The following information is used for educational purposes only.
Transcript:
This is how war starts.One day you're living your ordinary life,you're planning to go to a party,you're taking your children to school,you're making a dentist appointment.The next thing, the telephones go out,the TVs go out, there's armed men on the street,there's roadblocks.Your life as you know it goes into suspended animation.It stops.
I'm going to steal a story from a friend of mine,a Bosnian friend, about what happened to her,because I think it will illustrate for you exactly what it feels like.She was walking to work one day in April, 1992,in a miniskirt and high heels. She worked in a bank.She was a young mother. She was someone who liked to party.Great person.And suddenly she sees a tankambling down the main road of Sarajevoknocking everything out of its path.She thinks she's dreaming, but she's not.And she runs as any of us would have doneand takes cover, and she hides behind a trash bin,in her high heels and her miniskirt.And as she's hiding there, she's feeling ridiculous,but she's seeing this tank go by with soldiersand people all over the place and chaosand she thinks, "I feel like Alice in Wonderlandgoing down the rabbit hole,down, down, down into chaos,and my life will never be the same again."
A few weeks later, my friend was in a crowd of peoplepushing with her infant son in her armsto give him to a stranger on a bus,which was one of the last buses leaving Sarajevoto take children out so they could be safe.And she remembers struggling with her mother to the front,crowds and crowds of people, "Take my child! Take my child!"and passing her son to someone through a window.And she didn't see him for years.The siege went on for three and a half years,and it was a siege without water,without power, without electricity, without heat, without food,in the middle of Europe, in the middle of the 20th century.
I had the honor of being one of those reportersthat lived through that siege,and I say I have the honor and the privilege of being therebecause it's taught me everything,not just about being a reporter, but about being a human being.I learned about compassion.I learned about ordinary people who could be heroes.I learned about sharing. I learned about camaraderie.Most of all, I learned about love.Even in the midst of terrible destruction and death and chaos,I learned how ordinary people could help their neighbors,share food, raise their children,drag someone who's being sniped at from the middle of the roadeven though you yourself were endangering your life,helping people get into taxis who were injuredto try to take them to hospitals.
I learned so much about myself.Martha Gellhorn, who's one of my heroes, once said,"You can only love one war. The rest is responsibility."I went on to cover many, many, many wars after that,so many that I lost count,but there was nothing like Sarajevo.
Last April, I went back to a very strange --what I called a deranged high school reunion.What it was, was the 20th anniversary of the siege,the beginning of the siege of Sarajevo,and I don't like the word "anniversary," because it sounds like a party,and this was not a party.It was a very somber gathering of the reportersthat worked there during the war, humanitarian aid workers,and of course the brave and courageous people of Sarajevo themselves.And the thing that struck me the most,that broke my heart,was walking down the main street of Sarajevo,where my friend Aida saw the tank coming 20 years ago,and in that road were more than 12,000 red chairs,empty,and every single one of them symbolizeda person who had died during the siege,just in Sarajevo, not in all of Bosnia,and it stretched from one end of the cityto a large part of it,and the saddest for me were the tiny little chairsfor the children.
I now cover Syria,and I started reporting it because I believed thatit needs to be done.I believe a story there has to be told.I see, again, a template of the war in Bosnia.And when I first arrived in Damascus,I saw this strange moment where peopledidn't seem to believe that war was going to descend,and it was exactly the same in Bosniaand nearly every other country I've seen where war comes.People don't want to believe it's coming,so they don't leave, they don't leave before they can.They don't get their money out.They stay because you want to stay in your home.And then war and chaos descend.
Rwanda is a place that haunts me a lot.In 1994, I briefly left Sarajevo to go report the genocide in Rwanda.Between April and August, 1994,one million people were slaughtered.Now if those 12,000 chairs freaked me outwith the sheer number,I want you just for a second to think of a million people.And to give you some example, I rememberstanding and looking down a road as far as I could see,at least a mile, and there were bodies piled twice my heightof the dead.And that was just a small percentage of the dead.And there were mothers holding their childrenwho had been caught in their last death throes.
So we learn a lot from war,and I mention Rwandabecause it is one place, like South Africa,where nearly 20 years on, there is healing.Fifty-six percent of the parliamentarians are women,which is fantastic,and there's also within the national constitution now,you're actually not allowed to say Hutu or Tutsi.You're not allowed to identify anyone by ethnicity,which is, of course, what started the slaughter in the first place.And an aid worker friend of mine told me the most beautiful story,or I find it beautiful.There was a group of children, mixed Hutus and Tutsis,and a group of women who were adopting them,and they lined up and one was just given to the next.There was no kind of compensation for, you're a Tutsi,you're a Hutu, you might have killed my mother,you might have killed my father.They were just brought together in this kind of reconciliation,and I find this remarkable.So when people ask me how I continue to cover war,and why I continue to do it,this is why.
When I go back to Syria, next week in fact,what I see is incredibly heroic people,some of them fighting for democracy,for things we take for granted every single day.And that's pretty much why I do it.
In 2004, I had a little baby boy,and I call him my miracle child,because after seeing so much deathand destruction and chaos and darkness in my life,this ray of hope was born.And I called him Luca, which means "The bringer of light,"because he does bring light to my life.But I'm talking about him because when he was four months old,my foreign editor forced me to go back to Baghdadwhere I had been reporting all throughout the Saddam regimeand during the fall of Baghdad and afterwards,and I remember getting on the plane in tears,crying to be separated from my son,and while I was there,a quite famous Iraqi politician who was a friend of minesaid to me, "What are you doing here?Why aren't you home with Luca?"And I said, "Well, I have to see." It was 2004which was the beginning of the incredibly bloody time in Iraq,"I have to see, I have to see what is happening here.I have to report it."And he said, "Go home,because if you miss his first tooth,if you miss his first step, you'll never forgive yourself.But there will always be another war."
And there, sadly, will always be wars.And I am deluding myself if I think, as a journalist,as a reporter, as a writer,what I do can stop them. I can't.I'm not Kofi Annan. He can't stop a war.He tried to negotiate Syria and couldn't do it.I'm not a U.N. conflict resolution person.I'm not even a humanitarian aid doctor,and I can't tell you the times of how helpless I've feltto have people dying in front of me, and I couldn't save them.All I am is a witness.My role is to bring a voice to people who are voiceless.A colleague of mine described it as to shine a lightin the darkest corners of the world.And that's what I try to do.I'm not always successful,and sometimes it's incredibly frustrating,because you feel like you're writing into a void,or you feel like no one cares.Who cares about Syria? Who cares about Bosnia?Who cares about the Congo,the Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone,all of these strings of places thatI will remember for the rest of my life?But my métier is to bear witnessand that is the crux, the heart of the matter,for us reporters who do this.And all I can really do is hope,not to policymakers or politicians,because as much as I'd like to have faiththat they read my words and do something,I don't delude myself.
But what I do hope is that if you remember anything I saidor any of my stories tomorrow morning over breakfast,if you can remember the story of Sarajevo,or the story of Rwanda,then I've done my job.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)
In this blog, teachers, students and all those who have some kind of interest in the English language will find useful, interesting, curious and funny things to be used in their classes or for their personal enjoyment.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
TED Talks-Steven Schwaitzberg: A universal translator for surgeons
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
Transcript:
So I want to talk to you about two things tonight.Number one:Teaching surgery and doing surgeryis really hard.And second,that language is one of the most profound thingsthat separate us all over the world.And in my little corner of the world,these two things are actually related,and I want to tell you how tonight.
Now, nobody wants an operation.Who here has had surgery?Did you want it?Keep your hands up if you wanted an operation.Nobody wants an operation.In particular, nobody wants an operationwith tools like these through large incisionsthat cause a lot of pain,that cause a lot of time out of work or out of school,that leave a big scar.But if you have to have an operation,what you really want is a minimally invasive operation.That's what I want to talk to you about tonight --how doing and teaching this type of surgeryled us on a searchfor a better universal translator.
Now, this type of surgery is hard,and it starts by putting people to sleep,putting carbon dioxide in their abdomen,blowing them up like a balloon,sticking one of these sharp pointy things into their abdomen --it's dangerous stuff --and taking instruments and watching it on a TV screen.So let's see what it looks like.So this is gallbladder surgery.We perform a million of these a yearin the United States alone.This is the real thing. There's no blood.And you can see how focused the surgeons are,how much concentration it takes.You can see it in their faces.It's hard to teach, and it's not all that easy to learn.We do about five million of these in the United Statesand maybe 20 million of these worldwide.
All right, you've all heard the term:"He's a born surgeon."Let me tell you, surgeons are not born.Surgeons are not made either.There are no little tanks where we're making surgeons.Surgeons are trained one step at a time.It starts with a foundation, basic skills.We build on that and we take people, hopefully, to the operating roomwhere they learn to be an assistant.Then we teach them to be a surgeon in training.And when they do all of that for about five years,they get the coveted board certification.If you need surgery, you want to be operated onby a board-certified surgeon.You get your board certificate,and you can go out into practice.And eventually, if you're lucky, you achieve mastery.
Now that foundation is so importantthat a number of usfrom the largest general surgery society in the United States, SAGES,started in the late 1990s a training programthat would assure that every surgeon who practices minimally invasive surgerywould have a strong foundation of knowledge and skillsnecessary to go on and do procedures.Now the science behind this is so potentthat it became required by the American Board of Surgeryin order for a young surgeon to become board certified.It's not a lecture, it's not a course,it's all of that plus a high-stakes assessment.It's hard.Now just this past year,one of our partners, the American College of Surgeons,teamed up with us to make an announcementthat all surgeons should be FLS (Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery)-certifiedbefore they do minimally invasive surgery.
And are we talking about just people here in the U.S. and Canada?No, we just said all surgeons.So to lift this education and training worldwideis a very large task,something I'm very personally excited about as we travel around the world.SAGES does surgery all over the world, teaching and educating surgeons.So we have a problem, and one of the problems is distance.We can't travel everywhere.We need to make the world a smaller place.And I think that we can develop some tools to do so.And one of the tools I like personally is using video.
So I was inspired by a friend.This is Allan Okrainec from Toronto.And he provedthat you could actually teach people to do surgeryusing video conferencing.So here's Allan teaching an English-speaking surgeon in Africathese basic fundamental skillsnecessary to do minimally invasive surgery.Very inspiring.But for this examination, which is really hard,we have a problem.Even people who say they speak English,only 14 percent pass.Because for them it's not a surgery test,it's an English test.
Let me bring it to you locally.I work at the Cambridge Hospital.It's the primary Harvard Medical School teaching facility.We have more than 100 translators covering 63 languages,and we spend millions of dollars just in our little hospital.It's a big labor-intensive effort.If you think about the worldwide burdenof trying to talk to your patients --not just teaching surgeons, just trying to talk to your patients --there aren't enough translators in the world.We need to employ technology to assist us in this quest.At our hospital we see everybody from Harvard professorsto people who just got here last week.And you have no idea how hard it isto talk to somebody or take care of somebody you can't talk to.And there isn't always a translator available.
So we need tools.We need a universal translator.One of the things that I want to leave you with as you think about this talkis that this talk is not just about us preaching to the world.It's really about setting up a dialogue.We have a lot to learn.Here in the United States we spend more money per personfor outcomes that are not better than many countries in the world.Maybe we have something to learn as well.
So I'm passionate about teaching these FLS skills all over the world.This past year I've been in Latin America, I've been in China,talking about the fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery.And everywhere I go the barrier is:"We want this, but we need it in our language."So here's what we think we want to do:Imagine giving a lectureand being able to talk to people in their own native language simultaneously.I want to talk to the people in Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europeseamlessly, accuratelyand in a cost-effective fashion using technology.And it has to be bi-directional.They have to be able to teach us something as well.
It's a big task.So we looked for a universal translator; I thought there would be one out there.Your webpage has translation, your cellphone has translation,but nothing that's good enough to teach surgery.Because we need a lexicon. What is a lexicon?A lexicon is a body of words that describes a domain.I need to have a health care lexicon.And in that I need a surgery lexicon.That's a tall order. We have to work at it.
So let me show you what we're doing.This is research -- can't buy it.We're working with the folks at IBM Research from the Accessibility Centerto string together technologies to work towards the universal translator.It starts with a framework systemwhere when the surgeon delivers the lectureusing a framework of captioning technology,we then add another technology to do video conferencing.But we don't have the words yet, so we add a third technology.And now we've got the words,and we can apply the special sauce: the translation.We get the words up in a window and then apply the magic.We work with a fourth technology.And we currently have access to eleven language pairs.More to come as we think about trying to make the world a smaller place.And I'd like to show you our prototypeof stringing all of these technologies that don't necessarily always talk to each otherto become something useful.
Narrator: Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery.Module five: manual skills practice.Students may display captions in their native language.
Steven Schwaitzberg: If you're in Latin America,you click the "I want it in Spanish" buttonand out it comes in real time in Spanish.But if you happen to be sitting in Beijing at the same time,by using technology in a constructive fashion,you could get it in Mandarin or you could get it in Russian --on and on and on, simultaneously without the use of human translators.But that's the lectures.
If you remember what I told you about FLS at the beginning,it's knowledge and skills.The difference in an operationbetween doing something successfully and notmay be moving your hand this much.So we're going to take it one step further;we've brought my friend Allan back.
Allan Okrainec: Today we're going to practice suturing.This is how you hold the needle.Grab the needle at the tip.It's important to be accurate.Aim for the black dots.Orient your loop this way.Now go ahead and cut.Very good Oscar. I'll see you next week.
SS: So that's what we're working onin our quest for the universal translator.We want it to be bi-directional.We have a need to learn as well as to teach.I can think of a million uses for a tool like this.As we think about intersecting technologies --everybody has a cell phone with a camera --we could use this everywhere,whether it be health care, patient care,engineering, law, conferencing, translating videos.This is a ubiquitous tool.
In order to break down our barriers,we have to learn to talk to people,to demand that people work on translation.We need it for our everyday life,in order to make the world a smaller place.Thank you very much.
(Applause)
Transcript:
So I want to talk to you about two things tonight.Number one:Teaching surgery and doing surgeryis really hard.And second,that language is one of the most profound thingsthat separate us all over the world.And in my little corner of the world,these two things are actually related,and I want to tell you how tonight.
Now, nobody wants an operation.Who here has had surgery?Did you want it?Keep your hands up if you wanted an operation.Nobody wants an operation.In particular, nobody wants an operationwith tools like these through large incisionsthat cause a lot of pain,that cause a lot of time out of work or out of school,that leave a big scar.But if you have to have an operation,what you really want is a minimally invasive operation.That's what I want to talk to you about tonight --how doing and teaching this type of surgeryled us on a searchfor a better universal translator.
Now, this type of surgery is hard,and it starts by putting people to sleep,putting carbon dioxide in their abdomen,blowing them up like a balloon,sticking one of these sharp pointy things into their abdomen --it's dangerous stuff --and taking instruments and watching it on a TV screen.So let's see what it looks like.So this is gallbladder surgery.We perform a million of these a yearin the United States alone.This is the real thing. There's no blood.And you can see how focused the surgeons are,how much concentration it takes.You can see it in their faces.It's hard to teach, and it's not all that easy to learn.We do about five million of these in the United Statesand maybe 20 million of these worldwide.
All right, you've all heard the term:"He's a born surgeon."Let me tell you, surgeons are not born.Surgeons are not made either.There are no little tanks where we're making surgeons.Surgeons are trained one step at a time.It starts with a foundation, basic skills.We build on that and we take people, hopefully, to the operating roomwhere they learn to be an assistant.Then we teach them to be a surgeon in training.And when they do all of that for about five years,they get the coveted board certification.If you need surgery, you want to be operated onby a board-certified surgeon.You get your board certificate,and you can go out into practice.And eventually, if you're lucky, you achieve mastery.
Now that foundation is so importantthat a number of usfrom the largest general surgery society in the United States, SAGES,started in the late 1990s a training programthat would assure that every surgeon who practices minimally invasive surgerywould have a strong foundation of knowledge and skillsnecessary to go on and do procedures.Now the science behind this is so potentthat it became required by the American Board of Surgeryin order for a young surgeon to become board certified.It's not a lecture, it's not a course,it's all of that plus a high-stakes assessment.It's hard.Now just this past year,one of our partners, the American College of Surgeons,teamed up with us to make an announcementthat all surgeons should be FLS (Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery)-certifiedbefore they do minimally invasive surgery.
And are we talking about just people here in the U.S. and Canada?No, we just said all surgeons.So to lift this education and training worldwideis a very large task,something I'm very personally excited about as we travel around the world.SAGES does surgery all over the world, teaching and educating surgeons.So we have a problem, and one of the problems is distance.We can't travel everywhere.We need to make the world a smaller place.And I think that we can develop some tools to do so.And one of the tools I like personally is using video.
