Friday, December 23, 2005
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Diversity
A letter to the Editor commenting on a article printed November 14 in the WSJ titled “The New Diversity” by Carol Hymowitz, Roger Clegg, General Counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity, answers as follows; “When a company brags that it celebrates diversity, it almost always means that it takes, race, ethnicity and sex into who gets hired and promoted. This isn’t fighting discrimination. This is discrimination. When business say they are marketing to a diverse customer base; what they are saying is nonsense. You don’t have to be a member of a particular ethnic group in order to figure out how to sell to them. Just because you happen to belong to that group doesn’t mean you actually know anything about selling to them. Also, a company can’t discriminate against black applicants just because the customer base is white, and the same is true if the shoe is on the other foot.
Companies should just hire the best qualified people, without out regard to skin color, the country their ancestors came from, or their plumbing. And they should fire their vice-presidents for diversity and fire their diversity consultants.”
The President and CEO of the Associations for Americans for Civic Responsibility also answers to the same “The New Diversity” article by stating “a good “diversity practice” doesn’t adopt a mere numbers game of hiring certain minorities alone, but also QUAIFIED people from every segment of society, both native born and naturalized. Corporations that play the numbers game excluding highly qualified immigrants because of their accent, ancestry or appearance, interlinked with their national origins, should not claim to be good corporate citizens.”
Amen for colleges and any organization that excludes people of ability OF ANY RACE OR GENDER just because they have “quotas” to fill.
On 12/5/02, an article written by the conservative Linda Chavez, she sums it up by saying “No person should be denied opportunity because of skin color.” But she goes on to say “that colleges and universities have been trying to socially engineer their student enrollment to reflect some ideal racial balance at the expense of more qualified students.”
William Henry in his book “In Defense of Elitism” points out that when companies’ downsize the elimination comes from those who were lured to college thru diversity plans and on the mistaken premise that college would transfer them from mediocre to magisterial.
Myron Magnet in his 1993 book “The Dream and Nightmare” predicted the dumbing down of America by our leaders trying to be politically correct. There is no doubt that we are a diverse country which has always been an asset our growth and successes. But the quality of the product offered is what will sell, not the diversity of the workforce.
I leave you with this quote from Rebecca West “If the whole human race lay in one grave, the epitaph on its headstone might well be: It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Companies should just hire the best qualified people, without out regard to skin color, the country their ancestors came from, or their plumbing. And they should fire their vice-presidents for diversity and fire their diversity consultants.”
The President and CEO of the Associations for Americans for Civic Responsibility also answers to the same “The New Diversity” article by stating “a good “diversity practice” doesn’t adopt a mere numbers game of hiring certain minorities alone, but also QUAIFIED people from every segment of society, both native born and naturalized. Corporations that play the numbers game excluding highly qualified immigrants because of their accent, ancestry or appearance, interlinked with their national origins, should not claim to be good corporate citizens.”
Amen for colleges and any organization that excludes people of ability OF ANY RACE OR GENDER just because they have “quotas” to fill.
On 12/5/02, an article written by the conservative Linda Chavez, she sums it up by saying “No person should be denied opportunity because of skin color.” But she goes on to say “that colleges and universities have been trying to socially engineer their student enrollment to reflect some ideal racial balance at the expense of more qualified students.”
William Henry in his book “In Defense of Elitism” points out that when companies’ downsize the elimination comes from those who were lured to college thru diversity plans and on the mistaken premise that college would transfer them from mediocre to magisterial.
Myron Magnet in his 1993 book “The Dream and Nightmare” predicted the dumbing down of America by our leaders trying to be politically correct. There is no doubt that we are a diverse country which has always been an asset our growth and successes. But the quality of the product offered is what will sell, not the diversity of the workforce.
I leave you with this quote from Rebecca West “If the whole human race lay in one grave, the epitaph on its headstone might well be: It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Iraq Today
The Noon Optimist Club welcomes Amir W. Al-Khafajl, Ph.D., M. ASCE, Professor and Chairperson; Department of Civil Engineering and Construction at Bradley University, on January 32, 2006. The Optimist Cub meets every Tuesday at approximately 11:30-1:00 at Barracks Catering. Our meetings are open to the public and the $9.50 charge includes a buffet lunch.
Dr. Al-Khafajl will speak on “Iraq Today”. He has recently returned from his native Iraq and other locations in the Mid-East. His familiarity with the regions most of us know little about except what we hear, and his experiences and first hand knowledge should help us better understand this area of our world.
Dr. Al-Khafajl may surprise some who have bought in to the “doom and gloom” of the situation in Iraq as described and shown by most of the liberal press.
Look for the announcement of this event in the Journal Star under the heading of “Social Clubs” on Monday January 30.
Hope some of my readers can join us. Having heard Dr, A-Khafajl speak, I believe your time will be well rewarded. Plus, the buffet is excellent.
Dr. Al-Khafajl will speak on “Iraq Today”. He has recently returned from his native Iraq and other locations in the Mid-East. His familiarity with the regions most of us know little about except what we hear, and his experiences and first hand knowledge should help us better understand this area of our world.
Dr. Al-Khafajl may surprise some who have bought in to the “doom and gloom” of the situation in Iraq as described and shown by most of the liberal press.
Look for the announcement of this event in the Journal Star under the heading of “Social Clubs” on Monday January 30.
Hope some of my readers can join us. Having heard Dr, A-Khafajl speak, I believe your time will be well rewarded. Plus, the buffet is excellent.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
A School District #150 Jewell
The Place -The Optimist Club Luncheon today at Barracks Catering.
The Performers – Preparatory School for the Arts
From – Peoria High School
Directed by - Ms. Karen Henderson Choral Director
The Choral Group – Absolutely delightful and talented!
The Director – Ditto!
The Optimist Members – Very appreciative!
This group of talented and seniors and underclass students put on a very refreshing and delightful and attention holding performance, presenting excellent vocal skills; even a barbershop quintet of five guys who not only were talented singers but entertaining performers. This group is a must see.
Their pre-holiday performances are scheduled as follows:
Thursday 12/15 at PHS – Peoria High Holiday Concert at 7:00 P.M.
Sunday 12/18 at the Civic Center Theatre – PACC Concert at 2:30 P.M.
Saturday 12/24 on WHOI-TV – Songs of the Holiday – 7 -9 P.M.
The leadership of Ms. Henderson and the attentiveness to her leadership by the boys and girls in Peoria High Choral Group is a pleasure to observe. This choral group and their director, is just one prominent example of accomplished people in Peoria Public School District #150. The Preparatory School for the Arts is a very important addition to the district’s curriculum, providing learning experiences from a respected and talented teacher whose extra efforts assist to graduate well-rounded high school, and probably college bound, students.
You can reach Ms. Henderson at karen.henderson@PSD150.org or at 672-6630. She knows how to relate to her students and assist them to perform their very best and it is obvious this choral group enjoys performing.
See for yourself and tell your friends!!
The Performers – Preparatory School for the Arts
From – Peoria High School
Directed by - Ms. Karen Henderson Choral Director
The Choral Group – Absolutely delightful and talented!
The Director – Ditto!
The Optimist Members – Very appreciative!
This group of talented and seniors and underclass students put on a very refreshing and delightful and attention holding performance, presenting excellent vocal skills; even a barbershop quintet of five guys who not only were talented singers but entertaining performers. This group is a must see.
Their pre-holiday performances are scheduled as follows:
Thursday 12/15 at PHS – Peoria High Holiday Concert at 7:00 P.M.
Sunday 12/18 at the Civic Center Theatre – PACC Concert at 2:30 P.M.
Saturday 12/24 on WHOI-TV – Songs of the Holiday – 7 -9 P.M.
The leadership of Ms. Henderson and the attentiveness to her leadership by the boys and girls in Peoria High Choral Group is a pleasure to observe. This choral group and their director, is just one prominent example of accomplished people in Peoria Public School District #150. The Preparatory School for the Arts is a very important addition to the district’s curriculum, providing learning experiences from a respected and talented teacher whose extra efforts assist to graduate well-rounded high school, and probably college bound, students.
You can reach Ms. Henderson at karen.henderson@PSD150.org or at 672-6630. She knows how to relate to her students and assist them to perform their very best and it is obvious this choral group enjoys performing.
See for yourself and tell your friends!!
Linking Pay to Performance
“More Companies Offer Packages Linking Pay to Performance” quoting from an article in today’s Wall Street Journal. “More companies are looking to increase the importance of merit-based raises. And more companies may also seek to link performance to benefits such as retirement savings with health care. Home Depot, like most companies, had long had a bonus program limited to managers and executives; workers in its stores had little incentive to go the extra mile. Several years ago, the company decided to change that. In 2003, it launched a program that gives store associates (workers) the opportunity to earn a bonus if their stores meet certain financial goals. Last year, Home Depot paid out $90 million under this plan”.
Yesterday I sent a three page email to DeWayne Bartels covering merit pay, longevity, automatic raises based on seniority instead of on merit, ect., in answer to his request for my comments on comments made on the floor of the City Council last week. Perhaps DeWayne will quote me in this story he is planning for the Observer on the subject of pay for city employees. If anyone wishes a copy of my email just send me your email address.
I started my business career as a salesman. The first three months I was on straight salary, (not much) the 2nd three months I was on salary and commissions and after nine months I asked to go on straight commission and never looked back. Incentives have long been used by private enterprise. Expect incentives to become more the way of keeping up with the emerging third world and with competition at home and in all sectors of employment.
Not all people re-act the same to incentive pay. That is understandable but longevity and loyalty will not keep you employed as you get older if you cannot compensate with greater production or efficiency. Dependability will certainly be factored in your job security. Nor will it guarantee you a yearly wage increase. In this new world developing, the rules are changing. You will need to keep up or accept no raises and possibly less benefits. Believe me, the best guarantee for job security is your own ability to adapt to a rapidly changing world. Belonging to a union is helpful but even some unions have not been able to retain jobs for their union members. Maytag in Galesburg is just one of many examples.
