facing rising costs, cannot afford to wait any longer.
“We need action and we need action now.
“States facing financial crises, which are threatening the education and the health of our children, the well-being of our seniors, and the public safety of our communities, cannot afford to wait any longer.
“We need action and we need action now.
“Our country is challenged by the climate crisis, the need for energy security, and the need for a twenty-first century infrastructure. On all of these issues and many more, we cannot afford to wait.
“Our nation needs action and we need action now.
“America’s crises at home are matched by conflicts abroad– a terrorist threat that could strike there or here.
“We cannot afford to wait to renew our alliances, our leadership, and our respect in the world.
“We cannot afford to wait to deploy the power of our ideals.
“And for the sake of our security, for the courageous Americans who serve on the front lines, and for our veterans who have bravely served, we cannot afford to wait to modernize and rebuild our military.
“Every chance we get we must express our appreciation to our heroic men and women in uniform and to their families for their service and their sacrifice to our country.
“Let us show America and the world that we are equal to every test of a turbulent and unprecedented time.
“Let us listen to each other. Let us respect every voice and view. And then together, let us act.
“As we in Congress pledge to reach across the aisle, we recognize that history will measure this decisive moment not just by what we do here in Washington –
but by how we reflect and respect how all Americans work together for the common good to strengthen America’s future and faith in itself.
“As we take the oath of office today, we accept a level of responsibility as daunting and demanding as any that previous generations of leadership have faced.
“With the help of God, the light of our values, the strength of the American people, and the hopes that we have for our children and their future, God will bless us so that America will continue to be, as our Founders predicted more than 200 years ago, ‘a rising not a setting sun.’
“May God bless our work. And may God continue to bless America.
“And now as I am sworn in to take the oath of office, I am joined by my grandchildren and invite all the children of the House to the podium.”
Following her speech, the Speaker was sworn in by Rep. John Dingell, the Dean of the House, and the Speaker administered the Oath of Office for the Members of the 111th Congress:

Shift into a new paradigm utilizing the power of the pen and the polls!

2009-01-07T03:04:00.000-08:00

Many may question why we need new paradigms when the old ones have been o.k. in the past. The first question we must ask is ,"Have they really been o.k.?" Secondly, we must remind ourself of the definition of insanity. Insanity is doing the same thing day after day and expecting different results. Currently we are in a time where every day it seems that another piece of bad news is hitting our country. Yesterday ALCOA announced that they will be laying off over 13,000 employees in the coming months. Yet with every chance our leadership in Congress continues to take every chance to take a "jab" at the other party. Pelosi continually states that she wants to be bipartisan and to put the needs of the country first yet every action state an opposite message. In her speech before the "bailout" votes she created a firestorm of controversy. Now with the start of this congress she continues to forget what the new paradigm of leadership must be if our country is to pull itself out of the economic recession/depression that we are in currently. Notice her words that are highlighted below from January 5. Notice her cutting remarks when she stated, "...and now we have a President that wants to work with us to that end." If our Political Leaders will not shift into a new paradigm of putting the needs of our country first and stopping the "Bobby Knight/George Patton style of leadership" then we must as citizens exercise the power of the pen and the polls. First writing our officials to let them know of our desires for a shift in leadership paradigms. Secondly writing the media to take stands on critical issues such as our leadership having petty political squables while families in our country do without food, are losing their homes, companies go bankrupt and our national debt grows into numerical amounts that we never learned in our schooling. Thirdly, if our leaders such as Pelosi, Reid, Franks and others can not shift into the new paradigm of "country first" understanding that we have a national emergency as much now as in the days after Sept.11 then people from all political persuasions need to go to the polls who will be willing to shift into a new paradigm.
Richard Reynolds M.Div,M.Ed.,Ed.S.

Pelosi Remarks

Following Bipartisan

Leadership Meeting With

Obama, Biden
Monday, January 5, 2009

Contact:Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami, 202-226-7616

http://www3.capwiz.com/c-span/webreturn/?url=http://www.house.gov%2Fpelosi
Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Democratic House and Senate leaders held a press conference today following their bipartisan meeting with President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden.
Below are the Speaker’s opening remarks:
“Thank you, Mr. Leader. It is a new day here on the Capitol. The President-elect came and called together a meeting of the bipartisan leadership, Democrats and Republicans of the House and Senate. He talked about extending a hand of friendship, to work with civility, with fiscal responsibility, and with a sense of urgency, because the American people are hurting.
“People are concerned about losing their jobs, their savings, and their homes. Families are concerned about the health of their children. States are concerned about their financial situation, which affects the education and the health of their children, the well-being of seniors.
“And our country and our economy need an economic recovery package that will create jobs immediately and will grow the economy. And that's what we talked about today -- how we could do this expeditiously, deliberatively, and to act upon it soon.
“I won't make an announcement about how soon, but we all know what our tasks are. We'll return to our houses, and respective houses, to work on legislation.
“This legislation will begin in the House of Representatives. We know what the time constraints are. They are dictated by the sense of urgency that the American people have about their economic well-being.
“Lots of expectations have been placed on the new President. As a new Congress, we look forward to working with him, again, in a bipartisan way to bring relief to the American people.
“I commend the President-elect for his determination to act in a bipartisan way. That's what we all came here to do. And now we have a President who wants to work with us to that end.”

2009-01-07T01:57:00.000-08:00

The New York Times
January 5, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Fighting Off Depression
By PAUL KRUGMAN

