Michael B. Horn, co-author of  “Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns” will be our guest on this week’s “My Great Kid Radio Program”.

Here’s some links to check out if you’d like to learn more about Mr. Horn and the book before the interview…

• Download an excerpt from the book
• About the book
• About Michael B. Horn
• The Innosight Institute

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Proper grammar, spelling, punctuation and the ability to compose a coherent written sentence ….. should any of these be part of the job requirements to be a school board president?

Do DPS control the Foundation or outside group? If an outside group control the foundation, then what is DPS Board row with selection of is director? Our we mixing DPS and None DPS row’s, and who is the watch dog? – email sent by Otis Mathis Detroit School Board president

According to the Detroit Public School Board , no.

Before we get into the school board’s most recent decision let’s review the state of Detroit Public Schools …..

• $219 Billion dollar budget deficit (source)
• Worst scores in the nation on a national math achievement test. (source)
  • Not just the worst scores but the worst scores ever in the history of the test.

“These numbers are only slightly better than what one would expect by chance as if the kids had never gone to school and simply guessed at the answers,” said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Washington-based Council of the Great City Schools, which represents large urban school districts. “These numbers … are shocking and appalling and should not be allowed to stand.” (source)

• 58% graduation rate for public high school students (source)
  • As bad as that is past studies have estimated the number at closer to 25% (source 1, source 2, source 3)
• Only 25% of Detroit high school graduates go on to college (source)
• Lowest graduation rate of the nation’s 50 largest school districts in the country (source – USA Today)
• Only 27% of Detroit Public Schools made AYP in 08-09 (source)
• Only 10% of Detroit Public School students have test scores higher than the state average (source)
• In the second half of 2009 nearly 500 computers – $600,000 worth – were stolen from the schools (source)
• Average days missed by Detroit Public School Students (source)
  • High School : 46
  • Middle School : 30
  • Elementary School : 18
• During the 07-08 school year (source)
  • More than 40,000 students were suspended
  • 191 students were expelled
• By the time Detroit students reach the 3rd Grade they already have a 20% percentage point achievement gap (source)

The numbers (mostly all negative …. really, really negative) go on and on but suffice it to say that the Detroit Public Schools are a white hot mess of poor quality, low expectations, corruption and adults that have either forgotten their roles or have flat out walked away from the responsibilities.

In fairness, the State of Michigan has begun an intense push for revolutionary changes in the district. Change being lead in large part by Emergency Financial Manager - Robert Bobb – who has been attacking the problems head on …. quite bluntly at times:

“The system is academically bankrupt. This is almost academic homicide,” Bobb says.

This post isn’t to rant about the poor quality of education in Detroit.  The situation does raise questions about leadership and what is required to be an educational leader. Which brings us back to Mr. Mathis ….

D o DPS control the Foundation or outside group? If an outside group control the foundation, then what is DPS Board row with selection of is director? Our we mixing DPS and None DPS row’s, and who is the watch dog?

That was an email written by the newly elected Detroit Public School board president, sent out to his followers and supporters last August.

Rare occurrence, hurried email … nope.

If you saw Sunday’s Free Press that shown Robert Bobb the emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools, move Mark Twain to Boynton which have three times the number seats then students and was one of the reason’s he gave for closing school to many empty seats.

In an excellent piece by Laura Berman (columnist for the Detroit News) she asks the question “Does DPS Leader’s Writing Send Wrong Message?” and for me the answer is a resounding YES.

Mr. Mathis admits that he’s always been a horrible writer and that it was a contributing factor to a high school GPA of 1.8  (that’s the GPA he claims, though earlier reports have put it at a .98 average).  It also led to a stay in college that lasted 15 years because he was unable to pass an English proficiency test required for graduation.  A test that he sued the school over as a requirement for graduation (he lost the suit but the school eventually did drop the requirement … hence is graduation after 15 years).  His writing was such that he was put into special education classes when he was in the 4th grade.

