Alexander Laszlo is co-founder and President of Syntony Quest and former Director of the Doctoral Program in Management at the Graduate School of Business Administration and Leadership (EGADE- ITESM) located in Mexico. He was recently elected President of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS). He has also worked at UNESCO and for the U.S. Department of Education. He has been Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and the European University Institute. In addition to being the author of multiple book and journal articles, he is also a 5th Degree Black Belt in Korean Karate. This is part two of an exclusive Toonari Post interview, find the first part here.

TP: How do you believe that virtual education is transforming the world?                               

AL: I believe that universities and educational systems which do not keep up to date with current technology enhanced Interactive systems will be left behind. Education should encourage a dynamic play with creating knowledge and not only memorizing what is already known, because memorizing what we already know is not going to provide solutions to the current challenges faced by humanity. These challenges require a new paradigm, a new way of understanding. It’s not about learning and applying the models of last century; we have seen that these models do not work; we need people to develop their own response to their realities in which they live.

This is the purpose of Giordano Bruno; to create perspective. Take Facebook, for example. People use it but mainly for social pursuits. How can we create an education system that works like Facebook in which students share their learning with others and with a group of friends, and so among them discuss, comment, share extra resources and in this way go into an enriching conversation of shared understand on any particular topic?

So really, it’s like creating an education system based on this type of model, which is today one of the most widely used type of interaction. As I say, education systems that don’t use it will stay stuck in the past.

TP: What is the holistic paradigm?

AL: The idea of the holistic paradigm is not seeing the world in a fragmented way. For example, here in California, where I live, I need to see how to get clean water, the same as anyone anywhere else in the world. One solution would be to use all the water that falls from the mountains for irrigation, or we could also get it from our aquifers.

Now, if we don’t proceed with a perspective that considers the impacts of using water-intensive agricultural practices, then we are acting badly. We need to create a solution that allows the aquifers to be restored and regenerated. That’s the holistic way of understanding the secondary and tertiary impacts, and more so to really understand the interdependence of all living systems as the non-living systems, that also sustain life, as is the case of climatic water cycles.

This is the perspective and sensitivity that we want to foster among students, because once we understand that everything is interconnected, we see that nothing is only a problem from a technical perspective, as this type of thinking usually creates more problems [than] it resolves. So the idea is to create a system of solutions, not just a one-dimensional solution that could be purely technological or economic. Really, a set of solutions involves seeing and understanding dynamic and interactive patterns; once you understand a little bit and have developed sensitivity for seeing how these complex adaptive systems are intertwined with each other, you can start creating a new dialogue with nature, society, future generations, our ancestors and yourself. In this way, we create a flow of abundance without making the mistake of trying to maximize our return on investment, which is a way of addressing a context in only a myopic way.

TP: Recently you have been elected President of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS). What are your expectations in this new position?

AL: This organization was founded in 1954 and now has had a total of 56 annual conferences. My job as President is to create an international event that represents the emerging direction of systems science, which also includes human science.

I have chosen a theme for this year which is aimed at moving toward a systemic consciousness that heightens and draws upon relational intelligence. So my purpose is to stimulate a more dedicated development of relational intelligence, which must not only be empathetic and compassionate to others, but also embody ways of being interactive and interconnected with all living systems on this planet.

TP: How can you handle so many projects at the same time?

AL: I have several clones (laughs). My secret is that I have excellent teams, and this is what I want to bring to both the Giordano Bruno University and the ISSS. In both cases, we want to create a thrivable world of collaborative communities. Alone, I just can’t achieve all these goals, but luckily the people I work with are much competent than me, which ensures the success of all these projects.

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Alexander Laszlo is co-founder and President of Syntony Quest and former Director of the Doctoral Program in Management at the Graduate School of Business Administration and Leadership (EGADE- ITESM) located in Mexico. He was recently elected President of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS). He has also worked at UNESCO and for the U.S. Department of Education. He has been Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and the European University Institute. In addition to being the author of multiple book and journal articles, he is also a 5^th Degree Black Belt in Korean Karate.

Toonari Post (TP): You are well known for being the co-founder and President of Syntony Quest. Could you explain to us a little bit about this organization?

Alexander Laszlo (AL): Syntony Quest is an educational non-profit organization whose purpose is to serve as a bridge between academia and the business world on topics of sustainability. Many NGOs are focused on working with the problems of people; however, they often lack a more strategic platform from the point of view of theoretical and scientific progress on sustainability issues.

In our organization we conduct interactive research on socio environmental issues with a, participatory approach that is informed by the emerging context. This is the main purpose of Syntony Quest, to be a bridge that fosters self-directed sustainable development in case-specific contexts.

Sustainability means not exceeding the carrying capacity of our planet- trying to maintain a certain balance. But the goal of Syntony Quest is to help create a prosperous world, one that goes beyond mere sustainability to true thrivability, fostering an economy of abundance.

We must create an economy based on nature and not on abstract economic concepts, which are very common in the current economic system.

TP: On the other side, one year ago Giordano Bruno University was opened, where you have the role of Director of Learning and Curriculum Innovation. Tell us, what is the pedagogical model used?

AL: Giordano Bruno University does not seek to impose models that are not relevant to the current context. We are against the subordination of ideas. We want to develop a process of change in the narrative presented by the instructor in which the student has to memorize theory in the most efficient manner possible. Normally, the student has only to learn and repeat the narrative presented by the teacher in order to get the best score, trying to be as faithful to the original narrative as possible.

We want to move beyond this approach, to a second and then to a third point. The second part consists in a change of the teacher’s narrative. The narratives become based in simulations, which allow students to be an actor in a narrative, such as an interactive game like Buckminster Fuller’s World Game or the Model UN experience offered at the high school level for students to simulate a Conference of the United Nations. A simulation like this allows students to experiment, and see how to practice playing different roles.

This second option is good but, what is the intention of Giordano Bruno? It’s not only about the first model that consists of repeating the teacher’s narrative, and it is even beyond the second, which is to live in a designed narrative experience of it, which is still provided by the teacher.

The third model consists of the students creating their own narratives around the learning themes being focused on in the course. This is a process in which students are given the opportunity to live the topics of the course into their own narrative experience, making the course material relevant to their own situation and their own environment in a global context.

TP: Could you tell us a little bit about the instructors and the academic community?

AL: The Giordano Bruno model is very interesting, because the goal is to create an international cultural community of students from many parts of the world based on study groups of 21 students. These groups function as cells in a structure that can have from 10,000 to 300,000 students in a single course. Nevertheless, we are always focused on the groups of 21 students.

This model allows us to significantly reduce the costs while at the same time increasing accessibility, thereby potentially reaching students in any part of the world. Of course, they need to have access to Internet. Once there, they can interact with the other students of their group.

In this process, there is an instructor who designs the course. The course has certain parameters that allow for the use of technology in ways that are rapidly becoming more common in education these days. We want ideas and information to arise through a collegial process among students.

Thus, the learning challenges and the instructions for how to find the resources are designed by the instructor. However, the model for understanding the lesson arises through the cell interaction among students.

We seek to encourage interactions, for students to do two things: the first is to take the lessons and discuss them with their family and community, and the second is to report their results, perspectives and outcomes with their group of 21. All this helps the student to know the global context of the challenges of being an evolutionary change in the world while at the same time learn to be sensitive to the needs of their locality.

The teachers that we have are people of advanced preparation in their chosen field; as Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), they design courses of large-scale and scope, which are then managed by a team of facilitators. However, the professor is mainly a designer of the course and responds only to questions that assistants can’t respond to. Primarily, we are looking to help students learn to answer their own questions and solve their own problems.

Read part two here.

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Arkansas, U.S.A. — Walmart have announced a donation of up to $4.5 million to help 90,000 teachers in the U.S. purchase much-needed classroom supplies. In its fourth year, the Teacher Rewards program will help offset the cost of classroom expenses for teachers across the country. These funds come at a critical time, as U.S. teachers going back to school will often spend their own money to ensure their students have the supplies they need to learn throughout the school year.

Also today, in addition to the Teacher Rewards program, Walmart is sponsoring the “Teachers Rock” benefit concert that will take place tonight at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles and air on August 17 on CBS at 8:00 p.m. ET. Proceeds from the concert will benefit DonorsChoose.org, Feeding America and Teach for America.

“Each year teachers across the country provide their time, talents and often their own money to ensure students have what they need to be successful in the classroom,” said Michelle Gilliard, senior director of giving at Walmart. “Through our Teacher Rewards program we will once again send our nation’s teachers back to school with the support and resources they need to continue educating the future leaders of our country.”

Through the Teacher Rewards program, more than 4,600 U.S. Walmart stores, Distribution Centers and Sam’s Club locations are eligible to select one local kindergarten through eighth grade public school and provide $50 reward cards to 20 teachers. Winning teachers can use the funds to purchase essential items for their classrooms such as paper, folders, binders, clipboards, pens, pencils, crayons and markers. Local stores will begin selecting schools to participate in late August.