“If we don’t act swiftly and boldly,” declared President-elect Barack Obama in his latest weekly address, “we could see a much deeper economic downturn that could lead to double-digit unemployment.” If you ask me, he was understating the case.
The fact is that recent economic numbers have been terrifying, not just in the United States but around the world. Manufacturing, in particular, is plunging everywhere. Banks aren’t lending; businesses and consumers aren’t spending. Let’s not mince words: This looks an awful lot like the beginning of a second Great Depression.
So will we “act swiftly and boldly” enough to stop that from happening? We’ll soon find out.
We weren’t supposed to find ourselves in this situation. For many years most economists believed that preventing another Great Depression would be easy. In 2003, Robert Lucas of the University of Chicago, in his presidential address to the American Economic Association, declared that the “central problem of depression-prevention has been solved, for all practical purposes, and has in fact been solved for many decades.”
Milton Friedman, in particular, persuaded many economists that the Federal Reserve could have stopped the Depression in its tracks simply by providing banks with more liquidity, which would have prevented a sharp fall in the money supply. Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, famously apologized to Friedman on his institution’s behalf: “You’re right. We did it. We’re very sorry. But thanks to you, we won’t do it again.”
It turns out, however, that preventing depressions isn’t that easy after all. Under Mr. Bernanke’s leadership, the Fed has been supplying liquidity like an engine crew trying to put out a five-alarm fire, and the money supply has been rising rapidly. Yet credit remains scarce, and the economy is still in free fall.
Friedman’s claim that monetary policy could have prevented the Great Depression was an attempt to refute the analysis of John Maynard Keynes, who argued that monetary policy is ineffective under depression conditions and that fiscal policy — large-scale deficit spending by the government — is needed to fight mass unemployment. The failure of monetary policy in the current crisis shows that Keynes had it right the first time. And Keynesian thinking lies behind Mr. Obama’s plans to rescue the economy.
But these plans may turn out to be a hard sell.
News reports say that Democrats hope to pass an economic plan with broad bipartisan support. Good luck with that.
In reality, the political posturing has already started, with Republican leaders setting up roadblocks to stimulus legislation while posing as the champions of careful Congressional deliberation — which is pretty rich considering their party’s behavior over the past eight years.
More broadly, after decades of declaring that government is the problem, not the solution, not to mention reviling both Keynesian economics and the New Deal, most Republicans aren’t going to accept the need for a big-spending, F.D.R.-type solution to the economic crisis.
The biggest problem facing the Obama plan, however, is likely to be the demand of many politicians for proof that the benefits of the proposed public spending justify its costs — a burden of proof never imposed on proposals for tax cuts.
This is a problem with which Keynes was familiar: giving money away, he pointed out, tends to be met with fewer objections than plans for public investment “which, because they are not wholly wasteful, tend to be judged on strict ‘business’ principles.” What gets lost in such discussions is the key argument for economic stimulus — namely, that under current conditions, a surge in public spending would employ Americans who would otherwise be unemployed and money that would otherwise be sitting idle, and put both to work producing something useful.
All of this leaves me concerned about the prospects for the Obama plan. I’m sure that Congress will pass a stimulus plan, but I worry that the plan may be delayed and/or downsized. And Mr. Obama is right: We really do need swift, bold action.
Here’s my nightmare scenario: It takes Congress months to pass a stimulus plan, and the legislation that actually emerges is too cautious. As a result, the economy plunges for most of 2009, and when the plan finally starts to kick in, it’s only enough to slow the descent, not stop it. Meanwhile, deflation is setting in, while businesses and consumers start to base their spending plans on the expectation of a permanently depressed economy — well, you can see where this is going.
So this is our moment of truth. Will we in fact do what’s necessary to prevent Great Depression II?

______________________

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What couldn't you live without?

2009-01-06T23:41:00.000-08:00

What couldn't you live without?

Vote for the most important invention of all time.

Air conditioner
Internal combustion engine
Internet
Jet engine
Penicillin
Printing press
Radio
Telephone
Television
Wheel

A willingness to fail....

2009-01-06T22:47:00.000-08:00

Wilson Greatbatch, the inventor of the implantable pacemaker, in his workshop in Newstead, N.Y., in 1997. The 84-year-old Greatbatch believes society has become far less tolerant of failure, which he says is a crucial step in the invention process.

Innovation...the key to a shifting paradigm

2009-01-06T22:30:00.000-08:00

Searching for the next big thing...

innovation... the key to shifting paradigm

First:Whiz kids at work (Great Video Clip)
April 30: A group of Pennsylvania high school students explain their invention, a device that reads labels for the blind. MSNBC.com's Gary Krakow reports. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/4873131#4873131