So I was inspired by a friend.This is Allan Okrainec from Toronto.And he provedthat you could actually teach people to do surgeryusing video conferencing.So here's Allan teaching an English-speaking surgeon in Africathese basic fundamental skillsnecessary to do minimally invasive surgery.Very inspiring.But for this examination, which is really hard,we have a problem.Even people who say they speak English,only 14 percent pass.Because for them it's not a surgery test,it's an English test.
Let me bring it to you locally.I work at the Cambridge Hospital.It's the primary Harvard Medical School teaching facility.We have more than 100 translators covering 63 languages,and we spend millions of dollars just in our little hospital.It's a big labor-intensive effort.If you think about the worldwide burdenof trying to talk to your patients --not just teaching surgeons, just trying to talk to your patients --there aren't enough translators in the world.We need to employ technology to assist us in this quest.At our hospital we see everybody from Harvard professorsto people who just got here last week.And you have no idea how hard it isto talk to somebody or take care of somebody you can't talk to.And there isn't always a translator available.
So we need tools.We need a universal translator.One of the things that I want to leave you with as you think about this talkis that this talk is not just about us preaching to the world.It's really about setting up a dialogue.We have a lot to learn.Here in the United States we spend more money per personfor outcomes that are not better than many countries in the world.Maybe we have something to learn as well.
So I'm passionate about teaching these FLS skills all over the world.This past year I've been in Latin America, I've been in China,talking about the fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery.And everywhere I go the barrier is:"We want this, but we need it in our language."So here's what we think we want to do:Imagine giving a lectureand being able to talk to people in their own native language simultaneously.I want to talk to the people in Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europeseamlessly, accuratelyand in a cost-effective fashion using technology.And it has to be bi-directional.They have to be able to teach us something as well.
It's a big task.So we looked for a universal translator; I thought there would be one out there.Your webpage has translation, your cellphone has translation,but nothing that's good enough to teach surgery.Because we need a lexicon. What is a lexicon?A lexicon is a body of words that describes a domain.I need to have a health care lexicon.And in that I need a surgery lexicon.That's a tall order. We have to work at it.
So let me show you what we're doing.This is research -- can't buy it.We're working with the folks at IBM Research from the Accessibility Centerto string together technologies to work towards the universal translator.It starts with a framework systemwhere when the surgeon delivers the lectureusing a framework of captioning technology,we then add another technology to do video conferencing.But we don't have the words yet, so we add a third technology.And now we've got the words,and we can apply the special sauce: the translation.We get the words up in a window and then apply the magic.We work with a fourth technology.And we currently have access to eleven language pairs.More to come as we think about trying to make the world a smaller place.And I'd like to show you our prototypeof stringing all of these technologies that don't necessarily always talk to each otherto become something useful.
Narrator: Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery.Module five: manual skills practice.Students may display captions in their native language.
Steven Schwaitzberg: If you're in Latin America,you click the "I want it in Spanish" buttonand out it comes in real time in Spanish.But if you happen to be sitting in Beijing at the same time,by using technology in a constructive fashion,you could get it in Mandarin or you could get it in Russian --on and on and on, simultaneously without the use of human translators.But that's the lectures.
If you remember what I told you about FLS at the beginning,it's knowledge and skills.The difference in an operationbetween doing something successfully and notmay be moving your hand this much.So we're going to take it one step further;we've brought my friend Allan back.
Allan Okrainec: Today we're going to practice suturing.This is how you hold the needle.Grab the needle at the tip.It's important to be accurate.Aim for the black dots.Orient your loop this way.Now go ahead and cut.Very good Oscar. I'll see you next week.
SS: So that's what we're working onin our quest for the universal translator.We want it to be bi-directional.We have a need to learn as well as to teach.I can think of a million uses for a tool like this.As we think about intersecting technologies --everybody has a cell phone with a camera --we could use this everywhere,whether it be health care, patient care,engineering, law, conferencing, translating videos.This is a ubiquitous tool.
In order to break down our barriers,we have to learn to talk to people,to demand that people work on translation.We need it for our everyday life,in order to make the world a smaller place.Thank you very much.
(Applause)
Domestic Violence & Abuse-Video from TED Talks
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
Transcript:
I'm here today to talk about a disturbing question,which has an equally disturbing answer.My topic is the secrets of domestic violence,and the question I'm going to tackleis the one question everyone always asks:Why does she stay?Why would anyone stay with a man who beats her?I'm not a psychiatrist, a social workeror an expert in domestic violence.I'm just one woman with a story to tell.
I was 22. I had just graduated from Harvard College.I had moved to New York City for my first jobas a writer and editor at Seventeen magazine.I had my first apartment,my first little green American Express card,and I had a very big secret.My secret was that I had this gunloaded with hollow-point bullets pointed at my headby the man who I thought was my soulmate,many, many times.The man who I loved more than anybody on Earthheld a gun to my head and threatened to kill memore times than I can even remember.I'm here to tell you the story of crazy love,a psychological trap disguised as love,one that millions of women and even a few menfall into every year.It may even be your story.
I don't look like a typical domestic violence survivor.I have a B.A. in English from Harvard College,an MBA in marketing from Wharton Business School.I've spent most of my career working for Fortune 500 companiesincluding Johnson & Johnson, Leo Burnett and The Washington Post.I've been married for almost 20 years to my second husbandand we have three kids together.My dog is a black lab, and I drive a Honda Odyssey minivan.(Laughter)
So my first message for you is that domestic violencehappens to everyone --all races, all religions, all income and education levels.It's everywhere.And my second message is that everyone thinksdomestic violence happens to women,that it's a women's issue.Not exactly.Over 85 percent of abusers are men, and domestic abusehappens only in intimate, interdependent, long-term relationships,in other words, in families,the last place we would want or expect to find violence,which is one reason domestic abuse is so confusing.
I would have told you myself that I was the last person on Earthwho would stay with a man who beats me,but in fact I was a very typical victim because of my age.I was 22, and in the United States,women ages 16 to 24 are three times as likelyto be domestic violence victimsas women of other ages,and over 500 women and girls this ageare killed every year by abusive partners,boyfriends, and husbands in the United States.
I was also a very typical victim because I knew nothingabout domestic violence, its warning signs or its patterns.
I met Conor on a cold, rainy January night.He sat next to me on the New York City subway,and he started chatting me up.He told me two things.One was that he, too, had just graduated from an Ivy League school,and that he worked at a very impressive Wall Street bank.But what made the biggest impression on me that first meetingwas that he was smart and funnyand he looked like a farm boy.He had these big cheeks, these big apple cheeksand this wheat-blond hair,and he seemed so sweet.
One of the smartest things Conor did, from the very beginning,was to create the illusion that I was the dominant partner in the relationship.He did this especially at the beginningby idolizing me.We started dating, and he loved everything about me,that I was smart, that I'd gone to Harvard,that I was passionate about helping teenage girls, and my job.He wanted to know everything about my familyand my childhood and my hopes and dreams.Conor believed in me, as a writer and a woman,in a way that no one else ever had.And he also created a magical atmosphere of trust between usby confessing his secret,which was that, as a very young boy starting at age four,he had been savagely and repeatedly physically abusedby his stepfather,and the abuse had gotten so bad that he had had to drop out of school in eighth grade,even though he was very smart,and he'd spent almost 20 years rebuilding his life.Which is why that Ivy League degreeand the Wall Street job and his bright shiny futuremeant so much to him.If you had told methat this smart, funny, sensitive man who adored mewould one day dictate whether or not I wore makeup,how short my skirts were,where I lived, what jobs I took,who my friends were and where I spent Christmas,I would have laughed at you,because there was not a hint of violence or controlor anger in Conor at the beginning.I didn't know that the first stagein any domestic violence relationshipis to seduce and charm the victim.
I also didn't know that the second step is to isolate the victim.Now, Conor did not come home one day and announce,"You know, hey, all this Romeo and Juliet stuff has been great,but I need to move into the next phasewhere I isolate you and I abuse you" — (Laughter) —"so I need to get you out of this apartmentwhere the neighbors can hear you screamand out of this city where you have friends and familyand coworkers who can see the bruises."Instead, Conor came home one Friday eveningand he told me that he had quit his job that day,his dream job,and he said that he had quit his job because of me,because I had made him feel so safe and lovedthat he didn't need to prove himself on Wall Street anymore,and he just wanted to get out of the cityand away from his abusive, dysfunctional family,and move to a tiny town in New Englandwhere he could start his life over with me by his side.Now, the last thing I wanted to do was leave New York,and my dream job,but I thought you made sacrifices for your soulmate,so I agreed, and I quit my job,and Conor and I left Manhattan together.I had no idea I was falling into crazy love,that I was walking headfirst into a carefully laidphysical, financial and psychological trap.
The next step in the domestic violence patternis to introduce the threat of violenceand see how she reacts.And here's where those guns come in.As soon as we moved to New England -- you know,that place where Connor was supposed to feel so safe --he bought three guns.He kept one in the glove compartment of our car.He kept one under the pillows on our bed,and the third one he kept in his pocket at all times.And he said that he needed those gunsbecause of the trauma he'd experienced as a young boy.He needed them to feel protected.But those guns were really a message for me,and even though he hadn't raised a hand to me,my life was already in grave danger every minute of every day.
Conor first physically attacked mefive days before our wedding.It was 7 a.m. I still had on my nightgown.I was working on my computer trying to finish a freelance writing assignment,and I got frustrated,and Conor used my anger as an excuseto put both of his hands around my neckand to squeeze so tightly that I could not breathe or scream,and he used the chokeholdto hit my head repeatedly against the wall.Five days later, the ten bruises on my neck had just faded,and I put on my mother's wedding dress,and I married him.
Despite what had happened,I was sure we were going to live happily ever after,because I loved him, and he loved me so much.And he was very, very sorry.He had just been really stressed out by the weddingand by becoming a family with me.It was an isolated incident,and he was never going to hurt me again.
It happened twice more on the honeymoon.The first time, I was driving to find a secret beachand I got lost,and he punched me in the side of my head so hardthat the other side of my head repeatedly hitthe driver's side window.And then a few days later, driving home from our honeymoon,he got frustrated by traffic,and he threw a cold Big Mac in my face.Conor proceeded to beat me once or twice a weekfor the next two and a half years of our marriage.
I was mistaken in thinking that I was uniqueand alone in this situation.One in three American womenexperiences domestic violence or stalking at some point in her life,and the CDC reports that 15 million childrenare abused every year, 15 million.So actually, I was in very good company.
Back to my question:Why did I stay?The answer is easy.I didn't know he was abusing me.Even though he held those loaded guns to my head,pushed me down stairs,threatened to kill our dog,pulled the key out of the car ignition as I drove down the highway,poured coffee grinds on my headas I dressed for a job interview,I never once thought of myself as a battered wife.Instead, I was a very strong womanin love with a deeply troubled man,and I was the only person on Earthwho could help Conor face his demons.
The other question everybody asks is,why doesn't she just leave?Why didn't I walk out? I could have left any time.To me, this is the saddest and most painful question that people ask,because we victims know something you usually don't:It's incredibly dangerous to leave an abuser.Because the final step in the domestic violence patternis kill her.Over 70 percent of domestic violence murdershappen after the victim has ended the relationship,after she's gotten out,because then the abuser has nothing left to lose.Other outcomes include long-term stalking,even after the abuser remarries;denial of financial resources;and manipulation of the family court systemto terrify the victim and her children,who are regularly forced by family court judgesto spend unsupervised timewith the man who beat their mother.And still we ask, why doesn't she just leave?
I was able to leave,because of one final, sadistic beatingthat broke through my denial.I realized that the man who I loved so muchwas going to kill me if I let him.So I broke the silence.I told everyone:the police, my neighbors,my friends and family, total strangers,and I'm here today because you all helped me.
We tend to stereotype victimsas grisly headlines,self-destructive women, damaged goods.The question, "Why does she stay?"is code for some people for, "It's her fault for staying,"as if victims intentionally choose to fall in love with menintent upon destroying us.
But since publishing "Crazy Love,"I have heard hundreds of stories from men and womenwho also got out,who learned an invaluable life lesson from what happened,and who rebuilt lives -- joyous, happy lives --as employees, wives and mothers,lives completely free of violence, like me.Because it turns out that I'm actually a very typical domestic violence victimand a typical domestic violence survivor.I remarried a kind and gentle man,and we have those three kids.I have that black lab, and I have that minivan.What I will never have again,ever,is a loaded gun held to my headby someone who says that he loves me.
Right now, maybe you're thinking,"Wow, this is fascinating,"or, "Wow, how stupid was she,"but this whole time, I've actually been talking about you.I promise you there are several peoplelistening to me right nowwho are currently being abusedor who were abused as childrenor who are abusers themselves.Abuse could be affecting your daughter,your sister, your best friend right now.
I was able to end my own crazy love storyby breaking the silence.I'm still breaking the silence today.It's my way of helping other victims,and it's my final request of you.Talk about what you heard here.Abuse thrives only in silence.You have the power to end domestic violencesimply by shining a spotlight on it.We victims need everyone.We need every one of you to understandthe secrets of domestic violence.Show abuse the light of day by talking about itwith your children, your coworkers,your friends and family.Recast survivors as wonderful, lovable peoplewith full futures.Recognize the early signs of violenceand conscientiously intervene,deescalate it, show victims a safe way out.Together we can make our beds,our dinner tables and our familiesthe safe and peaceful oases they should be.
Thank you.
(Applause)
Transcript:
I'm here today to talk about a disturbing question,which has an equally disturbing answer.My topic is the secrets of domestic violence,and the question I'm going to tackleis the one question everyone always asks:Why does she stay?Why would anyone stay with a man who beats her?I'm not a psychiatrist, a social workeror an expert in domestic violence.I'm just one woman with a story to tell.
I was 22. I had just graduated from Harvard College.I had moved to New York City for my first jobas a writer and editor at Seventeen magazine.I had my first apartment,my first little green American Express card,and I had a very big secret.My secret was that I had this gunloaded with hollow-point bullets pointed at my headby the man who I thought was my soulmate,many, many times.The man who I loved more than anybody on Earthheld a gun to my head and threatened to kill memore times than I can even remember.I'm here to tell you the story of crazy love,a psychological trap disguised as love,one that millions of women and even a few menfall into every year.It may even be your story.
I don't look like a typical domestic violence survivor.I have a B.A. in English from Harvard College,an MBA in marketing from Wharton Business School.I've spent most of my career working for Fortune 500 companiesincluding Johnson & Johnson, Leo Burnett and The Washington Post.I've been married for almost 20 years to my second husbandand we have three kids together.My dog is a black lab, and I drive a Honda Odyssey minivan.(Laughter)
So my first message for you is that domestic violencehappens to everyone --all races, all religions, all income and education levels.It's everywhere.And my second message is that everyone thinksdomestic violence happens to women,that it's a women's issue.Not exactly.Over 85 percent of abusers are men, and domestic abusehappens only in intimate, interdependent, long-term relationships,in other words, in families,the last place we would want or expect to find violence,which is one reason domestic abuse is so confusing.
I would have told you myself that I was the last person on Earthwho would stay with a man who beats me,but in fact I was a very typical victim because of my age.I was 22, and in the United States,women ages 16 to 24 are three times as likelyto be domestic violence victimsas women of other ages,and over 500 women and girls this ageare killed every year by abusive partners,boyfriends, and husbands in the United States.
I was also a very typical victim because I knew nothingabout domestic violence, its warning signs or its patterns.
I met Conor on a cold, rainy January night.He sat next to me on the New York City subway,and he started chatting me up.He told me two things.One was that he, too, had just graduated from an Ivy League school,and that he worked at a very impressive Wall Street bank.But what made the biggest impression on me that first meetingwas that he was smart and funnyand he looked like a farm boy.He had these big cheeks, these big apple cheeksand this wheat-blond hair,and he seemed so sweet.
One of the smartest things Conor did, from the very beginning,was to create the illusion that I was the dominant partner in the relationship.He did this especially at the beginningby idolizing me.We started dating, and he loved everything about me,that I was smart, that I'd gone to Harvard,that I was passionate about helping teenage girls, and my job.He wanted to know everything about my familyand my childhood and my hopes and dreams.Conor believed in me, as a writer and a woman,in a way that no one else ever had.And he also created a magical atmosphere of trust between usby confessing his secret,which was that, as a very young boy starting at age four,he had been savagely and repeatedly physically abusedby his stepfather,and the abuse had gotten so bad that he had had to drop out of school in eighth grade,even though he was very smart,and he'd spent almost 20 years rebuilding his life.Which is why that Ivy League degreeand the Wall Street job and his bright shiny futuremeant so much to him.If you had told methat this smart, funny, sensitive man who adored mewould one day dictate whether or not I wore makeup,how short my skirts were,where I lived, what jobs I took,who my friends were and where I spent Christmas,I would have laughed at you,because there was not a hint of violence or controlor anger in Conor at the beginning.I didn't know that the first stagein any domestic violence relationshipis to seduce and charm the victim.
