"Without an Educated Work Force, Economy Will Never Recover"--Thomas Friedman, NY Times, Oct. 22, 2009
"Our education failure is the largest contributing factor to the decline of the American worker's global competitiveness, particularly at the middle and bottom ranges," argued Todd Martin, a former global executive with PepsiCo and Kraft Europe and now an international investor.
"This loss of competitiveness has weakened the American worker's production of wealth, precisely when technology brought global competition much closer to home. So over a decade, American workers have maintained their standard of living by borrowing and overconsuming vis-a-vis their real income.
When the Great Recession wiped out all the credit and asset bubbles that made overconsumption possible, it left too many American workers not only deeper in debt than ever, but out of a job and lacking the skills to compete globally."
(My comment: None of the experts and "Talking Heads" on TV ever mention the problem of Outsourcing where lower-paid workers in India, China, etc. are taking high-paying jobs away from Americans. This situation never existed before during previous recessions. The Government plans to create new jobs are a failure from the beginning due to this basic fact of the new global economy.)
"But those who have some interpersonal skills--the salesperson who can deal with customers face to face or the home contractor who can help you redesign your kitchen without going to an architect--have done well.
Just being an average accountant, lawyer, contractor or assembly-line worker is not the ticket it used to be. As Daniel Pink, the author of a "A Whole New Mind", puts it: In a world in which more and more average work can be done by computer, robot or talented foreigner faster, cheaper "and just as well", vanilla doesn't cut in anymore. It's all about what chocolate sauce, whip cream and cherry you can put on top.
So our schools have a doubly hard task now--not just improving reading, writing and arithmatic but entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity.
Bottom line: We're going back to the good old days without fixing our schools as well as our banks.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Thursday, June 04, 2009
"The Quagmire Ahead"
"The Quagmire Ahead" by David Brooks, The NY Times, June 2, 2009
"On Jan. 21, 1988, a General Motors executive named Elmer Johnson wrote a brave and prophetic memo. It's main point was contained in this sentence: We have vastly underestimated how deeply ingrained are the organizational and cultural rigidities that hamper our ability to execute.
"GM's core problem is its corporate and workplace culture--the unquantifiable but essential attitudes, mind-sets and relationship patterns that are passed down, year after year." (Sounds very similar to most academic institutions these days, too.)
"On Jan. 21, 1988, a General Motors executive named Elmer Johnson wrote a brave and prophetic memo. It's main point was contained in this sentence: We have vastly underestimated how deeply ingrained are the organizational and cultural rigidities that hamper our ability to execute.
"GM's core problem is its corporate and workplace culture--the unquantifiable but essential attitudes, mind-sets and relationship patterns that are passed down, year after year." (Sounds very similar to most academic institutions these days, too.)
GM Owner's Manual
GM Owner's Manual--Editorial Page, NY DAILY NEWS, June 4, 2009
"Mr. President, congratulations on your brand new company! Enjoy the new car smell!
To get started, sit in the driver's seat. Place key in ignition. Open the door. Step away from the vehicle. Run. Run for dear life.
Find an authorized professional. Only an authorized professional can drive this vehicle without risk of severe injury."
"Mr. President, congratulations on your brand new company! Enjoy the new car smell!
To get started, sit in the driver's seat. Place key in ignition. Open the door. Step away from the vehicle. Run. Run for dear life.
Find an authorized professional. Only an authorized professional can drive this vehicle without risk of severe injury."
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Saving Detroit?
Time Magazine, June 8, 2009
"In other words, for all the number-crunching and all the brute financial haircuts involved in these bankruptcies (at GM and Chrysler), at the heart they are animated by the audacity of hope. . . . And these hopes float on the audacity of deficit spending. . .the public price tag will
exceed $100 billion.
"When Obama drafted Rattner and another financier, Ron Bloom, to lead his auto task force, he instructed them to 'treat these transactions in a commercial manner.' That is to say, restructure the companies in a way that makes good commercial sense. The "commercial" mantra proved fleeting. The first imperative of commerce--to add value and thus earn profits--is too narrow to host all the civic expectations attached to the auto industry. If GM's only task were to make money, the company would shutter its car factories (or move them to low-cost countries) and churn out light trucks.
