Mentoring Programs Work, Public Education Needs an Adjustment

From: Lance (opinion)
Date: 10 Aug 2003
Time: 18:45:45
Remote Name: 66.82.9.40

Comments

I would like to discuss the thought of public education and mentoring programs. It appears to me that the best way to teach kids to think, reason and adapt is to have mentors available for them. Sports teaches kids so much as I can attest to having been involved in sport for two decades or so. Coaches are mentors. In many programs in business and military there is a sort of mentorship, which is similar to that of sports coach and athlete. Good Leaders build strength of character in their followers. If we look at the famous athletes teaching at sports camps this summer or the idols the kids worship since their hero is a famous athlete, you begin to see the power or mentoring. I believe as does most of the Asian cultures to pass on knowledge, skills, insights. If you look a any religious work you see men who had come before us, put into stories their insights as to how life should be lived. Ancient philosophers give information in written work that is as valid today as the day it was written. Why is this information so apropos? A couple of reasons, the first and foremost is because we have natural laws within our realm that we must follow or pay the price for risk when the luck runs out. But also because we are dealing with the human species whose mind and social interactions are so innate that they really have not changed all that much in 10,000 years. No matter how hard we mask it people are people and when put into certain circumstances, positions, leadership capacities, stress situations, relationships, etc. They are apt to act very similarly to that of children or members of our race who have come before us. That should not be considered a bad thing however. It is a concept of reality and should be realized and understood so that we can move beyond those perceived flaws of mankind in the future. As Maslow would show and modern psychologists often discuss when dealing with patients or in society studies. It might be wise to stop pushing innate characteristics under the tables and instead understand these truths and guide he next generation through mentoring to show them that by interacting in a certain way they can go further faster and accomplish more for themselves and society as a whole in the future. Who wins? We all do. Here is what one state is doing now with their mentoring program. I have been studying these techniques for years as a franchisor since many times you are more of a Grandfather or psychologist and coach than a pure business man in the franchising business; http://www.franchising.org ------- An article in The GAE (Georgia Association of Educators) Update spoke in the need for mentoring. It concluded that the shortage of teachers was now over thanks to lay offs and downsizing freeing up workers with teaching credentials from private sector jobs. In a program called “Teacher Power” GA is giving educators more control to make decisions in the classroom and part of that program involves mentoring. They have formulated a program which was initially done in Glendale CA a predominately Armenian school district. It gives teachers three weeks pay and training to become mentor certified. It makes the teachers help the students reason through real life situations through a series of informal meetings. It teaches kids to think out loud to adults with more experience. The program ads ten percent to the teachers salary. It helps the teachers chances in saving more than just one student. It is well worth our societies extra money to spend it helping kids one on one and reducing the need for more jails and prisons later. This program is so good in fact that I would recommend that our team use this scenario to help employees. Those manager who will sign off on the responsibility of a new team member employee, should receive 10% more in salary for developing what could be your next and greatest employee. For more information on the education revolution go to http://www.capitolimpact.com/gae and to http://www.gae.org . When you have a state such as GA which has an intense network of social service programs, mental health and prisons and then you see a group of educators take the problem into their own hands and devise ways to combat it, you see some great things happening in the future. This will roll-over into economic benefit in the labor supply and help other southern states with similar problems come into the present age. Watching the retro-fitting of the educational system and the upgrading of web sites and other newer technology and methods that work, we may find that there is hope thanks to Americas teachers who do care. They have just had a tough time in the past due to low pay, lack of ability to control the classroom decision making, lack of supplies, no job security, no professional work stations, poor benefits and poor working conditions. It is no wonder it has become what it has. http://www.teachnet.org/ntol/talk/ ----------------------An interesting set of circumstances has come to our attention when reading the C and D Recycler http://www.cdrecycler.com in Nov-Dec 2001 issue and annual buyers guide. The newest Crushtek unit, which we have not washed yet, although we have washed units like it; http://www.tractorwashguys.com , see their web site at http://www.crushtek.com It can crush on average 5 times that of ordinary refuse crushing units thus helping the decay process and the premature filling of dumps. It is great to have a filled up dump, to build a golf course or park onto, but the idea is to maximize the space for collection of Methane gas to run electric generators and compact the soil so you can build something of value on it. Like an airport, industrial park or shopping center. Most Americans have no idea that the total refuse bills add up to just under 236 Billion per year. That is a huge industry and we are glad to say, “Your trash is our Cash”. Annual payroll for the refuse industry is over 36 Billion per year. A service industry which has only 15% labor is a good one. 200 million tons of recyclables are processed each year. 400,000,000,000 lbs., that is a big number. If you will visit the industry web sites such as http://www.pavement.com ------- http://www.artba.org ------- http://www.arra.org ------------ http://www.aednet.org -------- http://www.agc.org ---------- http://www.cimanet.com http://www.cdrecyling.org ------------- http://www.envasns.org ------- http://www.gypsum.org --------- http://www.isri.org --------- http://www.invrecovery.org ----------- http://www.nssga.org ---------- http://www.hotmix.org --------------------- http://www.demolitionassn.com ----------- http://www.nahbrc.org --------- http://www.nrc-recycle.org --------- http://www.nrmce.org ---------- http://www.nwpca.org ---------------- http://www.portcement.org --------- http://www.swana.org ---------- http://www.ubmaorg ------------ You will find exactly what we have found, lots of need for our services in the refuse, recycle and garbage industry.