I also didn't know that the second step is to isolate the victim.Now, Conor did not come home one day and announce,"You know, hey, all this Romeo and Juliet stuff has been great,but I need to move into the next phasewhere I isolate you and I abuse you" — (Laughter) —"so I need to get you out of this apartmentwhere the neighbors can hear you screamand out of this city where you have friends and familyand coworkers who can see the bruises."Instead, Conor came home one Friday eveningand he told me that he had quit his job that day,his dream job,and he said that he had quit his job because of me,because I had made him feel so safe and lovedthat he didn't need to prove himself on Wall Street anymore,and he just wanted to get out of the cityand away from his abusive, dysfunctional family,and move to a tiny town in New Englandwhere he could start his life over with me by his side.Now, the last thing I wanted to do was leave New York,and my dream job,but I thought you made sacrifices for your soulmate,so I agreed, and I quit my job,and Conor and I left Manhattan together.I had no idea I was falling into crazy love,that I was walking headfirst into a carefully laidphysical, financial and psychological trap.
The next step in the domestic violence patternis to introduce the threat of violenceand see how she reacts.And here's where those guns come in.As soon as we moved to New England -- you know,that place where Connor was supposed to feel so safe --he bought three guns.He kept one in the glove compartment of our car.He kept one under the pillows on our bed,and the third one he kept in his pocket at all times.And he said that he needed those gunsbecause of the trauma he'd experienced as a young boy.He needed them to feel protected.But those guns were really a message for me,and even though he hadn't raised a hand to me,my life was already in grave danger every minute of every day.
Conor first physically attacked mefive days before our wedding.It was 7 a.m. I still had on my nightgown.I was working on my computer trying to finish a freelance writing assignment,and I got frustrated,and Conor used my anger as an excuseto put both of his hands around my neckand to squeeze so tightly that I could not breathe or scream,and he used the chokeholdto hit my head repeatedly against the wall.Five days later, the ten bruises on my neck had just faded,and I put on my mother's wedding dress,and I married him.
Despite what had happened,I was sure we were going to live happily ever after,because I loved him, and he loved me so much.And he was very, very sorry.He had just been really stressed out by the weddingand by becoming a family with me.It was an isolated incident,and he was never going to hurt me again.
It happened twice more on the honeymoon.The first time, I was driving to find a secret beachand I got lost,and he punched me in the side of my head so hardthat the other side of my head repeatedly hitthe driver's side window.And then a few days later, driving home from our honeymoon,he got frustrated by traffic,and he threw a cold Big Mac in my face.Conor proceeded to beat me once or twice a weekfor the next two and a half years of our marriage.
I was mistaken in thinking that I was uniqueand alone in this situation.One in three American womenexperiences domestic violence or stalking at some point in her life,and the CDC reports that 15 million childrenare abused every year, 15 million.So actually, I was in very good company.
Back to my question:Why did I stay?The answer is easy.I didn't know he was abusing me.Even though he held those loaded guns to my head,pushed me down stairs,threatened to kill our dog,pulled the key out of the car ignition as I drove down the highway,poured coffee grinds on my headas I dressed for a job interview,I never once thought of myself as a battered wife.Instead, I was a very strong womanin love with a deeply troubled man,and I was the only person on Earthwho could help Conor face his demons.
The other question everybody asks is,why doesn't she just leave?Why didn't I walk out? I could have left any time.To me, this is the saddest and most painful question that people ask,because we victims know something you usually don't:It's incredibly dangerous to leave an abuser.Because the final step in the domestic violence patternis kill her.Over 70 percent of domestic violence murdershappen after the victim has ended the relationship,after she's gotten out,because then the abuser has nothing left to lose.Other outcomes include long-term stalking,even after the abuser remarries;denial of financial resources;and manipulation of the family court systemto terrify the victim and her children,who are regularly forced by family court judgesto spend unsupervised timewith the man who beat their mother.And still we ask, why doesn't she just leave?
I was able to leave,because of one final, sadistic beatingthat broke through my denial.I realized that the man who I loved so muchwas going to kill me if I let him.So I broke the silence.I told everyone:the police, my neighbors,my friends and family, total strangers,and I'm here today because you all helped me.
We tend to stereotype victimsas grisly headlines,self-destructive women, damaged goods.The question, "Why does she stay?"is code for some people for, "It's her fault for staying,"as if victims intentionally choose to fall in love with menintent upon destroying us.
But since publishing "Crazy Love,"I have heard hundreds of stories from men and womenwho also got out,who learned an invaluable life lesson from what happened,and who rebuilt lives -- joyous, happy lives --as employees, wives and mothers,lives completely free of violence, like me.Because it turns out that I'm actually a very typical domestic violence victimand a typical domestic violence survivor.I remarried a kind and gentle man,and we have those three kids.I have that black lab, and I have that minivan.What I will never have again,ever,is a loaded gun held to my headby someone who says that he loves me.
Right now, maybe you're thinking,"Wow, this is fascinating,"or, "Wow, how stupid was she,"but this whole time, I've actually been talking about you.I promise you there are several peoplelistening to me right nowwho are currently being abusedor who were abused as childrenor who are abusers themselves.Abuse could be affecting your daughter,your sister, your best friend right now.
I was able to end my own crazy love storyby breaking the silence.I'm still breaking the silence today.It's my way of helping other victims,and it's my final request of you.Talk about what you heard here.Abuse thrives only in silence.You have the power to end domestic violencesimply by shining a spotlight on it.We victims need everyone.We need every one of you to understandthe secrets of domestic violence.Show abuse the light of day by talking about itwith your children, your coworkers,your friends and family.Recast survivors as wonderful, lovable peoplewith full futures.Recognize the early signs of violenceand conscientiously intervene,deescalate it, show victims a safe way out.Together we can make our beds,our dinner tables and our familiesthe safe and peaceful oases they should be.
Thank you.
(Applause)
BR-Connect Recent Brain Research with Practical Classroom Strategies
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
Make it a Habit To Connect Recent Brain Research with Practical Classroom Strategies
Ten Things You Should Know About Stress
#1 Stress is good for you. Stress should go up and down and some stress every day is healthy; it builds resilience. What is evil for your body is DISTRESS, which is a chronic stress overload from continuous, over the top, stress.
#2 School stress levels may be getting worse. Let’s start with kids. Over 20% of adolescents nationwide (ages 11-17) have some type of a stress disorder (depression, reactive attachment disorder, learned helplessness, bipolar, etc.) Top 3 kids stressors are 1) school academic pressures 2) family pressure and 3) bullying (kidshealth.org). Among kids from poverty, 60-95% have chronic stress.
#3 Chronic stress hurts student achievement. It is well known that chronic stress contributes to over half of all school absences (Johnston-Brooks, et al. 1998). The ways to reduce this in the classroom include: a) more physical activity, yoga or stretching, b) greater sense of control, including decision-making and responsibility, and c) improved coping skills. (Share everyday incidents with your students and let them suggest how they would solve the problem.)
#4 Chronic stress reduces neurogenesis, the production of new brain cells. (DiBellis, et al. 2001). This contributes to impaired attention, learning and memory (Lupien, et al., 2001). Three ways to boost neurogenesis are exercise, new learning and positive social contact.
#5 Chronic stress has gender differences. This plays out in academic performance and internal distress (Pomerantz, Eva M.; Altermatt, Ellen Rydell; Saxon, Jill L.). We know that girls outperform boys in school, but paradoxically, girls are also more vulnerable to internal distress (depression, anxiety, etc.) than are boys.
#6 Chronic stress levels can be reset in your body, like a thermostat. Homeostasis only happens sometimes. PTSD and depression are good examples of an “allostatic load” or adjusted stress thermostat, meaning a “new normal.” The longer you are in any physiological state (e.g. depression, anger, happiness), the more stable that state becomes. It may even become the “default state” that you revert to over and over. That’s why, if you become depressed, you should get help immediately.
#7 Chronic stress can lead to weight gain. Study after study (see references below) connects chronic stress with a reducedself-regulatory ability. In other words, the more stressed you get (especially chronic stress), the harder it is to regulate your weight. Why? Your brain constantly is sending you the message to “prepare for dealing with stress” by eating more. Our DNA says load up on fats, carbs and sugars under stress. Why? Those are all sources of energy. Lower your stress and your capacity to lose the weight gets better.
#8 Chronic stress is more likely in kids from poverty. These kids are most likely to be anxious, scattered, angry or even despondent. All of those are symptoms of a stress disorder. You cannot teach kids with stress disorders the same way as you would kids with a healthy brain. Obviously, Teaching with Poverty in Mind (Jensen) is a good resource.
#9 Chronic stress is the number one aging accelerant. If you feel stressed ALL of the time, it’s good to wake up and “smell the roses.” Start getting your life back; chronic stress will kill you. I believe my stepmother died of chronic stress, even though “stroke” was the official cause of death.
#10 There is no stress “out there” in the world. Your job is not stressful (take ownership: you stress you out) and if you feel that your job’s the problem, you’ll always be miserable. Kids don’t stress you out (take ownership: you stress you out). Other staff or administrators don’t stress you out (take ownership: you stress you out).
Once you “get it” that stress is your mind/body’s reaction to a perception (not reality), then you have a chance to shift your perceptions and turn your life around. Those who lead a low stress life are not “lucky” or “better” than you. They have simply, over time, acquired the life skills needed to make that part of their life work better. You can, too. Keep reading.
Practical Applications
Let's "flesh out" what we can do to better manage our own stress and distress. Here are ten things you can do to reclaim your life. You don’t have to move to a tropical island to have less stress. What does need to happen is to understand how to run your own brain. These everyday strategies are free. You just have to make them so important, that you’ll commit to a healthy, functioning mind and body every day of your life.
I am so sold on these suggestions, I probably do 80% or more of them every single week of my life.
1. Take Action (get control)—When you take action on your stress, you feel better!
2. Write it Down for Later—Anything you write down, gets “off-loaded” from your brain and stress goes down.
3. 1 Week Rule—This one’s my favorite; when you feel stressed over an event, person or circumstance, ask yourself, “Will this still matter a week from now?” If it won’t matter a week from now (like burnt toast!), then stop stressing over it.
4. Redirect Your Attention to something else—What you feed with your attention is what consumes resources.
5. Burn off Energy (Play/Exercise/Hug)—While hugs are always good for lowering stress, add exercise to the mix, and you’ll live longer.
6. Reframe the Experience—Provide a new perspective and the stressor may go away (“She’s young, she’ll learn.” Or, “He just doesn’t know how to show affection.”)
7. Let it Go—Drop the matter from your attention and move on.
8. Relax/Meditate/Sleep—our brain, at your age, needs 6-8 hours of sleep a night. If you’re not getting that, you’re more susceptible to stress.
9. Eat healthy—Chronic stress consumes resources, so better nutrition can help your body cope better. Omega 3 oils, simple carbohydrates (just less of them), more proteins, fruits and vegetables will strengthen your immune system.
10. And in your school and classroom: Teach coping skills—Provide students with an increasing sense of control over their daily lives. The good news is that chronic stress can be reduced.
You can get your life back. But, it will take a concerted effort, as if your life depends on it (which it does). My own stress is usually pretty low, whether I’m home or traveling. This is a choice; you’re not, and I’m not, a victim. Claim your life this school year and promise yourself to take better care of YOU. Please, for yourself, your family and the kids you work with, take charge of your stress levels and choose health and vitality. You’ll be glad you did.
________________________________________
Feeding your brain Brain:
*Try reading the book What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite by David DiSalvo.
*Blogs on cognitive psychology is www.mindhacks.com It is entertaining and packed with insights and examples you can use every day.
*Companion website www.10MinuteLessonPlans.com
CITATIONS:
Dallman MF, Pecoraro N, Akana SF, et al.( 2003). Chronic stress and obesity: a new view of "comfort food". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA,100, 11696-11701.
Epel E, Lapidus R, McEwen BS & Brownell K. (2001). Stress may add bite to appetite in women: a laboratory study of stress-induced cortisol and eating behavior. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 26, 37-49.
Evans GW, Fuller-Rowell TE, & Doan SN. (2012). Childhood cumulative risk and obesity: the mediating role of self-regulatory ability. Pediatrics,129, 68-73.
Koch FS, Sepa A, & Ludvigsson J. (2008). Psychological stress and obesity. J Pediatr.153, 839-844.
Lohman BJ, Stewart S, Gundersen C, Garasky S, & Eisenmann JC. (2009). Adolescent overweight and obesity: links to food insecurity and individual, maternal, and family stressors. J Adolesc Health. 45, 230-237.
Roberts C, Troop N, Connan F, Treasure J, & Campbell IC. (2007). The effects of stress on body weight: biological and psychological predictors of change in BMI. Obesity (Silver Spring),15, 3045-3055.
Source:www.JensenLearning.com
Make it a Habit To Connect Recent Brain Research with Practical Classroom Strategies
Ten Things You Should Know About Stress
#1 Stress is good for you. Stress should go up and down and some stress every day is healthy; it builds resilience. What is evil for your body is DISTRESS, which is a chronic stress overload from continuous, over the top, stress.
#2 School stress levels may be getting worse. Let’s start with kids. Over 20% of adolescents nationwide (ages 11-17) have some type of a stress disorder (depression, reactive attachment disorder, learned helplessness, bipolar, etc.) Top 3 kids stressors are 1) school academic pressures 2) family pressure and 3) bullying (kidshealth.org). Among kids from poverty, 60-95% have chronic stress.
#3 Chronic stress hurts student achievement. It is well known that chronic stress contributes to over half of all school absences (Johnston-Brooks, et al. 1998). The ways to reduce this in the classroom include: a) more physical activity, yoga or stretching, b) greater sense of control, including decision-making and responsibility, and c) improved coping skills. (Share everyday incidents with your students and let them suggest how they would solve the problem.)
#4 Chronic stress reduces neurogenesis, the production of new brain cells. (DiBellis, et al. 2001). This contributes to impaired attention, learning and memory (Lupien, et al., 2001). Three ways to boost neurogenesis are exercise, new learning and positive social contact.
#5 Chronic stress has gender differences. This plays out in academic performance and internal distress (Pomerantz, Eva M.; Altermatt, Ellen Rydell; Saxon, Jill L.). We know that girls outperform boys in school, but paradoxically, girls are also more vulnerable to internal distress (depression, anxiety, etc.) than are boys.
#6 Chronic stress levels can be reset in your body, like a thermostat. Homeostasis only happens sometimes. PTSD and depression are good examples of an “allostatic load” or adjusted stress thermostat, meaning a “new normal.” The longer you are in any physiological state (e.g. depression, anger, happiness), the more stable that state becomes. It may even become the “default state” that you revert to over and over. That’s why, if you become depressed, you should get help immediately.
#7 Chronic stress can lead to weight gain. Study after study (see references below) connects chronic stress with a reducedself-regulatory ability. In other words, the more stressed you get (especially chronic stress), the harder it is to regulate your weight. Why? Your brain constantly is sending you the message to “prepare for dealing with stress” by eating more. Our DNA says load up on fats, carbs and sugars under stress. Why? Those are all sources of energy. Lower your stress and your capacity to lose the weight gets better.
#8 Chronic stress is more likely in kids from poverty. These kids are most likely to be anxious, scattered, angry or even despondent. All of those are symptoms of a stress disorder. You cannot teach kids with stress disorders the same way as you would kids with a healthy brain. Obviously, Teaching with Poverty in Mind (Jensen) is a good resource.
#9 Chronic stress is the number one aging accelerant. If you feel stressed ALL of the time, it’s good to wake up and “smell the roses.” Start getting your life back; chronic stress will kill you. I believe my stepmother died of chronic stress, even though “stroke” was the official cause of death.
#10 There is no stress “out there” in the world. Your job is not stressful (take ownership: you stress you out) and if you feel that your job’s the problem, you’ll always be miserable. Kids don’t stress you out (take ownership: you stress you out). Other staff or administrators don’t stress you out (take ownership: you stress you out).
Once you “get it” that stress is your mind/body’s reaction to a perception (not reality), then you have a chance to shift your perceptions and turn your life around. Those who lead a low stress life are not “lucky” or “better” than you. They have simply, over time, acquired the life skills needed to make that part of their life work better. You can, too. Keep reading.