Relate what I write to the secure old Peoria system of “Dad works at ‘so and so” company so Dad of Mom will be able to get son or daughter a job there also.” I don’t believe this system has worked at large companies for quite a while now. For job security today he or she must more than adequately fill the job description and he or she must accept the responsibility of their position. And expect job descriptions to change more frequently. Expect to hear the word “compete” more and more frequently. For those who do not want their kids to have to compete and expect their grown kids to get a trophy for showing up at work; this probably will not happen unless Dad and Mom own the business and probably not even then.
Those of you who work in the public sector will find as the years go by the public sector will be run more like a private business. It has no choice if this country wants to maintain its leadership in the world. There will be constant challenges by employees, union or non-union, and challenges to elected officials and administration to gain access to additional dollars. If this part of the country loses more of its economic growth steam the demand may be greater than the resources.
All who have prepared themselves to compete and to be responsible will be in the best position to insure their own job security.
Yesterday I sent a three page email to DeWayne Bartels covering merit pay, longevity, automatic raises based on seniority instead of on merit, ect., in answer to his request for my comments on comments made on the floor of the City Council last week. Perhaps DeWayne will quote me in this story he is planning for the Observer on the subject of pay for city employees. If anyone wishes a copy of my email just send me your email address.
I started my business career as a salesman. The first three months I was on straight salary, (not much) the 2nd three months I was on salary and commissions and after nine months I asked to go on straight commission and never looked back. Incentives have long been used by private enterprise. Expect incentives to become more the way of keeping up with the emerging third world and with competition at home and in all sectors of employment.
Not all people re-act the same to incentive pay. That is understandable but longevity and loyalty will not keep you employed as you get older if you cannot compensate with greater production or efficiency. Dependability will certainly be factored in your job security. Nor will it guarantee you a yearly wage increase. In this new world developing, the rules are changing. You will need to keep up or accept no raises and possibly less benefits. Believe me, the best guarantee for job security is your own ability to adapt to a rapidly changing world. Belonging to a union is helpful but even some unions have not been able to retain jobs for their union members. Maytag in Galesburg is just one of many examples.
Relate what I write to the secure old Peoria system of “Dad works at ‘so and so” company so Dad of Mom will be able to get son or daughter a job there also.” I don’t believe this system has worked at large companies for quite a while now. For job security today he or she must more than adequately fill the job description and he or she must accept the responsibility of their position. And expect job descriptions to change more frequently. Expect to hear the word “compete” more and more frequently. For those who do not want their kids to have to compete and expect their grown kids to get a trophy for showing up at work; this probably will not happen unless Dad and Mom own the business and probably not even then.
Those of you who work in the public sector will find as the years go by the public sector will be run more like a private business. It has no choice if this country wants to maintain its leadership in the world. There will be constant challenges by employees, union or non-union, and challenges to elected officials and administration to gain access to additional dollars. If this part of the country loses more of its economic growth steam the demand may be greater than the resources.
All who have prepared themselves to compete and to be responsible will be in the best position to insure their own job security.
Monday, December 12, 2005
Tenure
When I was a manager in Dallas, Texas many years ago, my Chicago based regional manager told me that the U.S. would become like Japan; once an employee was hired on and gained tenure, the employee had a job guaranteed for the rest of their life. While I greatly respected Mr. Charles Morse, I told him I did not believe that would come to pass in this country. I certainly saw the possible advantages for the company and the employee. I also saw the potential downfall of the company or organization who promised lifetime employment to any employee.
The small town farming community where I grew up, Congerville, this community like all rural communities assisted those in real need and until they could again take care of themselves. Families were more intact and there was less materialism. Those who left the community to work for city companies never expected that they had lifetime employment if they didn’t meet the needs of their employer or if the company could not afford to keep them employed. Those able to work worked. Those who didn’t want to work moved from job to job or lived off their relatives and friends. Those unable to work were cared for by the community. The communities produced solid citizens.
How things have changed. An article in the JS on 12/5/05 reads “Study: Tenure Means Job Security”. It proceeds “Illinois teachers are rarely fired if they have tenure; it’s next to impossible for Illinois teacher to lose their jobs”. The article states that strong teachers unions and high costs related to legal appeals often scare many school districts form getting rid of even the worst tenured teachers. Clyde Seniers, superintendent of Cicero Elementary School is quoted “When I hire talented new college graduates I tell them “You are going to meet a lot of people in this profession who just shouldn’t be in it. But there is not a lot that can be done to hold them accountable because of tenure”.
Jim Dougherty, president of the Illinois Teacher Federation of Teachers, says “so few teachers are fired because so few need to be”. Hmmmmnm. Let’s look at the procedure to fire a teacher. Under a reform law passed 18 years ago, every school district except Chicago must recommend tenured teacher’s dismissal to an arbitrator. Arbitrators have ruled in 35% of the cases that the teacher should not be fired. The Geneseo school district has spent more than $400,000.00 in attorney fees over the past five years fighting appeals stemming from the firing of ONE tenured teacher.
Of the 95,000 tenured teachers employed in the state an average of only two per year are fired for poor performance. Another five a year are fired for misconduct. Public bodies are “plain out scared” to fire even the worst performing person because of fears of excessive litigation costs. 7 fired out of 95,000??
So my old boss was partly right. The public sector and some of the private sector in the U.S. is going the way of Japan. The Japanese model failed.
Many of the tenured teachers and other tenured people are promoted on the basis of length of time with the system instead of on their ability. Promotion by tenure instead of ability continues to deteriorate our public bodies, especially in the public school system. Expect more and more people moving to locations where the teachers are better, aren’t worried about tenure and the classrooms are less disruptive. Expect more “choice” schools being created for those parents who are concerned about the education of their children.
Northmoor is the perfect example of a well run school with a talented principal and staff. A large part of their success comes from being an Edison school. Superintendent Hinton and perhaps a majority of board members now talk of abolishing this “choice” system instead of reducing costs in other areas.
By contrast, an article in Forbes Magazine on 11/14/05 quotes Google CEO Eric Schmidt commenting on Goggle’s torrid growth, “this company loves to talk it out, jettisoning hierarchy, business silos and layers of management for a flatter “networked” structure where the person with the best data wins. He says “Google employees 5,000 painstakingly chosen people, sets up small, tightly focused teams, setting them up in an instant and breaking them down without remorse”.
Again, by contrast, many public schools hire whoever applies. Some weak school boards and administrators, overly protective unions with skilled attorneys and apathy in some communities have allowed “situations” within the schools that make it unattractive to be a teacher. Visit classrooms and you will see what some good and poor teachers have to put up with today. When I visit a school with strong principal and good teachers, I regain my confidence that the public schools can still succeed.
I left teaching after five great learning years and joined the business world. Since then it has been 50 years of continually learning and the more I learn the more I realize that while our public schools are some of the best in the world, many are failing or at least part of the system is failing. Having been a teacher, coach, business leader and now working as an elected official in the public sector, I am convinced that the public sector must be run more like a successful private business. To do that means more talented people are needed in the all the public sector ranks. Too attract more talented people; one major talent needed is “people skills”, we will need to make sweeping changes at the top starting with changes in the ivory towers of Washington, DC and Springfield.
Basically, I am a union man. My company was represented by the Teamsters Union. We had a mutual respect for one another and only one grievance was filed in 22 years and that was filed by an employee’s son. He lost his case. Widmer Interiors after 35 years is still represented by the Teamsters Union and is a very successful company. There was never a strike or even informational picketing. Last Friday, the company accepted an award from Loyola University as the best small business in Illinois. When the partnership between unions and management becomes unbalanced, all private and public sectors suffer. Good management keeps the working relationship in balance.
Unfortunately, many parts of the public sector and some of the private sector like General Motors, is out of balance. While one side may think they have gained an advantage all will suffer when a mutual goal becomes lost in lust for power.
I could write a book on the subject of tenure. I invite your comments. Sorry I went “missing” for awhile but I’ll be back after the holidays with more regular blogging.
Thanks for keeping in touch.
The small town farming community where I grew up, Congerville, this community like all rural communities assisted those in real need and until they could again take care of themselves. Families were more intact and there was less materialism. Those who left the community to work for city companies never expected that they had lifetime employment if they didn’t meet the needs of their employer or if the company could not afford to keep them employed. Those able to work worked. Those who didn’t want to work moved from job to job or lived off their relatives and friends. Those unable to work were cared for by the community. The communities produced solid citizens.
How things have changed. An article in the JS on 12/5/05 reads “Study: Tenure Means Job Security”. It proceeds “Illinois teachers are rarely fired if they have tenure; it’s next to impossible for Illinois teacher to lose their jobs”. The article states that strong teachers unions and high costs related to legal appeals often scare many school districts form getting rid of even the worst tenured teachers. Clyde Seniers, superintendent of Cicero Elementary School is quoted “When I hire talented new college graduates I tell them “You are going to meet a lot of people in this profession who just shouldn’t be in it. But there is not a lot that can be done to hold them accountable because of tenure”.
Jim Dougherty, president of the Illinois Teacher Federation of Teachers, says “so few teachers are fired because so few need to be”. Hmmmmnm. Let’s look at the procedure to fire a teacher. Under a reform law passed 18 years ago, every school district except Chicago must recommend tenured teacher’s dismissal to an arbitrator. Arbitrators have ruled in 35% of the cases that the teacher should not be fired. The Geneseo school district has spent more than $400,000.00 in attorney fees over the past five years fighting appeals stemming from the firing of ONE tenured teacher.
Of the 95,000 tenured teachers employed in the state an average of only two per year are fired for poor performance. Another five a year are fired for misconduct. Public bodies are “plain out scared” to fire even the worst performing person because of fears of excessive litigation costs. 7 fired out of 95,000??