The Teacher Rewards program is an example of Walmart’s ongoing support of education initiatives that help students prepare for their future. In 2011, Walmart and its Foundation donated more than $50 million to fund education programs across the country.

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New York, U.S.A. — Smart Tuition, the nation’s largest independently owned tuition management company, has announced that the Archdiocese of New York selected Smart to be its exclusive partner in tuition management for the new regional schools program. Smart was chosen after a comprehensive review of tuition management practices and an in-depth analysis of tuition service companies.

The Archdiocese of New York operates the second largest Catholic school system in the country. Its schools offer Elementary, Secondary, Early Childhood and Special Education. The Archdiocese of New York spans 10 counties, from Staten Island to Ulster. In keeping with its Pathways to Excellence strategic plan to ensure academic quality and financial viability, the Archdiocese of New York is configuring its schools into administrative regions.

“We feel blessed to continue serving our existing clients in this exceptional school system and to help the Archdiocese of New York implement its regional plan,” said Andrew Goldberger, Chief Executive Officer of Smart Tuition.

“With Smart’s enrollment, tuition management, and enterprise program, we will help the Archdiocese fine-tune best practices and oversee one of the most cherished institutions in my home state: its Catholic schools,” he said.

The decision by the Archdiocese of New York comes on the heels of recent success for Smart at other diocesan offices. The Diocese of Syracuse, NY moved 19 schools to SMART after reviewing the two major tuition companies. The Diocese of Bridgeport, CT last year unanimously voted to bring all of its elementary schools onto the Smart program after a year-long review process.

“This year has been our best in history, and much of our success is thanks in part to more dioceses and archdioceses making decisions to move to a single partner. When our program is being reviewed, the product offering, service levels, and commitment to providing great results shine at the top of our industry,” said Tim Sember, Executive Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Smart Tuition.

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Orlando, U.S.A.  – InCharge Debt Solutions (“InCharge”), a nonprofit credit counseling agency, has developed seven important tips for parents to follow so that preparing their kids for school can be a manageable and less stressful process  For many Americans struggling with debt problems, the end of summer is an anxious time because school supplies, sports gear, updated clothing and other necessities can be expensive, but there are things every parent can do.

“It is important to take an objective look at what your children need for school and what you can afford,” says Etta Money, InCharge’s President. “We all want to do everything we can for our kids, but for those dealing with limited financial resources or debt problems, the task can be overwhelming. That’s why we developed these steps for parents so they can prepare their young ones for school while still being able to afford their regular household expenses.”

Here are seven things every parent of school-age kids should do:

• Prepare a written budget – just as you would prepare a guide to your overall expenses, a detailed written plan to follow as you prepare your kids for school is vital.
• Do an inventory – take stock of what supplies you have on hand, what you and the kids can make yourselves, and what clothing can be used again for the new school year.
• Develop a shopping list – eliminate what you already have from your list and write down everything you need to buy to get your student(s) ready for school to open.
• Look for deals – with a month or more to go, you have plenty of time to shop online for deals, look for coupons, and search the local papers for sales.
• Plug in the numbers – armed with the best deals you can make, take the numbers you have discovered for the items you need and work them into your household budget.
• Cut where needed – if the numbers don’t work, you may need to spread out purchases, or make some cuts, either in the school budget or your household expenses.
• Make your purchases – it’s time to buy, but don’t forget to distinguish between “needs” and “wants,” you don’t want to add to your debt.

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Hangzhou, China – - Neologic Animation Inc., an educational software company in the People’s Republic of China, released the results of its 7 year research and development study into effective early childhood education methods.

Led by Dr. Jisheng Wang, the Company’s head Psychologist, the team of renowned, published psychologists and early childhood education experts released a report outlining the “Eight Areas of Intelligence” of human beings.

“By incorporating these eight basic areas of intelligence into all of ‘Naniya World’s’ games, children will learn not only at a conscious, but also unconscious level,” said Chief Psychologist Dr. Wang.  “Language, Mathematics, Logic, Music, Space, Body-Sport, Interpersonal Relations, Self-Cognitive and finally Nature-Observing Intelligence are all carefully and meticulously incorporated into the Company’s game development model.”

The team has studied several thousand cases and has concluded that non-cognitive factors directly influence a child’s learning performance.  They have concluded that these areas of intelligence development play a large role in a child’s overall development and performance.  The team has meticulously arrived at a series of 108 learning capacity tests that can systematically analyze current educational status, learning capacity, and most importantly can recommend suitable learning methods.  Studying the results of the tests combined with advanced network techniques ultimately came about and created the website “Naniya World”, which is geared towards students from, grades one through six.

The site’s many exciting methods of study, including interactive flash games, animations, videos and other content to explain subject knowledge and content.  One of the major intentions of the website is to foster independent and creative thought.  This is done by incorporating art, music, sports and other such modules instead of forcing students to take in knowledge passively and mechanically.  Children can simultaneously absorb cultural knowledge while also improving their comprehensive learning capacity.

For more details about the study, please refer to the R&D Results Fact Sheet.

 About Neologic Animation Inc. (the “Company”)

The Company is an educational software development and marketing company; currently developing a website to be marketed as “Naniya World” for primary school students in China.  The website’s goal is to educate children how to develop and hone their creative skills through interactive educational games that incorporate Adobe Flash. The games incorporate a curriculum that has been developed by some of China’s top professors and child psychology experts. It sets itself apart from other after school programs in China because it deviates from the traditional methods of Chinese education.  The Company’s mission is to inspire every child in China to become the best student they can possibly be by showing them that learning is fun.

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Pennsylvania, U.S.A. — Governor Tom Corbett signed on June 30th the 2012-13 budget, strengthening the state’s economy and education system, while continuing his commitment not to increase taxes for the citizens of Pennsylvania.

The $27.66 billion budget was signed on time for the second consecutive year.

“Our taxpayers deserve government that works for them,” Corbett said. “Today we re-affirm our commitment to job growth, to education, to the needy and to the taxpayers.”

“While times are still difficult and we wish we had more to spend, our revenues have improved, allowing us to increase funding to some important areas of our final budget.”

Along with the budget, the legislature agreed to adopt several of Corbett’s major initiatives such as improvements to the criminal justice system, an education reform package, and eliminating the agriculture inheritance tax.

This budget also continues the phase-out of the Capital Stock and Franchise tax and guarantees critical tax credit incentives for companies committed to bringing business and jobs to Pennsylvania.

Corbett was able to increase spending from his originally proposed budget because state revenues have increased in recent months, a result of following the course of reform, restraint and responsibility.

This year’s state budget positions Pennsylvania for a structurally sound financial future. However, Corbett urged caution because even with progress, there is still concern for the future with impending pension cost increases, rising debt service costs and medical cost increases.

Highlights of the 2012-13 budget include:

Education

• This budget restores, or in some cases, increases funding for early, basic and higher education, for a total of $11.35 billion. State-related and state system universities will receive $1.58 billion, the same amount of funding as last year.
• Funding for school districts is increased over last year and the Accountability Block Grant is funded at $100 million, supporting full-day kindergarten in many school districts.
• The current educator evaluation system, which has been unchanged for more than 40 years, will undergo across-the-board reforms, based in part upon multiple measures of student achievement.
• Expansion of the state’s successful Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program, which uses business donations to provide scholarships to low- and moderate-income students in exchange for a tax credit.

Economic Growth

• Long-term tax incentives for companies committed to bringing business and jobs to Pennsylvania. Companies can earn tax credits over a span of 25 years proportional to the industry’s activity in the state.
• For example, Shell Chemical announced in March that it was considering building a petrochemical complex in Beaver County, which would turn by-products of natural gas to ethylene. Ethylene is used to produce a variety of items from tires to toys, food packaging to footwear.
• In April, Delta Air Lines’ wholly-owned subsidiary, Monroe Energy LLC, acquired a Delaware Countyrefinery, preserving hundreds of direct jobs and thousands of jobs in related industries. To make this possible, Delta received a grant from the Department of Community and Economic Development, contingent upon the company investing at least $350 million at the project site and employing at least 402 full-time workers on-site for at least five years.
• Creating programs that will support employers and workers, such as JOBSFirst PA, which invests in small and large businesses, offering initiatives to cultivate and create new industries and jobs.
• Providing employer-driven, on-the-job training opportunities for unemployed workers through a new program called Keystone Works. This program will allow jobless Pennsylvanians to keep receiving unemployment benefits while being retrained and helps employers identify the best candidates before they hire.

Taxes

• Continuing the effort to eliminate the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax.
• Elimination of the Pennsylvania Inheritance Tax for farming families, previously levied when property was transferred from one generation to the next or between family members. The law goes into effect immediately.