"But, that's not possible at a time when Obama and congressional leaders are requiring Detroit to do more to advance conservation and alternative energy and create 5 million new jobs."
GM Facts:
US Market Share: 1962--51%; 2009--23%
US Employees: 1962-- 464,000 ; 2009-- 92,000
US Vehicle Sales : 1962-- 4.2 million; 2009-- 2.98 million
Revenues (2009 d0llars) : 1962--$105 billion; 2009-- $149 billion
Profits: 1962-- $1.46 billion
Losses: 2009-- $30.9 billion
The numbers say it all!!
"In other words, for all the number-crunching and all the brute financial haircuts involved in these bankruptcies (at GM and Chrysler), at the heart they are animated by the audacity of hope. . . . And these hopes float on the audacity of deficit spending. . .the public price tag will
exceed $100 billion.
"When Obama drafted Rattner and another financier, Ron Bloom, to lead his auto task force, he instructed them to 'treat these transactions in a commercial manner.' That is to say, restructure the companies in a way that makes good commercial sense. The "commercial" mantra proved fleeting. The first imperative of commerce--to add value and thus earn profits--is too narrow to host all the civic expectations attached to the auto industry. If GM's only task were to make money, the company would shutter its car factories (or move them to low-cost countries) and churn out light trucks.
"But, that's not possible at a time when Obama and congressional leaders are requiring Detroit to do more to advance conservation and alternative energy and create 5 million new jobs."
GM Facts:
US Market Share: 1962--51%; 2009--23%
US Employees: 1962-- 464,000 ; 2009-- 92,000
US Vehicle Sales : 1962-- 4.2 million; 2009-- 2.98 million
Revenues (2009 d0llars) : 1962--$105 billion; 2009-- $149 billion
Profits: 1962-- $1.46 billion
Losses: 2009-- $30.9 billion
The numbers say it all!!
"The End of the University as We Know It"
The New York Times, Op-Ed page, April 27, 2009
"Graduate education is the Detroit of higher education. Most graduate programs in American universities produce a product for which there is no market (candidates for teaching positions that do not exist) and develop skills for which there is diminishing demand (research in subfields within subfields and publication in journals read by no one other than a few like-minded colleagues), all at a rapidly rising cost (sometimes well over $100,000 in student loans).
"The dirty secret of higher education is that without underpaid graduate students (and adjunct faculty) to help with teaching, universities could not conduct research or even instruct their growing undergraduate programs. . . .It is simply cheaper to provide graduate students with modest stipends and adjuncts with as little as $5,000 a course (maybe at Harvard, but the average is really about $3,000 a course)--with no benefits--than it is to hire full-time professors. (And, the administrators are laughing all the way to the bank!)
"If American higher education is to thrive in the 21st century, colleges and universities. like Wall Street and Detroit, must be rigorously regulated and completely restructured."
--by Mark C. Taylor, chairman of the Religion Department
Columbia University
"Graduate education is the Detroit of higher education. Most graduate programs in American universities produce a product for which there is no market (candidates for teaching positions that do not exist) and develop skills for which there is diminishing demand (research in subfields within subfields and publication in journals read by no one other than a few like-minded colleagues), all at a rapidly rising cost (sometimes well over $100,000 in student loans).
"The dirty secret of higher education is that without underpaid graduate students (and adjunct faculty) to help with teaching, universities could not conduct research or even instruct their growing undergraduate programs. . . .It is simply cheaper to provide graduate students with modest stipends and adjuncts with as little as $5,000 a course (maybe at Harvard, but the average is really about $3,000 a course)--with no benefits--than it is to hire full-time professors. (And, the administrators are laughing all the way to the bank!)
"If American higher education is to thrive in the 21st century, colleges and universities. like Wall Street and Detroit, must be rigorously regulated and completely restructured."
--by Mark C. Taylor, chairman of the Religion Department
Columbia University
"Want Peace of Mind? Spend Prudently"
According to a column written by Ben Stein with this headline on May 5, 2009:
"I have seen immense changes in this country in the last 40 years . . . .But, I thought, there are some constants. Man's nature is a constant. Man is fearful, avaricious, cunning, shifty, and untrustworthy in many cases, and many of those men wind up on Wall Street. But man is also hardworking, daring, committed to innovation, and eagerly willing to help his fellow man--and one or two of those people wind up on Wall Street, too.