If necessity is the mother of invention, Americans sure are a needy lot. No matter how many breakthrough technologies, time-saving gadgets or gee-whiz gewgaws we hatch, it seems our craving for creation can never be satisfied.
As a new century hits its stride, the race to give birth to the next “big idea” shows no signs of slowing, with tens of thousands of would-be Edisons pushing themselves mercilessly to get their product or idea before the public, the ultimate arbiter of an invention’s utility.
Many are laboring in corporate R&D labs, operating in creative teams and exploring advances in fields that didn’t even exist a decade ago. But a surprising number of those pursuing better mousetraps and other existence-easing contrivances are still garage and bedroom tinkerers.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which is uniquely positioned to gauge our powerful urge to innovate, registered 355,418 patent applications in fiscal 2003. It granted 189,587 patents in the same period to previously filed inventions that were judged to be “new, useful and not obvious” – the standard by which such intellectual property protections are granted.
An avalanche of patent applicationsBoth figures have more than doubled over the past 15 years, and contribute to an average wait of a little more than two years from the time of submission of a patent application to the final decision on whether a patent will be issued, said Nick Godisi, commissioner for patents.
Sheer numbers aren’t the only reason the agency’s 3,500 patent examiners are buried under a backlog. In the golden age of technology, many patent applications have become incredibly complex and require extensive investigation to determine if they are, in fact, unique.
“We had one application for a biotechnology product filed not too long ago on CDs that, if we’d accepted it on paper, would have run 6 million pages,” Godisi said, adding that the library-like length was required to list long genetic sequences.
“The Wright brothers patent was five pages of specs and a few sketches,” he said, clearly longing for the good old days.
As evidenced by the agency’s database of ideas both great and very small, we wake up inventing (breakfast bacon chips and patties -- U.S. Patent No. 6,699,520), spend the day inventing (convertible hat – U.S. Patent No. 6,704,940) and go to bed inventing (arm pillow – U.S. Patent No. 6,691,353). And as that list suggests, the vast majority of our creations never find a market.
‘An extraordinarily inventive age’But almost certainly, experts say, somewhere in the coursing thought stream are ideas that will alter our lives and society, just as the cellular phone and personal computer have in recent decades.
“This is an extraordinarily inventive age,” said Arthur Molella, director of the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. “I think we’re feeling changes such as people felt at the beginning of the last century, when they suddenly had the ability to travel all around the world.”
As ingrained as the act of creation is in the United States – the Patent and Trademark Office is enshrined in the Constitution – the “Eureka!” moment that sets inventor apart from consumer remains a mystery. And predicting where the next great breakthrough will occur is likewise impossible, though fields like biotechnology, nanotechnology, robotics and materials science often are mentioned as most likely to yield the next great technological leap.
“There is a lot of serendipity in a great invention,” Molella said in explaining the futility of attempting such forecasts. “You can go systematically from here to there, but you also have to be one of these people who are ready to see opportunity when it presents itself.”
A shift toward high technologyBut the odds of a revolutionary discovery occurring in a science-heavy field probably are greater simply because high-tech inventions make up a greater proportion of patents than they did a quarter century ago.
For most of the last century, one-third of all patent applications typically were mechanical, one-third were chemical and one-third were electronic. But today, nearly half are electronic or computer-related, Godisi said.
The corporate R&D lab has supplanted the garage workshop as the venue where most patentable ideas get their start. But 25 percent of patents granted each year still go to the so-called independent inventors, a percentage that has held steady over the past decade, according to Patent and Trademark Office spokesman Richard Maulsby.
In fact, the small-time inventor appears to be making something of a comeback, according to Bob Lougher, executive director of the United Inventors Association, a non-profit educational organization that aims to “make independent inventors smarter.”
“For a long time, industry didn’t want anything to do with the independent inventor because they were too unrealistic in their expectations,” said Lougher. “But now, corporate America is reaching out to the independent inventor."
Reaching out to independent inventorsAs an example of this phenomenon, Lougher points to a “product hunt” currently being conducted by the Dial Corp., a Scottsdale, Ariz.,-based consumer products and food company best known for its namesake soap line.
The search for new consumer products began with a call for submissions on the United Inventors Association Web site and drew hundreds of applications from inventors, all of whom needed to at least have patents pending and a prototype of their product to qualify.
The list was subsequently trimmed to 65 products, whose creators are now in the process of creating demonstration videotapes or CDs showing how their creations can be used. For the final round, Lougher said, a smaller number of inventors will be invited to the company’s headquarters to demonstrate their concepts for Dial brass and the media.
The corporate hunts, unheard of until a few years ago, contain a valuable lesson for would-be inventors nursing a dream of building a better mousetrap, Lougher said.
“Nobody buys ideas,” he said. “They are only interested in something tangible.”
But there are those who pay close attention to the creative process.
Officials at the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio, believe that reaching out to young people is crucial to encouraging a willingness to “think outside the box” when it comes to problem solving.
Programs aim to spark creativity among kidsIn addition to honoring American inventors who “changed our lives or bettered our society in a substantial way,” according to spokeswoman Rini Paiva, the hall sponsors national inventing contests and camps for schoolkids to help foster creative thinking.
“One of the big challenges in getting people to think in an innovative way is to start before they are adults, before they’ve closed their minds,” she said.
While Lougher, the head of the inventors association, endorses the programs aimed at students, he also notes that inspiration is just as likely to strike later in life.
Consider the late Jay Morton, who died in 2003 at 92. A child actor (he played “Stinky” in the “Our Gang”/”Little Rascals” movies), Morton later went into the television production business and earned historic-footnote status as the writer who created the memorable introduction for the original “Superman” series – “It’s a bird; It’s a plane,” etc.
But Morton’s true creative gift wasn’t revealed until many years later, Lougher said, when he cut his foot on a discarded soft drink pull tab while walking on a public beach. As he waited in line at a first-aid station along with other similarly injured beachgoers, he birthed the idea that made him a millionaire many times over – the aluminum can pop-top, according to Lougher.
Why was Morton the one who saw opportunity in bloody feet? That, said Lougher, is part of the mystery of the creative process.
“An inventor is anybody,” said Lougher. “You’ve got successful kid inventors ... and you’ve got grandmothers and everybody in between. Almost everybody has an idea or an improvement. The only difference is that inventors do something with their idea.”
© 2009 msnbc.com Reprints

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4725189/

Demanding our leaders to shift for the sake of our country

2009-01-06T22:13:00.001-08:00

Must

Demand

Our

Leaders

Shift

from

Old

Paradigms

CHICAGO - Illinois' embattled governor complained through his spokesman Saturday that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is guilty of a conflict of interest in that Reid telephoned him in early December to discuss the seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
Lucio Guerrero, spokesman for Gov. Rod Blagojevich, said he didn't know firsthand which candidates the Nevada Democrat supported during the call, but said he knows Reid's candidates did not include Roland Burris, the man the governor recently picked for Obama's seat.
Senate leaders have vowed to oppose the appointment of Burris.
"I think the governor believes there is a conflict of interest — that Reid showed he has a horse in the race and Roland Burris wasn't one of them," Guerrero said.
In an e-mail to The Associated Press, Reid spokesman Jim Manley confirmed the majority leader called Blagojevich on Dec. 3 — six days before the governor's arrest on federal corruption charges — to talk about the vacancy. Prosecutors say Blagojevich at the time was trying to peddle Obama's seat in exchange for money or a job in Obama's cabinet.
New York, Colorado openingsManley declined to name the candidates discussed, saying there was "no need to embarrass the people that were subject of the conversation."
Manley added that Reid also spoke to the New York and Colorado governors about openings created when senators from those states accepted Obama administration jobs.
"It is part of his job as majority leader to share his thoughts about candidates who have the qualities needed to succeed in the Senate," Manley said.
Manley said the claim that Reid has a conflict of interest regarding Burris was "absolutely ridiculous."
"The Senate Democratic caucus has said from the very beginning we would not accept an appointment by the governor," he said. "This has nothing to do with Mr. Burris. It is about the man doing the appointing."
Burris wouldn't comment on Reid's conversations with the governor, saying he didn't know the details of what they discussed.
Burris, a former Illinois attorney general, accepted Blagojevich's appointment and is expected to be in Washington on Tuesday and ask to be sworn in along with the rest of the Senate. The Democratic leadership is expected to defer the matter to a rules panel until impeachment proceedings against Blagojevich are settled, apparently in hopes that a new governor will appoint someone else.
Reid is standing by the decision to oppose any appointment by Blagojevich, Manley said.
A political stakeAn attorney representing Burris is lobbying for Senate support, sending a letter to Senate Democratic leaders asking them to seat his client.
In the letter, dated Friday, attorney Timothy Wright called on the Senate leaders to grant the people of Illinois the representation the U.S. Constitution affords them.
The letter was addressed to Dick Durbin of Illinois, Charles Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California and to Reid, who has said that anyone picked by Blagojevich will be turned away.
Wright, who said he hadn't received a response to the letter as of Saturday, told AP that he planned to go to federal court if the Senate refuses to seat Burris.
Burris has already asked the Illinois Supreme Court to force Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White to certify the appointment, hoping it will help his argument to be seated.
Telephone and e-mail messages left by AP for Wright on Saturday were not immediately returned.
Reid urged Blagojevich to appoint either Illinois Veterans Affairs chief Tammy Duckworth or Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Saturday, citing anonymous sources.
Reid reportedly opposed the appointments of Democratic Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Danny Davis because the Democratic leader feared they would lose the seat to a Republican in the 2010 general election. Reid also allegedly opposed Emil Jones, the powerful black leader of the Illinois Senate, on the same grounds.
"What is clear to me is that every candidate that was African-American was denied and every other candidate was acceptable," said Wright, adding, "I'm not going to read too much into that."
Wright also echoed Blagojevich's claim of a conflict of interest, saying that Reid's call to the governor showed he had a political stake in who took Obama's seat.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28485065/