Human Services

• The Human Services Block Grant pilot program, including up to 20 counties, will combine several funding appropriations such as child welfare, mental health, drug and alcohol, into one. Not only will this allow counties greater discretion in spending the money, but also streamlines reporting requirements into one, unified document. The program will allow for more personalized services to those in need while providing the flexibility counties need to provide services during times of reduced funding.
• Foster children will receive support until the age of 21. Previously, foster care ended at the age of 18, removing the children from a support system during a critical period in their lives.
• The budget increases funding for state programs for people with intellectual disabilities, addressing vulnerable populations currently on the waiting list.
• Healthcare providers for those in need, including nursing homes and hospitals, will receive full funding in this budget.

Cost Containment

• Provides for the merger of the Department of Banking and the Securities Commission, realizing $1 million in savings.
• Improves the criminal justice system with the adoption of Justice Reinvestment Initiative legislation, which will help save the state hundreds of millions of dollars by making prisons and parole more effective and efficient.
• Enables the Department of Environmental Protection to rely less on taxpayer dollars and more on accurate cost-accounting from funds supported by fines and permit fees.
• Makes the Department of Environmental Protection more efficient. With the same number of inspectors, the Department of Environmental Protection conducted twice as many oil and gas site inspections in 2011 versus 2010.
• Reduces expenditures for employee travel by more than $2 million. Through a collaborative effort by the Office of Administration, Office of the Budget and Department of General Services, policies were reformed in January 2012 for the reimbursement of travel expenses and requiring employees to use the most cost-effective means of vehicle travel.
• Trims costs in the Office of Administration by $2.9 million without impacting productivity and sustainability.
• Consolidates the Bureau of PENNSAFE, resulting in savings of nearly $1 million a year. This is an example of the governor’s commitment to streamlining government and making operations more efficient and effective.

Image Courtesy of  Tom Corbett

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Mexico City, Mexico — KidZania, a global leader in children’s edutainment, have officially opened its largest children’s theme park yet, KidZania Cuicuilco, located in Mexico City. Not only does the park introduce children to new and relevant careers in a highly entertaining way, but for the first time, integrates innovative experiences to teach children environmental stewardship, empathy for kids with different abilities, how to make “good-for-you” food and recreation choices, hands-on driving and road safety via a fleet of kid-sized eco-friendly vehicles, and much more.  In this new expansive park experience, empowerment for kids has never been so vast, realistic and fun.

Fueled by a child’s natural desire to create, explore and collaborate, KidZania Cuicuilco is equal parts entertainment and education, making it one of the most progressive theme park concepts in the world today. Young visitors enter KidZania Cuicuilco through the park’s mock airport into the sprawling 150,000 square foot kid-sized city complete with 90 establishments, including city hall, a bank, restaurants, a hospital, sports stadium and more.  Once in the park, kids choose from among 120 different trades and professions that it takes to run a city.  It’s the ultimate role-playing experience for kids ages four to 14.

“KidZania Cuicuilco is our most inventive and engaging theme park yet,” says Xavier Lopez Ancona, president and founder of KidZania. “With KidZania Cuicuilco, we’ve introduced 21st century career choices, elevated awareness around global issues like the environment, and made certain that every child, no matter their level of ability, can participate. We’ve brought the most authentic and fun real-life experiences to life to help children understand and manage their ever-changing world. As we continue our global expansion, we look forward to bringing these new, relevant and awe-inspiring entertainment experiences to kids the world over.”

Following are just a few of the many unique, hands-on activities and experiences now available at KidZania Cuicuilco:

• More than 120 careers, including guide dog trainer (complete with real dog), mechanic, power plant operator, surgeon, CSI investigator, tortilla chef, road paver, and more.
• World’s most authentic driving experience for children – complete with driver’s education, auto insurance, and the largest fleet of electric kid-sized vehicles (minivans, SUVs, ambulances, city buses and police cars).
• Fully immersive environmental job experiences featuring an electric power plant, wind turbines, solar panels, and water treatment facility to emphasize the global importance of conservation.
• Recyclables drop-off center for the surrounding community, which is integrated into park activities.
• Three-story disaster center, which simulates flood, fire or earthquake and teaches children how to respond.
• Tools to help special needs children (and KidZania staff) navigate the park independently, as well as activities that allow typically-able kids to experience what it would be like to have a disability.

KidZania Cuicuilco also features a state-of-the-art security system to ensure a safe and fun experience for children navigating the park with or without their parents. Every child and parent/chaperone entering the park receives matching RFID-bracelets, providing the location of child and parent within a mere meter of the person’s location. While the children play, parents can relax in the parent’s lounge, which features a spa, movie room, restaurant and Internet (WiFi) cafe.

KidZania Cuicuilco has more than 90 global partners present in the park, including Nestle, LAN, Toyota, DHL, Berlitz, Evenflo, Manpower, Cartoon Network, Banco de Mexico and others. They are an integral part of the experiences and add authenticity to the career-based, role-playing activities.

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Washington, U.S.A. – 857 empty desks on the National Mall represent the number of students who drop out of American schools every hour of every school day. On June 20 The College Board kicked off a nationwide movement to make education a more prominent issue in the 2012 presidential campaign.

The effort calls upon the major candidates to discuss and debate their plans for reform amid an alarming decline in the state of American education. The College Board launched the campaign on the National Mall with a compelling public installation of 857 school desks, representing the 857 students who drop out of American schools every hour of every school day.

“‘Don’t Forget Ed’ recognizes that education is the foundation of our society. If our schools fail, then so will everything else — from our economy to national security,” said College Board President Gaston Caperton. “Yet every four years, the issue of education is shockingly underplayed on the campaign trail. That’s why this year we are encouraging candidates all over the country to tell voters precisely how they would reverse the sharp decline of American education. Parents, teachers, students and administrators have had enough of the silence. This year they are speaking loud and clear, and the College Board is committed to amplifying their voices.”

“Don’t Forget Ed” is an innovative, multi-tactical campaign that is being launched on the National Mall with an installation of 857 empty school desks symbolizing the number of students who drop out of school every hour of every school day.

The campaign includes a website, a petition to be presented to the candidates at the nominating conventions, a full-page ad in The New York Times, and a PSA featuring former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Merone Tesfaye.  Tesfaye is a graduating senior at New York’s LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and will be tweeting and speaking to promote the campaign over the summer months.

On August 15, “Don’t Forget Ed” will rally thousands of voices via Twitter and Facebook in order to send a powerful message to the candidates.”Don’t Forget Ed” will continue staging additional events in conjunction with the nominating conventions and leading up to Election Day to generate further support and engagement.

“We’re not criticizing any candidates and we are not advocating a particular policy. We are mobilizing students and others to create a more visible constituency that wants education to be a prominent issue in the election,” said Peter Kauffmann, vice president of communications at the College Board. A poll commissioned by the College Board in April 2012 found that 67 percent of voters in nine key swing states believe education is an “extremely important” issue in the run-up to the general election.

More than 1.2 million students drop out of school every year, which averages out to 6,000 students every school day and 857 every hour. Recent data show that students in this country rank 25th in math and 21st in science among students from 30 industrialized nations.

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After interviewing and polling a variety of people, male and female, of all ages, from all over the U.S. with the help of friends, Facebook, and relations Toonari Post determined the top 25 things to do before you turn 25. What would you do? Some results are:

1. Go sky diving.

2. Travel outside the state you were born in. Take a road trip with friends or family. It will be the experience of a lifetime.

3. Robin, from Florida, suggests, write a letter to yourself, and open it on your 40th birthday.  This letter could say what you hope you have accomplished by 40, a reminder of who you were, what you wanted from life, and a motivational speech to keep you moving forward. 

4. Volunteer for an organization you care about. There are a ton of opportunities to volunteer out there. Organizations, book clubs, pottery classes, feed the homeless.

5. See your favorite band at a live concert.

6. Make a new friend. You can never have too many, and they will make the next 25 years even sweeter.

7. Take a multi-day hiking trip.

8. Casey Allen, suggests learning to play an instrument. Learning a new skill is always fun and rewarding.

9.Open a retirement account. You would be surprised at how much money you will have if you start early!

10. Learn about your elders and your family history. Ask what life was like when they were 25. You’ll wish you had once they are gone.

11. Make a dream board. Cut out and paste all the things you want to accomplish in life on a big board. Add quotes, pictures of what you want and love, words that inspire you. Get creative. Then hang it somewhere you will see it everyday. You will be surprised how much this keeps you motivated, inspired, and on track.

12. Look back on the last 25 years, and make sure you have no regrets. See where you can make personal changes for growth and accomplishment. Check yourself, and make sure you are who you want to be. Would you be friends with you? What’s changed for the better, or worse. What have you been hiding in your mind, trying to forget, not dealing with, or avoiding? Time to make changes. Make sure your soul is caught up with the whirl wind, mechanical life.

13. Step outside your adventure bubble. See snow, swim naked, swim in an ocean, fly on an airplane, cave explore, or scuba dive. Many people have not done these things.

14. Do something daring, conquer a fear. Once you see what you are capable of, you will take bigger risks, with bigger rewards in the future. Buy a snake or spider, sing karaoke, dance in public, give a speech. Whatever used to scare you, is about to run away because you’re ready to conquer!

