Although I still think the casting of Nicki Minaj was a desperate attempt to draw in ratings and create controversy, I must admit that right now she is actually my favorite judge. Her critiques have been on point, she has good interaction with the contestants, and she lets them down honestly without being overly harsh. Plus she brings a lot of good energy (when she’s not feuding with the other judges) and pizzazz (read: crazy) to the panel.

Regarding the big brouhaha – First off, it was slightly false advertising, as the disagreement was actually between Nicki Minaj and all three of the other judges, not just Mariah. That’s right, Nicki Minaj took on the entire panel. Secondly, she was absolutely, 100% correct, and Keith Urban, Mariah Carey, and Randy Jackson were wrong. This is why I will henceforth think of Nicki Minaj as “Nicki Minaj, unlikely voice of reason”.

In case you missed it, here’s what went down. A contestant chose to sing “Lean on Me” for her audition. She had a very lovely tone and a slight country twang in her voice, and was definitely one of the stronger performances of the night. Nicki Minaj admired the control and texture of her voice and complimented the girl’s performance (after all this is a singing competition, and the judges are there to provide feedback on a contestant’s singing). The next to comment was Keith Urban, who decided to defer his critique until after he’d determined what type of artist the young girl considered herself. She said she had tried the “country thing”, but considered herself more of a “country soul” singer.

Keith immediately took some offense to the phrase “country thing”. Mariah and Randy both jumped on the bandwagon to say that she sounded like she should be a country singer. They’re overall vibe toward the contestant was that if she didn’t consider herself to be a country singer then they could not endorse her because clearly she she didn’t know who she was. WHAT!!!

Since when is this show about forcing contestants into a particular genre of music. As I watched the TV, I could only giggle at the increasing frustration displayed on Nicki Minaj’s face as the other three contestants continued to debate over this girl’s future in country music, without actually discussing her demonstrated singing ability. After several failed attempts to explain to the other judges that in a singing competition the contestant should be judged on his/her singing, she did what any other (sane?) person wearing a pink cotton candy wig and a tutu would do – she threw a semi-tantrum and stormed off the set. And I kinda didn’t blame her.

I’m looking forward to Hollywood week and the live shows. This promises to be an interesting season. Will Nicki Minaj continue to be the unlikely voice of reason? We’ll see.

By Aiyana at Aiyana's Pen

Happy New Year!

American Idol’s 12th season started last night. I am a huge American Idol fan, and although I’m familiar with other singing shows such as The Voice and X Factor, there’s only room for one singing competition on my DVR in my heart. But over the years, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with American Idol. Sometimes it’s been frustrating to watch the antics of the judges take precedence over the talent of the singing contestants. So I wasn’t sure if I’d be tuning in this season.

Who am I kidding!

Every year I’ve planned to stop watching, and every year they pull me back in. Idol, I just don’t know how to quit you. So like a faithful fan, I tuned in last night.  The show started with a 6 minute intro in which the Idol producers reminded us why this show is still a force to be reckoned with. The opening montage showed the latest Idol winner Phillip Phillips playing his hit single, Home, which has had lots of radio play and was featured as one of the theme songs for the last Olympics. They showed us Grammy winners Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood. We saw rock stars like Daughtry and Adam Lambert, Broadway stars such as Fantasia, and the only Oscar winner to have been featured on Idol, Jennifer Hudson. Until The Voice or X Factor can boast such a roster, I will continue to watch American Idol.

And then the actual show started, and it was …

a hot mess!

They reminded me of all the reasons why Idol is losing traction to those other singing shows. There’s been lots of controversy surrounding the new judging panel and the presumed feud between Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey. The producers lost no time showing the women making snide, catty comments back and forth, while occasionally making faces behind each others backs. You’d think with a singing legend, such as Mariah Carey, on a show that’s supposedly about discovering the next best singer, they could find a better use of her time and talent than as a foil to a character in a pink wig speaking in strange tongues and accents. (Back in the day this behavior would be called schizophrenia, but today it’s just called being a “pop star”).

The other big problem with Idol is their tendency to gloss over the talented singers, in favor of showing the tone-deaf, deluded, and complete freak shows. The show devoted about 8 minutes to a young Asian guy with dreams of becoming the next Justin Bieber, but who has a better chance of becoming the next William Hung (if he’s lucky). I did appreciate that the judges tried to let him down easy and Nicki Minaj even gave him a hug, but considering that we know that these folks are pre-screened before they get to the TV judges, this was clearly meant to be a joke at his expense.

