Education News

TV show prompts me to look more critcally at self-help industry

Given the fact that the so-called “self-help industry,” or “self-help movement” is a multibillion dollar industry, I wonder that I’ve lived so many years without paying it much attention.

I saw a television special on ABC a few days ago — “Mind Games” I think it was — which recounted the horrific death of some people devoted to one of the contemporary “self-help” gurus in a sweat lodge gone wrong a couple of years ago.

That started me thinking. I went to our local library and found a copy of a fascinating book by one of the men who was featured on the show. He’s somewhat controversial, I guess, although my ignorance about the whole self-help thing is showing here. The book is called “SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless.” The author is Steve Salerno.

Whether you agree or disagree with Mr. Salerno’s approach to the topic, various parts of his book, the whole concept, or whatever — that book will make you think. I’ve always thought of these popular self-help leaders as either 1) phonies on a par with the fabled snake-oil salesmen of Old West days, or, 2) well-meaning people who genuinely believed what they were teaching. If they were in the first category, obviously they should be stopped as with anyone who’s a fraud. If in the second category, well, unless they directly harmed someone, I guess I always viewed them as some sort of “multiple vitamins of the soul”: Maybe helpful, maybe not, but probably not harmful unless you overdo them.

It seems, however, that a lot of folks really are overdoing it with these people and these “teachings.”

Anyway, make of all that what you will. I recommend you pick up a copy of the book and give it a look. I’m just part way through and it’s a real eye opener for me.

Sometimes libraries face financial ‘holds,’ whether they like it or not

We had local elections in my neck of the woods last Tuesday, and many folks in a county adjacent to ours were stunned that voters rejected an increase in property taxes that would have modernized and increased a county library system for the first time in something like 50 years.

The need was certainly there, but the tax hike they were seeking — and this during a still-recessionary time in our region of the country — was a major thing. It would be like someone with $200 a month health insurance getting a new insurance quote and discovering he would now have to pay more than $700 a month.

Okay, my math in that analogy may be a bit faulty. But the way it actually would have worked for this library tax increase was this: The current tax was 8.7 percent per $100 of property evaluation; the voters were being asked to increase that to 25 percent per $100 of property evaluation.

Granted, the library was struggling to keep their facilities operational and their technology up to par. Granted, public libraries are a really important, really good resource for every community.

But the point was, they were asking for a huge increase to add new buildings as well as maintain and upgrade current buildings. And all that with a recession going on, unemployment high with some folks literally living on unemployment benefits.

Yet library officials were thunderstruck and trying to understand why voters rejected the increase by a 59-41 percent vote total.

Isn’t America a wonderful place to live? Isn’t it always fascinating to see that the “dumbing down” of our nation involves not just politicians and bureaucrats — but educators and librarians, too??

How do you ‘inform’ voters when they don’t care to listen?

It’s very possible that C-SPAN and such important, impartial media outlets just might be the best sleep aid on cable. Next to the billions of incarnations of crime show reruns, of course.

The problem is this: Public service channels like that exist to inform voters, inform the general public — but voters and “the public” often really don’t care about being informed.

You can’t tell someone something or teach them something if they don’t care about learning.

This is a problem in our society I’ve struggled over since it first hit me personally about 10 years ago when I was a graduate assistant in a university history department. In that case, I was very aware of many people I knew personally, and many parents sounding off on talk radio, all preaching the gospel that “we fail to teach kids history and teach them about America’s founding values these days.”

In fact, the university I was attending and assisting in requires all students — in accordance with state law — to take two semesters of basic U.S. history and one semester of basic world history.

It wasn’t long into my first semester assisting with a U.S. history class and two world history classes to discover that the students absolutely went to sleep bored out of their minds about history of any sort. The problem, dear parents, isn’t in the teaching. The problem is in the learners.

No, it wasn’t a matter of how the subjects were taught. I worked with three very dedicated professors who were highly knowledgeable about their subject, very good at teaching and challenging the students, and sound educators all around. But the students were totally disinterested.

How do you inform students, citizens, and voters when they don’t care to listen?