So my old boss was partly right. The public sector and some of the private sector in the U.S. is going the way of Japan. The Japanese model failed.
Many of the tenured teachers and other tenured people are promoted on the basis of length of time with the system instead of on their ability. Promotion by tenure instead of ability continues to deteriorate our public bodies, especially in the public school system. Expect more and more people moving to locations where the teachers are better, aren’t worried about tenure and the classrooms are less disruptive. Expect more “choice” schools being created for those parents who are concerned about the education of their children.
Northmoor is the perfect example of a well run school with a talented principal and staff. A large part of their success comes from being an Edison school. Superintendent Hinton and perhaps a majority of board members now talk of abolishing this “choice” system instead of reducing costs in other areas.
By contrast, an article in Forbes Magazine on 11/14/05 quotes Google CEO Eric Schmidt commenting on Goggle’s torrid growth, “this company loves to talk it out, jettisoning hierarchy, business silos and layers of management for a flatter “networked” structure where the person with the best data wins. He says “Google employees 5,000 painstakingly chosen people, sets up small, tightly focused teams, setting them up in an instant and breaking them down without remorse”.
Again, by contrast, many public schools hire whoever applies. Some weak school boards and administrators, overly protective unions with skilled attorneys and apathy in some communities have allowed “situations” within the schools that make it unattractive to be a teacher. Visit classrooms and you will see what some good and poor teachers have to put up with today. When I visit a school with strong principal and good teachers, I regain my confidence that the public schools can still succeed.
I left teaching after five great learning years and joined the business world. Since then it has been 50 years of continually learning and the more I learn the more I realize that while our public schools are some of the best in the world, many are failing or at least part of the system is failing. Having been a teacher, coach, business leader and now working as an elected official in the public sector, I am convinced that the public sector must be run more like a successful private business. To do that means more talented people are needed in the all the public sector ranks. Too attract more talented people; one major talent needed is “people skills”, we will need to make sweeping changes at the top starting with changes in the ivory towers of Washington, DC and Springfield.
Basically, I am a union man. My company was represented by the Teamsters Union. We had a mutual respect for one another and only one grievance was filed in 22 years and that was filed by an employee’s son. He lost his case. Widmer Interiors after 35 years is still represented by the Teamsters Union and is a very successful company. There was never a strike or even informational picketing. Last Friday, the company accepted an award from Loyola University as the best small business in Illinois. When the partnership between unions and management becomes unbalanced, all private and public sectors suffer. Good management keeps the working relationship in balance.
Unfortunately, many parts of the public sector and some of the private sector like General Motors, is out of balance. While one side may think they have gained an advantage all will suffer when a mutual goal becomes lost in lust for power.
I could write a book on the subject of tenure. I invite your comments. Sorry I went “missing” for awhile but I’ll be back after the holidays with more regular blogging.
Thanks for keeping in touch.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Some Peoria Leadership In Denial?
I quote from a document dated 10/27/05 from Dr. Gerald Brookhart, Peoria County Regional Superintendent, “In the school year 2004 the Regional Office of Education had 458 people take the GED test, of which 266 passed and 219 failed”. I suspect almost all of these lacked proper counseling and dropped out thinking they didn’t need an education and realized late in the game that they do. Too bad that the system is failing to look after those who have no inclination to finish high school, let alone attend or finish college.
I quote from a document received from the Office of the Chief Judge, Tenth Judicial Circuit of Illinois, “2003 data – School areas and the percent of Juvenile probationers who reside in that area. Whether or not they attend school in that area is another issue”. 4.5% come from the area served by Richwoods, 16.6% come from the area served by Peoria Central, 30.8% come from the area served by Woodruff, and 31.3.% come from the area served by Manual.
In an article titled “Dunlap Aces Tri-County” appearing in the JS dated 11/20/05, statistics are shown that Peoria School District #150 has the highest average teacher salaries, the sixth highest administration salaries, the highest by far expenditure per student; $10,038, had the worst PSAE in 2004 by far and the worst PSAE in 2005 by far. As to academic status 150 was one of five area schools on the states “early warning” list.
Manual had the worst truancy rate of any area school by far, 34.5%; an average of 240 students absent each day; Peoria High and Woodruff had 2nd high truancy rate 11.6% each day.
I hear from the school board that the new truancy policy is working and fewer kids are seen on the street. A City Police Officer tells me that truants have quickly learned to stay off the street so they won’t be picked up. This system needs a year to work out but if results aren’t substantial, there are additional alternates to keep kids in schools. I have already blogged on one way; find it in my 3/26/05 archives and there is an article titled “Schools Get Tough on Tardy Students” appearing in the 11/17/05 issue of the WSJ telling how other schools area getting results.
A Manual lead teacher did not like the observations I made about the lack of discipline, the dress of some of the kids (and some teachers) and the teaching I observed in the classroom. She emailed me “Comments about 16,000 warrants (this figure from the floor of the City Council) and lawbreakers from schools or dropouts around the courthouse… that would be the Peoria High and Woodruff area, not Manual”. Sorry, read the statistics in the Journal Star.
The latest statistics I have for the Peoria County Juvenile Detention Center for the month of April 2005; it shows 84 African Americans; 22 Caucasians and 3 Hispanics, passed through the system with an average incarceration of approximately 23 days. The County paid for 1463 days of child care.
An article appearing in the WSJ on 11/08/93s and titled “The assault on Juvenile Crime” says “that throughout the country, district attorneys are naming juvenile crime as the number one crime problem and the reform of the juvenile justice system as their top priority”. Here it is almost 13 years later and little has changed.
The renowned black author Tom Sowell and a man called by many “America’s best intellect” was interviewed tonight by Fred Barnes on Fox TV. Dr. Sowell talks and writes about what has gone wrong in the black communities. Dr. Sowell says “Blacks were better off before Civil Rights and Affirmative Action and he is pessimistic about the future. He believes that values such as honesty and responsibility have greatly deteriorated and that many of the leaders of the black community have a strong feeling toward the rights of entitlement. (I add that blacks are not alone in “just give me the fish. I don’t want to work to catch it)”. We need thousands more black leaders like Dr. Sowell to help us out of worsening mess accelerated by Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society”.
Dr. Sowell believes in the ability of the individual to do better for their selves than to wait for someone to do it for them. An article dated 11/06/ 05 in the JS quotes Dorothy Rich, founder and president of the nonprofit Home and School Institute, Mega Skills Education Center in D.C. Mrs. Rich says “adults are doing what children need to do. I visited a kindergarten class the other day. I love to see children’s artwork. All I saw was the teacher work. Student accountability gets harder as kids move forward in the grades because they get so used to adults doing it”. I observed this at Manual and have observed this flaw at a few other schools I visited.
I believe that the whole country is in denial of what is going on outside the board room meetings, the country clubs and the martini luncheons. Our own “self-esteem” and the way we credit non-performers by passing them on and awarding them trophies for finishing last, may turn out to be our downfall. The highest priority is the ongoing problems in the public school systems, enrollment over 14,000 in our own School District #150 alone.
JS Business writer Paul Gordon says that the median wage has declined steadily in the past 25 years for those with a high school diploma or less. It stayed consistent for those with some college education and has grown by 16.4 per cent for those with a bachelor’s degree. Another article claims forty two per cent of the managers interviewed said it was difficult to find qualified candidates one year ago and 32 percent say it’s more challenging today. Eight-six percent believe it will be equally or more challenging a year from now.
Too many of us are criticizing “outsourcing” while not understanding why it is growing and will continue to grow.
An article in the 11/28/05issue of a prominent magazine titled “Get In, Show Up, Drop Out tries to learn why so many college students fail to graduate”. I’ll blog on this later.
Our denials of what is happening around us will not stop the pessimism of Dr. Sowell and many of us who think like he does. Our kids can have all the self-esteem in the world; but that won’t get them through school, keep them out of the juvenile courts or prepare them to handle life’s travails or prepare them to get and hold a good job.
Of course, we are doing most things right and we are the best country in the world. France thought they were doing most things right but they couldn’t see the recent troubles coming from their ivory towers.
These times call for strong and fully educated common sense leaders and it appears we may not have enough of them. Chavez, Hitler, Stalin, Castro, Mao and others stepped in while the elite were planning more enhancements and circuses and paying lip service or throwing money at what appeared to them to be small problems. One dictatorship or one uneducated culture can destroy what thousands have built in a lifetime.
I quote from a document received from the Office of the Chief Judge, Tenth Judicial Circuit of Illinois, “2003 data – School areas and the percent of Juvenile probationers who reside in that area. Whether or not they attend school in that area is another issue”. 4.5% come from the area served by Richwoods, 16.6% come from the area served by Peoria Central, 30.8% come from the area served by Woodruff, and 31.3.% come from the area served by Manual.
In an article titled “Dunlap Aces Tri-County” appearing in the JS dated 11/20/05, statistics are shown that Peoria School District #150 has the highest average teacher salaries, the sixth highest administration salaries, the highest by far expenditure per student; $10,038, had the worst PSAE in 2004 by far and the worst PSAE in 2005 by far. As to academic status 150 was one of five area schools on the states “early warning” list.
Manual had the worst truancy rate of any area school by far, 34.5%; an average of 240 students absent each day; Peoria High and Woodruff had 2nd high truancy rate 11.6% each day.
I hear from the school board that the new truancy policy is working and fewer kids are seen on the street. A City Police Officer tells me that truants have quickly learned to stay off the street so they won’t be picked up. This system needs a year to work out but if results aren’t substantial, there are additional alternates to keep kids in schools. I have already blogged on one way; find it in my 3/26/05 archives and there is an article titled “Schools Get Tough on Tardy Students” appearing in the 11/17/05 issue of the WSJ telling how other schools area getting results.