Practical Applications
Let's "flesh out" what we can do to better manage our own stress and distress. Here are ten things you can do to reclaim your life. You don’t have to move to a tropical island to have less stress. What does need to happen is to understand how to run your own brain. These everyday strategies are free. You just have to make them so important, that you’ll commit to a healthy, functioning mind and body every day of your life.
I am so sold on these suggestions, I probably do 80% or more of them every single week of my life.
1. Take Action (get control)—When you take action on your stress, you feel better!
2. Write it Down for Later—Anything you write down, gets “off-loaded” from your brain and stress goes down.
3. 1 Week Rule—This one’s my favorite; when you feel stressed over an event, person or circumstance, ask yourself, “Will this still matter a week from now?” If it won’t matter a week from now (like burnt toast!), then stop stressing over it.
4. Redirect Your Attention to something else—What you feed with your attention is what consumes resources.
5. Burn off Energy (Play/Exercise/Hug)—While hugs are always good for lowering stress, add exercise to the mix, and you’ll live longer.
6. Reframe the Experience—Provide a new perspective and the stressor may go away (“She’s young, she’ll learn.” Or, “He just doesn’t know how to show affection.”)
7. Let it Go—Drop the matter from your attention and move on.
8. Relax/Meditate/Sleep—our brain, at your age, needs 6-8 hours of sleep a night. If you’re not getting that, you’re more susceptible to stress.
9. Eat healthy—Chronic stress consumes resources, so better nutrition can help your body cope better. Omega 3 oils, simple carbohydrates (just less of them), more proteins, fruits and vegetables will strengthen your immune system.
10. And in your school and classroom: Teach coping skills—Provide students with an increasing sense of control over their daily lives. The good news is that chronic stress can be reduced.
You can get your life back. But, it will take a concerted effort, as if your life depends on it (which it does). My own stress is usually pretty low, whether I’m home or traveling. This is a choice; you’re not, and I’m not, a victim. Claim your life this school year and promise yourself to take better care of YOU. Please, for yourself, your family and the kids you work with, take charge of your stress levels and choose health and vitality. You’ll be glad you did.
________________________________________
Feeding your brain Brain:
*Try reading the book What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite by David DiSalvo.
*Blogs on cognitive psychology is www.mindhacks.com It is entertaining and packed with insights and examples you can use every day.
*Companion website www.10MinuteLessonPlans.com
CITATIONS:
Dallman MF, Pecoraro N, Akana SF, et al.( 2003). Chronic stress and obesity: a new view of "comfort food". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA,100, 11696-11701.
Epel E, Lapidus R, McEwen BS & Brownell K. (2001). Stress may add bite to appetite in women: a laboratory study of stress-induced cortisol and eating behavior. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 26, 37-49.
Evans GW, Fuller-Rowell TE, & Doan SN. (2012). Childhood cumulative risk and obesity: the mediating role of self-regulatory ability. Pediatrics,129, 68-73.
Koch FS, Sepa A, & Ludvigsson J. (2008). Psychological stress and obesity. J Pediatr.153, 839-844.
Lohman BJ, Stewart S, Gundersen C, Garasky S, & Eisenmann JC. (2009). Adolescent overweight and obesity: links to food insecurity and individual, maternal, and family stressors. J Adolesc Health. 45, 230-237.
Roberts C, Troop N, Connan F, Treasure J, & Campbell IC. (2007). The effects of stress on body weight: biological and psychological predictors of change in BMI. Obesity (Silver Spring),15, 3045-3055.
Source:www.JensenLearning.com
LEADSH-The global-leadership industry needs re-engineering
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
The global-leadership industry needs re-engineering
Jan 26th 2013 |
THE two most popular words in the business lexicon are probably “global” and “leadership”. Put them together and people in suits start to salivate. That is perhaps why more than 1,000 corporate bosses are flocking to Davos, a Swiss ski resort, this week. There, at the annual bash of the World Economic Forum (WEF), they sip vin des glaciers with some 50 heads of state and 300 cabinet ministers. Whatever the topic, from deficits to deadly diseases, the talk is all of providing “global leadership”. And not just in the short term: the WEF rigorously selects and nurtures “Young Global Leaders” to form a “next-generation leadership community that is mission-led and principle-driven”.
The rise of the rootless
The cult of the global leader is spreading. Business schools are full of it. INSEAD calls itself “the business school for the world” and has campuses in Singapore and Abu Dhabi as well as Fontainebleau. Fuqua School of Business at Duke University boasts that it is “the world’s first legitimately global business school”; it has campuses in six countries. Big firms no longer aspire merely to train competent managers. They pride themselves on their ability to select and train leaders for global roles.This is not all guff. Many industries are globalising fast, creating waves of disruption. Parochial companies may perish. Global ones complain that a shortage of global talent impedes their growth, especially in emerging markets. Yet they rapidly burn through what global talent they have: by one estimate, nearly 80% of CEOs of S&P 500 firms are ousted before retirement.So there is clearly a need for global leadership. But when the public look at what is on offer, they are not impressed. Many of the bankers and politicians caught dozing by the financial crisis were regulars at Davos. Ordinary folk trust Davos Man no more than they would a lobbyist for the Worldwide Federation of Weasels. A survey by Edelman, a public-relations firm, finds that only 18% of people trust business leaders to tell the truth. For political leaders, the figure is 13%.
What can be done? Much of the answer lies in giving the little guys better tools to keep Davos Man in check: stricter accountability for government leaders, sounder regulations to curb corporate abuses. But there is also a case for reforming the global-leadership industry. The people who run it need to think hard about what they mean by both globalisation and leadership.People whose jobs require constant whizzing through airports often overestimate the extent of globalisation. Most other folk live in the same country all their lives. Most trade occurs within national borders. Nearly all politics is local. Company bosses who fail to notice this may underestimate political risks or ignore cultural differences, and such errors may prove disastrous. The best global leaders need to immerse themselves in local cultures.Leadership has always been a slippery concept, and is getting slipperier by the day. In the West, as deference collapses and knowledge workers rise, companies have flattened their management hierarchies. But many non-Western companies continue to believe in hierarchy. In India and China, leaders are often lofty figures and companies have lots of rungs to be climbed. And disruptive innovation can put a premium on command-and-control. Apple thrived as a dictatorship under Steve Jobs; Nokia’s consensus-seeking leaders let the firm crumble.Global-leadership gurus also need to think more carefully about the relationship between business and the wider world. It sounds noble to promise, as practically every boss in Davos does, that your company will solve all manner of problems unrelated to its core business. For companies in emerging markets, this may make sense: if they do not build a road to their mine in a remote area, no one else will.
In rich countries, however, governments leave fewer gaps that so obviously need filling. Talk of social responsibility needs to be realistic: it is more dangerous to promise too much than too little.There are signs that the global-leadership industry is trying to shape up. Harvard Business School obliges its students to spend time in other countries. Companies increasingly expect their high-flyers to spend time running far-flung subsidiaries. Henkel, a German chemical-maker, insists that executives live in at least two different countries before being considered for promotion. Nestlé, a Swiss food company, boasts executive board members from eight different countries. The WEF urges charities to learn from businesses and vice versa.Management gurus are producing new measuring devices: the Global Leadership and Organisational Behaviour Effectiveness (GLOBE) project has surveyed more than 17,000 managers in 62 countries to identify cultural differences that leaders ought to know about. Americans are unusually assertive, apparently, and Brazilians surprisingly unconcerned about the future.
World leaders with wings of wax
But there is still a flaw with the very notion of global leadership. Abraham Lincoln observed that “nearly all men can stand adversity but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Similar temptations afflict those who are given the title of “young global leader”. Clever businesspeople have a tendency to be arrogant at the best of the times; telling them that they are masters of the universe can only magnify it. Arrogance breeds mistakes: look at all the empire-building bosses who attempt ambitious mergers despite ample evidence that such mergers usually fail.If leadership has a secret sauce, it may well be humility. A humble boss understands that there are things he doesn’t know. He listens: not only to the other bigwigs in Davos, but also to the kind of people who don’t get invited, such as his customers.
Source: www.economist.com
The global-leadership industry needs re-engineering
Jan 26th 2013 |
THE two most popular words in the business lexicon are probably “global” and “leadership”. Put them together and people in suits start to salivate. That is perhaps why more than 1,000 corporate bosses are flocking to Davos, a Swiss ski resort, this week. There, at the annual bash of the World Economic Forum (WEF), they sip vin des glaciers with some 50 heads of state and 300 cabinet ministers. Whatever the topic, from deficits to deadly diseases, the talk is all of providing “global leadership”. And not just in the short term: the WEF rigorously selects and nurtures “Young Global Leaders” to form a “next-generation leadership community that is mission-led and principle-driven”.
The rise of the rootless
The cult of the global leader is spreading. Business schools are full of it. INSEAD calls itself “the business school for the world” and has campuses in Singapore and Abu Dhabi as well as Fontainebleau. Fuqua School of Business at Duke University boasts that it is “the world’s first legitimately global business school”; it has campuses in six countries. Big firms no longer aspire merely to train competent managers. They pride themselves on their ability to select and train leaders for global roles.This is not all guff. Many industries are globalising fast, creating waves of disruption. Parochial companies may perish. Global ones complain that a shortage of global talent impedes their growth, especially in emerging markets. Yet they rapidly burn through what global talent they have: by one estimate, nearly 80% of CEOs of S&P 500 firms are ousted before retirement.So there is clearly a need for global leadership. But when the public look at what is on offer, they are not impressed. Many of the bankers and politicians caught dozing by the financial crisis were regulars at Davos. Ordinary folk trust Davos Man no more than they would a lobbyist for the Worldwide Federation of Weasels. A survey by Edelman, a public-relations firm, finds that only 18% of people trust business leaders to tell the truth. For political leaders, the figure is 13%.
What can be done? Much of the answer lies in giving the little guys better tools to keep Davos Man in check: stricter accountability for government leaders, sounder regulations to curb corporate abuses. But there is also a case for reforming the global-leadership industry. The people who run it need to think hard about what they mean by both globalisation and leadership.People whose jobs require constant whizzing through airports often overestimate the extent of globalisation. Most other folk live in the same country all their lives. Most trade occurs within national borders. Nearly all politics is local. Company bosses who fail to notice this may underestimate political risks or ignore cultural differences, and such errors may prove disastrous. The best global leaders need to immerse themselves in local cultures.Leadership has always been a slippery concept, and is getting slipperier by the day. In the West, as deference collapses and knowledge workers rise, companies have flattened their management hierarchies. But many non-Western companies continue to believe in hierarchy. In India and China, leaders are often lofty figures and companies have lots of rungs to be climbed. And disruptive innovation can put a premium on command-and-control. Apple thrived as a dictatorship under Steve Jobs; Nokia’s consensus-seeking leaders let the firm crumble.Global-leadership gurus also need to think more carefully about the relationship between business and the wider world. It sounds noble to promise, as practically every boss in Davos does, that your company will solve all manner of problems unrelated to its core business. For companies in emerging markets, this may make sense: if they do not build a road to their mine in a remote area, no one else will.
In rich countries, however, governments leave fewer gaps that so obviously need filling. Talk of social responsibility needs to be realistic: it is more dangerous to promise too much than too little.There are signs that the global-leadership industry is trying to shape up. Harvard Business School obliges its students to spend time in other countries. Companies increasingly expect their high-flyers to spend time running far-flung subsidiaries. Henkel, a German chemical-maker, insists that executives live in at least two different countries before being considered for promotion. Nestlé, a Swiss food company, boasts executive board members from eight different countries. The WEF urges charities to learn from businesses and vice versa.Management gurus are producing new measuring devices: the Global Leadership and Organisational Behaviour Effectiveness (GLOBE) project has surveyed more than 17,000 managers in 62 countries to identify cultural differences that leaders ought to know about. Americans are unusually assertive, apparently, and Brazilians surprisingly unconcerned about the future.
World leaders with wings of wax
But there is still a flaw with the very notion of global leadership. Abraham Lincoln observed that “nearly all men can stand adversity but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Similar temptations afflict those who are given the title of “young global leader”. Clever businesspeople have a tendency to be arrogant at the best of the times; telling them that they are masters of the universe can only magnify it. Arrogance breeds mistakes: look at all the empire-building bosses who attempt ambitious mergers despite ample evidence that such mergers usually fail.If leadership has a secret sauce, it may well be humility. A humble boss understands that there are things he doesn’t know. He listens: not only to the other bigwigs in Davos, but also to the kind of people who don’t get invited, such as his customers.
Source: www.economist.com
Ser Feliz-Placer sin agregados
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
27 de enero de 2013
Reflexiones
Placer sin agregados
Por Susi Mauer | Para LA NACION
Tan efímeros como necesarios son los gestos que la singularizan. El buen humor, una sonrisa, un chiste bien situado, alguna carcajada cada tanto, un beso fuera de programa no son meros condimentos que acompañan un estado anímico. Son su materia prima.
Estar contento no es una herejía. Tampoco hace falta una gran ocasión para conquistar esa vivencia. Sin embargo, por estar asociada injustamente a la banalidad y a lo frívolo, la miramos con desconfianza. Como si el vivir en un mundo nebuloso y adverso nos quitara la posibilidad de experimentarla con libertad. Pero la alegría en sus múltiples manifestaciones no se empeña en darle la espalda a la realidad, sino simplemente la hace soportable.
Recientemente, escuchando una sonata de Mozart advertí que los compositores musicales juegan sútilmente en sus partituras con el allegro, como movimiento animado que no solamente cambia la velocidad en la ejecución sino que imprime un tono y un clima emocional ágil, liviano, sea este molto vivace o allegro ma non tropo.
Mozart escribía en una carta a su padre en julio de 1778: "La Sinfonía comenzó. Raff estaba de pie a mi lado, y ya en mitad del Primer allegro había un pasaje que yo sabía muy bien que tenía que gustar. Todos los oyentes se sintieron arrebatados y se produjo un gran aplauso, pero como sabía cuando lo compuse el efecto que haría, lo puse al final otra vez. Oír el forte y empezar a aplaudir fue una sola cosa. Así, lleno de alegría, me fui después de la Sinfonía al Palais Royale. Me comí un buen helado, recé el rosario que había prometido y me fui a casa..."
Cuando nos dejamos sorprender por alguna chispita de alegría conquistamos auténticos momentos de bienestar que si bien son pasajeros dejan sus huellas. Bien lo supo enfatizar Freud, quien además de casi portarla literalmente en su apellido (freude significa alegría en alemán), dio, desde el comienzo de su obra, un valor nodal al humor y al chiste en relación con el inconsciente. Reconoció en el humor un recurso subjetivo a tener en cuenta como indicador pronóstico.
El placer que nos depara la alegría genuina no necesita de aditamentos que la tornen posible. Se la vive al natural y no aspira a perpetuarse como estado vitalicio de felicidad.
Es la felicidad entendida como aspiración última la que con justa razón nos despierta sospecha. Montaigne lo expresó sabiamente. "Nunca vivimos: esperamos vivir y disponiéndonos siempre a ser felices resulta inevitable que no lo seamos nunca."
Desconfiamos de esa felicidad mayúscula que no solamente resulta inalcanzable como meta, sino que le resta a la alegría espontaneidad y, peor aún, genuinas oportunidades de experimentarla. Sencillamente aplasta su frescura.
Quizás no hemos transmitido lo suficiente a las nuevas generaciones este don natural de encuentro con la alegría. Hoy escuchamos a los más jóvenes sostener con convicción que para vivenciarla hay que proveerse de combustible adicional (alcohol u otras sustancias). Como si previamente hubiera que prepararse para ir a su encuentro. No conciben alegría sin embriaguez. ¿Por qué será?
Son los niños quienes viven la alegría sin pudor. No le temen, simplemente la habitan, la saltan, la ríen, la disfrutan. Y esto no quiere decir que la infancia sea indolora, ni sinónimo de satisfacción y puro placer. La frustración los enoja y mucho, sobre todo en esta sociedad consumista que los convence desde pequeños que lo feliz viene envasado en cajita. ¿A ellos también les estaremos enseñando, a pesar nuestro, que para estar contentos hay que consumir?
Experimentar alegría no es ni un imperativo ni una meta. Es un nutriente al que no hay que temer ni intentar eternizar. Eso sí, no tiene fórmula ni reglas que aseguren su logro. La alegría tampoco respeta los caprichos del calendario marcados en rojo. En los rincones menos previsibles de un día de semana, en un cruce de miradas, en un llamado o una buena idea se puede encontrar esa dosis de alegría, bálsamo capaz de devolvernos el buen ánimo.