15. Tell someone you love them. Whether it is your ex, your mother, a spiritual figure, or your dog, just say it and mean it!

16. Finish college. Some people get side tracked or life calls them in a different direction. Even if you only take one class a term, try to finish to give yourself the best opportunity.

17. Burn old bridges, make new ones, and mend broken ones. Let go of the things that are holding you back or holding you down. Explore new possibilities and step outside your bubble. Mend relationships that are important to you. Don’t let something wonderful slip away. Doing these three bridge works can clear the negativity in your life and take the weight off your shoulders.

18. Get a full body check up. You never know what may be hereditary in a perfectly healthy body. Live longer, and prosper. Getting into an exercise routine by time your 25 is a healthy start.

19. Read a classic. Open your mind to a book you would never consider. You would be surprised what you learn about life, and yourself. If reading is not something you normally do, give it a shot.

20. Have a wild night. If you have not had a “don’t tell mama night” by 25, you are missing out. Don’t do anything to hurt yourself or others, but definately try letting loose. Don’t be afraid to ignore your iphone, call into work, just this once, and dance the night away with that sexy stranger.

21. Move out. Get a job. Establish independence. Become an adult, don’t be scared. The world doesn’t fall out from under you, and it feels great to make your own way.

22. Have a yard sale. Get rid of that love letter from your fourth grade crush, and that sock that your grandmother gave you in high school that doesn’t fit. Massive clean outs are refreshing, and open the door to fresh starts. Make room for the next 25 years.

23. Get out of old habits, and make new ones. Try a new food, or restaurant.

24. Do something for someone else without them knowing. Selfless acts are rewarding, and not needing to hear praise or thank you is a lesson in humility and modesty.

25. Make your own bucket list.

Now get out there, and get to it!

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San Francisco, U.S.A – When game maker Doug Arduini received a cease and desist order from the largest board game company in the country, he agreed to stop selling his award-winning game, change the name and start all over. However, with no cash flow, he turned to crowd funding to save the day.

His inspiring story has a lesson worth learning for all entrepreneurs who find themselves in a cash flow crunch.

“I had orders for my game in hand from our distributor and the best way I could think of to meet new orders was to change the name of our game, and redesign the artwork to fit the new name,” said a hopeful Arduini. “Because I had already spent $130,000 of my own money dealing with the legal issues on our previous game’s name, I was not sure where to turn. Then a colleague told me about Kickstarter.com and I knew I’d found the answer to my prayers,” said Arduini excitedly.

Arduini thinks big. He is an electronic engineer with a passion for writing and developing games that turn serious learning into fun. He sees a need and fills it and began his quest with a solid purpose to turn important things people need to know into fun and create games with a social purpose.

His original game was called Non-Trivial Quest. Now it is called Non-Trivia Quest. It helps kids and adults learn things like history, geography, finance and math. The concept is noble — as kids grow up into adulthood, they need to know these things to be well-rounded, good communicators and to fit into society. The game is not a test, but an education and experience. It is intended to open up discussions, be interesting, and improve memory and develop awareness.

“I started working on Non-Trivial Quest in the summer of 1987. After I took early retirement from Cisco Systems, I thought I could finish the game in three months, but quickly discovered it would take me several more years. I finally introduced the game in March, 2011.”

Arduini’s first lesson for entrepreneurs is that things take longer than you think, but you can always go from hopeless to hopeful.

“If you run into cash-flow problems as we did, this economy makes it tougher to find funding. However, a brilliant site like Kickstarter.com really changes the name of the game for entrepreneurs,” said Arduini.

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Poverty is one of the world’s biggest unsolved issues. Even though the United States is the wealthiest country in the world, it’s  masses still live in poverty every single day. According to the non-profit organization ‘Bread for the World,’ “more than one in five children live in households that struggle to put food on the table, and most Americans (51.4 percent) will live in poverty at some point before age 65.” Of that percentage, a huge chunk comes from broken homes, including single and teenage mothers. This chunk is being blamed for the poor social mobility in the U.S.

According to a survey in the book “From Parents to Children,” written by a group of scholars, “children born into poor homes in America — where single-parent and teen-parent homes are more common (than in other parts of the world)– tended to remain poor throughout their life, while Australian and Canadian children born into similar families were more successful in advancing themselves.”

One of the scholars who wrote the book, Ottawa University’s Miles Corak, a poverty and education expert, said, “the tie between the educational attainment of children and the educational attainment of their parents is much tighter in the UK and U.S. than not just Australia and Canada, but also the vast majority of comparable rich countries.”

Children in the United States that are born into poverty are considered less developed than children entering elementary school in Australia and Canada. By the time these children enter high school, the gap of development continues to widen. Additionally, according to NewsCore, students born into poverty are much less likely to further their education after high school than impoverished students in other industrialized nations.

In hopes of improving the lives of those born into poverty in the United States, there are several things that the public can do to contribute to the lives of those that are most affected. Educational Charity Sutton Trust, which works to address such inequalities, said, “if we can understand the reasons for the much higher levels of social mobility in nations such as Canada and Australia … then the hope is that we can develop policies that will improve the life prospects.”

‘Bread for the World’ outlines several solutions to end poverty and to change the current statistics of poverty in America. Better jobs with higher wages need to be created for adults to support their families, and work support programs need to expand for families to have access to affordable health care and child care.

Strengthening tax credits, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, which help working families, and child nutrition programs—school lunches and breakfasts, summer feeding programs, and the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program—are critical to ending childhood hunger. When children receive the nutrition they need, they are more likely to move out of poverty as adults.

Image Courtesy of  Gerry Boughan / Shutterstock.com

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The New Zealand Government has proposed changes to the Student Loan Scheme in order to increase repayment rates and bring the overall loan balance to a more manageable figure.

“This in turn will make the scheme fairer for the vast majority of borrowers who do honour their loan obligations and for taxpayers more generally,” says Revenue Minister Peter Dunne.

However student advocate groups are opposing the move saying they will make it even harder for new graduates to find their feet as the repayments start too low and demand too much.

“New Zealand graduates already make payments from a level of income below any other income-contingent loans scheme in the world; the rate of payment proposed will now also be higher than is demanded anywhere else,” said Pete Hodkinson, President of the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA).

Currently those with student loans who earn over $19,084 per year pay 10% of their income over the threshold. This will rise to 12%, an increase that the Massey University Extramural Students Society and NZUSA estimate will cost students and graduates between $15 and $30 per week.

The Green Party is also opposing the Government’s proposal, stating that a graduated rate would be fairer and more effective.

“A better alternative would be a progressive repayment rate that kicks in when graduates are actually earn[ing] higher incomes so that those who can afford to repay their loans do so, while those on lower incomes have a chance to find their feet first,” suggests Green Party student spokesperson Holly Walker.

The Government has also indicated it plans to make changes around student allowance eligibility and is considering a student allowance cap of four years.

The student allowance scheme allows students from low income families access to funding for living costs which is not added to their loan.

Student groups, including the New Zealand Medical Students Association, are also angered by these plans saying that it is unfair to those completing longer degrees and may discourage students from entering those degrees including medicine which is a minimum of eight years.

“We have grave concerns that the seven-year cap on student loans and now this four-year cap on access to student allowances may force students to take out high-interest bank loans to live, which will reduce access to tertiary education for many students and is unreasonable,” says NZMSA President Michael Chen-Xu.

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New York, U.S.A. – Carnegie Mellon, Hult International Business School and NYU Abu Dhabi were honored for their commitment to eradicating poverty at the Hult Global Case Challenge in New York City, hosted by Hult International Business and the Clinton Global Initiative.

The three winning teams beat thousands of students from the world’s best business schools for a US$1 millioncash grant and
were honored by President Bill Clinton.

Started three years ago by Hult graduate Ahmad Ashkar, the Hult Global Case Challenge is the largest and most respected initiative of its kind. Harnessing the power of crowd sourcing, the Hult Global Case Challenge attracted students from 350 colleges and universities to provide solutions to the real challenges facing three NGOs. These are Habitat for Humanity, which builds affordable housing; SolarAid, which brings renewable energy to impoverished communities; and One Laptop Per Child, which provides low-cost computers to children.

A panel of high-profile judges including: Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, Unilever Chairman Michael Treschow, social entrepreneur Darell Hammond, and the CEOs of the three NGOs, selected the winners in education, housing and energy.

Education               

Winner: Carnegie Mellon

To help One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) put 10 million laptops in the hands of children worldwide in the nextfive years, the Carnegie
Mellon team presented an innovative approach to ensure streamlined laptopdeployment and to create a global brand for the
NGO ’ s open-source software.

“The Hult Global Case Challenge has provided us with many ideas to address the challenge of scaling OLPC to enable learning for the world’s poorest children,” said Rodrigo Arboleda, Chairman and CEO of the One Laptop per Child Association. “We appreciate the creativity, passion and effort of all the student teams around the world who participated in the competition.”