-------------------------------------------- Regarding the hottest markets in the country, demographically speaking. Dallas/Ft Worth Metro is still number one. Orlando a close second. The West Palm Beach/Boca Raton areas. Austin/San Marcos. Atlanta GA. Fort Lauderdale. Charolette/Gastonia/rock Hill NC/SC. Chapel Hill/Raleigh/Durham NC. San Jose, CA. Denver CO, San Diego CA, San Francisco CA. Houston TX, Jacksonville FL, Phoenix. Nashville TN, Salt Lake, Ogden UT. Memphis. We agree and see these as excellent areas for our franchisees to expand into and of course conquer. -------------------------book review of Turning Points; By Anthony Jackson. This is an interesting book and explains how America can return America to productivity and integrity in our work force by helping the attitudes of our youth of college, Jr. High and High School students now. One problem I see with this book is they do not take into account the incredible amount of prescription drugs being given to our youth like Ridalin (Sp?) and Prozac and their affects on the learning ability of our children and young adults in real terms and actual intelligence levels due underutilized brain power being wasted on mood control and baby sitting drugs as I call them at this age. This report by Carnegie is interesting and in hind sight still valuable even though a prediction of the past and a mission for the future. It is very much an optimist approach, yet not very real world in terms of the reality of the over all publics objectives. People just are not too concerned about this. It is a noble and worthy cause, but I do not see wide spread support without some major backing by our in office administration. Much more media coverage and radio work is needed to hype public on this mission, and it will take the whole damned village to see it through. Middle school reform in todays metro sectors is by far the most difficult challenge. The American School Board Journal also touches on this subject and has a reading recommendation list on these topics worth reading also. I will not have the time, but believe in the efforts. I believe it is possible to change the direction and current course. They suggest the books; BAD BOYS-Public Schools in the Making of black Masculinity, By Ann Arnett Ferguson and Accountability in Action-A Blueprint for Learning; By Douglas B Reeves. Conflicting Missions?-Teachers Unions and Educational Reform; By Tom Loveless. Motivating and Learning Strategies for College Success-A Self-Management Approach, By Myron H Dembo. http://www.aacap.org/web/aacap/publications/factfam/disaster.htm http://www.bcm.tmc.edu/cta/effects.htm (Traumatic Events on Children). Also a little interesting is the mental health tip by our government- http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/violence.cfm The reason we talk about this is because with our car wash fundraisers we build unity and on the other hand with our Neighborhood Mobile Watch patrol we help put people in jail for crimes. I certainly prefer the first idea better. It is everyone’s responsibility that the next generation understands what it will take to run this place. http://www.lancewinslow.org All team members will receive by mail a new project to institute a Neighborhood Mobile Watch Program in their areas and territories ------- I would like to take this to another level and discuss how we are putting kids on medication rather than using the viable solution of increased mentoring programs. For instance after much studying of the characteristics of ADHD, I would say that it may not be a negative trait at all. As a matter of fact squirrels and other fidgety creatures are able to stay more alert and not get eaten by predators as often as other critters. Perhaps the person with ADHD ought to be the one on point guard when searching caves out for Bin Laden. They will be more alert and dwell less on one thing. Able to pick up the slightest movement, sound, or sight and be able to adapt quicker and isolate the threat with force. Perhaps ADHD might be used as a tool for certain needs. Perhaps a person with ADHD would be a better direct sales person, because they can read body language, scan a room for topics of conversation and opportunity faster than a person without ADHD. Perhaps we should have all of our blitz team be diagnosed with ADHD before we hire them? Interesting observation. There must be a benefit here. We must use these traits to our advantage. If a person with ADHD is said to have learning disorder in school for study and the like, then he or she must have another set of traits that are of benefit somewhere else. We should use such advantages to our benefit. We should read up on this stuff to find out where the superior traits can do the most good. From our studies of different people we find that lower intelligence levels find themselves happier in repetitive jobs. We know that “A” type personalities make lousy accountants and do not like fine details. So what do ADHD people have, we know they do not have a lack of intelligence. They may not score the highest on the English section of the SAT tests, but we know they are not stupid. So take a person who is smart, but fidgety. What would they be most suited for? What do they excel in. They do not have the opportunity to get lots of degrees, they probably hate school. It probably feels like torture for them, so then we should find a need for their genetic make-up and you win, actually we all win. If Plato had anything to say about he surely would agree that rather than over medicating kids, we should study their metal awareness and directional thought process and mentor them with the things they enjoy and are good at and therefore we will be most happy doing and best suited at. By doing this they will find their niche and specialty and that will be best for them and all of the rest of society. Then alleviate them from the responsibilities they are not suited for and they can spend their time doing what they do best and lick to do. For instance trying to make entrepreneurs learn to be accountants and lawyers in order to take their inventions or innovations to market is very stupid. Just like expecting high testosterone athletes to be the epitome of societies idea of a good citizen. You cannot have it both ways. The fringe elements are of value to the whole of society. We probably should celebrate the entrepreneur, athlete, artist, and scientific mind and when we see trends in our youth, they could possibly be the next Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, Ray Kroc, Bill Gates, Picasso, Rembrandt, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, etc. Just a thought, one in which I am willing to argue or an opinion I am willing to modify a bit if real world experiences are available as proof of reasoning against or for such a notion. Email therefore if you wish to opine: Lance@carwashguys.com

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