André Comte-Sponville es claro y conclusivo en su libro La feliz desesperanza. Escribe allí: "La vida es lo que es, frágil, pasajera, mortal. Y no es esa una razón para renunciar a vivir. Es esa justamente una razón, y muy poderosa, para vivir más. Para vivir mejor"..
Fuente: www.lanacion.com.ar/Source: www.lanacion.com.ar
27 de enero de 2013
Reflexiones
Placer sin agregados
Por Susi Mauer | Para LA NACION
Tan efímeros como necesarios son los gestos que la singularizan. El buen humor, una sonrisa, un chiste bien situado, alguna carcajada cada tanto, un beso fuera de programa no son meros condimentos que acompañan un estado anímico. Son su materia prima.
Estar contento no es una herejía. Tampoco hace falta una gran ocasión para conquistar esa vivencia. Sin embargo, por estar asociada injustamente a la banalidad y a lo frívolo, la miramos con desconfianza. Como si el vivir en un mundo nebuloso y adverso nos quitara la posibilidad de experimentarla con libertad. Pero la alegría en sus múltiples manifestaciones no se empeña en darle la espalda a la realidad, sino simplemente la hace soportable.
Recientemente, escuchando una sonata de Mozart advertí que los compositores musicales juegan sútilmente en sus partituras con el allegro, como movimiento animado que no solamente cambia la velocidad en la ejecución sino que imprime un tono y un clima emocional ágil, liviano, sea este molto vivace o allegro ma non tropo.
Mozart escribía en una carta a su padre en julio de 1778: "La Sinfonía comenzó. Raff estaba de pie a mi lado, y ya en mitad del Primer allegro había un pasaje que yo sabía muy bien que tenía que gustar. Todos los oyentes se sintieron arrebatados y se produjo un gran aplauso, pero como sabía cuando lo compuse el efecto que haría, lo puse al final otra vez. Oír el forte y empezar a aplaudir fue una sola cosa. Así, lleno de alegría, me fui después de la Sinfonía al Palais Royale. Me comí un buen helado, recé el rosario que había prometido y me fui a casa..."
Cuando nos dejamos sorprender por alguna chispita de alegría conquistamos auténticos momentos de bienestar que si bien son pasajeros dejan sus huellas. Bien lo supo enfatizar Freud, quien además de casi portarla literalmente en su apellido (freude significa alegría en alemán), dio, desde el comienzo de su obra, un valor nodal al humor y al chiste en relación con el inconsciente. Reconoció en el humor un recurso subjetivo a tener en cuenta como indicador pronóstico.
El placer que nos depara la alegría genuina no necesita de aditamentos que la tornen posible. Se la vive al natural y no aspira a perpetuarse como estado vitalicio de felicidad.
Es la felicidad entendida como aspiración última la que con justa razón nos despierta sospecha. Montaigne lo expresó sabiamente. "Nunca vivimos: esperamos vivir y disponiéndonos siempre a ser felices resulta inevitable que no lo seamos nunca."
Desconfiamos de esa felicidad mayúscula que no solamente resulta inalcanzable como meta, sino que le resta a la alegría espontaneidad y, peor aún, genuinas oportunidades de experimentarla. Sencillamente aplasta su frescura.
Quizás no hemos transmitido lo suficiente a las nuevas generaciones este don natural de encuentro con la alegría. Hoy escuchamos a los más jóvenes sostener con convicción que para vivenciarla hay que proveerse de combustible adicional (alcohol u otras sustancias). Como si previamente hubiera que prepararse para ir a su encuentro. No conciben alegría sin embriaguez. ¿Por qué será?
Son los niños quienes viven la alegría sin pudor. No le temen, simplemente la habitan, la saltan, la ríen, la disfrutan. Y esto no quiere decir que la infancia sea indolora, ni sinónimo de satisfacción y puro placer. La frustración los enoja y mucho, sobre todo en esta sociedad consumista que los convence desde pequeños que lo feliz viene envasado en cajita. ¿A ellos también les estaremos enseñando, a pesar nuestro, que para estar contentos hay que consumir?
Experimentar alegría no es ni un imperativo ni una meta. Es un nutriente al que no hay que temer ni intentar eternizar. Eso sí, no tiene fórmula ni reglas que aseguren su logro. La alegría tampoco respeta los caprichos del calendario marcados en rojo. En los rincones menos previsibles de un día de semana, en un cruce de miradas, en un llamado o una buena idea se puede encontrar esa dosis de alegría, bálsamo capaz de devolvernos el buen ánimo.
André Comte-Sponville es claro y conclusivo en su libro La feliz desesperanza. Escribe allí: "La vida es lo que es, frágil, pasajera, mortal. Y no es esa una razón para renunciar a vivir. Es esa justamente una razón, y muy poderosa, para vivir más. Para vivir mejor"..
Fuente: www.lanacion.com.ar/Source: www.lanacion.com.ar
Friday, January 18, 2013
AGBUS-Mazes and Monsanto: Growing Prospects in the Ag Business-Eng-Sp Version
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
Mazes and Monsanto: Growing Prospects in the Ag Business
December 18, 2012
Hugh McPherson of New Park, Pa., lives and works on a farm, and he even enjoys driving a tractor from time to time — but he doesn’t consider himself to be a farmer. “I call myself the ‘Maze Master,’” says McPherson, who, after returning home from college 16 years ago, founded Maize Quest Fun Park on his family’s fifth-generation-owned produce farm. “I always knew I’d have a career in agriculture, but I felt the need to come up with something I could call my own.”
“I’ve always wanted to be a veterinarian … Now I can see myself taking that a step further and working as a livestock geneticist or researching the reproductive physiology of animals.”
Armed with a degree in agriculture business management from Penn State University, a big loan and a vision to make corn mazes more fun, McPherson grew the company into a 20-attraction fun park that draws 30,000 visitors a year. He is a good example of the new-generation farmer. “When most people think of careers in agriculture, they see a farmer plowing a field, milking a cow or mucking out a horse stable,” says Greg Pile, an agriculture teacher and FFA coach at Sumner High School in Sumner, Wash. “They don’t always see agriculture for all its career possibilities.” FFA, formerly called the Future Farmers of America, exposes high school students to agriculture education.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are some 200 careers in agriculture. And of the 22 million people who directly work within those careers, only 10% are actively involved in farming on a daily basis.
Horticulture and Animal Science
As the founder of Sumner’s 36-year-old FFA program, Pile’s goal is to make sure students gain the skills they need to be successful, well-rounded citizens. “I hope they take with them a real respect for education and agriculture,” Pile says.
Over the years, the number of students getting involved in the program has increased. “In the beginning, about 50% of my students were coming in off the farm; now that number is down to less than 4%,” notes Pile, who has nearly 300 students taking ag-focused classes ranging from horticulture and animal science to agriculture science research and biotechnology.
Alyssa McGee, a freshman at Sumner, strongly encourages students who are interested in agriculture to give their school’s FFA program a chance. In fact, she says that the different projects she has been a part of have helped give her a better sense of direction when it comes to her career goals. “I’ve always wanted to be a veterinarian,” says the 14-year-old, who enjoys raising sheep. “Thanks to FFA, now I can see myself taking that a step further and working as a livestock geneticist or researching the reproductive physiology of animals.”
McPherson also suggests that high school students find someone who is doing what they think they might like to do, and ask if they can tag along. “A lot of kids fall in love with idealized jobs,” McPherson notes. “Go and see what the real job is like. That’s the best way to find out if you’ll like it.”
As the landscape of the agriculture industry changes with the introduction of new technologies and sciences, colleges are beefing up their course selections. As a result, enrollment in agriculture-focused degree programs is booming. According to an article published in USA Today in August, Penn State University, an agriculture powerhouse and McPherson’s alma mater, has seen enrollment increase by 40% since 2004. Its agriculture degrees now include cutting-edge research in areas such as plant breeding and genomics, which is the study of DNA in cells.
Also seeing a steady increase in enrollment is Texas A&M University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, which McGee hopes to attend in a few years. “Students are attracted to degrees in agriculture because so many of the skills they learn are transferable,” says Jennifer Ann Smith, a career coordinator with the University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “Many of our graduates end up working in agriculture business-related careers, such as marketing and merchandising, with sales being the top positions that are being filled.”
Alyssa Spruill, a junior “aggie” at Texas A&M, recently accepted a summer sales internship with Monsanto, a St. Louis-based agribusiness giant that makes seeds, pesticides and an array of other farm products. As a result, she is now adding sales to her top list of career choices, along with law and politics. “I chose to major in agriculture leadership and development and minor in agriculture economics because it’s a degree that covers such a broad range of skills,” Spruill says. “I know that there will always be a career in the ag industry for me.”
A ‘Bright Spot in the Economy’
According to David Buchanan, associate dean for academic programs at North Dakota’s College of Agriculture, Food Systems and Natural Resources, “Career opportunities in agriculture are excellent.” In his welcome letter featured on the college’s website, Buchanan writes: “Students from both urban and rural backgrounds are finding satisfying and rewarding careers in private companies, government agencies, educational institutions and … in non-traditional areas such as medicine, law, space, banking and military careers.”
Agriculture is a bright spot in the economy, confirms Smith. With a continually growing population, there will always be a demand for jobs in agriculture because we need it to exist. The three top employers that Texas A&M ag students are landing jobs with, she adds, are DuPont Pioneer, Monsanto and John Deere. “John Deere has a need for a wide range of skills and experience,” notes company spokesman Ken Golden. “These include many different disciplines in engineering, information technology, software and technology development, accounting and finance, global positioning and telematics technology, sales and marketing, advanced manufacturing and business operations and leadership.”
John Deere added 5,000 jobs in the U.S. in the past two years with aspirations of doubling the sales of the company by the end of 2018. “This goal requires us to recruit, hire and retain the best and brightest students in a variety of fields and to provide them with opportunities to contribute immediately to the success of the company,” Golden says.
With the success of his corn maze, McPherson decided to take things a step further and franchise his business model. “People were calling me up asking for advice on their mazes,” McPherson says. “I spent a lot of time and money making it work, so I figured why not create a package so others didn’t have to fumble through it like I did.”
McPherson and his staff serve as ongoing support for franchise owners by designing their maze each year, going to farms to cut the maze and even holding workshops and online classes. Some 65 Maize Quest parks are located everywhere from Florida to Minnesota to Canada and the UK. “What I enjoy most about a career in agriculture is making a connection with other people, putting them into an agricultural-rich environment and then seeing the excitement on their faces from the experience,” McPherson says. “That’s what makes it all worth it.”
Questions
What is the FFA and how has it helped high school student Alyssa McGee?
What are some colleges that specialize in ag business? What careers are grads exploring, and what companies are hiring their grads?
How did Hugh McPherson innovate his fifth-generation family farm into the next generation?
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Laberintos y Monsanto: Cultivo de perspectivas en el negocio agrícola
(X)
January 10, 2013
Hugh McPherson de New Park, Pensilvania, vive y trabaja en una granja, y hasta disfruta de conducir un tractor de vez en cuando, pero no se considera a sí mismo un granjero. “Me llamo a mí mismo el ‘Amo del laberinto’”, explica McPherson, quien, luego de volver a casa después de la universidad hace 16 años, fundó Maize Quest Fun Park en la granja de productos propiedad de su familia desde hace cinco generaciones. “Siempre supe que tendría una carrera en la agricultura, pero sentía la necesidad de inventar algo que pudiese llamar propio”.
“Siempre quise ser veterinaria … Ahora puedo verme a mí misma llevando eso un paso más allá y trabajando como genetista de ganado o investigando la fisiología reproductiva de los animales.”
Armado con un título en Administración de empresas agrícolas de Penn State University, un préstamo grande y una visión para hacer que los laberintos de maíz fuesen más divertidos, McPherson hizo crecer a la empresa hacia un parque de diversiones de 20 atracciones que atrae 30.000 visitantes por año. Es un buen ejemplo del granjero de la nueva generación. “Cuando la mayoría de la gente piensa en carreras en agricultura, imagina a un granjero arando un campo, ordeñando una vaca o sacando el estiércol del establo de un caballo”, explica Greg Pile, maestro de agricultura y capacitador de FFA en Sumner High School en Sumner, Washington. “No siempre ven todas las posibilidades de carreras que hay en la agricultura”. FFA, anteriormente llamada Future Farmers of America (Futuros Granjeros de EE.UU.), expone a los estudiantes de secundaria a una educación con orientación agrícola.
Según la Oficina de Estadísticas Laborales, existen unas 200 carreras orientadas a la agricultura. Y de los 22 millones de personas que trabajan directamente dentro de esas carreras, sólo el 10% está involucrada de manera activa en la agricultura de forma cotidiana.
Horticultura y ciencia animal
Como fundador del programa de FFA de Sumner, hace 36 años, el objetivo de Pile es asegurarse de que los estudiantes obtengan las habilidades que necesitan para ser ciudadanos exitosos, bien equilibrados. “Espero que lleven con ellos un respeto real por la educación y la agricultura”, agrega Pile.
Con el paso de los años, se incrementó el número de estudiantes que se involucran en el programa. “Al comienzo, cerca del 50% de mis estudiantes llegaban directo de la granja; ahora ese número bajó a menos del 4%”, destaca Pile, que tiene aproximadamente 300 estudiantes tomando clases enfocadas hacia la agricultura, que van desde horticultura y ciencia animal hasta investigación en ciencia agrícola y biotecnología.
Alyssa McGee, estudiante de primer año en Sumner, alienta de forma encarecida a los estudiantes que estén interesados en agricultura a darle una oportunidad al programa de FFA de su escuela. De hecho, ella cuenta que los diferentes proyectos de los que formó parte la ayudaron a tener un mejor sentido de la dirección en lo que concierne a los objetivos de su carrera. “Siempre quise ser veterinaria”, dice la chica de 14 años, que disfruta de criar ovejas. “Gracias a FFA, ahora puedo verme llevando eso un paso más adelante y trabajando como genetista de ganado o investigando la fisiología reproductiva de los animales”.
McPherson también sugiere que los estudiantes secundarios encuentren a alguien que esté haciendo lo que ellos piensan que les gustaría hacer, y le pregunten si lo pueden seguir y acompañar. “Muchos niños se enamoran de trabajos idealizados”, explica McPherson. “Vayan y vean cómo es el trabajo real. Esa es la mejor manera de averiguar si les gustará”.
A medida que cambia el paisaje de la industria agrícola con la introducción de nuevas tecnologías y ciencias, las universidades están reforzando sus selecciones de cursos. Como resultado, está en pleno auge la inscripción en programas para títulos enfocados en agricultura. Según un artículo publicado en USA Today en agosto, Penn State University, una usina agrícola y el alma mater de McPherson, vio incrementarse la matriculación en un 40% desde 2004. Sus títulos en agricultura ahora incluyen investigación de vanguardia en áreas tales como cultivo de plantas y genómica, que es el estudio del ADN en las células.
También la Texas A&M University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences está viendo un incremento constante en la matriculación; McGee espera acudir allí en unos pocos años. “Los estudiantes se ven atraídos hacia los títulos en agricultura porque muchas de las habilidades que aprenden son transferibles”, explica Jennifer Ann Smith, coordinadora de carrera con la University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “Muchos de nuestros graduados terminan trabajando en carreras relacionadas con negocios agrícolas, tales como comercialización y promoción, con ventas entre las posiciones principales que se ocupan”.
Alyssa Spruill, una “aggie” (estudiante agrícola) de tercer año en Texas A&M, recientemente aceptó una pasantía de verano en ventas con Monsanto, un gigante de los agronegocios con sede en St. Louis, que fabrica semillas, pesticidas y una variedad de otros productos agrícolas. Como resultado, ahora está agregando ventas a la lista de sus opciones principales de carreras, junto con derecho y política. “Elegí especializarme en liderazgo y desarrollo agrícola, y como especialización secundaria economía agrícola porque es un título que cubre una variedad tan amplia de habilidades”, explica Spruill. “Sé que siempre habrá una carrera en la industria agrícola para mí”.
Un ‘punto brillante en la economía’
Según David Buchanan, Decano Asociado de programas académicos en la North Dakota’s College of Agriculture, Food Systems and Natural Resources: “Las oportunidades para carreras en agricultura son excelentes”. En su carta de bienvenida destacada en el sitio web de la facultad, Buchanan escribe: “Los estudiantes tanto de origen urbano como rural están encontrando carreras que los satisfacen y recompensan en empresas privadas, organismos gubernamentales, instituciones educativas y… en áreas no tradicionales tales como las carreras de medicina, derecho, espacio, industria bancaria y militar”.