Who is asking the tough questions?

2009-01-06T22:09:00.000-08:00

Key Democrat: No stimulus by inauguration

WASHINGTON - Congressional Democrats said Sunday that President-elect Barack Obama probably will have to wait until next month before getting the chance to sign an economic aid bill his team once hoped would be on his desk by his swearing-in Jan. 20.
“It’s going to be very difficult to get the package put together that early,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said. “But we certainly want to see this package passed through the House of Representatives no later than the end of this month, get it over to the Senate, and have it to the president before we break” in mid-February.
Obama planned to meet with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Monday to talk about enacting a massive spending plan. The president-elect also scheduled a separate meeting with the entire Democratic and Republican leadership teams.
Reid said they will do their “very very best” to get a package finished as soon as possible, but he was unwilling to set an artificial deadline for completion.
“We’re going to get it done as quickly as we can,” Reid said.
Added Hoyer: “We’re going to move as quickly as possible, given our responsibilities to make sure that we’re passing a package that will work.”
Obama said Congress should pass a plan designed to create 3 million jobs. The Democratic president-elect hasn’t announced a final price for it, but aides said the cost could be as high as $775 billion.
Congressional aides briefed on the measure say it probably would blend tax cuts of $500 to $1,000 for middle-class individuals and couples with about $200 billion to help revenue-starved states with their Medicaid programs and other operating costs. A large portion of the measure will go toward public works projects and include new programs such as research and development on energy efficiency and an expensive rebuilding of the information technology system for health care.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky warned Democrats against trying to move quickly without the GOP’s input.
“This is an enormous bill. It could be close to a $1 trillion spending bill,” McConnell said. “Do we want to do it with essentially no hearings, no input, for example, in the Senate from Republican senators who represent half of the American population? I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Instead of giving all that money to states as grants, McConnell suggested it go as loans.
“It will make them spend it more wisely,” McConnell said. “The states that didn’t need it at all wouldn’t take any.”
Democrats understand that the GOP has to be involved in anything they do, said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat.
“Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid both know that we can’t pass the economic recovery plan that this nation desperately needs without bipartisan cooperation,” Durbin said. “We’ve got to put aside a lot of the squabbling that in the past and come together under this new administration and new leadership, to get the American economy back on line.”
Hoyer said they have only two criteria for passing an economic package.
“Do it as quickly as possible, but do it right, and do it so the American people know what we’re doing, do it so that members of Congress are confident of the action that we’re taking,” Hoyer said. “So those are the two criteria — do it as quickly as possible, but do it right. I think that time frame is hopefully certainly by the end of the month.”
Hoyer spoke on “Fox News Sunday,” Reid appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” while Durbin and McConnell were on “This Week” on ABC.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28494694/
MSN Privacy . Legal© 2009 MSNBC.com

Holding our leaders accountable to shifting paradigms!

2009-01-06T22:07:00.000-08:00

Holding our leaders accountable to achieving new paradigms...

How can Pelosi,Dodd, Franks,Obama and Harry Reid bail out the "auto industry" which they are considering Ford, GM and Chrysler like when Congress came to the rescue of Iaccoca?

Now the auto landscape in America has changed and contains Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Volkswagon, Hyundai, Mercedes, Kia and numerous others so how can one justify assisting three companies when all of these others are operating with a new paradigm and are now just as much
the American Automotive Industry?

If we believe in the Darwinian theory and Capitalism shouldn't we allow the survival of the fittest?

Richard Reynolds M.Div.,M.Ed.,Ed.S.

Where is the shifting in the paradigm?

2009-01-06T21:32:00.000-08:00

Where is the shifting in the paradigm?

The Illinois Governor used techniques not much different than what is standard operating procedure for Obama and his political machine? For example his war with the local newspaper and its editors is not much different from what Obama and his campaign did with Fox News during the campaign and if that is not agreed upon then consider how he picked NBC and had them be is personal voice instead of accurately reporting the truth. Even him giving Brokaw an "exclusive" this past weekend when he would not even give his own party's leaders before that his ideas on the bailout even though Barney Franks in a speech specifically asked for his guidance and for him to quit remaining silent on the issue. When his transition team had to put the "spin" into motion to overcome the disagreement between Obama's words and his advisor Axelrod as to whether Obama and the Governor had ever spoken on the Senate issue. The official message was that Axelrod had mispoken but we can remember back a few months when a famous baseball pitcher used those same words called Roger Clemens. Of course the main individual that is a witness against for the Governor was one of the main individuals that jumpstarted Obama's career after he was a $10,000 a year Community Organizer. It is amazing how some of the same words and actions have been used, are being used and I bet will be used as we see this Governor's trial and Obama's Presidency play out. I imagine when looked at from a distance with analytical eyes in a few years we will see many similarities in their leadership, ethics and politics. Richard Reynolds M.Div.,M.Ed.,Ed.S.

We have stopped asking the tough questions!

2009-01-06T21:10:00.000-08:00

Questions?

Is what the Gov. of Illinois did any different than what Hillary Clinton or Richardson (Commerce Cabinet positions) did to gain appointments after the election? "Maybe" money did not pass hands for their positions but other favors did...so why is this Governor being prosecuted when his future President has set the example to follow...the push for the UAW by the Democrats is pure payback for the the unions support and campaign donations... Richard Reynolds

What were they thinking?

2009-01-06T21:04:00.000-08:00

What were they thinking?