Parents: Beware of school related scams

I saw a television newscast last evening about a phone scam that played upon some parents’ desires to help their students score high on college entrance exams. In this case, some company in Texas (now out of business and being sought by Texas law enforcement officials) slapped fake labels on legitimate but out-dated SAT/ACT test study materials and sold them for a bloated price via telemarketing.

This is a big deal, if you’re the parent of a high school student. Been there, done that myself. Those college entrance exams are crucial, and they aren’t easy. Any prep stuff parents and teens can find to help may be worth an investment. We’re not talking about wrinkle treatments or diet pills here, we’re talking about the kids’ educational futures.

Long story short, the couple interviewed did all they could to file complaints with the BBB, with their local and state legal authorities — and, sadly, they’re still out of their money with little chance of recovering it. The newscast made it clear that they were only out about $100-$150, but it was money at a time when most of us are very interested in holding onto our $100-$150 and using it wisely.

So if you get a call about college prep study materials, DO NOT GIVE OUT A CREDIT CARD OR PURCHASE information unless you check it out first. Sounds obvious, but there are some clever, cunning people out there and we all need that occasional reminder.

New school year probably means doing some moving

Ah, the joys of each new school year in America. I remember them well, both as a student and as a parent of students, and none of those memories move me quite as much as, uh, well, the NON-joys of moving the kids from home to on-campus housing.

I realize the end of July is not traditionally the time we think about a coming school year. But given the complexities of today’s college/university world, more and more parents’ thoughts turn to moving and moving tips earlier each summer.

So, if you’re in the mood to think ahead to the new school year (I highly recommend such forethought especially for parents of first-time college students!) let me give you the single biggest moving tip I learned from installing our two kids (now adults) into dorms and dorm life. Ready? Here it is: Enlist as many of your kids’ friends as possible to help with the heavy-lifting, then try to stay out of the way.

Uh, come to think of it, as our kids reached college age and beyond, that seems to be advice I found myself offering and following more and more: Oversee the heavy-lifting and try to stay out of their way.

Probably some profound philosophical insights there, but I can’t quite put my finger on ‘em??

Looking for online MBA? Take a look at The University of Scranton

It’s been awhile since I’ve done specific “Useful Website” posts here, but I was looking at some online study options and found an excellent possibility if you are specifically looking for an MBA online: The University of Scranton. They’re located (no surprise here) in Scranton, Pennsylvania, but that really doesn’t matter for an online MBA degree, does it?

What does matter about the online MBA from The University of Scranton is this: They offer superior courses, instructors, and a very fine looking website, all the things you’re looking for in an online degree — and most of all, their online MBA is fully accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). According to information on their website:

“The University of Scranton’s business school, the Kania School of Management, is one of only 7% of worldwide educational institutions offering business degrees that have achieved the distinction of accreditation by AACSB International — The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Our Online MBA is one of the few offered by accredited schools that is available completely online.”

The University of Scranton’s online MBA website further explains in their excellent FAQ that you do NOT need an undergraduate business degree to qualify for the MBA program online, and you can complete the program in about two years — a year less, they say, than other online MBA degree programs. To add to all that, their program has been rated as one of the Top 15 by The Princeton Review, and it seems to me you’ve got a winner.

If you’re looking for an online MBA, I would highly recommend you take a look at The University of Scranton’s online MBA degree.

Hmmm. I LOVE the smell of fresh textbooks in the morning

I offer that post title with apologies to all of you who are “Apocalypse Now” fans. I just couldn’t resist pirating that famous napalm line and spoiling it with textbooks and stuff related to school and classrooms.

It’s the fall weather that has settled all around us here in the Missouri Ozarks, following a not-too-hot-but-way-WAY-too-wet summer. And when fall settles down around me, I cannot help but think of the many, many enjoyable years I spent in my life as a student. I love school. I always have loved school. I love school so much that I decided at the age of 55 to return to graduate school for an M.A. in history. The good news is, I fulfilled all the course requirements with a nearly perfect G.P.A., though I never got the seminar paper and comprehensive exams done, so I never got the degree. The bad news is, I DID get humongous student loan debt built up and I never got the degree to earn money to pay off those student loans.