La agricultura es un punto brillante en la economía, confirma Smith. Con una población que crece continuamente, siempre habrá una demanda para trabajos en agricultura porque la necesitamos para existir. Los tres mayores empleadores con los que los estudiantes agrícolas de Texas A&M están consiguiendo trabajo, agrega, son DuPont Pioneer, Monsanto y John Deere. “John Deere tiene necesidad de una amplia variedad de habilidades y experiencias”, explica el vocero de la empresa Ken Golden. “Estas incluyen diferentes disciplinas en ingeniería, tecnologías de la información, desarrollo de software y tecnología, contabilidad y finanzas, posicionamiento global y tecnología telemática, ventas y comercialización, fabricación avanzada y operaciones comerciales y liderazgo”.
John Deere agregó 5.000 trabajos en los EE. UU. en los últimos dos años con aspiraciones de duplicar las ventas de la empresa para fines de 2018. “Este objetivo requiere que reclutemos, contratemos y retengamos a los mejores y más brillantes estudiantes en una variedad de campos y que les brindemos oportunidades para contribuir inmediatamente al éxito de la empresa”, explica Golden.
Con el éxito del laberinto de maíz, McPherson decidió llevar las cosas un paso más allá y franquiciar su modelo de negocios. “La gente me llamaba para pedirme consejos sobre sus laberintos”, cuenta McPherson. “Gasté mucho tiempo y dinero para que funcionase, así que pensé por qué no crear un paquete para que otros no tuviesen que andar a tientas como me pasó a mí”.
McPherson y su personal prestan servicios como soporte continuo para los propietarios de la franquicia al diseñar su laberinto cada año, yendo a las granjas para cortar el laberinto y hasta dando talleres y clases en linea. Hay unos 65 parques Maize Quest ubicados en todas partes desde Florida, pasando por Minnesota hasta Canadá y el Reino Unido. “Lo que más disfruto acerca de una carrera en agricultura es hacer una conexión con otra gente, colocarlos en un entorno rico en agricultura y luego ver la emoción en sus caras por la experiencia”, explica McPherson. “Eso es lo que hace que todo valga la pena”.
Preguntas
¿Qué es FFA y cómo ayudó a la estudiante de secundaria Alyssa McGee?
¿Cuáles son algunas universidades que se especializan en negocios agrícolas? ¿Qué carreras están explorando los graduados, y qué empresas están contratando a dichos graduados?
¿Cómo innovó Hugh McPherson en la granja familiar de quinta generación hacia la siguiente generación?
(X) The Spanish version hasn´t been edited/La versión en Español está sin editar
Source: www.kwhs.wharton.upenn.edu
Mazes and Monsanto: Growing Prospects in the Ag Business
December 18, 2012
Hugh McPherson of New Park, Pa., lives and works on a farm, and he even enjoys driving a tractor from time to time — but he doesn’t consider himself to be a farmer. “I call myself the ‘Maze Master,’” says McPherson, who, after returning home from college 16 years ago, founded Maize Quest Fun Park on his family’s fifth-generation-owned produce farm. “I always knew I’d have a career in agriculture, but I felt the need to come up with something I could call my own.”
“I’ve always wanted to be a veterinarian … Now I can see myself taking that a step further and working as a livestock geneticist or researching the reproductive physiology of animals.”
Armed with a degree in agriculture business management from Penn State University, a big loan and a vision to make corn mazes more fun, McPherson grew the company into a 20-attraction fun park that draws 30,000 visitors a year. He is a good example of the new-generation farmer. “When most people think of careers in agriculture, they see a farmer plowing a field, milking a cow or mucking out a horse stable,” says Greg Pile, an agriculture teacher and FFA coach at Sumner High School in Sumner, Wash. “They don’t always see agriculture for all its career possibilities.” FFA, formerly called the Future Farmers of America, exposes high school students to agriculture education.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are some 200 careers in agriculture. And of the 22 million people who directly work within those careers, only 10% are actively involved in farming on a daily basis.
Horticulture and Animal Science
As the founder of Sumner’s 36-year-old FFA program, Pile’s goal is to make sure students gain the skills they need to be successful, well-rounded citizens. “I hope they take with them a real respect for education and agriculture,” Pile says.
Over the years, the number of students getting involved in the program has increased. “In the beginning, about 50% of my students were coming in off the farm; now that number is down to less than 4%,” notes Pile, who has nearly 300 students taking ag-focused classes ranging from horticulture and animal science to agriculture science research and biotechnology.
Alyssa McGee, a freshman at Sumner, strongly encourages students who are interested in agriculture to give their school’s FFA program a chance. In fact, she says that the different projects she has been a part of have helped give her a better sense of direction when it comes to her career goals. “I’ve always wanted to be a veterinarian,” says the 14-year-old, who enjoys raising sheep. “Thanks to FFA, now I can see myself taking that a step further and working as a livestock geneticist or researching the reproductive physiology of animals.”
McPherson also suggests that high school students find someone who is doing what they think they might like to do, and ask if they can tag along. “A lot of kids fall in love with idealized jobs,” McPherson notes. “Go and see what the real job is like. That’s the best way to find out if you’ll like it.”
As the landscape of the agriculture industry changes with the introduction of new technologies and sciences, colleges are beefing up their course selections. As a result, enrollment in agriculture-focused degree programs is booming. According to an article published in USA Today in August, Penn State University, an agriculture powerhouse and McPherson’s alma mater, has seen enrollment increase by 40% since 2004. Its agriculture degrees now include cutting-edge research in areas such as plant breeding and genomics, which is the study of DNA in cells.
Also seeing a steady increase in enrollment is Texas A&M University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, which McGee hopes to attend in a few years. “Students are attracted to degrees in agriculture because so many of the skills they learn are transferable,” says Jennifer Ann Smith, a career coordinator with the University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “Many of our graduates end up working in agriculture business-related careers, such as marketing and merchandising, with sales being the top positions that are being filled.”
Alyssa Spruill, a junior “aggie” at Texas A&M, recently accepted a summer sales internship with Monsanto, a St. Louis-based agribusiness giant that makes seeds, pesticides and an array of other farm products. As a result, she is now adding sales to her top list of career choices, along with law and politics. “I chose to major in agriculture leadership and development and minor in agriculture economics because it’s a degree that covers such a broad range of skills,” Spruill says. “I know that there will always be a career in the ag industry for me.”
A ‘Bright Spot in the Economy’
According to David Buchanan, associate dean for academic programs at North Dakota’s College of Agriculture, Food Systems and Natural Resources, “Career opportunities in agriculture are excellent.” In his welcome letter featured on the college’s website, Buchanan writes: “Students from both urban and rural backgrounds are finding satisfying and rewarding careers in private companies, government agencies, educational institutions and … in non-traditional areas such as medicine, law, space, banking and military careers.”
Agriculture is a bright spot in the economy, confirms Smith. With a continually growing population, there will always be a demand for jobs in agriculture because we need it to exist. The three top employers that Texas A&M ag students are landing jobs with, she adds, are DuPont Pioneer, Monsanto and John Deere. “John Deere has a need for a wide range of skills and experience,” notes company spokesman Ken Golden. “These include many different disciplines in engineering, information technology, software and technology development, accounting and finance, global positioning and telematics technology, sales and marketing, advanced manufacturing and business operations and leadership.”
John Deere added 5,000 jobs in the U.S. in the past two years with aspirations of doubling the sales of the company by the end of 2018. “This goal requires us to recruit, hire and retain the best and brightest students in a variety of fields and to provide them with opportunities to contribute immediately to the success of the company,” Golden says.
With the success of his corn maze, McPherson decided to take things a step further and franchise his business model. “People were calling me up asking for advice on their mazes,” McPherson says. “I spent a lot of time and money making it work, so I figured why not create a package so others didn’t have to fumble through it like I did.”
McPherson and his staff serve as ongoing support for franchise owners by designing their maze each year, going to farms to cut the maze and even holding workshops and online classes. Some 65 Maize Quest parks are located everywhere from Florida to Minnesota to Canada and the UK. “What I enjoy most about a career in agriculture is making a connection with other people, putting them into an agricultural-rich environment and then seeing the excitement on their faces from the experience,” McPherson says. “That’s what makes it all worth it.”
Questions
What is the FFA and how has it helped high school student Alyssa McGee?
What are some colleges that specialize in ag business? What careers are grads exploring, and what companies are hiring their grads?
How did Hugh McPherson innovate his fifth-generation family farm into the next generation?
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Laberintos y Monsanto: Cultivo de perspectivas en el negocio agrícola
(X)
January 10, 2013
Hugh McPherson de New Park, Pensilvania, vive y trabaja en una granja, y hasta disfruta de conducir un tractor de vez en cuando, pero no se considera a sí mismo un granjero. “Me llamo a mí mismo el ‘Amo del laberinto’”, explica McPherson, quien, luego de volver a casa después de la universidad hace 16 años, fundó Maize Quest Fun Park en la granja de productos propiedad de su familia desde hace cinco generaciones. “Siempre supe que tendría una carrera en la agricultura, pero sentía la necesidad de inventar algo que pudiese llamar propio”.
“Siempre quise ser veterinaria … Ahora puedo verme a mí misma llevando eso un paso más allá y trabajando como genetista de ganado o investigando la fisiología reproductiva de los animales.”
Armado con un título en Administración de empresas agrícolas de Penn State University, un préstamo grande y una visión para hacer que los laberintos de maíz fuesen más divertidos, McPherson hizo crecer a la empresa hacia un parque de diversiones de 20 atracciones que atrae 30.000 visitantes por año. Es un buen ejemplo del granjero de la nueva generación. “Cuando la mayoría de la gente piensa en carreras en agricultura, imagina a un granjero arando un campo, ordeñando una vaca o sacando el estiércol del establo de un caballo”, explica Greg Pile, maestro de agricultura y capacitador de FFA en Sumner High School en Sumner, Washington. “No siempre ven todas las posibilidades de carreras que hay en la agricultura”. FFA, anteriormente llamada Future Farmers of America (Futuros Granjeros de EE.UU.), expone a los estudiantes de secundaria a una educación con orientación agrícola.
Según la Oficina de Estadísticas Laborales, existen unas 200 carreras orientadas a la agricultura. Y de los 22 millones de personas que trabajan directamente dentro de esas carreras, sólo el 10% está involucrada de manera activa en la agricultura de forma cotidiana.
Horticultura y ciencia animal
Como fundador del programa de FFA de Sumner, hace 36 años, el objetivo de Pile es asegurarse de que los estudiantes obtengan las habilidades que necesitan para ser ciudadanos exitosos, bien equilibrados. “Espero que lleven con ellos un respeto real por la educación y la agricultura”, agrega Pile.
Con el paso de los años, se incrementó el número de estudiantes que se involucran en el programa. “Al comienzo, cerca del 50% de mis estudiantes llegaban directo de la granja; ahora ese número bajó a menos del 4%”, destaca Pile, que tiene aproximadamente 300 estudiantes tomando clases enfocadas hacia la agricultura, que van desde horticultura y ciencia animal hasta investigación en ciencia agrícola y biotecnología.
Alyssa McGee, estudiante de primer año en Sumner, alienta de forma encarecida a los estudiantes que estén interesados en agricultura a darle una oportunidad al programa de FFA de su escuela. De hecho, ella cuenta que los diferentes proyectos de los que formó parte la ayudaron a tener un mejor sentido de la dirección en lo que concierne a los objetivos de su carrera. “Siempre quise ser veterinaria”, dice la chica de 14 años, que disfruta de criar ovejas. “Gracias a FFA, ahora puedo verme llevando eso un paso más adelante y trabajando como genetista de ganado o investigando la fisiología reproductiva de los animales”.
McPherson también sugiere que los estudiantes secundarios encuentren a alguien que esté haciendo lo que ellos piensan que les gustaría hacer, y le pregunten si lo pueden seguir y acompañar. “Muchos niños se enamoran de trabajos idealizados”, explica McPherson. “Vayan y vean cómo es el trabajo real. Esa es la mejor manera de averiguar si les gustará”.
A medida que cambia el paisaje de la industria agrícola con la introducción de nuevas tecnologías y ciencias, las universidades están reforzando sus selecciones de cursos. Como resultado, está en pleno auge la inscripción en programas para títulos enfocados en agricultura. Según un artículo publicado en USA Today en agosto, Penn State University, una usina agrícola y el alma mater de McPherson, vio incrementarse la matriculación en un 40% desde 2004. Sus títulos en agricultura ahora incluyen investigación de vanguardia en áreas tales como cultivo de plantas y genómica, que es el estudio del ADN en las células.
También la Texas A&M University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences está viendo un incremento constante en la matriculación; McGee espera acudir allí en unos pocos años. “Los estudiantes se ven atraídos hacia los títulos en agricultura porque muchas de las habilidades que aprenden son transferibles”, explica Jennifer Ann Smith, coordinadora de carrera con la University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “Muchos de nuestros graduados terminan trabajando en carreras relacionadas con negocios agrícolas, tales como comercialización y promoción, con ventas entre las posiciones principales que se ocupan”.
Alyssa Spruill, una “aggie” (estudiante agrícola) de tercer año en Texas A&M, recientemente aceptó una pasantía de verano en ventas con Monsanto, un gigante de los agronegocios con sede en St. Louis, que fabrica semillas, pesticidas y una variedad de otros productos agrícolas. Como resultado, ahora está agregando ventas a la lista de sus opciones principales de carreras, junto con derecho y política. “Elegí especializarme en liderazgo y desarrollo agrícola, y como especialización secundaria economía agrícola porque es un título que cubre una variedad tan amplia de habilidades”, explica Spruill. “Sé que siempre habrá una carrera en la industria agrícola para mí”.
Un ‘punto brillante en la economía’
Según David Buchanan, Decano Asociado de programas académicos en la North Dakota’s College of Agriculture, Food Systems and Natural Resources: “Las oportunidades para carreras en agricultura son excelentes”. En su carta de bienvenida destacada en el sitio web de la facultad, Buchanan escribe: “Los estudiantes tanto de origen urbano como rural están encontrando carreras que los satisfacen y recompensan en empresas privadas, organismos gubernamentales, instituciones educativas y… en áreas no tradicionales tales como las carreras de medicina, derecho, espacio, industria bancaria y militar”.
La agricultura es un punto brillante en la economía, confirma Smith. Con una población que crece continuamente, siempre habrá una demanda para trabajos en agricultura porque la necesitamos para existir. Los tres mayores empleadores con los que los estudiantes agrícolas de Texas A&M están consiguiendo trabajo, agrega, son DuPont Pioneer, Monsanto y John Deere. “John Deere tiene necesidad de una amplia variedad de habilidades y experiencias”, explica el vocero de la empresa Ken Golden. “Estas incluyen diferentes disciplinas en ingeniería, tecnologías de la información, desarrollo de software y tecnología, contabilidad y finanzas, posicionamiento global y tecnología telemática, ventas y comercialización, fabricación avanzada y operaciones comerciales y liderazgo”.
John Deere agregó 5.000 trabajos en los EE. UU. en los últimos dos años con aspiraciones de duplicar las ventas de la empresa para fines de 2018. “Este objetivo requiere que reclutemos, contratemos y retengamos a los mejores y más brillantes estudiantes en una variedad de campos y que les brindemos oportunidades para contribuir inmediatamente al éxito de la empresa”, explica Golden.
Con el éxito del laberinto de maíz, McPherson decidió llevar las cosas un paso más allá y franquiciar su modelo de negocios. “La gente me llamaba para pedirme consejos sobre sus laberintos”, cuenta McPherson. “Gasté mucho tiempo y dinero para que funcionase, así que pensé por qué no crear un paquete para que otros no tuviesen que andar a tientas como me pasó a mí”.
McPherson y su personal prestan servicios como soporte continuo para los propietarios de la franquicia al diseñar su laberinto cada año, yendo a las granjas para cortar el laberinto y hasta dando talleres y clases en linea. Hay unos 65 parques Maize Quest ubicados en todas partes desde Florida, pasando por Minnesota hasta Canadá y el Reino Unido. “Lo que más disfruto acerca de una carrera en agricultura es hacer una conexión con otra gente, colocarlos en un entorno rico en agricultura y luego ver la emoción en sus caras por la experiencia”, explica McPherson. “Eso es lo que hace que todo valga la pena”.
Preguntas
¿Qué es FFA y cómo ayudó a la estudiante de secundaria Alyssa McGee?
¿Cuáles son algunas universidades que se especializan en negocios agrícolas? ¿Qué carreras están explorando los graduados, y qué empresas están contratando a dichos graduados?