"However, the main reason I felt so worked up about being on Wall Street where I was 40 years ago (in a law firm) is because all those years have passed, so much of my life is over, and relatively little remains. And I have spent so much of my life worrying about money that it makes me want to weep. I didn't have to do it. . . . and this has largely to do with an immensely bad habit I have: I like to spend extravagantly. I scare myself with my extravagance."
"I have seen immense changes in this country in the last 40 years . . . .But, I thought, there are some constants. Man's nature is a constant. Man is fearful, avaricious, cunning, shifty, and untrustworthy in many cases, and many of those men wind up on Wall Street. But man is also hardworking, daring, committed to innovation, and eagerly willing to help his fellow man--and one or two of those people wind up on Wall Street, too.
"However, the main reason I felt so worked up about being on Wall Street where I was 40 years ago (in a law firm) is because all those years have passed, so much of my life is over, and relatively little remains. And I have spent so much of my life worrying about money that it makes me want to weep. I didn't have to do it. . . . and this has largely to do with an immensely bad habit I have: I like to spend extravagantly. I scare myself with my extravagance."
Monday, February 02, 2009
What Life Asks of Us
David Brooks in The New York Times, January 27, 2009
"We are not defined by what we ask of life. We are defined by what life asks of us. As we go through life, we travel through institutions--first family and school, then the institutions of a profession or craft.
"A teacher's relationship to the craft of teaching, an athlete's relationship to her sport, a farmer's relationship to her land is not an individual choice that can be easily reversed when psychic losses exceed psychic profits. Her social function defines who she is. There will be many long periods when you put more into your institution than you get out.
"We are not defined by what we ask of life. We are defined by what life asks of us. As we go through life, we travel through institutions--first family and school, then the institutions of a profession or craft.
"A teacher's relationship to the craft of teaching, an athlete's relationship to her sport, a farmer's relationship to her land is not an individual choice that can be easily reversed when psychic losses exceed psychic profits. Her social function defines who she is. There will be many long periods when you put more into your institution than you get out.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Motto for 2009--"Be Prudent"!
Ben Stein in The New York Times, Sunday, January 25, 2009
"Learn to be self-sufficient through your own contributions, as the saying goes.
This advice has served me well. It was propounded to me by my late father, who often said,
"BE PRUDENT". (His father was Herb Stein, a well-respected chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors in the Nixon Administration.)
"Maybe, upon second thought, I did not learn well about prudence. Then I think that maybe it's too late for far too many of us. The age when money was a free good, available in unlimited quantities just for signing a note, may well be over. What the heck will we do when we have to start acting like mature adults? How will we cope with the limits? With reality?
"America, a nation of free-spending Peter Pans. Where are our moms and dads when we need them? It's their fault.
"Learn to be self-sufficient through your own contributions, as the saying goes.
This advice has served me well. It was propounded to me by my late father, who often said,
"BE PRUDENT". (His father was Herb Stein, a well-respected chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors in the Nixon Administration.)
"Maybe, upon second thought, I did not learn well about prudence. Then I think that maybe it's too late for far too many of us. The age when money was a free good, available in unlimited quantities just for signing a note, may well be over. What the heck will we do when we have to start acting like mature adults? How will we cope with the limits? With reality?
"America, a nation of free-spending Peter Pans. Where are our moms and dads when we need them? It's their fault.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Benefits of An Educated Generation
"Let's assume, just for a minute, that we've learned a lesson: that amassing billions is no longer seen as a road to happiness and the enjoyment of life. Security, it may be dawning on us, lies elsewhere.
The educational system needs a large influx of money. Schoolteachers should all be paid twice what they get now, as they are the ones who will make this city financially and socially livable in the future. An educated generation will create, will be employed, will be healthier and more involved."
--David Byrne
Musician and artist
In suggestions from New Yorkers on how the president-elect can create a New Deal.
The New York Times, January 18, 2009
The educational system needs a large influx of money. Schoolteachers should all be paid twice what they get now, as they are the ones who will make this city financially and socially livable in the future. An educated generation will create, will be employed, will be healthier and more involved."