Alabama has been called the "new Detroit" because of all of the Auto manufacturing that has moved into our state... I wonder if Auburn by hiring a new Coach with a 5-19 record is attempting to make Auburn the Detroit Lions of the south?

Richard Reynolds

Consistancy would be nice...

2009-01-06T20:57:00.000-08:00

President elect Obama has stirred the emotions of many Americans over his choice of Pastor Rick Warren giving the Invocation as the Inauguration. The emotions that have been stirred are lacking any form of consistency. During the run for the White House when the complaints over Obama having Rev. Wright as a Pastor began to surface and many began to wonder how someone could sit under his preaching for twenty years these people were considered narrow minded by many of the same individuals who are now complaining about Rick Warren giving a prayer. When conservatives were questioning things with Rev. Wright they were devisive, playing partisan politics and racial bigots infringing on Obama's religous liberties. Now the groups that are questioning Obama's judgement with Rick Warren's one prayer and not twenty years of preaching and prayers like they were insisting with Rev. Wright were of little importance are lacking in consistency. Today both the "left" and "right" should remain consistant with their actions and ideologies instead of relying on what is convenient. Our world is screaming for people that will be consistant day by day and not ones that check which way the winds are blowing to decide what they should think.

Richard H. Reynolds M.Div.,M.Ed.,Ed.S.

Fear of Failure

2009-01-06T20:52:00.000-08:00

Fear of Failure: What Does Failure Mean To You?
by Margaret Paul, Ph.D.

What do you believe about failure?
The ego wounded part of ourselves, the left-brain part of ourselves that has been programmed with many false beliefs, often believes that:
"If I fall, I am a failure.""If I fail, I am stupid.""If I fail, no one will like me or value me.""If I fail, then there is no point in ever trying again.""If I fail, it brands me for life as incompetent.""If I fail, then everyone who thought I was smart will now think I am stupid.""If I fail, I will have made a fool of myself."
On the other hand, the loving adult part of us - our right brain, open, creative and learning part of us - generally believes that:
"If I fail, then I just need to work harder, to put in more effort.""If I fail, I will have learned valuable lessons that will eventually lead to success.""Failure is a part of life. No one succeeds without some failure.""Failure does not at all reflect on my worth as a person. I am intrinsically worthy, regardless of success or failure.""Failure offers me incredible opportunities to think outside the box, to think creatively. Let's get to work!""I love learning and I love challenges. What I do is not about success or failure - it is about the joy of creativity, learning and expressing who I am."
Which way of thinking prevails within you? What are the consequences to you of allowing yourself to think from your wounded self instead of from your Loving adult?
FAILURE - A PART OF LIFEThe fact is that mistakes and failure ARE a part of life. Instead of fearing them, why not make it okay to make mistakes and to fail? Why not take the onus off of failure? Why not embrace the process of learning and growing instead of only being focused on the outcome of your efforts? Why not focus on enjoying the process of learning and creating something that is important to you?
People who don't worry about success or failure, who instead are excited about their learning and growing process, generally find their way to succeed. The reason for this is that they don't let failure stop them. Instead, failure spurs them on to work harder, to put forth even more effort to learn what they need to learn to succeed.
On the other hand, even very smart people, who are dominated by their ego wounded selves, generally allow failure to derail them. Believing they ARE a failure if they fail, they become too afraid to make more effort. In addition, they often believe that success or failure is not dependent on effort, but on ability. When this is their belief, they often give up at the first sign of failure, fearing that, if their natural intelligence and ability is not leading to success, then there is no point in trying harder.
CREATING SUCCESS
Every successful person knows that effort, creativity, openness to learning, and perseverance are what create success, not necessarily high intelligence, talent, or ability. Every truly successful person is someone who has not allowed failure to stop him or her from forging ahead with passion and purpose.
I encourage you to tell yourself that it is okay to make mistakes and okay to fail. I encourage you to see mistakes and failures as wonderful learning opportunities for growth. I encourage you to let go of the outcome and allow yourself to become fully excited about the process learning, of growth, and of creation. Being fully present and excited for the process is what life is all about!

_____________________________________________

About Margaret Paul, Ph.D.
Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is a best-selling author of 8 books and co-creator of the powerful Inner Bonding® healing process.

http://www.success.bz/articles/2314/fear_of_failure_what_does_failure_mean_to_you

Big Expectations

2009-01-06T20:27:00.000-08:00

www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sat-autobailoutdec20,0,4932706.story

chicagotribune.com

Big expectations for autoBailout plan calls for radical changes in three months

By Michael OnealTribune
reporterDecember 20, 2008
Can Detroit's auto giants do in three months what has stymied them for 30 years?