When will Idol realize that they don’t need to resort to these gimmicks to get people to watch. The show is not about the judges, it’s not about  the freak shows, it’s about finding the best singer in America, plain and simple. They could easily beat those other singing shows if they would get back to that core principle.

I won’t pretend that I’m not going to watch the rest of Idol. But I’ll do as I did last year, which is to skip the rest of the auditions and tune in again when they get to the live shows. Anyone else watching, or have you guys already jumped ship?

By Aiyana at Aiyana's Pen

Click here to see “Mentor It Forward” in action.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with several women from Barnard, Hunter, City, and several other New York City colleges. They asked lots of great questions about my professional background, challenges that I’ve faced, things I enjoy most about my work, and things I’ve learned. Many of them had concerns about how to select the right major, how to decide on a career, and how to know whether they’ve made the right choice - and as we spoke I heard echoes of many of the same questions I had for myself when I was in college. I answered as sincerely and succinctly as I could, and I tried to think about the type of advice that I would give myself at that age if only I had a time machine. I created the below handout as a resource that I thought might be helpful for someone just starting out on the path of navigating her career.

The three main pieces of advice that I would give to anyone still in college or just starting on their career would be:

1. Learn how to set goals from now. Goal setting is a life-long process. No matter where you are, you should always be thinking about your next step.
2. Learning is a life-long journey. It doesn’t stop just because you’ve earned a degree. Make sure that you are continually learning and growing. If you feel yourself getting comfortable, then it’s time to start thinking about the next challenge.
3. You don’t have to do just one thing. Each of us has so many talents and capabilities that it’s a shame to pigeonhole ourselves into just one area. The days where we spend 30+ years doing the same job are over. Now-a-days it’s very common for people to work for multiple companies, and even to transition careers once or twice. This means that a student’s major is only the first step in a journey, it’s not a life sentence.

In addition, here are a few books/resources that I highly recommend* :

• What Color Is Your Parachute (Personally, I like the Teen Edition, as it is a bit more straight-forward)
• Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill (Click the title for the full pdf version of the book)
• The Power of your Subconscious Mind, by Joseph Murphy (Click the title for the full pdf version of the book)

The last two are books that I tend to reread often because the concepts are so useful.

I hope that the young women I spoke today found something useful to take away from the conversations they had today. I wish all of them a very successful and enjoyable journey.

*NOTE: The book links are not affiliate links and I do not get paid for any items recommended on this page.

By Aiyana at Aiyana's Pen

                              PECKING ORDER AND PERSONALITY

What do Hillary Clinton and Oprah Winfrey have in common? Both are powerful women, both are overachievers, and both are the oldest child in their families. You might not think Richard Nixon and Martin Luther King Jr. have much in common, but not only were both powerful negotiators and communicators (Nixon used his communication skills to smooth relations with Communist China, and MLK used his communication skills to lead the Civil Rights Movement); they were both middle children. And not only have Rosie O’Donnell and Whoopi Goldberg both dished it out on The View, they are both the youngest in their families. By now you’ve probably guessed that the common thread in these stories is birth order. Like it or not, it’s hard to deny that the order in which we were born probably had some effect on our personality.

It’d be ridiculous to stand here and say that we can predict everything about a person simply by knowing his birth order. However, psychologists have found that when they assess the common traits of firstborns vs lastborns, the commonalities are too many to be ignored. Alfred Adler, a colleague of Sigmund Freud, was one of the first scientists to seriously investigate the links between birth order and personality. Since his research in 1927, many others have followed suit and over 2000 studies have been done on the subject.

FIRSTBORN

Quick show of hands – who here is an oldest child? Would you please read this:
The firstborn receives undivided attention from parents until the next child arrives. Firstborns tend to be: serious, conscientious, goal-oriented, rule-conscious, high-achieving, detail-oriented, a leader, determined, conservative, organized, and responsible.

I am the oldest of my siblings and of the three of us, I was the one who consistently got straight-A’s. In school I tended to do as I was told, and my mother has often said that I was the easiest of the three, since I never went through a rebellious teenage stage. I did a double major at NYU in computer science and computer engineering and today I work at the Times as a software engineer. According to CareerBuilder.com, firstborns are more likely to pursue fields that require higher education, such as, medicine, engineering, or law, and are thus more likely to be the higher earners in their families.