A Manual lead teacher did not like the observations I made about the lack of discipline, the dress of some of the kids (and some teachers) and the teaching I observed in the classroom. She emailed me “Comments about 16,000 warrants (this figure from the floor of the City Council) and lawbreakers from schools or dropouts around the courthouse… that would be the Peoria High and Woodruff area, not Manual”. Sorry, read the statistics in the Journal Star.
The latest statistics I have for the Peoria County Juvenile Detention Center for the month of April 2005; it shows 84 African Americans; 22 Caucasians and 3 Hispanics, passed through the system with an average incarceration of approximately 23 days. The County paid for 1463 days of child care.
An article appearing in the WSJ on 11/08/93s and titled “The assault on Juvenile Crime” says “that throughout the country, district attorneys are naming juvenile crime as the number one crime problem and the reform of the juvenile justice system as their top priority”. Here it is almost 13 years later and little has changed.
The renowned black author Tom Sowell and a man called by many “America’s best intellect” was interviewed tonight by Fred Barnes on Fox TV. Dr. Sowell talks and writes about what has gone wrong in the black communities. Dr. Sowell says “Blacks were better off before Civil Rights and Affirmative Action and he is pessimistic about the future. He believes that values such as honesty and responsibility have greatly deteriorated and that many of the leaders of the black community have a strong feeling toward the rights of entitlement. (I add that blacks are not alone in “just give me the fish. I don’t want to work to catch it)”. We need thousands more black leaders like Dr. Sowell to help us out of worsening mess accelerated by Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society”.
Dr. Sowell believes in the ability of the individual to do better for their selves than to wait for someone to do it for them. An article dated 11/06/ 05 in the JS quotes Dorothy Rich, founder and president of the nonprofit Home and School Institute, Mega Skills Education Center in D.C. Mrs. Rich says “adults are doing what children need to do. I visited a kindergarten class the other day. I love to see children’s artwork. All I saw was the teacher work. Student accountability gets harder as kids move forward in the grades because they get so used to adults doing it”. I observed this at Manual and have observed this flaw at a few other schools I visited.
I believe that the whole country is in denial of what is going on outside the board room meetings, the country clubs and the martini luncheons. Our own “self-esteem” and the way we credit non-performers by passing them on and awarding them trophies for finishing last, may turn out to be our downfall. The highest priority is the ongoing problems in the public school systems, enrollment over 14,000 in our own School District #150 alone.
JS Business writer Paul Gordon says that the median wage has declined steadily in the past 25 years for those with a high school diploma or less. It stayed consistent for those with some college education and has grown by 16.4 per cent for those with a bachelor’s degree. Another article claims forty two per cent of the managers interviewed said it was difficult to find qualified candidates one year ago and 32 percent say it’s more challenging today. Eight-six percent believe it will be equally or more challenging a year from now.
Too many of us are criticizing “outsourcing” while not understanding why it is growing and will continue to grow.
An article in the 11/28/05issue of a prominent magazine titled “Get In, Show Up, Drop Out tries to learn why so many college students fail to graduate”. I’ll blog on this later.
Our denials of what is happening around us will not stop the pessimism of Dr. Sowell and many of us who think like he does. Our kids can have all the self-esteem in the world; but that won’t get them through school, keep them out of the juvenile courts or prepare them to handle life’s travails or prepare them to get and hold a good job.
Of course, we are doing most things right and we are the best country in the world. France thought they were doing most things right but they couldn’t see the recent troubles coming from their ivory towers.
These times call for strong and fully educated common sense leaders and it appears we may not have enough of them. Chavez, Hitler, Stalin, Castro, Mao and others stepped in while the elite were planning more enhancements and circuses and paying lip service or throwing money at what appeared to them to be small problems. One dictatorship or one uneducated culture can destroy what thousands have built in a lifetime.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Education Battlegrounds
We have been hearing a lot about how government must become more “transparent”. It is time to include schools in that category. Principals and teachers should welcome visitors to their classrooms so these visitors can see first hand the difficulties and joys of teaching and administrating. I suspect, like bad government, bad or weak teachers do not want visitors. Schools must be run more like a business with the school as the retail store and the students, parents and community as their customers.
All stores that sell products (schools) must be open for the customer; (parents and community) to come in and see the product they are going to buy or are buying (what is being taught and how). These customers want to see a clean store (school), lots of products openly displayed so they can make the best choices (the curriculum), knowledge people (teachers, ect.) to assist them in meeting their needs. They want to know about your reputation in the community, how sound your ownership is (the school board) and your financial stability to guarantee your product.
There is a book recently on the market which I plan to read titled “Our School”, a vivid account of the creation and first years of a charter school in San Jose, CA. “Our School” states that most charter schools take a while to succeed. They stress the basic verities of any school; discipline, hard work, an atmosphere of community, the involvement of parents, homework loads, required classes, teaching techniques—everything was a moving target, subject to change. “Our School-Downtown College Prep was able to adapt more quickly and the biggest reason was “attitude”. Admitting mistakes is part of the culture. What is more, the teachers that work there are usually young and open to new ideas, and usually hostile to unions or anything else that gets in the way of a fresh approach to teaching. (That doesn’t mean they are all good teachers; choice schools are subject to the normal variations of human ability).
Public schools have trouble learning from their mistakes and no one wants to admit to making any—the inertia of the status quo is paralyzing. The book details how this choice school takes many of the most difficult, under performing students. They are the least likely to attend school regularly or to graduate. By taking this type of student, the financial burden to the public schools is minimal.
Many teachers in #150 are embarrassed to have visitors in their classrooms. How sad. Yet we have many good schools, principals and teachers in Peoria. Take Columbia Middle School which may be the best kept secret in Peoria. Semi-retired ex-principal Stu Regnier ran a good ship and now Ms. Cindy Lochbaum-Janovetz as Principal, is doing an outstanding job of educating these 75% low income school students. A visit a short time ago found Cindy in the hallway and students passing quietly and respectfully down the hallways. Columbia made the AYP for the first time last year. The classroom or study area where I watched through an indoor window showed every kid involved quietly. Mrs. Janovetz keeps her office door open so she can hear and see what occurs in the hallways near her office. Cindy makes sure to visit classrooms on a regular basis. She welcomes visitors and asked me if I would like to visit a class. She is the type of person this community should be proud to have working with our youth in the public school system.
Richwood High School is under the capable hands of John Meisinger who replaced Jeanne Williamson who is now area leader Dunlap’s gain and District 150 loss. In a recent visit to Richwoods, I got a number of “you can’ts” from a person behind the front office counter; not a good way to greet a customer, but John showed up with “Hi, Mr. Widmer, can I take your coat. What would you like to do”? I said “I would like to have lunch; I’ll pay for it, and then visit a math or English class”. Principal Meisinger said “sign in and I’ll take you to cafeteria, then after lunch, you’ll find me in the hallways and I’ll take you to a classroom”. After a nourishing lunch (for $2.15) and friendly service from the lady behind the lunch bar, and eating in a well monitored cafeteria, I found Mr. Meisinger in the hallways and he took me to an algebra class being taught by Ms. Julie Robinson. What an engaging and energetic teacher! She involved everyone in her classroom, capturing their attention and creating an ideal learning environment.
As I’ve said in other blogs, I sometimes visit District #150 schools, going first to the office and signing in or as at Manual where I signed in at a security desk. At Manual, I was treated with courtesy by the people in the front office, the monitors and especially the janitor who was very much interested in the success of Manual.
People who live in School District #150 have the right (and obligation) to visit any school, follow proper procedure, sit where the teacher tells them to, do not look at the students who are sometimes trying to “cut up” in class and say nothing unless the teacher asks the visitor to make a comment to the students. On my visits most teachers do ask me to make a short comment at the end of the period as did Ms. Robinson. My statements are always positive and short and I appreciate this short time spent encouraging students to succeed and recognize their achievements.
District 150 will have a great deal of difficulty in winning the battle with the community. Even with some new board members with good ideas, I do not see an overall blending. When under attack, you can not “hunker down or strike back”. Instead admit your mistakes, open up your doors; hire principals who are like “sales managers” who know how to develop good attitudes of their salespeople (teachers and staff). Under present conditions I as a customer would only do business with about half of their stores (schools). I would be very concerned about the major move they are probably going to make Monday night. As a lender, I would look for more information as to how this plan is going to help make 150 succeed. At this time, based on the limited amount of information made public, I would not lend the money (taxpayer’s dollars). I would keep my money available for a better investment which might be in more schools of choice.
I know that this blog will irritate some and they will strike back with how great Washington Gifted School is. Of course it is and so is Whittier, Columbia, Richwoods, Hines, Northmoor and other schools. That’s why I paid $3000.00 of my property taxes to support #150’s $140 million dollar budget last year. Sorry. Peoria County Jail and Juvenile system passed 18,000 arrestees thru their doors last year, mainly very young, many members of the Vice Lords, No Loves, and Disciples. Most of those arrested come from Peoria. A Manual “lead teacher” told me that “there are no gang members attending Manual High School; that they all come from the area surrounding Woodruff and Peoria High”. When I told a leading security officer what she said, he laughed. But it was a sad laugh.
Why do kids join gangs? Gang members are disciplined and made to feel part of something. Too many kids in classrooms do not feel like they are engaged or fit in. Fewer schools and larger classes are not a solution for kids that are headed for the penal system. Why does the School District that needs it most still give lip service to Vo-Tech.? At least these kids might learn how to “flush a stool” or raise a kid or even learn how to get and hold a job.
The community knows the problem but as long as we have a goodly number of successful schools (stores), some community leaders can spend their time planning enhancements and eventually building more security buildings (warehouses).
Those coming out of “warehouses” with little education, no work ethics, disrespectful and undisciplined (no, the discipline they get in incarceration will not teach them respect) and with bad attitudes; many of these newly released are and will be a rising menace to the community.
“Pay me now or pay me later” as the saying goes. $30,000 to $40,000 to incarcerate yearly. Compare that with preventative and rehabilitation costs. No comparison.