Housing

Winner: Hult International Business School

Habitat for Humanity has a mission to provide homes for 50 million people within the next 10 years.
Hult ’s winning solution focuses on harnessing the intelligence of those at the bottom of the pyramid andequipping them to
solve their own problems.

“Hult’s Global Case Challenge is good news for everyone involved,” said Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity. “Students have the opportunity to solve real-world challenges, and organizations like Habitat benefit — not only from the prize money used to implement the winning proposal, but also from the ideas that emerge from crowdsourcing and the relationships that we develop with tomorrow’s business leaders.”

Energy

Winner: NYU Abu Dhabi

Many Africans still rely on kerosene lamps. NYU Abu Dhabi ’ s solution focuses on creating a network ofentrepreneurs and
technicians who will sell and fix solar lamps in a sustainable way.

Speaking in support of the winning team’s solution, SolarAid CEO Steve Andrews said: “Our goal is to eradicate the kerosene lamp from Africa by the end of this decade. That’s simply a huge challenge, which will only be possible with massive innovation. Having the top students from around the world competing to come up with great ideas for how we will do this is an extraordinary boost. It’s already changing the way we think and work.”

Ahmad Ashkar, the founder and CEO of the Hult Global Case Challenge, said: “This initiative aims to revolutionize how we think about the world’s most pressing social challenges. With US$1 million in seed capital, students from all over the world have a chance to establish social enterprises that achieve real results.”

Congratulating the winning teams, Hult President Dr Stephen Hodges added: “The Hult Global Case Challenge is an important part of Hult’s push to encourage social entrepreneurship among talented students, whichever country they come from. Through this visionary kind of crowd sourcing we’re giving NGOs access to a wealth of new ideas and perspectives that help them grow stronger.”

Image Courtesy of  Jose Gil / Shutterstock.com

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The economic crisis has raised unemployment, universities have reduced their available spots, and tuition is becoming inaccessible to the poor and middle class. So, is a college education really worth it?

Students must be certain that they want to go to a college these days. Though motivations vary – pressure from home, aggressive marketing, or social tendencies in the political arena – a university education is considered a good investment because higher pay has traditionally followed a higher education. However, many students argue that their decision is not only about money and that they see the value of a college education as a way to expand their knowledge and learn independence.

Students have to learn the hard lesson that going to a university is not enough. You also have to study the right subjects, not just your preferences. This way, you will have business contacts for when you graduate. Many students try to avoid the toughest subjects, such as math and chemistry, and instead, they choose the “easy” or ” fun” ones. They waste their time by choosing fields in the humanities that give little prospect of landing a job.

For instance, some students receive futile degrees in media, photography, or fashion, so they can get interesting jobs. However, employers will take advantage of them because they have many candidates to choose from since the market is already over-saturated.

I am not saying that the humanities is the wrong way to go, but graduates in those subjects have lower wages and are less likely to find work in their fields compared to those who graduate with a degree in science. According to a study conducted by Andrew Sum, a labor economist at Northeastern University and leading expert on the youth labor market, more than half of all humanities graduates get jobs that do not require university degrees.

The tuition fees and certain majors are the two main reasons to discourage students from going to college. First, the idea that they will be spending their twenties and thirties paying off their university or college debts once they have graduated is a big negative, and second, their preferred major will not guarantee them a job in their field, or they will end up working menial jobs.

According to a report by myUface in 2009,  U.K. tuition is between $5,500 and $28,500 USD per year, whereas in the U.S., the tuition is between $5,000 and $30,000. On top of that, you must add $8,000 for living expenses, if the student moves away from his or her hometown.

I am not discouraging students from going to a university, but they have to take tuition fees and their chosen field of study into account before they make their final decision. Choosing a science degree is a safer investment than a humanities degree because there are more jobs and less competition. Nowadays, majoring in the humanities field is a gamble, but if students want to succeed in this competitive field, they must know that there will be blood, sweat, and tears all the way.

If students do not choose higher education, there are other interesting professions, such as becoming an electrician or plumber. You can make good money, and skip three or four years at a college or university and the financial struggle from student loan debts. Dear students, the decision is yours.

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The World Literacy Foundation has urged leaders of governments and education to pledge support for the new Oxford Declaration announced at the World Literacy Summit in Oxford, United Kingdom. Over 250 delegates from 60 countries contributed to the Oxford Declaration at the World Literacy Summit.

The CEO of the World Literacy Foundation Andrew Kay said, “We have created a pathway whose main purpose is to eradicate illiteracy by the year 2020.

The Declaration requires commitment and investment from the global community on five key priority areas. These priority areas include: development of leadership in the literacy sector, quality of education, targeted advocacy, improved measurements of learning outcomes and evidence based strategies.

Kay issued a plea to governments and the community to be pro-active in achieving the goals of the Oxford Declaration.

“Illiteracy is linked to many poor life outcomes, such as poverty, unemployment, social exclusion, crime, long-term illness, lost productivity in business and reduced income earning capacity in a job. The Oxford Declaration embodies our commitment to achieving literacy through quality education. This in turn will help build the economic and social capital of all countries,” he said.

“It is obvious the Millennium Development Goals for education and literacy will not be met by the 2015 deadline. Although some progress has been made, we need to take more decisive action. About one in five people across the world are functionally illiterate. This shocking statistic means their literacy skills are so poor that they cannot complete tasks such as reading a medicine or food label or filling out a job or bank loan application,” the World Literacy Foundation CEO noted.

In conclusion Kay said that illiteracy needs to be treated as a disease that we are aiming to eradicate. “We need to understand that early intervention can avert a lifetime of hardship, poverty and pain for a child, young person or adult who is struggling to read or write.”

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To choose to be a student right now in the UK is to place yourself in a very precarious situation. You can go the university route, where high tuition fees will hopefully be offset by strong career prospects, or you can go the technical college route as a means of earning a vocational skill which will result in more practical and accessible work experience.

Alternatively, you can choose to study abroad for the sake of your resumé, you can study part-time and find part-time employment to avoid incurring massive student loans, or if all else fails then you can take a gap year from your studies and attempt to find significant work experience which will potentially guide you onto the right academic path at a later date.

However, do a little asking around and you will soon find that a lot of people at different ages in these various positions are struggling to answer the question of, ‘Is education, in this day and age, and in this economic climate, even worthwhile?’.

What it all comes down to is all the statistics you have heard before: fees are up, the job market has narrowed, those already in employment are putting off retirement by a few more years, and so as a result the next generation of professionals are cast somewhat adrift.

Danielle Lavery, 24, attended both Belfast Metropolitan College and University of Ulster, and had the following to say about the attitudes of the staff in each institution:

When it comes to Uni, I think they get paid for nothing … [College] is a different story. They are dying to help in any way possible. I would study there forever.

This comment about being ‘paid for nothing’ is an echo of a point raised by many in the past – do university students get their value for money? Even before the fee increase became an issue, the majority of undergraduates were paying over £3,000 per year in tuition for less than a dozen hours of taught class per week.

At postgraduate level, the fees are higher and the taught class hours per week are lower, a structure which by its very design is becoming increasingly unappealing to younger students just starting out in higher education. Charlotte Hart, 18, is in her first year at Manchester Metropolitan University and said:

Joys = Getting to choose what you learn about more so than in previous education, and getting to move away (some people). Pains = lack of money.

Thus, the financial problem persists. Universities may offer a range of clubs and societies, and some may be developing world-class facilities, such as Queen’s University Belfast’s (QUB) McClay Library, but if students are not being compelled to make the most of these then the focus again turns towards the tangible benefits which students are receiving in turn for their tuition fees.

To go from a first year undergraduate to a PhD student, Amanda Krentzel, 23, spoke of the challenges and responsibilities that come from the mere development of one’s academic career. Having finished her undergraduate degree less than a year ago, Krentzel now finds that:

Suddenly, in the eyes of undergrads, you’ve aged a decade.

This point brings to light the academic hierarchy which is not nearly as well-documented as the financial burdens of student life. Pursuing academia through all of its stages means finding yourself becoming a relatively senior figure before you have reached your mid-20s. That routine of simply going to class, doing assignments, complaining about exams, and partying in the student union?

That is forgotten very quickly as the ‘student’ becomes a more active participant in the university community. Now, add together the personal responsibility and the workload, as well as the financial challenges, and the full extent of the pressures of student life become more apparent.

All this, however, is not to downplay the fundamental love of education that many students, even those in dire financial straits, manage to maintain. Sarah McBride, 25, is a postgraduate student at QUB and explained:

I’m pro-education. I’m here for the love of learning, not just for the job prospects.

Therein may lie the reason why so many young people continue to apply to higher education courses when they are well aware of the complete lack of guarantees of finding jobs: a love of learning.

In a year where recent graduates have emigrated from Europe to the United States, and vice versa, there are still plenty who believe that the student experience is still an invaluable and ultimately fulfilling endeavour to pursue. Yet for those who have emigrated to pursue their studies, the reasons are equally persuasive. James Hughes, a QUB graduate, moved to Maastricht to do his MA, and lists his motivations for doing do as:

The cheap fees, the potential employment prospects and the international atmosphere of the student body. Chance to live in another country is appealing and, for Maastricht specifically, it’s a great central ‘hub’ for travelling.