One simple explanation for the differences among siblings may fall to Darwin and “survival of the fittest”. Each child uses whatever resources he has at hand to gain favor in the eyes of the parents. The oldest children are often given the responsibility of watching their younger siblings, and thus gain favor with parents that way. But this responsibility also causes the firstborns to become more conservative and to more closely identify with their parent, which may give them a greater respect for parental authority.

MIDDLE

Is anyone here a middle child? Please read:
The middle child is often “squeezed” between an ambitious older sibling and a precocious younger one. Many times, he looks for acceptance and recognition among his peers instead of his family. Traits common among middle children are: flexible and adaptable, diplomatic, peacemaker or mediator, generous, outgoing, social, competitive, has strong peer relationships.

If we again go back to Darwin and “survival of the fittest”, middle children, who are not as strong as their older siblings, nor as cute as their younger siblings, quickly learn that forming alliances may be their best bet for keeping out of trouble. Even into adulthood, middle children may still act as the peacekeepers of the family. According to surveys conducted by CareerBuilder.com, middle children tend to go into fields that utilize their negotiating and people skills and often have more job satisfaction than their siblings.

My brother is the middle child in my family, and he is definitely the most likely to throw out a joke in a tense situation. At my suggestion he majored in economics and I had hoped that he would get a secure position at a financial company. But, my brother realized he wouldn’t be happy unless he were directly helping others. Today he is a college counselor for a non-profit organization in the Bronx, he started his own mentoring program aimed at encouraging young Black and Hispanic men to go to college, and he is working on his Masters in guidance counseling.

YOUNGEST

Would someone who’s a youngest child please read this?
The youngest child frequently gets the most attention from family members. Youngest children love the limelight and are used to sitting in it. They are: charming, creative, affectionate, and sometimes manipulative when they want to get their way.

While researching this topic I came across two possible explanations for why siblings develop these various traits. The first, I’ve mentioned – Darwin’s “survival of the fittest”. Older siblings have already had years to bask in their parents’ affection by the time the younger ones come around. Therefore younger siblings tend to employ more creative methods to get their parents’ attention, and end up relying more on their personality (ie, they find ways to be cute or charming). Jeffrey Kluger, a senior editor at TIME magazine and author of The Sibling Effect, has another explanation that he calls deidentification. This is the process that siblings use to separate themselves from one another and create their own identities. Often if the older one has already excelled in a certain area (academics), the younger one will pursue something else (such as the arts) to avoid comparisons.

In my family, I’ve always been considered, “the smart one”, my brother is, “the outgoing one”, and my sister is, “the odd one” (and by odd, we affectionately mean weird). She has her own sense of style and is not afraid to flaunt it. My brother and I do tend to treat her like a baby sometimes, but she loves the extra attention. Despite the fact that she’s 20 years old, I still find myself sometimes reaching for her hand when we cross the street. Youngest children often gravitate toward artistic and outdoor jobs, and also do very well in journalism, advertising, sales, and athletics. Today my sister is in her third year of her journalism major at Manhattan College.

CONCLUSION

This is not an exact science and there is no clear formula to explain the effects of birth order on our personalities. For many people the factors I’ve described might not apply to them. There are also special cases, such as when there is a large gap between the first and second child, causing the second child to assume some characteristics of an oldest child. Only children are another special case, and they tend to behave similarly to firstborns, although they tend to be even more ambitious and success-oriented. But whether you’re the oldest or youngest, somewhere in the middle, or an only child, chances are your birth order played some part in shaping your personality. I hope that you’ll think about where you fall in your family and whether your personality fits with these standard descriptions. Look at your kids or other relatives and see if you see common birth order tendencies playing a part in their personalities. Having an understanding of why we are the way we are can go a long way in improving interactions and familial bonds.

Before I go, I’ll leave you with a bit of trivia:
Did you know that Almost all of the U.S. Presidents were either the first-born child or the first-born son in their families AND
Before Daniel Craig, All of the actors who have played James Bond were firstborns.

This speech was a lot of fun because I really enjoyed the topic. The biggest challenge was narrowing down the information to fit within a 5 – 7 minute speech. My speech came out to 7 minutes and 30 seconds exactly. I also incorporated audience participation by having my audience members read the blurbs about the oldest, middle, and youngest child. Overall, I was very happy with this speech. I learned a lot and had fun at the same time.

By Aiyana at Aiyana's Pen

Do not read further unless you’ve already read the novel Gone Girl.