So, should he be allowed to be the school board president?  Is he a shining example of potential that has overcome challenges or is he an example of a broken system and laziness?  According to Mr. Mathis he’s an example, not surprisingly, of triumph over adversity:

“Instead of telling them that they can’t write and won’t be anything, I show that cannot stop you,” Mathis says. “If Detroit Public Schools can allow kids to dream, with whatever weakness they have, that’s something. …It’s not about what you don’t have. It’s what you cando.”

Mr. Mathis even goes as far as to describe himself as a role model and Detroit parent and activist Ida Byrd-Hill agrees …

“His job, though, is to represent the community. His lack of writing skills is prevalent in the community. If anybody does, he understands the struggles of what it’s like to go through an institution and not be properly prepared.”

When Ms. Berman’s article appeared it caused the radio airwaves to light up with hot debates.  As you’d expect there was a variety of opinions and the “special education” tag was quickly latched onto.

Afterall,  if he had a learning disability that makes his writing difficult should that really be held against him?

If he has a learning disability it’s not his fault, so why should he be punished?

It’s even an argument that Mr. Mathis is quick to make when referring to himself:

“You survive. You made it. Now, you’re telling me people with disability can not be leaders,” said Otis Mathis.

There, for me, lies the problem.  With Mr. Mathis, with our education and special education systems and the reason that we’re F-A-I-L-I-N-G our children and grandchildren.  We don’t care about end results anymore, as long as everybody tried to do something.  Results don’t matter nor do we even require the argument that we tried our BEST.  As long as we tried or at least showed up – WE’RE A SUCCESS.

If you have a reason, real or not, why getting a quality result or showing up would be difficult then we’ll lower the bar even faster.

By all accounts, aside from his horrific writing ability, Mr. Mathis is a nice guy and otherwise qualified for the job.

So should this failing be enough to hold him out of the job?

YES.

If his writing difficulties are related to a learning disability aren’t they outside of his control?

NO.

If they are related to a learning disability should we still let that keep him out of the job?

YES.

How can I say that?  How can I be so mean and heartless?  How can I advocate and fight for children with learning, developmental and educational challenges and then be this ….. discriminating?

I discriminate because life does.

Life is hard.

Life is not fair.

And because Mr. Mathis is not a good role model or an example of overcoming your challenges.

Mr. Mathis is an example of an educational system that didn’t work.  I won’t say that the educational system is solely responsible for his failure because I imagine a portion of it certainly resides with Mr. Mathis who describes his own education experience like this:

“I was kicked out and kicked in and kicked out (of high schools),” he says with a chuckle. He credits a high school English teacher with encouraging him to graduate, getting him to attend school “once a week instead of every two weeks” by giving him an audio version of Alex Haley’s “Roots,” one vinyl record at a time.

Nothing funnier than the school board president joking about getting kicked out of school and improving his attendance from once every two to once a week, huh?  What a fine glowing role model for our kids.  The very picture of overcoming difficulty.

As for the learning disability which may, or may not, be a factor?

Here’s the facts …. the cold hard, nasty, mean facts…. the world doesn’t care about your personal, emotional, cognitive challenges are or how they hold you back.

We make laws to protect against unnecessary discrimination.  Discrimination that keeps someone from access to a building or a job or a group because of a disability that has no bearing on their ability to perform.

But a school board president who can’t write a sentence?  A school board president who hasn’t figured out how to represent the district in writing in a way that doesn’t publicly embarrass them?

If Mr. Mathis has a legitimate learning disability that holds him back and he COULD have overcome it in this situation by having someone proof his emails or better yet dictate them and have someone else type it for him.

Having a challenge, learning disability or “special need” doesn’t mean that you can do an inferior job and then fall back on it as an excuse.  When people do that it does nothing but make it that much harder for all of the people out working hard and TRULY OVERCOMING their challenges.

People like Mr. Mathis hurt EVERY person out there that has real challenges.  They lower the bar for what should be expected.  They plant into the collective mind that rather than working to overcome your challenges you can just throw them out there and make other people deal with them.  They reinforce the attitude that it’s okay to lower OUR standards as a group and lower OUR standards for a child simply because they’ve got a challenge.  They reinforce the can’t and the negative.