For those who remain at home, it remains to be seen whether the joys of education will continue to outweigh the pains, as another year goes by with more graduates than ever fighting it out for that one, elusive, perfect dream job.

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The Military Child Education Coalition has received a $150,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to improve the likelihood that military-connected children are college and career ready. With both organizations striving to ensure young people reach their full potential, the partnership reflects a shared goal of providing all students with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed beyond high school—in college, career, and life.

In keeping with its mission to ensure educational opportunities for the nation’s nearly 2 million military-connected children, the Military Child Education Coalition will advocate for clear and consistent educational standards across all 50 states. Frequently referred to as Common Core Standards, adoption and implementation of standards in core subject areas such as math, science, reading-language arts, and social studies will benefit all students.

According to Dr. Mary M. Keller, President and CEO of Military Child Education Coalition, Common Core Standards (CCS) are especially beneficial to military-connected children who move three times more frequently than their civilian classmates or experience the turbulence of separation from a parent. These children, with parents serving in the Active Duty, National Guard or Reserve forces, have unique challenges related to the continuity of their learning progress.

“Common Core Standards (CCS) are essential for military-connected students because they increase the predictability and continuity of our highly mobile students’ academic experiences,” explains Dr. Keller. Though frequent school moves can have an adverse impact on student progress in all content areas, the Military Child Education Coalition research and experience clearly substantiates mathematics as the area of highest need and advocacy campaigns will reflect that focus.

This significant effort is paramount in providing needed support to children whose parents support our nation. There are approximately 1.2 million school-aged military-connected children in the U.S. Approximately 80% of these students attend public school and the remaining attend Department of Defense Dependent Schools in Europe and the Pacific, private and parochial schools or are home-schooled.

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A Maricopa County Superior Court judge last week rejected a lawsuit challenging Arizona’s landmark Empowerment Scholarship Accounts Program, the first-of-its-kind private school choice program that benefits special needs children.

The American Federation for Children—the nation’s voice for school choice—praised the ruling as a victory for parents, students, and education reform advocates. The lawsuit, brought forth by the Arizona School Boards Association and the Arizona Education Association, will likely be appealed, according to lawyers arguing on behalf of the program.

The Empowerment Scholarship Accounts Program grants education savings accounts to eligible parents of students with special needs. Parents can use those funds for a host of educational purposes, including tuition, tutoring, and school supplies. There are currently 142 students enrolled in the program.

“The real winners here are the parents and the children who are benefiting from this groundbreaking school choice program,” said Betsy DeVos, chairman of the American Federation for Children.  “It is long past time for special interests to cease challenging laws that empower parents and give hope to disadvantaged children.”

In her ruling, Judge Maria Del Mar Verdin said that “the exercise of parental choice among education options makes the program constitutional,” also noting that ESAs allow parents to choose how and when all of the scholarship amounts are spent. Opponents claimed that the program violates the “Aid Clause” and the “Religion Clause” of the Arizona Constitution.

The victory is the most recent in a long line of successful court rulings in favor of expanded educational options. Last April, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Arizona’s Individual School Tuition Organization Tax Credit Program, and earlier this month, an Indiana judge rejected a lawsuit that aimed to halt the statewide voucher program.

Enacted last year, the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts Program is the fourth private school choice program operating in Arizona. The Grand Canyon State is currently one of only two states in the country with four publicly funded private school choice programs.

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Rev. Larry Snyder, President and CEO of Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA) responds to the President’s State of the Union: ”Catholic Charities USA was heartened by the initiatives outlined by President Obama in [his] State of the Union speech that have the potential to improve the lives of many.

We were very encouraged by the President’s discussion on immigration and the recognition of the need for increased access to quality education and job training as important pathways to opportunity.  However, we feel an urgency to also place a priority on addressing more effective methods for delivering vital services to those most vulnerable among us.

“While there is a very robust discussion occurring in Washington about how much money should be spent on various federal programs that serve the poor, few are engaged in conversation about how better to administer those services, how to maximize efficiency in delivery and how to identify new solutions to prevent and alleviate poverty at large.

We are hopeful that moving forward the President will lead a national conversation about identifying new methods and strategies for lifting more Americans onto a path of opportunity and self-sufficiency in a way that is economically sustainable for the nation, ensuring not just an ‘America Built to Last’, but an ‘America Built to Last – For All.’

“While the President discussed a deficit of trust between Main Street and Wall Street, CCUSA remains focused on addressing the needs of those on Back Street.  At the moment, our nation’s safety net system is focused on helping these people get by, when we should be making sure they thrive.

We need comprehensive reform of the nation’s service delivery system that is market driven, results oriented and locally controlled, enabling the country to permanently make a difference in the lives of those living in poverty, and establishing accountability for the investment of taxpayer dollars.

“We recognize that the challenge at hand is great, but with great challenge comes great opportunity. Catholic Charities USA embraces this challenge and looks forward to working with the President to ensure we fulfill the moral responsibility of creating opportunity for everyone, ensuring an America built to last for all.”

Image Courtesy of   https://www.facebook.com/catholiccharitiesusa

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As reports circulate that the Prime Minister plans to leave the Crown/First Nations gathering early to attend the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, six First Nations young people, including Shannen’s Dream youth spokesperson 16 year old Chelsea Edwards, are planning a trip of their own.

On February 6, 2012 First Nations young people from across Canada will meet with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva to explain what it feels like to grow up getting fewer government services such as education, health care and child welfare on reserves.

The trip was inspired by the late Shannen Koostachin, a youth education advocate from Attawapiskat First Nation, who had her own First Nations/Crown gathering in 2008 when she met with the Minister of Indian Affairs to demand proper schools and culturally based education for First Nations children on reserves.

She was tired of the horrible conditions of many First Nations schools and knew that even in First Nations that had proper schools, the federal government short-changed First Nations children by $2000 to $3000less per student per year for teachers, books and learning supports.

Her own “school” in Attawapiskat First Nation was composed of a bunch of run down portable trailers set beside a toxic waste dump. Shannen saw talented children in grade 5 dropping out because of the deplorable conditions and she wanted this to change.  The Minister told her the government did not have enough money and she told him she would never give up because “school is a time for dreams and every kid deserves this”.

Shannen was nominated for the international children’s peace prize awarded by the Nobel Laureates in 2008. Sadly, she died in a car accident in 2010, waiting for her dream of equality for First Nations children to come true. Chelsea Edwards says that “I hope the Prime Minister will do the right thing but we are tired of waiting.  Shannen was our Rosa Parks and we have been sitting at the back of the bus our whole lives and we don’t want to wait there anymore.”

Cindy Blackstock, Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society says solving the inequities is not rocket science; “there are multiple solutions on the table and racial discrimination against children is not a legitimate fiscal restraint measure. Children only have one childhood. Canada must treat First Nations children fairly now.”

The Shannen’s Dream supports Parliamentary Motion 202 (introduced by MP Angus) to close the funding gaps and give First Nations children a chance to succeed and be proud of who they are.

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Nancy Silberkleit, the seasoned anti-bullying and literacy advocate, is proud to announce the Strides To Stop Bullying Essay Event, a new anti-bullying initiative for 2012. This inspirational event, open to students across the country, encourages youth to share their true stories and insight to raise awareness and stop the harm that bullying can do.

Led by a panel including Former New York Governor David Paterson, Stan Davis of stopbullyingnow.com and Nancy Silberkleit, the contest will raise funds for the International Bullying Prevention Association. Selected youth will also have their story serve as the inspiration for a forthcoming educational, not-for-profit comic book written by Nancy Silberkleit. Selected essays may also be published anonymously in other ways.

Nancy Silberkleit, co-CEO of Archie Comics, is using her educational training and experience to inspire self-confidence and strength in children of all ages. The Strides To Stop Bullying Essay Event was conceived by Silberkleit as a way to create an inspired community while also furthering her philanthropic reach.

She is currently working on a series of educational comic book focusing on children’s issues such as bullying. She aims to share her words of strength and inspiration with today’s youth. She advises, “Never let anyone define who you are. You know who you are.”

The Strides To Stop Bullying Essay Event, open to all students across the country ages 8-18, will be open for submissions February 1st- May 1st. To enter, children must write a 250-word true essay on the topic of bullying. They may send their own true story about what made things better when they were bullied, or how they supported someone else who was bullied.

These essays will be used as the inspiration for one of Nancy Silberkleit’s upcoming educational comics. For the first 200 essays sent in, Nancy Silberkleit will donate $5 per essay to the International Bullying Prevention Association.

“Creating a school environment free of harassment and discrimination has been a long term goal of mine,” says Governor Paterson. “I’m proud to further align myself with causes such as this contest that encourage our youth to speak out and unite against bullying.”