In my previous post I stated that I really liked the dual-narrative structure of the story. We get the same story from two different perspectives. Both narrators turn out to be slightly unreliable at times, and the reader is left to try to puzzle the pieces together. The story is told in three parts.

Part I describes the events that unfold as the police search for missing Amy. Why does Nick keep lying to the police? What is he hiding? Part I is also a story about how a marriage might unravel. Both Nick and Amy talk about their marriage and how it seems to be falling apart. Nick narrates from the present, and talks about that seems to no longer be enchanted with him, always finding fault. Amy narrates through her diary entries, and describes the initial excitement of falling love and describes trying to please a husband that seems increasingly aloof. It seems like a classic case of “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”, common communication issues that every couple goes through. Except, again certain things don’t add up. There are very small conflicts in their narratives which leave the reader wondering who to believe.

****Spoiler Alert****

In Part II we learn that Amy is a sociopath. When it is revealed that Amy is alive and well and has staged her whole disappearance it is not a complete shock, since the reader is expecting a twist of some sort. But what is more shocking, is the complete change of Amy’s personality. Turns out the diary entries that we’ve been reading are all fake, and the Amy we’d spent pages getting to know, does not exist. The new Amy that we meet is cold and calculated and very much resembles the person Nick has described in his narrative.

And with the turn of a page, the reader finds himself realigning his sympathies toward Nick. Previously the untrustworthy narrator whom the author has spent pages making us doubt, Nick is now the victim, and while he is imperfect, he is at least human. The real Amy seems to lack certain human characteristics such as warmth and emotion (which she admits herself). She does not understand human emotion, jokes, games. She wears these emotions like masks but she has no connection with them at all. And we suddenly feel that Nick is like a weak insect caught in a spider’s web.

However, I must admit that the real Amy is more interesting than “diary” Amy. I actually laughed out loud as the real Amy goes on a two-page diatribe about the image of “The Cool Girl” that men find so attractive. Any attempt I make to summarize that passage would pale in comparison to what the author actually wrote, but suffice it to say, I found myself laughing and agreeing with sociopath Amy. It’s also fun seeing Amy’s plan work so perfectly – she’s covered all her bases and plotted the perfect murder (even if it was her own). But at the same time, Nick, although he was unfaithful, does not deserve this. What kind of ending does the author have in mind?

Part III shows that life on the run (staying hidden) does not turn out so easily for Amy and she is forced to readjust her plans and resurface. She changes her mind and decides she wants Nick back (even though she just tried to frame him for murder!) and comes up with a new, even more diabolical plan.

Even though Amy is the villain, as I read, I couldn’t help thinking, “Wow, she’s good.” She manages to think of every detail and her story is so rock-solid that it seems that she really will get away with murder.

The end of the book becomes a mind game of sorts between Nick and Amy. They both know that they are merely pretending to be in love, and both are willing to play the game to keep the other in check. Amy’s endgame is to have Nick become the perfect husband. Nick’s endgame is to pretend long enough until he can reveal his wife as the vengeful, sociopath she really is. Neither can truly be themselves around the other and so they seem to reach a stalemate. Except, that in this case, the stalemate is really a checkmate, for Amy. The villain wins. Because she gets what she wants, which is the continued image of perfection. Nick does not go to prison, but he becomes imprisoned anyway in a constant facade of appearances. And should he make a mistake one day and let the mask slip, we know what punishment awaits him. At the end of the novel, the author hints that Nick will not be able to play the game forever.

Some people didn’t like the open-ended ending, but I actually thought it was well done. I would have hated to see Nick kill Amy and end up in jail. Nick would not have been capable of killing Amy and getting away with it. And after the author does such a great job of revealing how meticulous Amy is, it would have seemed contrived to have Amy make a major mistake just so the author can tidy things up and send the villain the prison. I’m sure that many readers wanted to see Amy get what’s coming to her, but I thought keeping the two characters together was a great dark ending to a dark book.

By Aiyana at Aiyana's Pen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nick and Amy are about to celebrate their 5 year anniversary. Nick wakes up the morning of, sees his wife fixing breakfast, and then goes to work. He gets a call from a neighbor that something is amiss at his house and rushes back to find furniture overturned and his wife gone. A missing persons case ensues, and the reader follows Nick and the police as they try to discover what happened to Nick’s wife.

I really liked this book. It’s very well-written and I liked the dual-narrative structure. The husband, Nick, narrates events happening from the day of his wife’s disappearance, forward. His wife, Amy, narrates events via her diary entries, which start from the day they met, up until her disappearance. These chapters are woven together like a patchwork quilt. Or more like a puzzle, in which the pieces don’t quite fit, and more than a few are missing.