Education SHOULD not…..no, that’s not right, it CANNOT be about accepting lower standards.  It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about a child who is disadvantaged because of their income level, family background, physical, mental or cognitive challenges once you lower the bar you lower their horizon and we all suffer.

Any successful society has social standards and norms that must be maintained to allow it to continue successfully.

In our society those standards include the rules for successful written communication.  Mr. Mathis fails that standard miserably.  That’s not a sin.  Mr. Mathis doesn’t care and that is a sin.  Mr. Mathis falls back on a “learning disability” and that is insulting.  Mr. Mathis has decided that there’s nothing he can do about it and there’s no reason to worry about it.  Mr. Mathis has decided to simply allow his writing to continue to fall short because in his mind it’s not his fault ….. he’s got a learning disability.

Mr. Mathis, as the school board president, represents the community.  Google his name with Detroit school board president and you’ll quickly see he’s certainly bringing attention to the district …. unfortunately not the right kind.  Not the kind that get’s people excited to send their kids there, get a job there or to issue grants and funds there.

There is a lack of writing and reading skills in our communities.  But is that something we should be celebrating or rewarding?  At least in the schools isn’t that something we should be ashamed of and working hard to fix?

Mr. Mathis might understand some of the struggles that poor skills create but he DOES not understand the struggles involved with overcoming those challenges because he’s not overcoming them ….. we’ve simply lowered the bar for him.  He’s not an example of overcoming, he’s an example of the rest of us allowing ourselves to be “dumbed down” of accepting and expecting less.

“Instead of telling them that they can’t write and won’t be anything, I show that cannot stop you,” Mathis says

Actually, an inability to write in most occupations IS something that can stop you.  In most instances it WILL stop you.  At the very least it will stop you from rising to a high level in just about any occupation.  Mr. Mathis lucked out, he stayed in education, even working as a substitute teacher for a stretch which evidently is not a place where a poor academic skills hold you back .

“If Detroit Public Schools can allow kids to dream, with whatever weakness they have, that’s something. …

A school system that allows kids to dream …. yup, that’s something all right.  Dreams are important but the missing piece for too many kids in Detroit (and around this country) isn’t a shortage of the ability to dream but a shortage in the ability TO DO.

Life doesn’t say – “Hey kid have a dream and we’ll ignore your “weaknesses”".

Life, and reality, makes you earn things the hard way.  You earn things by overcoming the weaknesses that make the accomplishment of your dream difficult.

Mr. Mathis doesn’t understand that and evidently neither does the school board that elected him 10-1 to be President.

The man he beat out for the job?

His name was Mr. Tyrone Winfrey and he is the Associate Director at the University of Michigan Office of Undergraduate Admissions and the Director of the University of Michigan Detroit Admissions Office.  Now, I’m not going to say he would have been a better president but I’m going to guess he could:

a) write an intelligent, coherent sentence

b) represent – in writing – the district in a way that wouldn’t bring it national ridicule

c) ALSO have been held up as a REAL example of someone who’s used education to better himself.

But hey, why send that message to families and school students across the country when you can just tell them that an inability to write won’t stop you.

It’s like one of our radio show guests pointed out recently …… we shouldn’t be against testing students in the schools to measure their level of achievement and preparation but when are we going to start testing the teachers, administrators and leaders for the same things?

Mr. Mathis better hope that test doesn’t come anytime soon.

Additional Articles of Interest

• Robert Bobb Biography
• Can Robert Bobb Fix Detroit’s Public Schools?
• Robert Bobb’s Biggest Challenge ~ Create A New Detroit Public Schools
• Laura Berman’s Article : Does DPS Leader’s Writing Send Wrong Message?
• Detroit School Leader Sends Wrong Message

They should have gotten jobs running the school district instead.

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Nintendo, as recently as 2005 looked to be on the ropes.  Sony’s Playstation and Microsoft’s Xbox had stormed the video game industry and many folks, not to mention video gamers, were quickly forgetting the once dominant player in the video game market.