That's the monumental challenge at the heart of the $17.4 billion plan from President George W. Bush's administration to prop up General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC long enough for them to attempt a pair of massive restructurings.
Ford Motor Co. so far doesn't need bailout funds, but the government is asking GM and Chrysler to:
•Convince holders of tens of billions in unsecured debt to swap two-thirds of their claims for equity of unknown value.
•Strong-arm the United Auto Workers into accepting work rules and wages that make them competitive with foreign rivals.
•Let the government examine their books and prove that they can be financially viable.
The moves are meant to blunt the onslaught of Toyota and Honda, which the Big Three have failed to do for decades. Experts say that will also involve shrinking dealer networks, eliminating tired brands and slashing manufacturing capacity.
"They will have to be radically transformed," said Douglas Baird, a corporate restructuring specialist at the University of Chicago Law School. "Maybe it works and let's hope it does. But can you really get all these people [to agree on anything]?"
After a long political battle over the fate of the auto companies, the Bush plan in many ways passes the crisis to the incoming Barack Obama administration.
It will extend $13.4 in emergency loans to GM and Chrysler right away in return for a pledge to meet a strict set of restructuring goals by March 31. At that point, the Obama team will have to decide if the companies have done enough to be considered viable.
If the answer is yes, they will be eligible to receive another $4 billion to fund operations. If not, they would have to pay back the original loans and fend for themselves. Until the inauguration, the effort will be overseen by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who will assume the role of "car czar" contemplated in bailout legislation that failed to pass Congress earlier this month.
The rescue pits Bush against many in the Republican party and reverses his recent position. But if he didn't act, he faced the prospect of closing his presidency with the collapse of one of America's most important industries.
"Under ordinary economic circumstances … I would not favor intervening to prevent the automakers from going out of business," he said during a Friday press conference. "But these are not ordinary circumstances."
On Thursday, Bush and his spokeswoman Dana Perino hinted that the administration was giving serious thought to structuring a bailout around a so-called organized bankruptcy—an effort to forge a multiparty restructuring deal in advance of a Chapter 11 filing.
Bankruptcy experts applauded the idea, noting that a restructuring of this magnitude is almost impossible to accomplish outside the legal framework of bankruptcy court, where a judge has the ultimate power to rip up old contracts and enforce the enactment of new ones.
The auto lobby, however, argued vociferously that the taint of bankruptcy would scare off so many customers that the already teetering companies would never be able to recover. The Bush plan strikes a compromise: It uses the carrot of government funding to force the auto companies, their lenders, the UAW and countless other constituencies to strike a bankruptcy-like deal without the stigma of an actual filing.
Experts said the effort will face a thicket of difficulties.
The UAW and the auto dealers are showing no inclination to compromise. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the focus on labor was unfair and pledged to ask the Obama team to eliminate what many others feel are crucial provisions.
Annette Sykora, chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association, said that while her membership understands that cuts must be made, they also demand fair compensation for individual dealers forced to close.
When asked what type of compensation dealers might settle for, Sykora hinted at the complexity the auto companies can expect. "We have close to 20,000 members, and you could get close to 20,000 answers to that question."
When it comes to restructuring the debt, the problems only multiply.
The Bush plan insists that GM and Chrysler swap two-thirds of their unsecured debt for equity. In a normal bankruptcy that might not be so difficult. But when the company is burning cash and survival is in question, the future value of the equity is a leap of faith. One bankruptcy attorney who asked not to be named said a swap leads to sticky negotiations over the rights of equity holders and what control they can exert.
"When you swap debt for equity, debt holders become owners," the attorney said. "They turn into busybodies and start making all sorts of demands."
U. of C.'s Baird notes that all of these negotiations would be easier in bankruptcy court. Rules allow a majority of bondholders to force an agreement on others. A judge can weigh dealer and labor contracts objectively and decide what makes sense for the greater good. Without that construct, success may become a test of Obama's resolve and clout.
"In these situations, motivation turns on the credibility of the threat," Baird said. "Is Obama going to hold them to it? We don't know."
mdoneal@tribune.comCopyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune

Laziness

2009-01-06T20:22:00.000-08:00

"Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired."

- Jules Renard

...if this is your working definition of "laziness" it might be difficult to shift paradigms in your personal life....

Navigating the Next Year

2009-01-06T20:15:00.000-08:00

Herman Trend Alert: Navigating the Next Year

December 31, 2008

A recent study by the well-respected organization The Corporate Executive Board offers some sage advice for corporate leaders about how to successfully navigate the next year.Speaking on MSNBC, Tom Monahan, Chairman and CEO of this unique peer-to-peer network, shared the results of their recent research. When asked which issues would be most challenging in 2009, 30 percent of the corporate leaders who responded answered "protecting growth initiatives", 24 percent said "making critical talent plays", 21 percent answered "exploiting risk opportunities", and 17 percent replied "improving cost discipline".Overall, the suggested strategies highlight the need for leaders to change in five key areas.

First, the report directs executives to "focus on product and services [expenditures] in their cost-cutting process, not just overhead cost, because that is where long-term competitive advantage lies".

Second, leaders must be vigilant to "protect growth initiatives ". This strategy involves identifying and sheltering growth opportunities in the capital budget. In addition, the report suggests they integrate concrete innovation targets into performance expectations and reporting, even while belt-tightening".

Third, leverage financial strengths. Foster innovations that target the shifting financial strengths of customers and suppliers.Fourth, "exploit risk opportunities: embrace, don't eradicate, "the right" risk exposures".

Finally, and in our view most importantly, now is the time to "make critical talent plays", "to court and cultivate tomorrow's winners". Take the opportunity to close critical skill gaps with less-occupied talent. Reward outstanding performance. "Use the economic crisis to sharpen the acumen of future executives." "Embrace offshore centers as a source for critical skills and next-generation executive leadership, not just low-cost execution."

The study also found that one in four top, high-performing employees expects to leave in next 12 months, up from one in 10 last year. Wise employers will use this downtime to re-engage employees with "stay interviews", re-orientation, and special projects.

This re-engagement will also reduce the five percent productivity loss that translates into about $100 Million in lost operating cash flow for the average company. Monahan closed his interview with an astute observation: "Companies playing offense on talent have a remarkable opportunity right now."********