Nick is an unreliable narrator. Although he’s telling the story, and the reader is right there with him as events unfold, we find that we don’t really trust him. There are gaps of time at crucial points in his narrative. He sees his wife for breakfast and then goes to work. But the reader later finds that there is a huge chunk of time between which these events occur. So where was he? Also, as Nick narrates, he constantly alludes to the fact that he is lying to the police. As the reader we don’t know why he is lying. Is he guilty? The husband is usually the primary suspect, right? The book takes place in modern day, and the author is aware that many readers are familiar with popular crime shows such as CSI, or real-life cases such as Scott Peterson. It usually is the husband. Gillian Flynn toys with the audience by neither confirming nor denying whether the husband is the killer. He’s the narrator, so the reader immediately wants to identify with him, but Flynn does a great job of planting doubt. Nick certainly isn’t acting like an innocent man. Innocent men don’t normally lie to the police. But it can’t be him because that would be too obvious. Or would it?

The story is told in 3 parts. Part 1 uses the dual narrative structure to describe the events that happen immediately following Amy’s disappearance, as well as tell the story about how a marriage might unravel. Both Nick and Amy talk about their marriage and how it seems to be falling apart. Nick narrates from the present, and talks about the fact that his wife seems to no longer be enchanted with him, always finding fault. Amy narrates through her diary entries, and describes the initial excitement of falling in love and describes trying to please a husband who becomes increasingly aloof. It seems like a classic case of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, common communication issues that every couple goes through. Except, again, certain things don’t add up. There are conflicts in their narratives about crucial decisions which leave the reader wondering who to believe. Parts 2 and 3 and expand on the story and add quite a few twists and turns.

This is one of the best books I’ve read in a while. There have been some complaints that the ending was a bit too open-ended. I was ok with this. The story ends and it’s up to the reader to draw his own conclusions about what might happen next. I will definitely check out more from this author.

View all my reviews

By Aiyana at Aiyana's Pen

Turns out the nostalgia of the restaurant is definitely on purpose. The Pink Tea Cup originally opened on Bleecker Street in 1954. After over 50 years of serving soul food to The Village, the restaurant closed in 2010 due to increasing rents. Many loyal patrons set up an online petition to try to save the restaurant, and later that year Lawrence Page stepped in and bought the name with the hopes of keeping The Pink Tea Cup legacy alive.

Page is an entrepreneur who has owned other restaurant venues and produced and directed independent films. His plans for The Pink Tea Cup have not been smooth sailing. He was unable to keep the original location but did find another spot in the Village.  However, the new location was closed shortly after and plans were announced to bring the Pink Tea Cup to Harlem. (There were rumors that the restaurant would be renamed the Pink Heifer but that idea was quickly scrapped due to widespread disapproval, as the word “heifer”, in some communities, is considered to be a derogatory term aimed at a woman.) The Harlem plan eventually fell through after Page could not get the correct liquor license for the restaurant. But although the path has been rocky, the Pink Tea Cup did find a home back in the Village and for now seems to be on even ground.

The branding of the restaurant brags of their “Chicken and Waffles.” Unfortunately, I was not in the mood for a very heavy breakfast at 11am, so I opted for the simple 2-egg breakfast, which was good, but nothing special. Reviews on yelp have been mixed. One other downfall is that this place is cash-only.  But I liked the history and the decor and I would give this place another shot if I were in the neighborhood again. But next time I’ll definitely try the chicken and waffles.

By Aiyana at Aiyana's Pen

3 reasons why children learn better than adults

1. They are not afraid to fail.

I love watching babies learn to walk. They take one wobbly step, then another, and then **plop**, down they go. But within an instant, they pick themselves up, and take a few more steps. Before we know it, those same babies are running at full speed (with their parents in tow trying to keep up).

We all start out like this, but at some point we get it into our heads that we’re supposed to get things right on the first try. As adults we don’t like failure. Have you ever seen someone just stand a baby up on its legs, let go, and have the baby walk perfectly on the first try? I strongly doubt it! Kids know that they will fail a few times before they get it right.

Even if someone describes for you in perfect detail how to do something, there are some things that we simply learn by doing. Too often we put so much pressure on ourselves to “do it right” the first time, that we listen to the instructions or read multiple sources about HOW to do something, instead of simply trying to do it. Or worse, we might never make the attempt at all.