¿Cómo innovó Hugh McPherson en la granja familiar de quinta generación hacia la siguiente generación?
(X) The Spanish version hasn´t been edited/La versión en Español está sin editar
Source: www.kwhs.wharton.upenn.edu
LOG/SUPCH-The Logistics Journey from Container to Customer-Eng-Sp Version
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
To Your Doorstep: The Logistics Journey from Container to Customer
December 9, 2012
Ever play “Follow the Container?” High school students in and around Savannah, Ga., did just that during a recent field trip. They started at the Georgia Port’s Garden City Terminal, where containers full of merchandise arriving via ship were unloaded onto trucks, then followed one of the containers through customs and security and over the highway to a designated warehouse/distribution facility. There, they watched as it was unloaded and “cross-docked” — palletized, repackaged and reloaded for shipping to the final customer. Many of the same students are now preparing to return to the port and warehouses for a 10-week internship that starts in February.
“If you can’t coordinate to get the right part to the right place at the right time, then you have shortages, delays and dissatisfied customers.”
These students – from such Savannah-area schools as Groves, Jenkins and Johnson High Schools, as well as Woodville-Tompkins Technical and Career High School – are learning what it takes to get merchandise from manufacturer to store shelf – commonly known in the business world as logistics.
‘Connective Tissue’
Logistics is as essential to the holiday season as the Christmas tree and the menorah – and as prominent if you know where to look. Highways crowded with 18-wheelers, UPS trucks double parked on busy streets, Fed Ex vans pulling in and out of your neighbors’ driveways, even those Amazon boxes stacked atop your daily mail delivery. Logistics is about moving the right product in the right quantities to the right place at the right time, and has been described as the “connective tissue” that makes the global economy work.
While logistics is fundamental to the retail industry, it is also an important business process to many other industries, whether it involves getting parts to a factory for assembly, or for service that happens after a product is sold. For instance, networking giant Cisco Systems’ after-sales service group delivers hundreds of thousands of spare parts to the company’s manufacturing facilities. “If you can’t coordinate to get the right part to the right place at the right time, then you have shortages, delays and dissatisfied customers, and eventually you go out of business,” says Morris Cohen, a Wharton professor who specializes in supply chain, operations management and logistics.
Supply chains involve the network of facilities and activities associated with making things, all the way from the procurement of the raw materials and the assembly of the components to the distribution. Logistics is the flow of material within the supply chain. “Logistics is an essential component of any effective supply-chain strategy and has become critically important as our economy has become globalized,” adds Cohen. “A lot of manufacturing has been outsourced to foreign locations and suppliers are located in [other parts of the world].
Even before those package-filled trucks hit the highways to deliver products to businesses and consumers, a crucial step in the logistics lifecycle is fulfillment and distribution, which typically involves a warehouse where an order is filled and from where a product is packaged and shipped out. This has become even more critical with the rise in popularity of e-commerce, or buying products over the Internet.
Perhaps you were one of the 20 million shoppers to order online on November 26, otherwise known as Cyber Monday – a huge day in terms of logistics. Online sales boomed this year on Cyber Monday, many of them captured by online retailer Amazon.com, which brought in 50,000 seasonal workers to deal with the demand. Last year, Amazon sold 17 million items – that’s 204 per second – on Cyber Monday. After consumers place orders, Amazon’s 80 fulfillment facilities around the globe go to work to get those products to consumers’ doorsteps. The company’s largest warehouse – the size of 28 football fields – is in Phoenix, Ariz., and new logistics hubs are being built in California and France, to name just a few locations.
Logistics, notes Cohen, is a key competitive strategy for online retailers. The better their logistics process, the more satisfied their customers. “What is the main cost to us for buying something over the Internet? It is that we have to wait for it to be delivered,” says Cohen. “If you want something right away, then you go to the retail store to pick it up. The benefits of buying over the Internet could be price or convenience, but you trade that off against how long you have to wait to get the products in your hands. The logistics system is what solves the problem of getting the product in the customer’s hands. To be competitive, Internet retailers have to give next-day delivery. Now they are even starting to offer same-day delivery with couriers who will get it to you the evening of the day you order it.”
Truckers, Automation and Algorithms
So, back to that game of “Follow the Container,” which is resulting in Georgia high school students exploring different logistics jobs through internships. Logistics offers varied opportunities for employment. For one, a new generation of young, eager truck drivers is in great demand. According to an Associated Press article from November, trucking accounts for 80% of how cargo is moved in the country. U.S. companies are expected to create more than 115,000 truck driver jobs per year through 2016, but the number of Americans getting trained to fill those jobs each year is barely 10% of the total demand.
Other logistics jobs include warehouse workers, air cargo supervisors and many more technology-heavy positions, as well, that incorporate robotics and automation. Think logistics managers, logistics analysts and IT logistics specialists. “Logistics’ importance is growing and therefore its employment will grow,” notes Cohen. “There is real-time monitoring of conditions and solving complex challenging technical problems about how to manage logistics that involve very sophisticated methodologies and advanced computer algorithms. People might say, ‘I don’t want to be a truck driver.’ Well, there are all kinds of opportunities that involve management and decision-making and that have a strategic impact [on business]. It’s a great place to look.”
Questions
What are logistics and the supply chain and how are they related?
Why is logistics especially important to e-commerce?
Do you have to be a truck driver to work in logistics?
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El viaje logístico desde el contenedor hasta el cliente
(X)
January 10, 2013
¿Alguna vez juegas a sigue al contenedor? Los estudiantes de secundaria de Savannah y sus alrededores, en Georgia, hicieron exactamente eso en un reciente viaje de campo. Comenzaron en la Terminal de Garden City del puerto de Georgia, donde contenedores llenos de mercaderías que llegaron por barco se descargaron en camiones, luego siguieron a uno de los contenedores a través de la aduana y seguridad, y por la autopista hasta unas instalaciones designadas de depósito / distribución. Allí, observaron mientras se hacía la descarga y se realizaba el “cross-docking” (preparación del pedido): organizar los pallets, reempaquetar y recargar para hacer el envío al cliente final.
Muchos de esos mismos estudiantes ahora se están preparando para regresar al puerto y a los depósitos para hacer una pasantía de 10 semanas que comienza en febrero. Estos estudiantes, de escuelas del área de Savannah, como las escuelas secundarias Groves, Jenkins y Johnson, así como de la de Woodville-Tompkins Technical and Career High School, están aprendiendo el proceso por el que tienen que pasar las mercaderías para llegar desde el fabricante hasta la góndola en la tienda, lo que comúnmente en el mundo comercial se conoce como logística.
‘Tejido conector’
La logística es tan esencial para la época de las Fiestas como el árbol de Navidad y la menorah (e igual de importante si sabes dónde mirar). Las autopistas atestadas de camiones con acoplados, camiones de UPS estacionados en doble fila en calles ocupadas, camionetas de Fed Ex llegando y saliendo de las entradas de tus vecinos, hasta esas cajas de Amazon apiladas en lo alto de tu entrega de correo diaria.La logística consiste en mover el producto correcto en las cantidades apropiadas al lugar correcto en el momento correcto, y se la ha descrito como el “tejido conector” que hace que funcione la economía mundial.
Si bien la logística es fundamental para la industria minorista, también es un proceso comercial importante para muchas otras industrias, ya sea porque implica hacer llegar las piezas a una fábrica para el ensamblado, o para el servicio que ocurre después de que se venda un producto. Por ejemplo, el grupo de servicio postventa del gigante de las redes Cisco Systems entrega cientos de miles de piezas de repuesto a las instalaciones de fabricación de la empresa. “Si no puedes coordinar para que llegue la pieza adecuada al lugar adecuado en el momento adecuado, entonces tienes escaseces, retrasos y clientes no satisfechos, y finalmente dejas el negocio”, explica Morris Cohen, profesor de Wharton que se especializa en cadena de suministros, gestión de operaciones y logística.
Las cadenas de suministro incluyen la red de instalaciones y actividades asociadas con hacer las cosas, todo desde el abastecimiento de las materias primas y el ensamblado de los componentes hasta la distribución. La logística es el flujo de materiales dentro de la cadena de suministros. “La logística es un componente esencial de cualquier estrategia de cadena de suministros efectiva y se ahora que se globalizó nuestra economía tiene una importancia crítica”, agrega Cohen. “Gran parte de la fabricación se ha subcontratado a lugares en el extranjero y los proveedores se ubican en [otras partes del mundo].
Incluso antes de que esos camiones llenos de paquetes lleguen a las autopistas para entregar productos a los negocios y consumidores, un paso crucial en el ciclo de vida de la logística es el “fulfillment” (cumplimiento) y distribución, que en general involucran a un depósito donde se llena un pedido y desde donde se empaca y envía un pedido. Esto se ha vuelto aún más crítico con el aumento de popularidad del comercio electrónico o con la compra de productos por Internet.
Quizá fuiste uno de los 20 millones de consumidores que compraron en línea el 26 de noviembre, también conocido como Ciber lunes, un gran día en cuanto a logística. Las ventas en línea explotaron este año el Ciber lunes, muchas de ellas acaparadas por el minorista en línea Amazon.com, que contrató 50.000 trabajadores temporales para satisfacer la demanda. El año pasado, Amazon vendió 17 millones de artículos (eso es 204 por segundo) el Ciber lunes. Después de que los consumidores realizan el pedido, las 80 instalaciones de fulfillment de Amazon en todo el mundo se ponen a trabajar para llevar esos productos a las puertas de los consumidores. El depósito más grande de la empresa, del tamaño de 28 campos de fútbol americano, se encuentra en Phoenix, Arizona, y se están construyendo nuevos hubs de logística en California y Francia, sólo por nombrar algunos lugares.
La logística, explica Cohen, es una estrategia competitiva clave para los minoristas en línea. Cuanto mejor su proceso de logística, más satisfechos los clientes. “¿Cuál es el costo principal para nosotros de comprar algo por Internet? Es que tenemos que esperar a que lo entreguen”, explica Cohen. “Si quieres algo inmediatamente, entonces vas a la tienda y lo recoges. Los beneficios de comprar por Internet podrían ser el precio o la comodidad, pero compensas eso con lo que tienes que esperar para tener los productos en tus manos. El sistema de logística es lo que resuelve el problema de hacer llegar el producto a las manos del cliente. Para ser competitivos, los minoristas de Internet tienen que tener entrega al día siguiente. Ahora hasta están empezando a ofrecer entrega en el mismo día con correos privados que te lo harán llegar en el atardecer del día en que lo pediste”.
Conductores de camión, automatización y algoritmos
Entonces, volvamos al juego de sigue al contenedor, que está dando como resultado que los estudiantes de secundaria de Georgia exploren diferentes trabajos logísticos a través de pasantías. La logística ofrece oportunidades variadas de empleo. Por un lado, hay una gran de demanda de una nueva generación de conductores de camión jóvenes, ansiosos. Según un artículo de noviembre de Associated Press, el transporte en camión representa el 80% de cómo se transportan las cargas en el país. Se espera que las empresas estadounidenses creen más de 115.000 trabajos de conductor de camión por año hasta 2016, pero la cantidad de estadounidenses que se capacitan para satisfacer esos trabajos cada año es apenas el 10% de la demanda total.
Otros trabajos de logística incluyen trabajadores de depósitos, supervisores de cargas aéreas y muchas más posiciones que realizan un uso intensivo de la tecnología, que incorporan robótica y automatización. Piensa en gerentes de logística, analistas de logística y especialistas en logística de TI. La importancia de la “logística’ está creciendo y por lo tanto también crecerá su empleo”, destaca Cohen. “Existe un seguimiento en tiempo real de las condiciones y la resolución de problemas técnicos complejos acerca de cómo manejar la logística que implican metodologías muy sofisticadas y algoritmos de computación avanzados. La gente podría decir: ‘No quiero ser un conductor de camión’. Bueno, existen todo tipo de oportunidades que involucran administración y toma de decisiones y que tienen un impacto estratégico [en el negocio]. Es un lugar excelente donde mirar”.
Preguntas
¿Qué son la logística y la cadena de suministros y cómo se relacionan?
¿Por qué la logística es especialmente importante para el comercio electrónico?
¿Tienes que ser un conductor de camión para trabajar en logística?
(X) The Spanish version hasn´t been edited/La versión en Español está sin editar
Source: www.kwhs.wharton.upenn.edu
To Your Doorstep: The Logistics Journey from Container to Customer
December 9, 2012
Ever play “Follow the Container?” High school students in and around Savannah, Ga., did just that during a recent field trip. They started at the Georgia Port’s Garden City Terminal, where containers full of merchandise arriving via ship were unloaded onto trucks, then followed one of the containers through customs and security and over the highway to a designated warehouse/distribution facility. There, they watched as it was unloaded and “cross-docked” — palletized, repackaged and reloaded for shipping to the final customer. Many of the same students are now preparing to return to the port and warehouses for a 10-week internship that starts in February.
“If you can’t coordinate to get the right part to the right place at the right time, then you have shortages, delays and dissatisfied customers.”
These students – from such Savannah-area schools as Groves, Jenkins and Johnson High Schools, as well as Woodville-Tompkins Technical and Career High School – are learning what it takes to get merchandise from manufacturer to store shelf – commonly known in the business world as logistics.
‘Connective Tissue’
Logistics is as essential to the holiday season as the Christmas tree and the menorah – and as prominent if you know where to look. Highways crowded with 18-wheelers, UPS trucks double parked on busy streets, Fed Ex vans pulling in and out of your neighbors’ driveways, even those Amazon boxes stacked atop your daily mail delivery. Logistics is about moving the right product in the right quantities to the right place at the right time, and has been described as the “connective tissue” that makes the global economy work.
While logistics is fundamental to the retail industry, it is also an important business process to many other industries, whether it involves getting parts to a factory for assembly, or for service that happens after a product is sold. For instance, networking giant Cisco Systems’ after-sales service group delivers hundreds of thousands of spare parts to the company’s manufacturing facilities. “If you can’t coordinate to get the right part to the right place at the right time, then you have shortages, delays and dissatisfied customers, and eventually you go out of business,” says Morris Cohen, a Wharton professor who specializes in supply chain, operations management and logistics.
Supply chains involve the network of facilities and activities associated with making things, all the way from the procurement of the raw materials and the assembly of the components to the distribution. Logistics is the flow of material within the supply chain. “Logistics is an essential component of any effective supply-chain strategy and has become critically important as our economy has become globalized,” adds Cohen. “A lot of manufacturing has been outsourced to foreign locations and suppliers are located in [other parts of the world].
Even before those package-filled trucks hit the highways to deliver products to businesses and consumers, a crucial step in the logistics lifecycle is fulfillment and distribution, which typically involves a warehouse where an order is filled and from where a product is packaged and shipped out. This has become even more critical with the rise in popularity of e-commerce, or buying products over the Internet.
Perhaps you were one of the 20 million shoppers to order online on November 26, otherwise known as Cyber Monday – a huge day in terms of logistics. Online sales boomed this year on Cyber Monday, many of them captured by online retailer Amazon.com, which brought in 50,000 seasonal workers to deal with the demand. Last year, Amazon sold 17 million items – that’s 204 per second – on Cyber Monday. After consumers place orders, Amazon’s 80 fulfillment facilities around the globe go to work to get those products to consumers’ doorsteps. The company’s largest warehouse – the size of 28 football fields – is in Phoenix, Ariz., and new logistics hubs are being built in California and France, to name just a few locations.
Logistics, notes Cohen, is a key competitive strategy for online retailers. The better their logistics process, the more satisfied their customers. “What is the main cost to us for buying something over the Internet? It is that we have to wait for it to be delivered,” says Cohen. “If you want something right away, then you go to the retail store to pick it up. The benefits of buying over the Internet could be price or convenience, but you trade that off against how long you have to wait to get the products in your hands. The logistics system is what solves the problem of getting the product in the customer’s hands. To be competitive, Internet retailers have to give next-day delivery. Now they are even starting to offer same-day delivery with couriers who will get it to you the evening of the day you order it.”
Truckers, Automation and Algorithms
So, back to that game of “Follow the Container,” which is resulting in Georgia high school students exploring different logistics jobs through internships. Logistics offers varied opportunities for employment. For one, a new generation of young, eager truck drivers is in great demand. According to an Associated Press article from November, trucking accounts for 80% of how cargo is moved in the country. U.S. companies are expected to create more than 115,000 truck driver jobs per year through 2016, but the number of Americans getting trained to fill those jobs each year is barely 10% of the total demand.