Staten Island School Chorus Finds Fame on YouTube

2009-01-06T20:00:00.000-08:00

December 26, 2008

Staten Island School Chorus Finds Fame on YouTube

By AZADEH ENSHA

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Something seemed a bit off in the fifth graders' song about a Christmas tree. "Altos, a little more carefully, please," the chorus director, Gregg Breinberg, told them. "You're still a little flat."The children, students at Public School 22 in Graniteville on Staten Island, listened to Mr. Breinberg carefully before starting again. As well they might — he helped make the chorus popular on YouTube, and their predecessors once serenaded the singer and songwriter Tori Amos with two of her songs.Mr. Breinberg, 36, had his own jagged route to P.S. 22 and YouTube. He had been a music teacher at a nearby school, and when that job was cut he arrived at P.S. 22 in 1999 — as a second-grade teacher."It was never my intention to be a classroom teacher," Mr. Breinberg said. "In the absence of a music job, I used music to teach second grade. Everything I taught, from math to English, I taught with music."The following year, he persuaded the school's administration to let him start a chorus and become a full-time music teacher again. That was difficult enough, given cutbacks in arts programs, but he also wanted the group to sing contemporary songs instead of, say, "Kumbaya.""I remember being in a chorus when I was a student and singing songs that I hated," he said. Before long he had the new chorus singing "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay and "1000 Oceans" and "Flying Dutchman" by Ms. Amos."I love to sing," said Joseph Spear, 10, a member of the chorus. "When I get depressed, I think about my songs and it makes me feel better. I also sing for Mr. B because he takes his own time to teach me, and so I always put in a 100 percent effort because that's a really cool thing for him to do." In the summer of 2006, Mr. Breinberg began posting videos on the Internet of the students singing. He started a YouTube channel and a complementary blog, posting regular updates and information about the chorus's performances, which up to that point occurred just twice a year at the school.A viral moment happened when the gossip blogger Mario Lavandeira, better known as Perez Hilton, began putting links to the videos on his Web site, perezhilton.com. "A reader e-mailed me a link to one of their videos and I instantly loved it," Mr. Lavandeira said. "The first video of theirs was one of their many Tori Amos covers, and I'm a big, big, big Tori Amos fan and I thought it was so cool that this choir teacher was having the kids do Tori Amos songs."By Christmas, the chorus's YouTube videos had been seen 2,110, 267 times. Ms. Amos gradually learned of these young interpreters of her work and was intrigued. "I first heard about P.S. 22 when friends started sending me YouTube links of their rehearsals," she wrote in an e-mail message from England. "The first time I heard them I thought this director had a very imaginative arranging sense," she said. "The fact that the children are so versatile — I didn't expect this level of ability from a children's choir and was really blown away, touched, thrilled and inspired all at once."She met the students in Midtown Manhattan in May of last year. In that encounter, which — of course — itself became a video on YouTube, Ms. Amos wiped away tears as the children sang another of her songs, "Dragon." She then joined them on "Father's Son."One of the singers, Alex Avilla, 13, who is now a student at Intermediate School 51 on Staten Island, said of that day: "I have to say, it's my favorite memory from that school."Another former chorus member, Justin Rolon, 12, has begun a career in show business since leaving P.S. 22 and has been cast in a television show that is being developed. Mr. Breinberg has "taken the time to give me lessons and that's why I am where I am right now," Justin said. "He's helped me and everybody else in so many ways."Melissa Donath, the principal at P.S. 22, said Mr. Breinberg was "very modest, but he always makes sure that the kids are treated like professionals and he gives them the utmost respect. Every year, he brings out the best in our children."Another student, Mariah Baez, 10, said, "Mr. B is like our family." And Mr. Breinberg, in turn, seems to feel a deep affection for his singers. "There's a great feeling in seeing these kids — some of whom have been abused, neglected, who have nothing to look forward to when they get home — and knowing that when they come in to my class to sing, you can just see the depth of their emotional experience come through," he said.So far in December, the chorus has had eight engagements. On Dec. 18, they sang at a party for the photographer Bruce Weber's new book, "All-American VIII: Nature's Way" (Little Bear Press). They also appeared at the Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Staten Island Borough Hall and, on Sunday, they performed for the unofficial swearing-in ceremony of Michael E. McMahon, the borough's new congressman. "Now I have to get them ready quicker because we have more performances," Mr. Breinberg said. "We've never had a December like this."As for the group's success, Joseph Spear said, "It makes me feel famous that a whole bunch of people know me."

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Where's the Change?

2009-01-06T19:55:00.000-08:00

Where's the Change?

by Richard Reynolds M.Div.,M.Ed.,Ed.S.

Year's ago Wendy's had one of the most famous advertisement lines of all times, "Where's the beef?" Currently, as we approach the innaugaration of President elect Obama the line should be, "Where's the change?" His mantra was "Change" throughout his presidential campaign. Yet already his actions are speaking louder than his chants about change. A large percentage of his cabinet and advisors are old guard political officials from the Clinton years or obvious payoffs for support during his election campaign. For example Leon Panetta has been selected for the CIA Chief when he is has as the media calls it ,"no intelligence experience." Yes, he was the Chief of Staff for President Clinton when Terrorism grew at ran unchecked. Obama tried to pay Gov. Richardson back for his support and turning his back on Hillary Clinton during the campaign by nominating him for the Secretary of Commerce. Now, he is resigning because of a possible corruption indictment in New Mexico. Obama also has mastered already the art of staying away from controversial subjects and being far away from hot potato subjects where he can not get burned. Even the left is complaining that he will not make a statement about the current crisis with Israel. While orating about Change during the campaign he pledged to make those hard decisions to bring hope back to America. If he is already doing this and he has not even gotten through the innaugaration will America be asking by this time next year, "Where's the change?" We should all hope for the sake of our country that Obama can succeed with his promises. For that to happen each citizen should hold him to basic truth in advertising standards of requiring him to produce what he has advertised about change. Keep asking ,"Where's the change?"

Global Changes Challenge the Planet

2009-01-06T19:42:00.000-08:00

Herman Trend Alert:

Global Changes Challenge the Planet

December 24, 2008

A recent report from the United States National Intelligence Council of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) states we are facing changes that society is probably not ready for.By the year 2025, "the accelerating pace of globalization and the emergence of new powers will produce "a world order" vastly different from the system in place for most of the post-World War II era", the study outlines.Their report, titled "Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World" projects a still-preeminent US joined by fast-developing powers, notably India and China, on top of a multipolar international system. In the near-term, the world is headed for increased probability of conflict over scarce resources, including food and water, and the persistence of rogue states and terrorist groups with greater access to nuclear weapons. Widening gaps in birth rates and wealth-to-poverty ratios between the developed and the developing countries along with the uneven impact of climate change, could further aggravate pressures.

* Muslim states outside the Arab core, notably Turkey and Indonesia, and perhaps even a post-clerical Iran, could take on expanded roles in the new international order.

* Women in much of Asia and Latin America are achieving higher levels of education than men, a trend that is particularly significant in this human capital-intensive global economy.

* As governments fail to provide basic security and other services, some states in parts of Africa and South Asia may disappear.

* By 2025, a worldwide shift to a new technology that replaces oil will be under way or accomplished.

* The US dollar's role will shrink to "first-among-equals" among key world currencies.

* The likelihood that nuclear weapons will be used will increase with expanded access to technology and a widening range of options for limited strikes.

* The impact of climate change will be uneven, with some Northern economies profiting from longer growing seasons and improved access to resource reserves.

Clearly, education will be the driving force in addressing these significant challenges. We are less convinced than ODNI of the ability of the US with its current system to compete globally against India and China.********

7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Principals- Washington Post

2009-01-06T19:24:00.001-08:00

7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Principals

By Jay MathewsWashington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 5, 2008; 6:19 AM

Joe Nathan, a University of Minnesota school leadership scholar, dropped by recently to tell me about his latest project: the Minnesota Leadership Academy for Charter and Alternative Public Schools. He wants to produce all-star principals for innovative schools, including the charter school movement he has been studying since its beginnings.Nathan gave me a report he just produced with Carleton College junior Joanna Plotz. Their paper, "Learning to Lead," reveals the secrets of good management of schools and companies, derived from interviews with 24 business leaders. In the Leadership Academy, which opened this fall in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Education, each participating educator has two mentors, one a successful business executive and the other a successful school leader.That sounds peachy, but it doesn't get to the heart of what many teachers tell me is the key issue in school leadership today: How did we produce so many lousy administrators?It occurred to me that what Nathan is doing with the report and the academy might be easier to understand by looking at his main points from a reverse angle. Call it a devil's advocacy. Let's stand Stephen R. Covey's self-help classic on its head and reveal the Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Principals. (Please keep in mind it is totally my idea, not Nathan's, to summarize his very upbeat paper this way.)