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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie renewed his commitment to enacting strong school choice legislation for students in failing school districts during his annual State of the State speech at the State Capitol in Trenton.

The American Federation for Children—the nation’s voice for school choice—praised the governor’s speech as a call to all elected officials to put politics aside and enact legislation that will allow thousands of Garden State students to attend the school of their parents’ choice.

Governor Christie urged legislators to pass the Opportunity Scholarship Act (OSA), which has bipartisan support in the legislature and would create a scholarship tax credit program for children in low-income families who are currently trapped in the state’s lowest performing school districts.

“We applaud Governor Christie for continuing to fight for expanding educational options and his strong commitment to the Opportunity Scholarship Act,” said Betsy DeVos, chairman of the American Federation for Children. “Thousands of families across the state stand with Governor Christie in calling for passage of this important legislation.”

While Christie said he will pursue many education reforms in 2012—including expanding access to charter schools and teacher tenure reform—he made enacting the OSA one of the focuses of his 2012 agenda.

“Opportunity should not be offered to only those in an excellent school district or with parents who have the money to release their children from the prison that is a failing school,” the Governor said during his speech. “Let’s pass the opportunity scholarship act now.” Christie has been a long-time supporter of school choice since taking over as governor two years ago.

In 2010, he was the keynote speaker at the American Federation for Children’s first annual policy summit. ”Democrats including Senators Lesniak and Ruiz, Assemblymen Fuentes and Greenwald, long-time party leaders like George Norcross, and Newark Mayor Cory Booker have voiced their strong support for giving low-income parents this critically important option,” said Kevin P. Chavous, a senior advisor to the American Federation for Children.

“With bipartisan support in the legislature and support from the Governor, it’s time for New Jersey to pass the Opportunity Scholarship Act and give these disadvantaged children immediate hope for a brighter future.”

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/megwhitman2010/

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Nearly one in four American children attend rural schools and enrollment is growing at a faster rate in rural school districts than in all other places combined, according to ‘Why Rural Matters 2011-12’, a biennial report by the Rural School and Community Trust.   In addition, rural schools show increasing rates of poverty, diversity, and students with special needs.

These widespread trends are most evident in the South, Southwest, and parts of Appalachia. ”As the evidence mounts that rural education is becoming a bigger and even more complex part of our national educational landscape, it is becoming impossible to ignore in the quest to improve achievement and narrow achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged groups.

The day of closing our eyes and hoping rural education will just go away are ending,” said Jerry Johnson, a co-author of ‘Why Rural Matters 2011-12’. More than 9.6 million students are enrolled in rural school districts in the United States, which is over 20 percent of all public school students in the United States.

An additional 1.8 million students are enrolled in rural schools in districts not classified as rural by the federal government.  Together, these 11.4 million students who attend rural schools comprise more than 23 percent of all public school students, according to the Rural School and Community Trust, a respected national nonprofit organization.

Of those students attending schools in a rural district, two in five live in poverty, a rate that has increased by nearly a third in nine years.  One student in four in rural areas is a child of color, and one in eight has changed residence in the past 12 months.

Between the 1999-2000 and 2008-2009 school years, rural districts’ enrollment increased by well over 1.7 million students, showing a growth rate of more than 22 percent.  In comparison, non-rural enrollment increased by only 673,000, or by a 1.7 percent increase, for the same time period.  As a result, the rural districts’ share of national public school enrollment increased from 17.4 percent to 20 percent over the decade, according to federal data in the report.

These enrollment gains were particularly strong in the most rural states in the South and Southwest.  Ten states are among the top 13 in both the number and the percentage of rural enrollment growth — Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

The top five states with rural enrollment increases — Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arizona — had a total gain of over 1.1 million, more than half the gain for all states that gained rural enrollment.

“Rural minority students are concentrated in certain states, and that concentration is increasing,” said Jerry Johnson. Over 69 percent of all rural minority students now attend school in states where they represent more than one third of the rural student enrollment.  That is up from 58 percent as reported in ‘Why Rural Matters 2009’.

The report uses 25 statistical indicators grouped into five “gauges” to take the measure of rural education in each of the 50 states.  The five gauges are then combined to produce a “rural education priority” gauge.  The higher the ranking, the more important and challenging rural education is in a state’s overall education system and the more urgent it is for policy makers to pay attention to it.

The 13 highest priority states are all in the South, Southwest, and Appalachia, except Alaska, and all, but three, of the 12 next highest priority states are adjacent to them with the exception of Idaho, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

The report notes that rural education ranks high in importance in many Northern states, including Iowa, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, and Vermont.  However, these states tend to rank low on other measures such as student poverty, diversity, or poor student performance and low graduation rates.

“These states symbolize rural education to many people. They are the basis for a myth that all of rural America is uncomplicated, stable, and reasonably well-off. That myth is part of what keeps rural education on the margins of the national debate about education policy,” said Marty Strange, the policy director for the Rural School and Community Trust and co-author of the report.

“But these classic Yankee and Prairie-Plains states are simply an important part of a much more varied, complex, and challenging rural America that education policy makers must better understand,” said Strange. The report found that states most responsive to rural schools have above average fiscal capacity.

For example, the report points out that of the 13 states with the lowest expenditures for rural teachers, all but Nebraska and South Dakota are below the national average in state fiscal capacity.  On the other hand, states with the highest rural teacher salaries are primarily in the Northeast, the West, and the Mid-Atlantic. All these states are above the national average in state fiscal capacity per capital.

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The Brazilian Project about a social network that connects students and universities started in June and has since then reached more than 700 schools and universities through their website. Translated into twenty languages and launched in more than 12 countries around Latin America, USA, Spain and Italy, the EDUFINDME will this year reach Europe and Asia.

EDUFINDME has turned out to be a perfect environment for increasing the range of academic relation between institutions and students. It is a platform that beyond the connections made also suggests matches between both parts; students and universities. This is really useful to people searching for good opportunities to study around the world.

It  is also possible to find search engines to be use by both sides with the goal of helping students save time. Instead of using traditional search engines that doesn’t target any specific groups and spend hours searching for universities and courses, this project aims to collect all the important information in one place.

And from the point of view of the universities, it is a great tool to help further their campus internationalization process. It is also a good place to spread the word about scholarships and avoid that good students go unaware about opportunities. At the same time it is perfect for good institutions to connect with the best talents out there.

The whole process of connecting is completely free and easy. First step of the platform is about selling yourself and creating an interactive profile that will attract the right people. After this, you should synchronize your profile with other social media accounts and try increase the network opportunities.

This step will make it even easier to get connected with others. Finally, you will be reached by schools and students. In order to have the best options you will also find different ways to sign up: as an student, as parent searching for the kids, educational provider and agencies.

There are a lot of good programs that go finished but unnoticed and because of this, everybody interested in an academic path with a global perspective and who search for good opportunities should give the EDUFINDME a try.

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A kindergarten class in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan, uses dolls with lifelike parts – including genitalia with pubic hair – to teach children about sex. An agency, Imagine China, provided photographs of the dolls to the Huffington Post. The photos were taken in April at Yaolan Kindergarten.

The Shanghaiist, reported that a typical conversation in a Yaolan classroom involves a 4 or 5-year-old student asking if babies fell from the sky only to be corrected by another student who explains: “Daddy’s sperm finds mommy’s egg, and then a baby grows inside mommy’s stomach!”

The graphic dolls used to teach kindergarteners about sex have produced debate and concern among parents. “I am worried that it’s not good for the kids to know sexual knowledge so early,” a parent said, according to The Shanghai Daily. Yaolan has “managed to transcend traditionally retrograde attitudes on sex education, having reportedly taught 4 and 5-year-old children sex-ed since 2008,” The Shanghaiist said.

Discussion on whether or not to teach sexual education to children of various ages is taking place in many places in China. According to CNN, a report in a local Beijing newspaper about a new sex education textbook for elementary school students has spurred much debate on this issue online and beyond.

The Beijing Times, a popular local tabloid, said that the textbook titled “The Steps of Growth,” uses images that are too graphic for young children. “Is it for elementary school students? That’s way too early for them…unacceptable!” a person wrote on Sina Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter.

According to CNN, authorities in China said the textbook is only an experiment in some schools but claimed that the teachings of the textbook are important.  In a fax statement to CNN, they said, “it’s very important to carry out health education, including sex education, to elementary and middle school students.”

Those in support of teaching sexual education point to China’s abortion rates to prove the need for early education on sex. China has one of the highest abortion rates in the world – a number which is growing. According to a government tally, 9.2 million abortions were performed in 2008, up from 7.6 million in 2007.

But the count only includes hospitals, and state media report the total could be as high as 13 million. The Huffington Post said that many blame the high abortion rate on liberal attitudes toward premarital sex, as well as a lack of sex education.

According to a report by China’s National Working Committee on Children and Women under State Council in 2010, 60% of young Chinese aged 15-24 were open to pre-marriage sex, while 22.4% actually had sexual experience. Among those who got pregnant before marriage, 91% had an abortion, while only 4.4% of unmarried people aged 15-24 had the “correct knowledge” about reproduction.