Listen to our interviews with Nintendo ~ HERE (or visit the link on the bottom of this post to listen and download the interview)

After the success of the Nintendo DS and Wii however, the same systems that looked to be on the verge of knocking Nintendo out are now chasing the red hot video game company.  Not only are the DS and Wii both red hot, their games dominate the sales charts, responsible for..

• 6 of the top 10 top selling games for the Christmas season
• 7 of the top 10 games for the year 2009

The most amazing part of the comeback though is that rather than adding more graphics and more intense games they did what many thought was idiotic ….. they went after non-gamers.

Specifically, they targeted younger children, women and grandparents with games that were fun but less graphic and less intense.  Their commitment to this market was so complete that when they rolled out the Wii they advertised the system in such video game powerhouse outlets as …… Reader’s Digest and AARP.

AARP? Reader’s Digest?

While other systems were rolling out high powered first person shooters Nintendo focused on games like …. bowling, ping pong and Nintendogs.

While at the time many folks laughed and shook their heads now those same critics point out the genius of their strategy.  Not bad for a company that started out in 1889 as a playing card company.

I have to confess that I grew up playing all of the great older Nintendo games (Super Mario Brothers, Contra, Tecmo Bowl, etc.) with my younger brother.

When I went away to college I got hooked on Sony’s Playstation and the fancier graphics they brought along.  When the Wii rolled out I couldn’t really figure out what the heck Nintendo was thinking.

That was then …. now?

My old outdated Playstation is disconnected and collecting dust while my family, my sister’s family and my parents (who used to shake their heads at our love of video games) all have, and play with, our Nintendo Wii’s.

My new video game favorites ….. Wii Wakeboarding, Wii Frisbee Golf, Wii Dogfighting (little planes dragging balloons – not animals) and Wii Bowling.

Enjoy our interview with Nintendo where we cover this amazing comeback and where the company is taking us in the future ….

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Guest: Ben Sherwood – “The Survivors Club” – Survive & Thrive When Life Knocks You Down

Listen to our interview with Ben Sherwood ~ HERE (or visit the link on the bottom of this post to listen and download the interview)

Earthquakes, tsunamis, mudslides, record breaking blizzards.  It almost seems like the natural world has it out for us this year.

Cancer (what doesn’t cause cancer these days), plane crashes, Toyota’s runaway cars, foreclosures, bankruptcy, swine flu, seasonal flu, terrorism, tornados …. oy, the list of things attacking our physical, mental, emotional and financial well-being these days can get a bit overwhelming.

But that’s kind of the point?

When bad things happen – be they natural or not – who lives, survives and thrives and who ….. gets overwhelmed, shuts down or perishes?

As Ben Sherwood describes it in “The Survivors Club”:

In tough times, who bounces back and who doesn’t?  Who overcomes adversity and who gives up? And perhaps most important: What do survivors and thrivers know about beating the odds that the rest of us don’t?

Already this year we’ve witnessed unbelievable stories of survival from babies being pulled out of the rubble after being buried alive for 8 days to people escaping tsunami storm surges after surviving a devastating earthquake.

It’s almost impossible to watch all of these stories and not think at least once …. could I do that?

Would I be able to survive being buried alive?

How long could I survive being shut off from all of the things that makes modern society….modern?

That’s exactly what Ben Sherwood thought for years as he watched the regular flow of guests and news stories as a Senior Producer for the “NBC Nightly News” and then later as an Executive Producer for “Good Morning America”. After years of wondering, he went out and tried to figure out the answers to those questions.  In the process he met more amazing people with amazing survival stories – attacked by a mountain lion, hit by a 20 ton truck, ejecting at the last second (literally) from a fighter jet flying supersonic (still the only person to do that and live), surviving years in a prisoner of war camp, surviving as a child in a Nazi concentration camp, surviving a raging flesh eating bacteria attack,  surviving getting attacked with acid …. well, the stories go on and on.

Out of all of these stories, interviews and research comes his book The Survivors Club: The Secrets and Science that Could Save Your Life.  Now if all of his research just gave us a book full of wild stories that would be cool enough.  However, the real value of the book (and what sets it apart from other amazing stories books) is the fact that Ben didn’t just want to tell stories, he wanted to get down to the “why’s” of survival and maybe even more important to figure out if these lessons could be applied to everyone else in their everyday life.