1. Insist on being trained at one of our leading schools of education. In their report, Nathan and Plotz cite former Columbia University Teachers College president Arthur Levine's conclusion that "educational administration is the weakest program that schools of education offer. . . . Few strong programs exist; most vary in quality from inadequate to appalling." Nathan told me many of the great school leader training programs he knew were outside the ed schools, such as Building Excellent Schools, New Leaders for New Schools, the Knowledge Is Power Program Leadership Institute and the Broad Foundation. That might be because Nathan thinks it is important for schools to show significant increases in student achievement, as assessed by tools such as tests. Many of our education schools don't buy into such narrow measures and don't think you should either.

2. When you become a principal, make sure you keep your goals to yourself and avoid mission statements at all costs. I endorse this view. I often make fun of mission statements. But what do I know? My term as student body president of Hillsdale High School was a disaster, and I have avoided all leadership responsibilities since. Kris Johnson, the former chief administrative officer of Medtronic, the medical technology company, told Nathan and Plotz it is "vital to have alignment between what a person is doing and what the organization has established as priorities." Dave Larson, executive vice president at the food and agriculture company Cargill, said his company tells new employees on their first day how their work will help the company accomplish its goals. Contrast this with schools that hand new teachers a curriculum but don't explain how it will help teachers reach their students.

3. Fight the current fad to assess students regularly. It is intrusive and insulting to teachers. Many school critics argue that we should let teachers test and grade in whatever way makes sense to them. The business and school leaders Nathan has recruited for his academy disagree. They think consistent means of assessment are important in diagnosing each child's progress and what the school is doing to help.

4. Crack down on mistakes. People have to be brought up short whenever they screw up. Otherwise they will keep doing it. Avert your eyes from this bit of pap from Nathan and Plotz: "Mistakes within some limits are a vital part of growth. Organizations making a great deal of progress sometimes will make errors. Learning from mistakes is an important part of progress."

5. Don't let teachers meet regularly to talk about students and share ideas. They will only gossip and plot against you. Notice that one of the reasons why many successful charter and alternative public schools have lengthened the school day is to have time for these gab sessions. One of the business leaders in the Nathan-Plotz report, former General Mills Foundation director Reatha Clark King, said an important way to improve quality is to "encourage people to think outside the box and free up their thinking." This is obviously someone who does not know how to survive in a big school district, where ineffectiveness is often seen as a virtue because the lethargic administrator is less of a threat to others.

6. Inspiration is for saps. Your staff must know you're their boss, not their preacher. This seems obvious, but Nathan, Plotz and the executives they consulted don't buy it. They say, "The most effective leaders encourage and inspire people. Threats and fear will not produce the highest achievement." There they go, back to that achievement thing. Real world administrators don't need to be effective. They just need to survive.

7. Whatever you do, don't try to select and train a successor. Nathan told me that, although many districts have principal training programs, he rarely found principals or superintendents who see it as a key responsibility, as corporate chiefs do, to develop talented people who could take over for them. He thought this was a great waste, but experienced school leaders would see this as avoiding possible betrayal. Nathan's academy is designed to train junior administrators or teachers with administrative ambitions. Maybe that's why he makes such a big deal about finding the next generation of leaders. Only superintendents and principals who share his view are going to allow their best staffers to attend his academy. They might see this as a great idea, but they better be careful.Which is the more prevalent mindset in school districts these days -- Nathan's or the ineffectiveness rules above? I think it is a close call. Let's see how the graduates of his new academy handle the deadening devotion to routine and fear of change in the average school district before we decide who has the upper hand.

Your Five Acres

2009-01-06T19:11:00.000-08:00

YOUR FIVE ACRES by Nan Russell

It was the third time in as many weeks he'd asked to see me. Once again sitting across the desk, Jeff was expressing distress at something. This time he was upset that Lydia was making more money than he was. Last week he was unhappy with the hours Joe wasn't putting in, leaving at five when he was often stuck past six. The week before, he registered a complaint about the way work assignments were handed out by his supervisor. As my mother would say, "Same song, thirtieth verse."Jeff's focus was on everything but his own work. He fixated on the latest rumors, viewed work policies as unfair, kept track of what was happening down the hall and fretted over what others might be getting that he wasn't. Worrying what was happening in someone else's work-acres, his own were filled with uncultivated opportunities and backlogged projects. In the process, he was sabotaging any chance of his own winning at working.In twenty years of management I've met too many Jeffs. People focused on everyone except themselves. They fritter time away trying to straighten out others, rather than deliver results. They complain, blame others and point fingers. They believe the world owes them a living, others are out to get them and nothing goes their way. You can recognize them by their victim mind-set and frequent anthem, "It's not fair."They're right. Work-life isn't fair, but then, what is? Does fair mean equal pay increases and work assignments? What people offer to the workplace isn't equal, so how would it be "fair" if rewards were? Unbiased? Well, we all have biases and life happens to be subjective. Just? If just means one gets what's merited, then for people like Jeff, the workplace is pretty just. They get back what they give, which is not much. That doesn't mean the issues they raise are not valid, at times. But like Chicken Little, frequent complainers are tuned out.If Jeff focused attention on his own five acres, putting his energy into personal performance, he'd significantly impact his results and his rewards. He'd also impact his credibility and ability to be heard. In the words of novelist Aldous Huxley, "There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self."People who are winning at working are too busy producing results to track what others may or may not be doing. They're focused on their five work-acres, fertilizing them with new ideas, skills and challenges. They plant positive thought-seeds that yield high harvests and personal motivation. And when they consistently produce results in their corner of the universe, they help others do the same. Want to be winning at working? Make your five acres exceptional. Then don't be surprised when you get more or better acres to tend.(c) 2006 Nan S. Russell. All rights reserved.