--David Byrne
Musician and artist
In suggestions from New Yorkers on how the president-elect can create a New Deal.
The New York Times, January 18, 2009
"Just Do It"!
When you aren't sure how to handle a tough situation in life, remember these words:
"There is no better sign of a brave mind than a hard hand."
-- William Shakespeare
"Just Do It" -- Nike slogan"
"When the One Great Scorer comes to write
against your name--
He marks--not that you won or lost--but
how you played the game."
--Grantland Rice (1880-1954)
"There is no better sign of a brave mind than a hard hand."
-- William Shakespeare
"Just Do It" -- Nike slogan"
"When the One Great Scorer comes to write
against your name--
He marks--not that you won or lost--but
how you played the game."
--Grantland Rice (1880-1954)
Give Teachers More Value and More Pay!
Letter to The New York Times, December 26, 2008
"Bob Herbert's reminder of the importance of teachers and the average worker hits a fundamental problem of our society--when given the choice to value people who are providing worthwhile services or people who exist purely to satiate their own wealth and fame, we choose the latter.
How else to describe a society that believes that the average teacher or autoworker should take a pay cut while the average millionaire shouldn't be overtaxed?
No amount of bailout money will save us from a profoundly dysfunctional society in which actors, pop stars and hedge fund managers impress us more than the people teaching our children how to read."
Lynne Goldhammer
Brooklyn, Dec. 23, 2008
"Bob Herbert's reminder of the importance of teachers and the average worker hits a fundamental problem of our society--when given the choice to value people who are providing worthwhile services or people who exist purely to satiate their own wealth and fame, we choose the latter.
How else to describe a society that believes that the average teacher or autoworker should take a pay cut while the average millionaire shouldn't be overtaxed?
No amount of bailout money will save us from a profoundly dysfunctional society in which actors, pop stars and hedge fund managers impress us more than the people teaching our children how to read."
Lynne Goldhammer
Brooklyn, Dec. 23, 2008
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Teaching for Today's Students
More Personal Teaching Methods
As we celebrate the New Year 2009, we can also look back on the first decade of the 21st century and see that some enlightened teachers are realizing that there's a better way to teach students in smaller classes and more personal attention from the professor assigned to the course rather than substitutes or graduate assistants.
The following quote was in Forbes magazine in January 2009:
"The great art of learning is to understand but little at a time." -- John Locke
Coincidentally, The New York Times on Tuesday, January 13, 2009, wrote the following under the headline:
"At M.I.T., Large Lectures Are Going the Way of the Blackboard"
"The physics department has replaced the traditional large introductory lecture with smaller classes that emphasize hands-on, interactive, collaborative learning. . . . with research showing
that most students learn fundamental concepts more successfully and are better able to apply them."
"In an article in the education journal Change last year, Dr. Carl Wieman, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist at the University of British Columbia, noted that the human brain can hold a maximum of about seven different items in its short-term working memory and can process no more than about four ideas at once. . . .we should not be surprised that that students are able to take away only a small fraction of what is presented to them (in a typical hour-long science lecture).
As we celebrate the New Year 2009, we can also look back on the first decade of the 21st century and see that some enlightened teachers are realizing that there's a better way to teach students in smaller classes and more personal attention from the professor assigned to the course rather than substitutes or graduate assistants.
The following quote was in Forbes magazine in January 2009:
"The great art of learning is to understand but little at a time." -- John Locke
Coincidentally, The New York Times on Tuesday, January 13, 2009, wrote the following under the headline:
"At M.I.T., Large Lectures Are Going the Way of the Blackboard"
"The physics department has replaced the traditional large introductory lecture with smaller classes that emphasize hands-on, interactive, collaborative learning. . . . with research showing
that most students learn fundamental concepts more successfully and are better able to apply them."
"In an article in the education journal Change last year, Dr. Carl Wieman, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist at the University of British Columbia, noted that the human brain can hold a maximum of about seven different items in its short-term working memory and can process no more than about four ideas at once. . . .we should not be surprised that that students are able to take away only a small fraction of what is presented to them (in a typical hour-long science lecture).
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