It also added that only 14.4% of that group understood the risks of HIV, CNN reported. Deciding on the right age to teach children sexual education remains a heated, ongoing debate. “Children still need sex education when they’re little,” opined Li Yinhe, a sociologist who specializes in sexology studies in China.

“They need to know basic knowledge such as gender differences. What matters is that the teachers should also tell children what is right and what is wrong in terms of sex morality, and teach the children to protect themselves from sexual assaults.” China is not the only place where opinion is split on the issue of sexual education.

On August 31, The Vatican referred to New York City’s new sexual education classes as “useless, and even harmful.” The curriculum involves teaching middle school students how to correctly use condoms.

 
Hung Chung Chih / Shutterstock.com

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U.S. students don’t know their own country’s history.

Based on recent national test scores, results show less than one-fourth of students are “proficient” in American history, CNN reports.

The Nation’s Report Card: U.S. History 2010, test results report by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education showed 20 percent of fourth graders, 17 percent of eighth graders and 12 percent of 12th graders showed “solid academic performance” on the tests.

Exam statics are based on 7,000 fourth graders, 11,000 eighth graders and 12,000 12th graders.
When it comes to testing, it doesn’t seem as though history is the most important subject for students to know anyways. U.S. history is not even tested in the No Child left Behind policy.

Knowing history also can’t help students pass the SAT, because there’s no history section on that test. Most jobs don’t even focus on employees’ abilities to remember what year the civil war started or who the president was during that time period.

Teachers tend to focus on subjects such as English and math, which have more practical and vocational applications for students, beyond standardized testing.

There could be many factors and reasons why students are doing so poorly in U.S. history. Teachers may need to venture into new methods of teaching history to the country’s children.

“All of these students will be voters… and almost 40 percent were already eligible to vote when they took the assessment,” said Diane Ravitch, a New York University research professor of education in a statement released after the results of the study were published. “They will be making decisions in the voting booth that influence our lives.

They should be well informed and capable of weighing the contending claims of candidates, especially when the candidates rest their arguments on historical precedent.”

Knowing history may not help to perform well on the job at McDonalds or Starbucks. But, knowing history helps those who are informed make better decisions in life.

“If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree,” the words of Michael Crichton an American writer.

Jorg Hackemann / Shutterstock.com

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Tennessee State Senate passed a bill last week that would prohibit teachers and students in public schools from discussing homosexuality.  Children in grades kindergarten through eighth grade will not be able to discuss or ask questions about being gay. There doesn’t seem to be any logical reason for the imposed silence.  Supporters state that the measure is designed to be a guideline for teachers dealing with a controversial topic.  But, there are plenty of other controversial topics that are not off limits to discussion.

Opponents correctly point out that legislation is unfair to children of gay parents.  It could also lead to more bullying.  Bullying of gay students has become a nationwide epidemic more noticed after a rash of teen suicides last year was linked to bullying.  Opponents refer to the bill as the “Don’t say gay bill.”

The legislation’s original version stated that no elementary or middle schools will “provide any instruction or material that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality.” Republican Senate sponsor Stacey Campfield of Knoxville said some of his colleagues were uncomfortable with that language.  The wording of the bill was amended to say that any instruction or materials at a public elementary or middle school would be limited to age-appropriate lessons about the science of human reproduction.

“There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” Campfield said after the vote. “I got what I wanted.”

Campfield believes the language is still barring classrooms from discussing gay relationships because “homosexuals don’t naturally reproduce,” and he said it’s necessary because the state’s curriculum is unclear on what can be taught.

The legislation will probably not be taken up by the state House before lawmakers adjourn this spring.  Campfield said he would push it forward in 2012 when the General Assembly reconvenes for the second year of the session.  If the bill passed, Tennessee would be the first state to enact such legislation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Other states have had similar proposals which have been defeated.   A Louisiana law forbids the use of sexually explicit materials depicting homosexuality in sex education classes.

Critics of the bill point out that the new wording may cause unintended consequences.  Sen. Roy Herron, D- Dresden, said it “may inadvertently prevent the teaching of ethics, morality and abstinence.”

Stephen Smith, assistant commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Education, also said he’s unaware of homosexuality being taught anywhere in the state. He said there is nothing in the state’s curriculum standards that allows students to be taught about homosexuality.

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Wisconsin has forced the debate nationally on teachers’ salaries as more and more states are cutting spending for education, claiming austerity measures.   Although there is no clear correlation that better paid teachers produce more educated students, there are certainly some valid reasons why teachers should be paid better in the United States.

According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), many people do not join the teaching profession because of its low starting salary, which trails the pay of educators around the world.  The average starting salary for a teacher is $32,642.  The maximum salary for teachers with master’s degree is $60,036.  Teachers have also been “losing ground” to other professions for years, EPI says. A 2008 report by the Economic Policy Institute argues that teachers with bachelor’s degrees earned about 12.2 percent less than their peers in 2006, while the gap between teachers and non-teachers with a master’s degree was 11.3 percent.

The National Education Association, the largest teacher’s union, believes that teachers should receive more compensation for receiving a master’s degree.  “People who improve their skills should get paid more,” says Bill Raabe of the NEA “Wouldn’t you want that adult work with your children to be the best that money can buy. It’s a no brainer.”

A few schools are fighting these trends by paying teachers six-figure salaries. A New York City charter school earned headlines in 2008 for its plans to pay teachers $125,000 in exchange for working longer hours and assuming additional duties. A voluntary program instituted in Washington, D.C., last year could raise total compensation for some teachers to $140,000.  Some teachers in Wisconsin and Illinois are also reportedly as handsomely compensated along with other states. According to the NEA, about 1 percent of teachers are paid that well.

Though teachers’ unions and their political allies argue that educators are underpaid, fiscal conservatives argue that given the amount of work they do and the hefty benefits they receive, that is not the case. Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, says he is not against paying well.  “I don’t think that all teachers should earn six figures,” Hess says in an interview. “The best teachers should earn six figures and the worst teachers should be fired.”

The states that teachers are the lowest paid are generally not known for high quality education.  The states with the lowest paid teachers are Kansas, Tennessee, New Mexico, North Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Utah, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Throwing more money at a broken education system may not solve the problem.  But, teachers in the United States are significantly underpaid, suggesting that the nation may not value education as it once did.  This will negatively impact future generations.

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A Senate panel is investigating a tiny small Iowa college that has seen unprecedented growth in the past six years.  Ashford University, now a for-profit college, and its parent company–Bridgepoint Education Inc., was the focus a March hearing by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.  Representatives from Bridgepoint did not attend the hearing.

Only six years ago, Ashford University was a near-bankrupt college managed by a group of Franciscan nuns in rural Iowa.  Fewer than 400 students were enrolled in the college in 2005.  Ashford was purchased by Bridgepoint that same year and now has more than 76,000 students enrolled.   The Senate hearing focused on how an online college could grow to mega size proportions, practically overnight.  “Wouldn’t that kind of massive increase trigger some sort of fundamental review?” asked Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR).

Sylvia Manning, the president of the Chicago-based Higher Learning Commission which accredits Ashford, testified before the committee that the commission was “a bit behind the curve” when the group decided in 2005 to carry over the accreditation from the tiny Franciscan University to the new owner, Bridgepoint.  “When it was acquired by Bridgepoint, suddenly Bridgepoint was accredited and it grew this superstructure of this enormous online institution,” said Manning, who was not at the Higher Learning Commission when the transfer took place. “Because we had pretty much not seen that kind of thing before, we didn’t have the tools that we now have either to predict that or control that.”

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), who has been a champion of for students and has led a number of investigations into the for-profit college industry, questioned the accreditation process.  He points out that the accreditation missed such a massive growth and a large dropout rate.   Harkin pointed out that the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) accredits Ashford, without apparently questioning that the school employs more than 1,700 recruiters to pursue new enrollments but only has one career placement employee.  The committee also released information, based on internal documents from Bridgepoint, which revealed that the company spends four times as much money on recruiting students than educating them.   This is the big business of education.

The committee also questioned how the HLC found in a recent Ashford evaluation that “sufficient faculty and support resources are provided to deliver a quality learning experience for students,” despite the fact that 65 percent of four-year students withdraw from Ashford within two years of enrolling.  Manning responded that she had not seen the dropout numbers that the committee referenced.  “If indeed it turns out that those are the data, and students didn’t complete their programs, I think those numbers are irreconcilable,” she said.  Manning went on to note that the accrediting body has made changes in recent years, changes that now would detect the huge growth that Ashford saw.

Sen. Harkin stated that the current accreditation agencies are not designed for larger for-profit colleges that are now springing up all over the country.  “The question for any accrediting agency is, ‘Are they really equipped to oversee the quality of a billion-dollar multi-state corporation?’ I don’t think so,” Harkin said. “We either have to change the accrediting agencies and what they do and how they do it, or set up some new kind of regulatory framework in how they deal with these multi-state corporations.”

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