But I’m sure I’m far from alone when it comes to frustrating student loan debt, right? I would bet most of you reading my rantings are either paying off student loans, paying student loans for children or spouses, or you know many who are paying off student loans. Student loans have become such a necessary part of higher education in America that I just read a news story saying the U.S. House just passed the extension of a law intended to keep easy student loans available even in these dire economic times.

So, may you enjoy the smell of those textbooks yourself this fine fall morning, and beyond that. And may you always find a way to get the education you need — AND to pay off those student loans!

You never need to embarrass your friends over school fundraisers again

Be honest, all of us have been in a situation where we’ve felt uncomfortable bringing sign-up sheets to work and pushing our coworkers to buy soap, soup, flowers, candy, cookies, cards, whatever, to help raise money for our kids’ school band trip, school uniforms, or — whatever. Or, you’ve been on the receiving end of this deal — you don’t have kids or your kids are grown past the fundraising, but you feel obligated to sign up and buy something. We’ve all been there at one time or another, haven’t we?

I just found out about a program to solve the age old questions of how to raise money for schools without the pain and frustration of traditional school fundraisers. The company is called “Schoolpop,” and it specializes in offering “nontraditional fundraising programs” for schools. They have a simple plan: You sign up, you designate a school you wish to help, then you shop. When you shop at one of the hundreds of merchants involved in the program — brand name places like Sears, Macy’s, Dell, and many others — a small percentage of your purchases goes back to the school.

Go take a look around the Schoolpop site. The whole system is explained there, and it could be just what your kids and your kids’ schools are looking for. Sound a lot better to me than the traditional sign-up/order blank sheets at the office.

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Fenster Boarding School strives to help troubled students achieve their very best

Fenster Boarding School has been motivating and educating teenagers since 1944. The school, located in Tucson, Arizona, is a boarding school for troubled teens, focusing on “structured academic and behavioral systems” to accomplish the task.

The school’s website says they strive to help teens who are not fulfilling their academic potential because they lack motivation, or perhaps are having a difficult time with family rules, or simply aren’t fitting in well at home for a variety of reasons.

Fenster Boarding School makes it clear, however, that they are not simply a place for “troubled teens,” but also are a great opportunity for students whose parents are working overseas and need boarding school for teens here in the U.S.

On the Fenster Boarding School’s website’s “Welcome” page, Headmaster Don Saffer sums up the school’s approach and its goals for the students nicely when he says: “By always encouraging our students to give their best in every aspect, we teach them to be responsible, hard-working individuals.”

If you have teenagers struggling with school and needing an extra “boost,” Fenster Boarding School could be the place you’re seeking.

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Should ‘No Child Left Behind’ continue as law of the land?

President Bush called today for renewal of his “No Child Left Behind” federal education law.

As a writer and a former teacher, I’m all in favor of education, literacy, and all those other good things associated with an intelligent culture. But every time I read or hear anything about this particular federal law, I cringe just a little bit.

Many have criticized the measure and the reasons are as varied as the critics: it’s either non-funded or at best poorly funded; it sets artificial goals that ultimately diminish special, personal student learning needs; it unfairly penalizes teachers, etc.

My dissatisfaction has more to do with the way the NCLB act reinforces a troubling educational and cultural trend that I believe has been building for years: It shifts most of the burden for learning away from students and parents and lays it on teachers and school systems.

For several decades, at least since the late-’60s or early-’70s, parents and children have behaved as though teachers and schools are responsible for their education. Here’s a news flash for you, parent and children: YOU are responsible for your education and your children’s education. Yes, YOU.

The teachers and school systems are really just tools that YOU must use.

It seems so obvious to me that demanding teachers and school systems to somehow “make our kids smart,” really is irresponsibility at an appalling level. Since when can the world’s best teachers, working with the finest computers and textbooks, MAKE a kid learn — if that kid doesn’t want to learn and his/her parents don’t know or care one way or the other??

Maybe something needs to be done to wake up parents and children and make them accountable for their own learning — THEN give them the teachers, school buildings, computers, and other tools to learn. Then, truly, no child will be left behind.

Ah, well, what do I know? I’m just a guy who reads the papers.

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