And no, we can't prevent and rehabe all who are heading toward being a liability to society. But any additional successes are an improvement over what we are accomplishing now.
All stores that sell products (schools) must be open for the customer; (parents and community) to come in and see the product they are going to buy or are buying (what is being taught and how). These customers want to see a clean store (school), lots of products openly displayed so they can make the best choices (the curriculum), knowledge people (teachers, ect.) to assist them in meeting their needs. They want to know about your reputation in the community, how sound your ownership is (the school board) and your financial stability to guarantee your product.
There is a book recently on the market which I plan to read titled “Our School”, a vivid account of the creation and first years of a charter school in San Jose, CA. “Our School” states that most charter schools take a while to succeed. They stress the basic verities of any school; discipline, hard work, an atmosphere of community, the involvement of parents, homework loads, required classes, teaching techniques—everything was a moving target, subject to change. “Our School-Downtown College Prep was able to adapt more quickly and the biggest reason was “attitude”. Admitting mistakes is part of the culture. What is more, the teachers that work there are usually young and open to new ideas, and usually hostile to unions or anything else that gets in the way of a fresh approach to teaching. (That doesn’t mean they are all good teachers; choice schools are subject to the normal variations of human ability).
Public schools have trouble learning from their mistakes and no one wants to admit to making any—the inertia of the status quo is paralyzing. The book details how this choice school takes many of the most difficult, under performing students. They are the least likely to attend school regularly or to graduate. By taking this type of student, the financial burden to the public schools is minimal.
Many teachers in #150 are embarrassed to have visitors in their classrooms. How sad. Yet we have many good schools, principals and teachers in Peoria. Take Columbia Middle School which may be the best kept secret in Peoria. Semi-retired ex-principal Stu Regnier ran a good ship and now Ms. Cindy Lochbaum-Janovetz as Principal, is doing an outstanding job of educating these 75% low income school students. A visit a short time ago found Cindy in the hallway and students passing quietly and respectfully down the hallways. Columbia made the AYP for the first time last year. The classroom or study area where I watched through an indoor window showed every kid involved quietly. Mrs. Janovetz keeps her office door open so she can hear and see what occurs in the hallways near her office. Cindy makes sure to visit classrooms on a regular basis. She welcomes visitors and asked me if I would like to visit a class. She is the type of person this community should be proud to have working with our youth in the public school system.
Richwood High School is under the capable hands of John Meisinger who replaced Jeanne Williamson who is now area leader Dunlap’s gain and District 150 loss. In a recent visit to Richwoods, I got a number of “you can’ts” from a person behind the front office counter; not a good way to greet a customer, but John showed up with “Hi, Mr. Widmer, can I take your coat. What would you like to do”? I said “I would like to have lunch; I’ll pay for it, and then visit a math or English class”. Principal Meisinger said “sign in and I’ll take you to cafeteria, then after lunch, you’ll find me in the hallways and I’ll take you to a classroom”. After a nourishing lunch (for $2.15) and friendly service from the lady behind the lunch bar, and eating in a well monitored cafeteria, I found Mr. Meisinger in the hallways and he took me to an algebra class being taught by Ms. Julie Robinson. What an engaging and energetic teacher! She involved everyone in her classroom, capturing their attention and creating an ideal learning environment.
As I’ve said in other blogs, I sometimes visit District #150 schools, going first to the office and signing in or as at Manual where I signed in at a security desk. At Manual, I was treated with courtesy by the people in the front office, the monitors and especially the janitor who was very much interested in the success of Manual.
People who live in School District #150 have the right (and obligation) to visit any school, follow proper procedure, sit where the teacher tells them to, do not look at the students who are sometimes trying to “cut up” in class and say nothing unless the teacher asks the visitor to make a comment to the students. On my visits most teachers do ask me to make a short comment at the end of the period as did Ms. Robinson. My statements are always positive and short and I appreciate this short time spent encouraging students to succeed and recognize their achievements.
District 150 will have a great deal of difficulty in winning the battle with the community. Even with some new board members with good ideas, I do not see an overall blending. When under attack, you can not “hunker down or strike back”. Instead admit your mistakes, open up your doors; hire principals who are like “sales managers” who know how to develop good attitudes of their salespeople (teachers and staff). Under present conditions I as a customer would only do business with about half of their stores (schools). I would be very concerned about the major move they are probably going to make Monday night. As a lender, I would look for more information as to how this plan is going to help make 150 succeed. At this time, based on the limited amount of information made public, I would not lend the money (taxpayer’s dollars). I would keep my money available for a better investment which might be in more schools of choice.
I know that this blog will irritate some and they will strike back with how great Washington Gifted School is. Of course it is and so is Whittier, Columbia, Richwoods, Hines, Northmoor and other schools. That’s why I paid $3000.00 of my property taxes to support #150’s $140 million dollar budget last year. Sorry. Peoria County Jail and Juvenile system passed 18,000 arrestees thru their doors last year, mainly very young, many members of the Vice Lords, No Loves, and Disciples. Most of those arrested come from Peoria. A Manual “lead teacher” told me that “there are no gang members attending Manual High School; that they all come from the area surrounding Woodruff and Peoria High”. When I told a leading security officer what she said, he laughed. But it was a sad laugh.
Why do kids join gangs? Gang members are disciplined and made to feel part of something. Too many kids in classrooms do not feel like they are engaged or fit in. Fewer schools and larger classes are not a solution for kids that are headed for the penal system. Why does the School District that needs it most still give lip service to Vo-Tech.? At least these kids might learn how to “flush a stool” or raise a kid or even learn how to get and hold a job.
The community knows the problem but as long as we have a goodly number of successful schools (stores), some community leaders can spend their time planning enhancements and eventually building more security buildings (warehouses).
Those coming out of “warehouses” with little education, no work ethics, disrespectful and undisciplined (no, the discipline they get in incarceration will not teach them respect) and with bad attitudes; many of these newly released are and will be a rising menace to the community.
“Pay me now or pay me later” as the saying goes. $30,000 to $40,000 to incarcerate yearly. Compare that with preventative and rehabilitation costs. No comparison.
And no, we can't prevent and rehabe all who are heading toward being a liability to society. But any additional successes are an improvement over what we are accomplishing now.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Arbitration Fair? Not Hardly!
Arbitration. A nice sounding word. Definition; if you have a dispute, you can settle it easily without a lot of cost to you. Wrong. Let me tell you from first hand experience how arbitration works if you as, say, a stockholder, have a dispute with your stock broker or brokerage. I will summarize how it actually DOESN’T work:
1. First you will get a batch of papers to fill out to detail your claim. Unless you are adept in understanding complicated forms, you will find you need an attorney.
2. The attorneys will probably only be interested in your case if it is in their field of expertise. (In Peoria, few if any attorneys are interested in helping you with an arbitration case concerning stockbrokers and brokers, especially if it is against a local stockbroker or broker).
3. Once you find the right attorney with a good win record who specializes in suing brokers and stockbrokers and who will take your claim to arbitration (your claim will probably not even be considered unless it has a potential settlement of at least $50,000.00), you will be asked to put down a retainer of probably at least $5,000.00. This could be your first concern that you might be throwing good money after bad.
4. The attorney will want to review the case taking the cost of reviewing from the retainer check you just handed over. After a review, the attorney should tell you what your chances are of winning at arbitration.
5. If the attorney says your chances of winning are good, ask if your attorney will take your case on a percentage of the amount you will win. If your attorney says yes; the amount will likely be 33% to 40% of the settlement. You will then be informed that you will need to pay all expenses. These expenses can range from the cost of copies plus the cost of the person doing the copying all the way up to the cost of an expert; experts come from $1000.00 a day up plus per diem. You will be told you will get this money back when you WIN the case. You probably should continue on because now you have a partner.
6. If the attorney says no, it usually means you are going to make this attorney a lot richer and this attorney is going to make you a lot poorer. I suggest giving up now and accept your loss; by continuing with this attorney, your losses are probably going to get bigger. You make another bad decision and press on.
7. So the claim is filled and a battery of the defendants lawyers sends back their first reply, often many pages long and informing your attorney that you have no case even though you do. (It’s like an attorney defending a murderer by telling the murderer to plead “not guilty”. The defendant will have a large number of attorneys, interns and clerks so expect a sequence like this. Your attorney and his staff answer the defendants attorneys and your claim is again rejected with volumes of pages; some assaulting you personally in every way imaginable, including what a bad guy you are by asking your opponent to spin a racquet to determine who serves first. Your attorney interviews you with the clocks running at $175.00 to $250.00 an hour and then sends a reply back to the defending attorneys. They in turn deny what you are saying and ask you for, say, another thousand documents. (Or send your attorney another thousand forms to fill out) Then your attorney asks you for another $5 or $10 thousand because the case has gotten more complicated.
8. This scenario is repeated over a period of a year or so and your attorney has now 25 or 30 other cases going at the same time and will be asking you for more reviews of your original complaint and for more documentation all the time with the clock running. Your attorney has to refresh his memory at your expense because he has a new secretary or misplaced your file or realizes you aren’t going to win after all. (Most attorneys will not take a case on a percentage of your win because they usually know that if a big firm with batteries of lawyers, secretaries and interns makes up their mind they are not going to lose a particular, case they usually don’t).
9. Somewhere along the line you are out an additional $10 or $20 thousand and you are wondering what you are doing. Your chances are becoming slimmer and slimmer especially if you ask your attorneys how your case stands now and they say “about a fifty-fifty chance. You say, what do you mean? You told me when you took this case you could win it! Then your attorney makes a statement that sounds something like this: I’ve got to have another $10 to 20 thousand as the defendant is bringing up things; well like this tennis thing, which of course has nothing to do with the broader scheme of things but all these claims and counterclaims are costing more money to answer.