I don’t have an exact quote, but there’s an old sentiment that says something to the effect that the most successful people are the ones who have learned how to fail, because they never give up until they achieve their result. The observer may only see the success, not the several failures that came before. So embrace failure, and by doing so, you’ll embrace successful.

2. They don’t try to be perfect.

As adults, not only do we want to get it right the first time, but too often we want to be perfect. We set very high expectations for ourselves. A child who can play “Row, row, row your boat” after a week of piano lessons may be very pleased with himself. An adult achieving the same thing in a day may be disappointed that he is not able to play  like Chopin or Billy Joel.

Children don’t really anticipate where they want to be. They just keep practicing at something and in turn keep getting better. Goals are fine, but sometimes as adults we can be unrealistic with our goals. As Malcolm Gladwell determined, it takes about 10,000 hours to truly master a skill. But we shouldn’t let that number deter us from starting something. We should just use it to accept that we won’t achieve perfection right away (or ever), but if we practice a little periodically, we’ll at least keep getting better.

3. They just want to have fun.

Kids remember the most important aspect of life, which is that things should be fun. Kids never say to themselves, it is imperative that I learn how to walk as a viable mode of locomotion. They just do it and enjoy themselves. Obviously, as adults we have our reasons for wanting to lean certain things – for a promotion at work, a hobby,  bragging rights – but we shouldn’t let our reasons prevent us from having fun and simply enjoying the fact that we’re learning something. I really believe that learning can be and should be fun. If there’s no fun to be found in what you’re learning, maybe your attention would be better served elsewhere.

I am still learning and working on being a better speed reading. I’m not doing it perfectly and I’m not reading entire novels in a day. But I do try to practice a little everyday on short articles that I find online or in magazines. I’m enjoying the challenge of learning a new skill and feel good knowing that I’m improving a little every day.

By Aiyana at Aiyana's Pen

I’m sure the radio waves will be blasting all day with all of MJ’s hits. I long ago gave up trying to pick my favorite Michael Jackson tune. Is it disco era Michael (Dancing Machine, Life of the Party), Jackson 5 Michael (Who’s Lovin’ You, Lookin Through the Windows), or superstar Michael (Billie Jean)? Michael truly left behind an impressive legacy of music and despite his passing I have no doubt that he gains new fans every day.

If you’re in the DC area, there will be lots of fans celebrating MJ’s legacy – Click here for a few events happening in that area.

I’m very excited to learn that Spike Lee will be making a documentary called “Bad25″ which describes the making of Michael’s album, “Bad”. Read more about that here.

Check out my Michael Jackson music appreciation site, MJMoment.com.

By Aiyana at Aiyana's Pen

I am not an educator nor do I have any professional degree in education. But I am a product of the public school system and my mother is a NYC public school teacher. If I were in charge of education reform, I would use three basic principles to shape my reform efforts.

1. Learning Should Be Fun

For a minute let’s forget about standardized testing. Imagine a world where kids came to school, not because they were forced or bribed, but because they enjoyed attending school. Learning is a natural part of life. Discovery and exploration go hand-in-hand with learning. Educators, parents, and politicians need to work together to reform the curriculum in such a way so that it emphasizes the natural process of learning and makes education fun. Getting students to want to come to school is a big step toward ensuring the next generation will be able to compete internationally.

“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” – Dale Carnegie

2. Bad Behavior Will Not Be Tolerated

I’ve heard stories from friends and relatives I know who are public school teachers about how a good chunk of their time is spent breaking up classroom fights or dealing with disruptive students. This takes away from valuable teaching time and is unfair to the students who actually want to learn. If I were a reformist, I’d make sure public schools have the option to expel students for bad behavior. Parents of these students would have the option to home-school these kids or send them to a special charter school for children with behavioral issues.

3. Parental Involvement is Mandatory

Imagine if school worked like a factory. Parents would drop off their children with their unmolded minds, and at the end of the 12 year process, having been shaped and molded by the public school system, their child would emerge a genius. Unfortunately, a public school is not a factory. Students and parents have to do their parts as well. Sometimes parents underestimate the influence they have over their children. They need to stress that learning is important, and demonstrate this by taking an interest in their children’s education. This means helping with homework, attending parent-teacher conferences, and being aware of what is going on in their child’s school.

I believe if parents, teachers, and politicians work together and refocus their efforts on the above principles, they can fix the public schools and give the competitive edge back to our kids.

By Aiyana at Aiyana's Pen