The book, and our interview, is chock full of great thoughts, advice and tips on what makes a survivor and how to cope and thrive in your daily life, whether that means fighting to pay the bills, survive a layoff, cancer or …. getting a knitting needle shoved through your heart (okay, the odds of that are slim but that’s what Ellin Klor thought too!)

Would you survive?

Websites

• The Survivors Club – The Place For Surviving & Thriving
  • Stories
  • News
  • Survivors Club Networking  Groups
    • Health
    • Family
    • Money
• The Survivor Profiler Test

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Parenting with “Love & Logic” and the amazing physical, mental and emotional benefits of CranioSacral Therapy were the double-barreled interviews we had on this episode of our radio show.

Listen to our interviews on Love & Logic and CranioSacral Therapy ~ HERE (or visit the link on the bottom of this post to listen and download the interview)

Love and Logic is a child raising and teaching philosophy that arose out of the work and experience of Jim Fay (a teacher, school administrator and consultant) and Foster W. Cline (a certified Psychiatrist and consultant) described on their website as:

Love and Logic is a philosophy of raising and teaching children which allows adults to be happier, empowered, and more skilled in the interactions with children. Love allows children to grow through their mistakes. Logic allows children to live with the consequences of their choices. Love and Logic is a way of working with children that puts parents and teachers back in control, teaches children to be responsible, and prepares young people to live in the real world, with its many choices and consequences.

We also had the fantastic opportunity to interview Rebecca Flowers from the Upledger Institute about the touch-based therapy known as CranioSacral Therapy.  Originally developed by Dr. John Upledger and influenced by the work of Dr. William Sutherland, the father of cranial osteopathy, CranioSacral Therapy is described on the Upledger website as follows:

Using a soft touch which is generally no greater than 5 grams – about the weight of a nickel – practitioners release restrictions in the soft tissues that surround the central nervous system. CST is increasingly used as a preventive health measure for its ability to bolster resistance to disease, and it’s effective for a wide range of medical problems associated with pain and dysfunction.

CranioSacral Therapy is effective in treating  a variety of health concerns including (but not limited to):

• Migraines and Headaches
• Chronic Neck and Back Pain
• Stress and Tension-Related Disorders
• Motor-Coordination Impairments
• Infant and Childhood Disorders
• Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries
• Chronic Fatigue
• Fibromyalgia
• TMJ Syndrome
• Scoliosis
• Central Nervous System Disorders
• Learning Disabilities
• ADD/ADHD
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Orthopedic Problems

We were first introduced to CranioSacral therapy as a result of work my son was doing at the time with a physical therapist when he was younger.  As I say in the interview, I had the benefit of seeing the tremendous benefits of the therapy before ever seeing an actual session which in hindsight was good because after seeing a session my first reaction was …. this stuff is looney.  However, the results we were seeing with my son were undeniable and when something is working you don’t stop it.

Despite my first impression of this therapy I can honestly say today that there is nothing that’s been more beneficial to our family’s overall health and wellness than CranioSacral therapy.

As my wife is also quick to point out, not only do I not think the therapy looks so looney anymore …. I also see a CranioSacral therapist for my own sessions twice a month and wouldn’t give them up if you paid me to (hey, like I said if it works why quit?).

• The Upledger Institute – Frequently Asked Questions About – CranioSacral Therapy

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Don’t miss a fun interview tomorrow morning with executives from Nintendo about all things video games, Wii & DSS.

Some quick facts about Nintendo & Video Game Facts ….

• The video game industry had  their best month ever in December 2009 with $5.52 BILLION dollars in sales
• 2009 was a good year for the video game industry with $19.66 billion dollars in sales (2008 was the best ever though with $21.4 billion)

• Nintendo …. started off as a playing card company in 1889
• Nintendo sold 3.1 million Wii consoles in December
• Nintendo sold 3.31 million DS’s in December
• 6 of the 10 ten games in December were Nintendo Games (including all of the top 3)
  • New Super Mario Brothers = 2.82 million
  • Wii Fit Plus – 2.41. million
  • Wii Sports Resort – 1.70 million
• For the year 2009 ….
  • 7 of the top 10 were Nintendo games
  • 6 of the top ten were Nintendo Wii games
  • 1 of the top ten was Nintendo DS

Remember Sunday mornings, 8:00am, WAAM 1600AM or listen to it live here by clicking on the WAAM Radio Live icon in the sidebar.