10. At this point, you are probably going to say, well, can we settle this without spending more money; such as on the three arbitration judges (who might come from Timbuktu) and who also get salary plus per diem and the expert witness for our side who also might come from Timbuktu. Then you might suddenly realize you are NOT going to beat “city hall” and you are going to be stuck with EVERYBODIES EXPENSES.
11. You are probably going to scream “why didn’t you tell me all this in the beginning”. You will of course not like your attorneys answer so your next statement is “find out what they want will settle for”. You’re thinking you now will maybe get half of what you were asking for and your attorney; if by then you still have the same one; your case may have now been turned over to a younger attorney who is only charging $150.00 an hour; this attorney informs you that he will try to get your expenses back. After you are through screaming and throwing tantrums, your attorney offers to get the best deal he can.
12. When two years of frustration, worry and expenses on top of your original loss, the attorneys office calls and suggest you accept the defendant and his battery of lawyers offer which, of course, won’t cover all your expenses. You then remember that is why they took your retainers. Some day, you’ll get back what’s left from your thousands of dollars in retainers and a thank you note and a request that if you ever need their services again they would be glad to be of service.
13. You remember that the Federal Securities Commission assures you that you will never be cheated because they have established that dissenting parties will settle by arbitration that will be fair and not costly to all parties. You realize they lied.
14. At this point you look at the check you received, look at yourself in the mirror, see your wife and kids packing to leave you, the gray hair and worry lines in your face and suddenly remember you still have your life insurance policy. Vowing to leave something to cover your burial expenses and a few dollars to your kids, you probably commit suicide.
The sequel is that your insurance policy has a disclaimer (in very small print on page 63 of your policy) that if you take your own life the policy is void. (Your family now hates you but at least you are not there to take more abuse).
The first moral of this (sad, but partly true) saga is that you as an individual, have two chances when you sue a large corporation; slim and none. The second moral is that almost all stockbrokers are in business to make money for themselves. If they do make money for you too, so much the better for them as they can use you as a reference for new clients. The third moral is to never buy stocks from a friend or a relative. The fourth moral is before selecting a broker, be sure you have more money than the broker. But then, why would you select a broker that didn’t know how to make money on the market for themselves? The fifth moral is never trust your money to someone just beginning in the business. They are learning the business with YOUR MONEY! There are more morals but it’s getting late ad I’m not being paid for this free advice
When you go to arbitration as an individual, never do so if the attorney won’t take your case on a percentage of the win. Is the system fair? Fair? No, whoever told you life is fair knows better. Does the system of arbitration for the small guy need changed? You bet. How; probably only if some foundation or group of wealthy attorneys decides to enter on the side of the small guy and make the term arbitration mean what it was meant to mean; an inexpensive way to win a claim against the big guys who screwed you. On class actions suits the attorneys or sometimes tort attorneys will charge you nothing but they get a major part of the settlement. And class action attorneys have no interest at all when you have a small case against a major corporation.
My next blog will be a positive blog on my visit to Richwoods High School and my observations of the apparent battleground between the schools and the public and how it can be a win-win for most all.
1. First you will get a batch of papers to fill out to detail your claim. Unless you are adept in understanding complicated forms, you will find you need an attorney.
2. The attorneys will probably only be interested in your case if it is in their field of expertise. (In Peoria, few if any attorneys are interested in helping you with an arbitration case concerning stockbrokers and brokers, especially if it is against a local stockbroker or broker).
3. Once you find the right attorney with a good win record who specializes in suing brokers and stockbrokers and who will take your claim to arbitration (your claim will probably not even be considered unless it has a potential settlement of at least $50,000.00), you will be asked to put down a retainer of probably at least $5,000.00. This could be your first concern that you might be throwing good money after bad.
4. The attorney will want to review the case taking the cost of reviewing from the retainer check you just handed over. After a review, the attorney should tell you what your chances are of winning at arbitration.
5. If the attorney says your chances of winning are good, ask if your attorney will take your case on a percentage of the amount you will win. If your attorney says yes; the amount will likely be 33% to 40% of the settlement. You will then be informed that you will need to pay all expenses. These expenses can range from the cost of copies plus the cost of the person doing the copying all the way up to the cost of an expert; experts come from $1000.00 a day up plus per diem. You will be told you will get this money back when you WIN the case. You probably should continue on because now you have a partner.
6. If the attorney says no, it usually means you are going to make this attorney a lot richer and this attorney is going to make you a lot poorer. I suggest giving up now and accept your loss; by continuing with this attorney, your losses are probably going to get bigger. You make another bad decision and press on.
7. So the claim is filled and a battery of the defendants lawyers sends back their first reply, often many pages long and informing your attorney that you have no case even though you do. (It’s like an attorney defending a murderer by telling the murderer to plead “not guilty”. The defendant will have a large number of attorneys, interns and clerks so expect a sequence like this. Your attorney and his staff answer the defendants attorneys and your claim is again rejected with volumes of pages; some assaulting you personally in every way imaginable, including what a bad guy you are by asking your opponent to spin a racquet to determine who serves first. Your attorney interviews you with the clocks running at $175.00 to $250.00 an hour and then sends a reply back to the defending attorneys. They in turn deny what you are saying and ask you for, say, another thousand documents. (Or send your attorney another thousand forms to fill out) Then your attorney asks you for another $5 or $10 thousand because the case has gotten more complicated.
8. This scenario is repeated over a period of a year or so and your attorney has now 25 or 30 other cases going at the same time and will be asking you for more reviews of your original complaint and for more documentation all the time with the clock running. Your attorney has to refresh his memory at your expense because he has a new secretary or misplaced your file or realizes you aren’t going to win after all. (Most attorneys will not take a case on a percentage of your win because they usually know that if a big firm with batteries of lawyers, secretaries and interns makes up their mind they are not going to lose a particular, case they usually don’t).
9. Somewhere along the line you are out an additional $10 or $20 thousand and you are wondering what you are doing. Your chances are becoming slimmer and slimmer especially if you ask your attorneys how your case stands now and they say “about a fifty-fifty chance. You say, what do you mean? You told me when you took this case you could win it! Then your attorney makes a statement that sounds something like this: I’ve got to have another $10 to 20 thousand as the defendant is bringing up things; well like this tennis thing, which of course has nothing to do with the broader scheme of things but all these claims and counterclaims are costing more money to answer.
10. At this point, you are probably going to say, well, can we settle this without spending more money; such as on the three arbitration judges (who might come from Timbuktu) and who also get salary plus per diem and the expert witness for our side who also might come from Timbuktu. Then you might suddenly realize you are NOT going to beat “city hall” and you are going to be stuck with EVERYBODIES EXPENSES.
11. You are probably going to scream “why didn’t you tell me all this in the beginning”. You will of course not like your attorneys answer so your next statement is “find out what they want will settle for”. You’re thinking you now will maybe get half of what you were asking for and your attorney; if by then you still have the same one; your case may have now been turned over to a younger attorney who is only charging $150.00 an hour; this attorney informs you that he will try to get your expenses back. After you are through screaming and throwing tantrums, your attorney offers to get the best deal he can.
12. When two years of frustration, worry and expenses on top of your original loss, the attorneys office calls and suggest you accept the defendant and his battery of lawyers offer which, of course, won’t cover all your expenses. You then remember that is why they took your retainers. Some day, you’ll get back what’s left from your thousands of dollars in retainers and a thank you note and a request that if you ever need their services again they would be glad to be of service.
13. You remember that the Federal Securities Commission assures you that you will never be cheated because they have established that dissenting parties will settle by arbitration that will be fair and not costly to all parties. You realize they lied.
14. At this point you look at the check you received, look at yourself in the mirror, see your wife and kids packing to leave you, the gray hair and worry lines in your face and suddenly remember you still have your life insurance policy. Vowing to leave something to cover your burial expenses and a few dollars to your kids, you probably commit suicide.
The sequel is that your insurance policy has a disclaimer (in very small print on page 63 of your policy) that if you take your own life the policy is void. (Your family now hates you but at least you are not there to take more abuse).
The first moral of this (sad, but partly true) saga is that you as an individual, have two chances when you sue a large corporation; slim and none. The second moral is that almost all stockbrokers are in business to make money for themselves. If they do make money for you too, so much the better for them as they can use you as a reference for new clients. The third moral is to never buy stocks from a friend or a relative. The fourth moral is before selecting a broker, be sure you have more money than the broker. But then, why would you select a broker that didn’t know how to make money on the market for themselves? The fifth moral is never trust your money to someone just beginning in the business. They are learning the business with YOUR MONEY! There are more morals but it’s getting late ad I’m not being paid for this free advice
When you go to arbitration as an individual, never do so if the attorney won’t take your case on a percentage of the win. Is the system fair? Fair? No, whoever told you life is fair knows better. Does the system of arbitration for the small guy need changed? You bet. How; probably only if some foundation or group of wealthy attorneys decides to enter on the side of the small guy and make the term arbitration mean what it was meant to mean; an inexpensive way to win a claim against the big guys who screwed you. On class actions suits the attorneys or sometimes tort attorneys will charge you nothing but they get a major part of the settlement. And class action attorneys have no interest at all when you have a small case against a major corporation.
My next blog will be a positive blog on my visit to Richwoods High School and my observations of the apparent battleground between the schools and the public and how it can be a win-win for most all.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
You Bought a What?