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Milk, eggs, fish, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, soy and shellfish.

Those are the top eight food allergens (literally accounting for 90% of all food allergy reaction in the US) and when they hit the system of somebody with food allergies it leads to their system going bonkers.  Okay, not a very scientific explanation …. more specifically it can lead to Anaphylaxis.

Guest: Eleanor Garrow-Majka; FAAN (Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network)

Listen to our interview with FAAN ~ HERE (or visit the link on the bottom of this post to listen and download the interview)

Anaphylaxis – def.: A serious allergic reaction this is rapid in onset and may cause death.  The most common causes of of anaphylaxis are food, medication, insect stings and latex.

Signs of an anaphylactic reaction include:

• Tingling, itchiness or a metalic taste in the mouth
• Hives
• Difficulty breathing
• Swelling, itching of the mouth and throat
• Diarrhea
• Vomiting
• Cramps and stomach pain
• Paleness (due to a drop in blood pressure)
• Loss of consciousness

Some nasty stuff.  For the approximately 12 million Americans with food allergies (4% of the population or 1 in 25 people) it can not only be nasty but quite deadly.  When you combine that with the fact that the incidence of food allergies is highest in young children – many under the age of three – you realize just how important awareness of these allergies is.

As our guest, Eleanor Garrow-Majka, described her first awareness that her child had a food allergy occured when her son had a dangerous (and severe) allergic reaction that landed them in the emergency room.  Ms. Majka went on to explain to us in detail the differences between for allergies and intolerances, the most common food allergy problems, challenges for folks with the allergies and helpful tips on successfully living with these allergies.

Food Allergy Action Plan

The interesting thing is that while there seems to be agreement that food allergies are on the rise, as of yet, nobody has been able to determine why?

If you, a friend or family member have food allergies, of think you might, after you listen to Ms. Majka’s informative interview please check out the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network website (FAAN).  It’s a fantastic website with a wealth of information, tips, guides for teachers/friends/schools and even some really great allergen safe recipes.

Some Great Helpful Brochures From FAAN (most are PDF files)

• Food Allergy Facts and Statistics
• How to Read a Label
• Do You Have a Food Allergy?
• My Child Has Food Allergies: What Should I Know?
• Components of an Effective Allergen Control Plan

Allergy Detail Pages

• Milk
• Eggs
• Peanuts
• Tree Nuts
• Fish
• Shellfish
• Wheat
• Soy
• Other Common Allergies

Help …..

• For School Professionals
• For Health Professionals
• For Food Industry and Service Professionals
• Back-to-School Tool Kit
• College and Universities
• Field Trip Tips

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I’m really tired of the ongoing debate that’s been raging in recent weeks about the “R” word (I guess it’s more impactful when we only use the first letter of words).  Not because I don’t agree that there is the potential for offense when the word is used or because I think it’s okay to use the word.  Most of my annoyance about the debate has been the way that too many of the folks taking “offense” have seemed to be doing so in a very self-serving way.

John McGinley (of Scrubs and Office Space fame) has a child with Down Syndrome and he wrote a pretty blistering piece on his feelings about the use of the word (the piece can be found here – though some of the language is pretty strong) in early February.  It was a good piece, though the heat of some of his anger could be felt through the screen and I wondered if he might have been better off waiting a bit to write the piece.  It seemed to me that the language he used – though it was used to make a very definite point – might have served to offend many of the people he was trying to get to his side.

On March 2nd McGinley wrote a second piece that I thought was excellent and in many ways probably helped his cause more than the
first.  The piece is entitled “Spread The Word to End The Word” and I think it does a great job of addressing the tension between free speech and offensive speech in a free country :

Our right to speak as we see fit is sacred and not something that any of us are willing to relinquish. Nor should we.

However, when the words we are free to speak are aimed at specific populations of people and target that group in a harmful way, there are repercussions. There is a “tax” that will be imposed on those who chose to assault others with their hate speech.

This “duty” may be levied in the form of boycotts, marches, firings (see: Imus), or even a stiff right to the jaw! In other words, when the words that we are free to speak include racial slurs, epithets or sexist slander, there has been and always will be blowback. Groups like the NAACP, The Anti-Defamation League, NOW and GLAAD, will respond to derisive language directed at their constituents. The price paid by those who cavalierly chose to verbally disrespect the dignity of African Americans, Jews, women and homosexuals is steep.

I especially liked his reference to a tax that is imposed on free speech.  Not a tax or ramification imposed by the government but a tax imposed by society.  Freedom of speech might give us the freedom to say whatever we want without the fear of being silenced by the government, but that doesn’t mean that our words don’t have any ramifications.

The consequences for launching into hurtful language, aimed at powerful ethnic, religious and gender based groups, are profound and final (see; Michael Richards and Jimmy “The Greek”). The very real fear of a counter-punch thrown by the victimized party, is usually enough to scare away almost every single one of those who would otherwise toss about slander without a care. The fear of the tax or the very real cost, is a hammer that sometimes informs the speech that we are so free to express.

Verbally assaulting those who have done absolutely nothing wrong and cannot even begin to defend themselves, is an exponentially more egregious transgression. Only bullies and cowards pick on the defenseless. However, it does seem fair to assume that a vast majority of people who use the R-word (i.e. “Retard” and “Retarded”), are not even aware that their language is offensive and hurtful to members of the special needs community. And at the risk of being redundant, perhaps there is some value in setting the record straight: the R-word hurts! And it makes no difference that a person with special needs is not in ear shot when the word is spoken. Using the R-word perpetuates a negative stigma that belittles people with special needs. And the casual nature in which the R-word is now thrown about only makes the impact even more insidious and and the trickle down affect more persistent. The R-word hurts.

Later in the article …

The First Amendment protects every ones right to use the R-word. There is not a member of the special needs community who wishes to compromise any fellow Americans freedom of speech. That is certainly not the drill here. However, armed with the knowledge that the R-word is a source of pain and that using the R-word demeans a group that is not in a position to defend itself and who definitely never did anything to merit this kind of derision, the hope is that people will exercise some degree of compassion or at least a heightened sensitivity toward the continued use of the R-word. Again, this is not an invasion of the Bill of Rights. Rather, it is a civil call to integrate a simple change into the way we treat, regard and address the special needs population.

I thought it was a great piece and probably one of the most intelligent submissions I’ve heard since this debate started over a month ago.

I’ve never been the type to really get that worked up over words or labels like this.  My attitude has always run along the lines of Eleanor Roosevelt’s great quote that “nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent”.  Labels and names lose some of their power if you don’t let them stick to you.  But the reality is that labels can be damaging when others use them specifically to demean.

Though the word “retarded” isn’t officially used as a label anymore, the simple fact that it’s still closely associated with specific segments of our population makes it a word that should be used with some respect and sensitivity.

So while it’s true that some could argue that when they use the word it’s not directed as a demeaning swipe at those with Down Syndrome or mental challenges the fact of the matter is that those populations still get hit when it’s used.  It reinforces a negative image and association.

Maybe someday when there’s not a close association with a specific group it won’t be such a big deal (much like the terms idiot, imbecile and moron were used and associated differently in the past) but until then I’m hoping we can all just let the word go …. literally.

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Our Guest: Sir Ken Robinson, Expert on Creativity, Education & Human Potential

Listen to our interview with Sir Ken ~ HERE (or visit the link on the bottom of this post to listen and download the interview)

We live in a country with a broken educational system.