I’ve probably been too embarrassed to write this document but here goes. An article in Forbes Magazine dated 9/19/2005, is titled “You Bought a What”? Yes, I’m sorry to say I fell for a stockbroker’s pitch about how he had made his clients 20% a year thru their purchase from him of American Skandia variable annuities. Within 3-4 months I lost on paper over $30,000.00. My broker had led me to believe I would by now have added approximately $150,000.00 to my account. What a sucker I was. To date this investment has never recovered, yet I am paying a large amount in yearly fees. The article says “A reader told me that he had bought a variable annuity and wanted advice on what to do next. The damage, though, had already been done. Broker-sold annuities levy killer annual fees, in large part to compensate the brokers who sell them. You are required to keep your money in place for a while – seven years is typical. (Mine is 8 years) You can get out early by paying a huge exit fee to make up for the vendor’s lost chance to extract that annual fee”. The article continues “The only ones benefiting from annuities are the insurance companies selling them and the sales reps selling them. Sales reps never tell you the whole truth. That is, they may mention the annual fees and the exit penalty you are committing to, but they never mention how strongly motivated the broker is to push you into this particular product. The sales commission can easily be 8% to 16% of the amount you invest. And almost never does the salesman disclose the fundamental fact that you would be better off investing similarly outside the annuity-for example, in a plain old mutual fund”.
Even worse, while my total amount is covered by insurance, the (actual amount I invested only) that insurance disappears unless I renew the annuity for another 8 years and keep paying the huge annual fees. If I die before the policy expires in approximately four more years, my estate will get back my original investment only; minus withdrawals. If I outlive this annuity, I will have lost over $30,000.00 on my investment and will have also lost the insurance policy. I did withdraw up to !0% of my total investment yearly without penalty but each withdrawal meant paying income tax and each withdrawal lowered my death insurance coverage.
I have no doubt, a few people made money during the boom years of the 90’s in variable-annuities. Some “investors” even come away from the Paradice as winners.
An article in the WSJ on 12/24/05 says that the company I had purchased from, American Skandia (through a local broker) had been sold to Prudential Financial Services. It further says “American Skandia guaranteed annuity holders that their investments would double in 10 years. Few companies were as aggressive in enticing investors as Skandia’s U.S. unit”.
An article in the WSJ dated 9/17/05 titled “Variable-Annuity Charge Decline”. It says “As the variable-annuity industry comes under legal and regulatory pressure for allegedly coercive sales tactics, some big financial services companies are seeking to cut through the controversy by reducing fees”. Prudential Financial Services did not.
If anyone knows an attorney locally who would help me sue America-Skandia, now Prudential Financial, have that attorney give me a call. I would only work on percentages as I’ve also been stuck in the endless “so much an hour game” before. I cannot sue the salesman.
You can reach me thru my listing in the phone book or my email.
This is not intended as a sob story, just a reminder how gullible we can sometimes be when listening to a stock broker you are convinced has “only your best interest” at heart.
In my next blog called “Arbitration” I will tell you what a joke arbitration is to the individual stock holder and how you can seldom win and why not.
Even worse, while my total amount is covered by insurance, the (actual amount I invested only) that insurance disappears unless I renew the annuity for another 8 years and keep paying the huge annual fees. If I die before the policy expires in approximately four more years, my estate will get back my original investment only; minus withdrawals. If I outlive this annuity, I will have lost over $30,000.00 on my investment and will have also lost the insurance policy. I did withdraw up to !0% of my total investment yearly without penalty but each withdrawal meant paying income tax and each withdrawal lowered my death insurance coverage.
I have no doubt, a few people made money during the boom years of the 90’s in variable-annuities. Some “investors” even come away from the Paradice as winners.
An article in the WSJ on 12/24/05 says that the company I had purchased from, American Skandia (through a local broker) had been sold to Prudential Financial Services. It further says “American Skandia guaranteed annuity holders that their investments would double in 10 years. Few companies were as aggressive in enticing investors as Skandia’s U.S. unit”.
An article in the WSJ dated 9/17/05 titled “Variable-Annuity Charge Decline”. It says “As the variable-annuity industry comes under legal and regulatory pressure for allegedly coercive sales tactics, some big financial services companies are seeking to cut through the controversy by reducing fees”. Prudential Financial Services did not.
If anyone knows an attorney locally who would help me sue America-Skandia, now Prudential Financial, have that attorney give me a call. I would only work on percentages as I’ve also been stuck in the endless “so much an hour game” before. I cannot sue the salesman.
You can reach me thru my listing in the phone book or my email.
This is not intended as a sob story, just a reminder how gullible we can sometimes be when listening to a stock broker you are convinced has “only your best interest” at heart.
In my next blog called “Arbitration” I will tell you what a joke arbitration is to the individual stock holder and how you can seldom win and why not.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Countries Like Neighborhoods
Quoting from the book “The World is Flat” chapter “I Can Only Get It For You Retail”, the author asks the question “What if the world were like the neighborhoods of a city”? What would the world look like?
Western Europe would be an assisted-living facility with an ageing population, lavishly attended by Turkish nurses.
United States would be a gated community, with a metal detector at the front gate and a lot of people sitting in their front yards complaining about how lazy everyone else was, even though out back there was a small opening in the fence for Mexican labor and other energetic immigrants who help make the gated community function.
Latin America would be the fun part of town, the club district, where the workday doesn’t begin until 10:00 P.M. and everyone sleeps till midmorning. It’s definitely the place to hang out, but in between the clubs, you don’t see a lot of new businesses opening, except on the street where the Chileans live. The landlords of this neighborhood almost never reinvest their profits here, but keep them in a bank across town.
The Arab street would be a dark alley where outsiders fear to tread, except for a few side streets called, Dubai, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, and Morocco. The only new business is gas stations, whose owners, like the elite in the Latin neighborhood, rarely invest their funds in the neighborhood. Many people on the Arab street have their curtains closed, their shutters drawn, and signs on their front lawn that say “No Trespassing. Beware of dog.”
India, China and East Asia would be “the other side of the tracks.” Their neighborhood is a big teeming market, made up of small shops and one room factories, interspersed with Stanley Kaplan SAT prep schools, and engineering colleges. Nobody ever sleeps in this neighborhood, everyone lives in extended families, and everyone is working to get to “the right side of the tracks.”
On the Chinese streets there area no rule of law, but the streets are well-paved; there are no potholes, and the street lights all work. On the Indian streets, by contrast, no one ever repairs the streetlights, the roads are full of ruts, but the police are sticklers for rules. You need a license to open a lemonade stand on the Indian street. Luckily, the local cops can be bribed, and the successful entrepreneurs all have their own generators to run their factories and the latest cell phones to get around the fact that the local telephone poles are all down.
Africa, sadly, is that part of town where the businesses are boarded up, life expectancy is declining and the only new buildings are health-care clinics.
The point made is that every region of the world has its own strength and weaknesses, and all are in need of reform retail to some degree. What is reform retail? It’s more than opening up your country to foreign trade and investments and making a few small changes at the top. That is reform wholesale. Reform retail presumes you have already done your reform wholesale. It involves looking at four key aspects of your society--infrastructure, regulatory institutions, education, and culture (the general way your country and its leaders relate to the world) – and upgrading each one to remove as many friction points as possible. The idea of reform retail is to enable the greatest number of your people to have the best legal and institutional framework from which to innovate, start companies, and become attractive partners for those who want to collaborate with them from elsewhere in the world”.
Anyway, if you are interested in the way the world is flattening out and who will fall or is falling over the presipice, the book is highly recommended reading.
Western Europe would be an assisted-living facility with an ageing population, lavishly attended by Turkish nurses.
United States would be a gated community, with a metal detector at the front gate and a lot of people sitting in their front yards complaining about how lazy everyone else was, even though out back there was a small opening in the fence for Mexican labor and other energetic immigrants who help make the gated community function.
Latin America would be the fun part of town, the club district, where the workday doesn’t begin until 10:00 P.M. and everyone sleeps till midmorning. It’s definitely the place to hang out, but in between the clubs, you don’t see a lot of new businesses opening, except on the street where the Chileans live. The landlords of this neighborhood almost never reinvest their profits here, but keep them in a bank across town.
The Arab street would be a dark alley where outsiders fear to tread, except for a few side streets called, Dubai, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, and Morocco. The only new business is gas stations, whose owners, like the elite in the Latin neighborhood, rarely invest their funds in the neighborhood. Many people on the Arab street have their curtains closed, their shutters drawn, and signs on their front lawn that say “No Trespassing. Beware of dog.”
India, China and East Asia would be “the other side of the tracks.” Their neighborhood is a big teeming market, made up of small shops and one room factories, interspersed with Stanley Kaplan SAT prep schools, and engineering colleges. Nobody ever sleeps in this neighborhood, everyone lives in extended families, and everyone is working to get to “the right side of the tracks.”
On the Chinese streets there area no rule of law, but the streets are well-paved; there are no potholes, and the street lights all work. On the Indian streets, by contrast, no one ever repairs the streetlights, the roads are full of ruts, but the police are sticklers for rules. You need a license to open a lemonade stand on the Indian street. Luckily, the local cops can be bribed, and the successful entrepreneurs all have their own generators to run their factories and the latest cell phones to get around the fact that the local telephone poles are all down.
Africa, sadly, is that part of town where the businesses are boarded up, life expectancy is declining and the only new buildings are health-care clinics.
The point made is that every region of the world has its own strength and weaknesses, and all are in need of reform retail to some degree. What is reform retail? It’s more than opening up your country to foreign trade and investments and making a few small changes at the top. That is reform wholesale. Reform retail presumes you have already done your reform wholesale. It involves looking at four key aspects of your society--infrastructure, regulatory institutions, education, and culture (the general way your country and its leaders relate to the world) – and upgrading each one to remove as many friction points as possible. The idea of reform retail is to enable the greatest number of your people to have the best legal and institutional framework from which to innovate, start companies, and become attractive partners for those who want to collaborate with them from elsewhere in the world”.
Anyway, if you are interested in the way the world is flattening out and who will fall or is falling over the presipice, the book is highly recommended reading.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
The World is Becoming "Flatter"
“The World is Flat” is a year 2005 book by columnist and scholar Thomas L. Friedman. I thought I was one of the first to read this book of what I would call serious content that should shake America’s leadership types to their very roots. Then I attended a county government meeting with an audience of about 60 people where the speaker asked how many in the room had read this book. I was the only one. Later, a friend of mine (Kenny Carrigan) sent me a review of the book published in the June 19 issue of the Financial Times and another review of the book in the April 25 Business week.