Now, factions on all sides of the issue will point at each other and say the blame for the system’s failure rests with :

• The teachers
• The unions
• The politicians
• The parents
• Too much technology
  • (it shortens your attention, ruins your spelling and rots your brain …. you know that right?)
• Too little technology
  • (how can school “A” compete with school “B” when school “A” has all those computers, smart boards, internet connectivity, etc.)
• Too little money
  • (funny that while we spend more money on education than in the past nobody ever argues there’s too much money)
• Too much testing
  • (never time to teach ’cause we’re always having to teach for the test)
• Too little testing
  • (how can we know what works unless we have more outcome based testing)

But rarely does anyone come along and point out that maybe part of the problem isn’t all the pieces of the system as much as it is the system itself.

That’s part of the theme we explored with Sir Ken Robinson, an internationally recognized expert on education, creativity and human potential.

Now, normally that’s the kind of introduction you give someone who might be bright but is also magnificently boring.  That’s not the case with Sir Ken Robinson (the boring part…not the intelligent part). When I first heard his TED presentation (highlighted below) I was blown away.

Time after time throughout his presentation he made points that seemed to be specifically targeted at many of the frustrations and struggles that I’d been having with my own son and his education.  But beyond my son it was also the frustrations that I witnessed first hand with children we were working with who showed remarkable brilliance, talents and gifts yet somehow were being put in boxes by their schools for a lack of “educational ability”, “attention” and “control”.

While Sir Ken’s speaking style is a casual, conversational style wrapped in frequent colorful anecdotes and self-deprecating humor it all is done to create a framework for his many critical, insightful and at times biting points, including:

From his TED Talk

“We are educating people out of their creativity.”

“It’s education that’s meant to take us into this future that we can’t grasp.”

From an excellent piece he wrote in the Huffington Post:

The future for the American Dream is not the materialist coma that Edward Albee parodied in the 1960s, for which we’re now receiving the check. It has to be the wide awake dream of people like Martin Luther King — a passionate vision of social equality and personal possibility, of economic responsibility and cultural respect. Realizing this dream means thinking in radically different ways about ourselves and our children, about our relationships with the earth itself and about the billions of other people who are clinging to it with us.

All of this is the work of education. Not the sort of education we have now. The present system was designed for 19th century industrialism and it’s overheating in a dangerous way. Reforming education isn’t enough. The real task is transformation. America urgently needs systems of education that live and breathe in the 21st century. This is a large task and it can’t be put off.

I remember being told that Americans don’t get irony. I never believed that, but I had the proof it wasn’t true when I came across the education bill, No Child Left Behind. Whoever thought of that title clearly gets irony. The fact is this legislation is actually leaving millions of children behind. I can see that’s not a very attractive name for an education bill — “Millions of Children Left Behind” — but it’s closer to the truth and less ironic.

His problems with NCLB …

…the problems with NCLB are much deeper than money. The whole premise of the act is deeply flawed. It’s based on the fatal idea that to face the future schools just have to do better what they did in the past: they simply have to get back to basics and raise standards. Schools, and policy makers, should get back to basics. They should aim to raise standards too. Why would you lower them? But what are the basics now, and which standards should apply?

I said that the premise of the act is flawed. Actually there are three flawed premises. First, NCLB promotes a catastrophically narrow idea of intelligence and ability. The result is a terrible waste of talent and motivation in countless students. Second, it confuses standards with standardizing. The result is that schools across the country are becoming dreary and homogenized. And third, it assumes that education can be improved without the professional creativity and personal passion of teachers. The result is that too many good teachers are streaming out of the very schools that urgently need them to stay. All of this is holding America back in a world that’s moving faster than ever.

More From Sir Ken Robinson

• Sir Ken Robinson – Facebook
• Sir Ken Robinson – Twitter
• Sir Ken Robinson – You Tube

Two Great Presentations By Sir Ken (longer than his TED Presentation)

• Sir Ken Robinson – “A New View of Human Capacity”
• Sir Ken Robinson – UCLA Hammer Lecture Series

The Huffington Post Piece Referenced Above

• Transformation Education? Yes, We Must – Huffington Post Article

Great books by Sir Ken (click the book for more information or to order the books)

Our interview with Sir Ken Robinson on “The My Great Kid Radio Program” :

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