It sometimes takes a while for good subjugative literature to reach the hinterlands. It is said of Friedman “he never shrinks from the biggest problems and the thorniest of issues”. I learned Mr. Friedman is a three time Pulitzer Prize winner for his work in the New York Times where he serves as the foreign affairs columnist. He knows his subjects and can express his thoughts in a manner that makes you think and may make you worry.
The book is a must read but unless you are very technologically versed, you may do like I did and skim some of the “heavy” parts of the 500 page tome. As Friedman describes the “flattening” of competition worldwide he says “Every law of economics tells us that if we connect all the knowledge pools in the world, and promote greater and greater trade and integration, a global pie will grow wider and more complex. And if America or any other country, nurtures a labor force of men and women who are specialized, special, and constantly adapting to higher value added jobs, it will grab its slice of that ever growing pie. But we will all have to work at it. Because if current trends prevail, countries like Indian and China and whole regions like Eastern Europe are certain to narrow the gap with America, just as Korea, Japan and Taiwan did during the cold war. They will keep upping their standards”.
The newly coined word “versatilist” describes people with the ability to apply depth of skill to a progressively widening scope of situations and experiences, gaining new competencies, building relationships, and assuming new roles. People who are “specialists” generally have deep skills and narrow scope, giving them expertise that is recognized by their peers but seldom valued outside their immediate domain. When their jobs are eliminated they have no place to go. People who are “generalists” have broad scope and shallow skills, enabling them to respond or act reasonably quickly but often without gaining or demonstrating the confidence of their partners or customers. When needed to perform at a higher level, they are usually found wanting. He says “people should be more like a Swiss Army knife”; versatile or “versatilists”.
If the flat world is about connecting all our knowledge pools together, we want our knowledge pools to be the biggest. The more lifetime learning opportunities that are provided, the skill base of any workforce is widened fulfilling a moral obligation to those whose jobs are being outsourced and to see to it that they are more employable that when they first came in.
David Baltimore, the Nobel-winning president of Caltech, knows what it takes to get your child ready to compete against the cream of the global crop. Almost all the students who make it to Caltech, one of the best scientific universities in the world, come from public schools, not from private schools that sometimes nurture a sense that just because you are there, you are special and entitled. He says “I look at kids who come to Caltech, and they grew up in families that encouraged them to work hard and to put off a bit of gratification for the future and to understand that they need to hone their skills to play and important role in the world. I give parents enormous credit for this because these kids are coming from public schools that people area calling failures. Public education is producing these remarkable students—so it can be done. We need a revolution in this country when it comes to parenting around children”. Merle’s comments; “We are on a battleground where the public schools system must not lose”.(I’ll blog more on how this battle can be a win-win situation for both the public school system, the business community, the parents, and the general public).
Friedman says that “One of the greatest virtues a country or community can have is a culture of tolerance. When tolerance is the norm, everyone flourishes-because tolerance breeds trust and trust is the foundation of innovation and entrepreneurship. Increase the level of trust is any group, company or society, and only good things can happen”.
He predicts the rioting going on now in France. He says Islamic youth particularly these living in Europe, can and do look around and see that the Arab-Muslim world has fallen behind the rest of the planet. It is not living as prosperously or democratically as other civilizations. How can that be? these young Arabs and Muslims must ask themselves. If we have superior faith (Islam) and if our faith is all encompassing of religion, politics, and economics, why are others living so much better? This is a source of real cognitive-dissonance for many Arab-Muslim youth—the sort of dissonance and loss of self esteem, that sparks rage, and leads some of them to join violent groups and lash out at the world. (Watch how this rage unfolds in France) It is also the sort of dissonance that leads many other average folks, to give radical groups like al-Qaeda passive support. Again, the flattening of the world only sharpens this inharmonious feeling by making the backwardness of the Arab-Muslim region compared to others, impossible to ignore”.
Friedman talks about the extreme poverty of India and that thousands line up to attend schools where only hundreds of the best and brightest are admitted. He explains why there are so few skyscrapers in parts of the third world; the power might go off three or four times a day, stranding people in elevators. He says that China and India with populations three and four times ours has more poverty but a greater pool of eager youth willing to work and learn for small amounts of money. He talks about the “untouchables” in India who one day will break out of the caste system of inequality and enter the work force as hard working intelligent people giving more competition to America and add to our outsourcing to hard working people who have a much lower standard of living than ours.
For non -Bush lovers, he has a couple of paragraphs stating how he believes that many mistakes have been made and new approaches demanded the this and future administrations as the world get more flat, more competitive and more equal.
Anyway, please read this book. I can’t do it justice on this site, but I can tell you is harder to put down than a good mystery unless you are not really interested in your kids future or even your own. After reading or skimming this book, I believe you may see both a future you like and a possible one you won’t like.
The most successful people I have ever known are well-rounded people. Isn’t that the way we should view the learning process in the home, the schools, in our careers and shouldn’t this learning continue until death?
It sometimes takes a while for good subjugative literature to reach the hinterlands. It is said of Friedman “he never shrinks from the biggest problems and the thorniest of issues”. I learned Mr. Friedman is a three time Pulitzer Prize winner for his work in the New York Times where he serves as the foreign affairs columnist. He knows his subjects and can express his thoughts in a manner that makes you think and may make you worry.
The book is a must read but unless you are very technologically versed, you may do like I did and skim some of the “heavy” parts of the 500 page tome. As Friedman describes the “flattening” of competition worldwide he says “Every law of economics tells us that if we connect all the knowledge pools in the world, and promote greater and greater trade and integration, a global pie will grow wider and more complex. And if America or any other country, nurtures a labor force of men and women who are specialized, special, and constantly adapting to higher value added jobs, it will grab its slice of that ever growing pie. But we will all have to work at it. Because if current trends prevail, countries like Indian and China and whole regions like Eastern Europe are certain to narrow the gap with America, just as Korea, Japan and Taiwan did during the cold war. They will keep upping their standards”.
The newly coined word “versatilist” describes people with the ability to apply depth of skill to a progressively widening scope of situations and experiences, gaining new competencies, building relationships, and assuming new roles. People who are “specialists” generally have deep skills and narrow scope, giving them expertise that is recognized by their peers but seldom valued outside their immediate domain. When their jobs are eliminated they have no place to go. People who are “generalists” have broad scope and shallow skills, enabling them to respond or act reasonably quickly but often without gaining or demonstrating the confidence of their partners or customers. When needed to perform at a higher level, they are usually found wanting. He says “people should be more like a Swiss Army knife”; versatile or “versatilists”.
If the flat world is about connecting all our knowledge pools together, we want our knowledge pools to be the biggest. The more lifetime learning opportunities that are provided, the skill base of any workforce is widened fulfilling a moral obligation to those whose jobs are being outsourced and to see to it that they are more employable that when they first came in.
David Baltimore, the Nobel-winning president of Caltech, knows what it takes to get your child ready to compete against the cream of the global crop. Almost all the students who make it to Caltech, one of the best scientific universities in the world, come from public schools, not from private schools that sometimes nurture a sense that just because you are there, you are special and entitled. He says “I look at kids who come to Caltech, and they grew up in families that encouraged them to work hard and to put off a bit of gratification for the future and to understand that they need to hone their skills to play and important role in the world. I give parents enormous credit for this because these kids are coming from public schools that people area calling failures. Public education is producing these remarkable students—so it can be done. We need a revolution in this country when it comes to parenting around children”. Merle’s comments; “We are on a battleground where the public schools system must not lose”.(I’ll blog more on how this battle can be a win-win situation for both the public school system, the business community, the parents, and the general public).
Friedman says that “One of the greatest virtues a country or community can have is a culture of tolerance. When tolerance is the norm, everyone flourishes-because tolerance breeds trust and trust is the foundation of innovation and entrepreneurship. Increase the level of trust is any group, company or society, and only good things can happen”.
He predicts the rioting going on now in France. He says Islamic youth particularly these living in Europe, can and do look around and see that the Arab-Muslim world has fallen behind the rest of the planet. It is not living as prosperously or democratically as other civilizations. How can that be? these young Arabs and Muslims must ask themselves. If we have superior faith (Islam) and if our faith is all encompassing of religion, politics, and economics, why are others living so much better? This is a source of real cognitive-dissonance for many Arab-Muslim youth—the sort of dissonance and loss of self esteem, that sparks rage, and leads some of them to join violent groups and lash out at the world. (Watch how this rage unfolds in France) It is also the sort of dissonance that leads many other average folks, to give radical groups like al-Qaeda passive support. Again, the flattening of the world only sharpens this inharmonious feeling by making the backwardness of the Arab-Muslim region compared to others, impossible to ignore”.
Friedman talks about the extreme poverty of India and that thousands line up to attend schools where only hundreds of the best and brightest are admitted. He explains why there are so few skyscrapers in parts of the third world; the power might go off three or four times a day, stranding people in elevators. He says that China and India with populations three and four times ours has more poverty but a greater pool of eager youth willing to work and learn for small amounts of money. He talks about the “untouchables” in India who one day will break out of the caste system of inequality and enter the work force as hard working intelligent people giving more competition to America and add to our outsourcing to hard working people who have a much lower standard of living than ours.
For non -Bush lovers, he has a couple of paragraphs stating how he believes that many mistakes have been made and new approaches demanded the this and future administrations as the world get more flat, more competitive and more equal.
Anyway, please read this book. I can’t do it justice on this site, but I can tell you is harder to put down than a good mystery unless you are not really interested in your kids future or even your own. After reading or skimming this book, I believe you may see both a future you like and a possible one you won’t like.
The most successful people I have ever known are well-rounded people. Isn’t that the way we should view the learning process in the home, the schools, in our careers and shouldn’t this learning continue until death?
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