Other logistics jobs include warehouse workers, air cargo supervisors and many more technology-heavy positions, as well, that incorporate robotics and automation. Think logistics managers, logistics analysts and IT logistics specialists. “Logistics’ importance is growing and therefore its employment will grow,” notes Cohen. “There is real-time monitoring of conditions and solving complex challenging technical problems about how to manage logistics that involve very sophisticated methodologies and advanced computer algorithms. People might say, ‘I don’t want to be a truck driver.’ Well, there are all kinds of opportunities that involve management and decision-making and that have a strategic impact [on business]. It’s a great place to look.”
Questions
What are logistics and the supply chain and how are they related?
Why is logistics especially important to e-commerce?
Do you have to be a truck driver to work in logistics?
***************************************************************************************
El viaje logístico desde el contenedor hasta el cliente
(X)
January 10, 2013
¿Alguna vez juegas a sigue al contenedor? Los estudiantes de secundaria de Savannah y sus alrededores, en Georgia, hicieron exactamente eso en un reciente viaje de campo. Comenzaron en la Terminal de Garden City del puerto de Georgia, donde contenedores llenos de mercaderías que llegaron por barco se descargaron en camiones, luego siguieron a uno de los contenedores a través de la aduana y seguridad, y por la autopista hasta unas instalaciones designadas de depósito / distribución. Allí, observaron mientras se hacía la descarga y se realizaba el “cross-docking” (preparación del pedido): organizar los pallets, reempaquetar y recargar para hacer el envío al cliente final.
Muchos de esos mismos estudiantes ahora se están preparando para regresar al puerto y a los depósitos para hacer una pasantía de 10 semanas que comienza en febrero. Estos estudiantes, de escuelas del área de Savannah, como las escuelas secundarias Groves, Jenkins y Johnson, así como de la de Woodville-Tompkins Technical and Career High School, están aprendiendo el proceso por el que tienen que pasar las mercaderías para llegar desde el fabricante hasta la góndola en la tienda, lo que comúnmente en el mundo comercial se conoce como logística.
‘Tejido conector’
La logística es tan esencial para la época de las Fiestas como el árbol de Navidad y la menorah (e igual de importante si sabes dónde mirar). Las autopistas atestadas de camiones con acoplados, camiones de UPS estacionados en doble fila en calles ocupadas, camionetas de Fed Ex llegando y saliendo de las entradas de tus vecinos, hasta esas cajas de Amazon apiladas en lo alto de tu entrega de correo diaria.La logística consiste en mover el producto correcto en las cantidades apropiadas al lugar correcto en el momento correcto, y se la ha descrito como el “tejido conector” que hace que funcione la economía mundial.
Si bien la logística es fundamental para la industria minorista, también es un proceso comercial importante para muchas otras industrias, ya sea porque implica hacer llegar las piezas a una fábrica para el ensamblado, o para el servicio que ocurre después de que se venda un producto. Por ejemplo, el grupo de servicio postventa del gigante de las redes Cisco Systems entrega cientos de miles de piezas de repuesto a las instalaciones de fabricación de la empresa. “Si no puedes coordinar para que llegue la pieza adecuada al lugar adecuado en el momento adecuado, entonces tienes escaseces, retrasos y clientes no satisfechos, y finalmente dejas el negocio”, explica Morris Cohen, profesor de Wharton que se especializa en cadena de suministros, gestión de operaciones y logística.
Las cadenas de suministro incluyen la red de instalaciones y actividades asociadas con hacer las cosas, todo desde el abastecimiento de las materias primas y el ensamblado de los componentes hasta la distribución. La logística es el flujo de materiales dentro de la cadena de suministros. “La logística es un componente esencial de cualquier estrategia de cadena de suministros efectiva y se ahora que se globalizó nuestra economía tiene una importancia crítica”, agrega Cohen. “Gran parte de la fabricación se ha subcontratado a lugares en el extranjero y los proveedores se ubican en [otras partes del mundo].
Incluso antes de que esos camiones llenos de paquetes lleguen a las autopistas para entregar productos a los negocios y consumidores, un paso crucial en el ciclo de vida de la logística es el “fulfillment” (cumplimiento) y distribución, que en general involucran a un depósito donde se llena un pedido y desde donde se empaca y envía un pedido. Esto se ha vuelto aún más crítico con el aumento de popularidad del comercio electrónico o con la compra de productos por Internet.
Quizá fuiste uno de los 20 millones de consumidores que compraron en línea el 26 de noviembre, también conocido como Ciber lunes, un gran día en cuanto a logística. Las ventas en línea explotaron este año el Ciber lunes, muchas de ellas acaparadas por el minorista en línea Amazon.com, que contrató 50.000 trabajadores temporales para satisfacer la demanda. El año pasado, Amazon vendió 17 millones de artículos (eso es 204 por segundo) el Ciber lunes. Después de que los consumidores realizan el pedido, las 80 instalaciones de fulfillment de Amazon en todo el mundo se ponen a trabajar para llevar esos productos a las puertas de los consumidores. El depósito más grande de la empresa, del tamaño de 28 campos de fútbol americano, se encuentra en Phoenix, Arizona, y se están construyendo nuevos hubs de logística en California y Francia, sólo por nombrar algunos lugares.
La logística, explica Cohen, es una estrategia competitiva clave para los minoristas en línea. Cuanto mejor su proceso de logística, más satisfechos los clientes. “¿Cuál es el costo principal para nosotros de comprar algo por Internet? Es que tenemos que esperar a que lo entreguen”, explica Cohen. “Si quieres algo inmediatamente, entonces vas a la tienda y lo recoges. Los beneficios de comprar por Internet podrían ser el precio o la comodidad, pero compensas eso con lo que tienes que esperar para tener los productos en tus manos. El sistema de logística es lo que resuelve el problema de hacer llegar el producto a las manos del cliente. Para ser competitivos, los minoristas de Internet tienen que tener entrega al día siguiente. Ahora hasta están empezando a ofrecer entrega en el mismo día con correos privados que te lo harán llegar en el atardecer del día en que lo pediste”.
Conductores de camión, automatización y algoritmos
Entonces, volvamos al juego de sigue al contenedor, que está dando como resultado que los estudiantes de secundaria de Georgia exploren diferentes trabajos logísticos a través de pasantías. La logística ofrece oportunidades variadas de empleo. Por un lado, hay una gran de demanda de una nueva generación de conductores de camión jóvenes, ansiosos. Según un artículo de noviembre de Associated Press, el transporte en camión representa el 80% de cómo se transportan las cargas en el país. Se espera que las empresas estadounidenses creen más de 115.000 trabajos de conductor de camión por año hasta 2016, pero la cantidad de estadounidenses que se capacitan para satisfacer esos trabajos cada año es apenas el 10% de la demanda total.
Otros trabajos de logística incluyen trabajadores de depósitos, supervisores de cargas aéreas y muchas más posiciones que realizan un uso intensivo de la tecnología, que incorporan robótica y automatización. Piensa en gerentes de logística, analistas de logística y especialistas en logística de TI. La importancia de la “logística’ está creciendo y por lo tanto también crecerá su empleo”, destaca Cohen. “Existe un seguimiento en tiempo real de las condiciones y la resolución de problemas técnicos complejos acerca de cómo manejar la logística que implican metodologías muy sofisticadas y algoritmos de computación avanzados. La gente podría decir: ‘No quiero ser un conductor de camión’. Bueno, existen todo tipo de oportunidades que involucran administración y toma de decisiones y que tienen un impacto estratégico [en el negocio]. Es un lugar excelente donde mirar”.
Preguntas
¿Qué son la logística y la cadena de suministros y cómo se relacionan?
¿Por qué la logística es especialmente importante para el comercio electrónico?
¿Tienes que ser un conductor de camión para trabajar en logística?
(X) The Spanish version hasn´t been edited/La versión en Español está sin editar
Source: www.kwhs.wharton.upenn.edu
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
ECON-Glenn Hoetker: Leveraging Japan's "Old Economy"
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
Glenn Hoetker: Leveraging Japan's "Old Economy"
January 16, 2013
by Guest Blogger for Sheila A. Smith
Buildings are silhouetted against the setting sun in front of Mount Fuji in Tokyo
December 2, 2009 (Gary Hershorn/Courtesy Reuters).
This blog post is part of a series entitled Is Japan in Decline?, in which leading experts analyze Japan’s economy, politics, and society and give their assessment of Japan’s future.
Those predicting Japan’s decline overlook one of its greatest resources: its large, established firms and the model that produced them. With the tribulations of Panasonic, Sony, and others in the headlines, this claim may seem to be dubious and to run counter to the many efforts underway to increase the role of start-up firms and entrepreneurs in the Japanese economy.
However, almost any country can produce start-ups. Japan lags behind many of its regional competitors at doing so and will continue to do so for years. But, few of Japan’s rivals can leverage the creative power of entrepreneurial firms with the stock of established companies and stable institutions that Japan has developed over the last several decades.
The Open Innovation paradigm, popularized by Henry Chesbrough in his book of the same name, suggests how to leverage Japan’s “old economy” with the “new economy” it hopes to create. Open innovation emphasizes an approach to innovation that is not constrained within the boundaries of a single firm. Rather, it encompasses both drawing on external sources of knowledge and paying greater attention to using external channels to reach markets.
The following five examples of open innovation, each of which already takes place in Japan to some degree, demonstrate the potential contribution of Japan’s established firms.
Established firms as enablers of small firm innovation. Converting a start-up firm’s innovation to profitable products requires complementary assets (related technical knowledge, production expertise, distribution systems, etc.) that start-ups often lack, but established firms possess. These resources can be brought together through alliances between firms, licensing of the start-up’s innovation by the established firm, or the acquisition of the start-up by the established firm.
Established firms as funders of small firms. Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) activities allow firms to take financial stakes in entrepreneurial firms. The small firm gains resources and legitimacy, while the established firm gains a window into the start-up’s innovations. CVC may be particularly relevant as Japan works to overcome the challenges it has encountered in establishing its venture capital industry.
Out-licensing and spin-outs from established firms to entrepreneurial firms. Japan’s established firms produce a tremendous volume of new innovations each year. Many innovations have applications in markets outside of the firm’s core businesses or too small to merit the firm’s efforts to develop them. However, the firm can license the innovation to an entrepreneurial firm that is better positioned vis-à-vis the target market. Or, it can “spin out” the inventing team as an independent company. Under either option, the innovative capabilities of the established firm advance the creation and/or sophistication of an entrepreneurial firm.
Established firms as a bridge to the global economy. Especially in the face of Japan’s demographic challenges, start-up firms may struggle to reach sufficient sales volume within the domestic market. Few, however, have the experience or resources for aggressive overseas expansion. The sogo shosha (general trading companies), in particular, have long served this role for Japan’s small firms, while large manufacturers provide indirect access to the global market for their suppliers.
Partnerships in complex technological projects. Many technology projects require combining technical, organizational, and capital resources that are beyond the reach of any individual company. For example, the proposed Fukushima Recovery Floating Wind Farm Pilot Project is a consortium of Marubeni Corporation, University of Tokyo, Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., IHI Marin United Inc., Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., Nippon Steel Corporation, Hitachi, Ltd., Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd., Shimizu Corporation, and Mizuho Information & Research Institute, Inc. Japan is highly advantaged in having organizations with world-class expertise across such a broad swath of technologies—project management, turbines, steel, electrical substations, deep-sea construction, environmental analysis, and sophisticated operations and maintenance—in an institutional and managerial setting that allows them to collaborate on complex, long-term projects.
In considering the potential of these examples, it is worth remembering how extensive Japan’s strengths are. Both the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) and the World Bank’s Doing Business (DB) report rate Japan highly overall. The GCR ranks Japan as the world’s sixth most competitive economy, while DB ranks it as the twentieth easiest country in which to do business.
More telling are the factors that drive these high rankings: business sophistication, the quantity and quality of local suppliers, well developed industrial clusters, and production process sophistication. Japan also ranks well for property rights, protection of intellectual property, a low prevalence of bribes, protection of investors, ethical firm behavior, the strength of legal rights, the depth of credit information available, and enforcement of contracts. These institutional factors are critical because open innovation exposes firms to greater risk of having their knowledge or other assets misappropriated and thus can only take place when firms are confident that they can protect their interests. Japan’s well-developed financial markets and sophisticated legal/advisory services support an active merger and acquisition market, an important tool for open innovation.
Many established Japanese firms possess extraordinarily deep and broad stocks of technological knowledge, as well as highly developed production, marketing, and distribution systems with global reach. For decades, they have produced more high quality patents than regional competitors and reinvested their profits into R&D and the development of sophisticated human capital. Because knowledge spillover is strongest between firms that are near each other geographically, Japan’s moderate size and the concentration of industries in certain regions support open innovation.
Japan faces challenges, both social and institutional, in making open innovation flourish. Greater labor mobility is key, given its role in moving knowledge across firm boundaries. Ties with long-term partners or keiretsu-affiliated firms have loosened, a trend that should be continued in order to expand the universe of potential partners. Lastly, Japanese firms should be allowed to fail more frequently and more productively. While always painful, firm failure ideally frees resources, including human capital, for more productive use. Increased openness to mid-career labor mobility would substantially aid this process.
With the struggles of Panasonic, Sony, and Rensas in the headlines, it is easy to overlook Toyota, Fanuc, and dozens of other Japan-based world leaders. These firms and the system that produced them can be a distinct Japanese strength. While iconic firms will fail and deep institutional change is needed, Japan’s efforts to create a more entrepreneurial economy will be more successful if policy makers and managers view the positive aspects of Japan’s “old economy” as part of the solution, not just part of the problem.
Source:
Glenn Hoetker is dean’s council distinguished scholar and associate professor of management in the W.P. Carey School of Business, affiliate professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, and a senior sustainability scholar at Arizona State University. Elements of this essay appeared in 「オープン・イノベーションで日本の強みを活かす」 “Open Innovation de Nihon no tsuyomi o ikasu”, Hitotsubashi Business Review, 2012, 60(2): 42-55.
Glenn Hoetker: Leveraging Japan's "Old Economy"
January 16, 2013
by Guest Blogger for Sheila A. Smith
Buildings are silhouetted against the setting sun in front of Mount Fuji in Tokyo
December 2, 2009 (Gary Hershorn/Courtesy Reuters).
This blog post is part of a series entitled Is Japan in Decline?, in which leading experts analyze Japan’s economy, politics, and society and give their assessment of Japan’s future.
Those predicting Japan’s decline overlook one of its greatest resources: its large, established firms and the model that produced them. With the tribulations of Panasonic, Sony, and others in the headlines, this claim may seem to be dubious and to run counter to the many efforts underway to increase the role of start-up firms and entrepreneurs in the Japanese economy.
However, almost any country can produce start-ups. Japan lags behind many of its regional competitors at doing so and will continue to do so for years. But, few of Japan’s rivals can leverage the creative power of entrepreneurial firms with the stock of established companies and stable institutions that Japan has developed over the last several decades.
The Open Innovation paradigm, popularized by Henry Chesbrough in his book of the same name, suggests how to leverage Japan’s “old economy” with the “new economy” it hopes to create. Open innovation emphasizes an approach to innovation that is not constrained within the boundaries of a single firm. Rather, it encompasses both drawing on external sources of knowledge and paying greater attention to using external channels to reach markets.
The following five examples of open innovation, each of which already takes place in Japan to some degree, demonstrate the potential contribution of Japan’s established firms.
Established firms as enablers of small firm innovation. Converting a start-up firm’s innovation to profitable products requires complementary assets (related technical knowledge, production expertise, distribution systems, etc.) that start-ups often lack, but established firms possess. These resources can be brought together through alliances between firms, licensing of the start-up’s innovation by the established firm, or the acquisition of the start-up by the established firm.
Established firms as funders of small firms. Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) activities allow firms to take financial stakes in entrepreneurial firms. The small firm gains resources and legitimacy, while the established firm gains a window into the start-up’s innovations. CVC may be particularly relevant as Japan works to overcome the challenges it has encountered in establishing its venture capital industry.
Out-licensing and spin-outs from established firms to entrepreneurial firms. Japan’s established firms produce a tremendous volume of new innovations each year. Many innovations have applications in markets outside of the firm’s core businesses or too small to merit the firm’s efforts to develop them. However, the firm can license the innovation to an entrepreneurial firm that is better positioned vis-à-vis the target market. Or, it can “spin out” the inventing team as an independent company. Under either option, the innovative capabilities of the established firm advance the creation and/or sophistication of an entrepreneurial firm.
Established firms as a bridge to the global economy. Especially in the face of Japan’s demographic challenges, start-up firms may struggle to reach sufficient sales volume within the domestic market. Few, however, have the experience or resources for aggressive overseas expansion. The sogo shosha (general trading companies), in particular, have long served this role for Japan’s small firms, while large manufacturers provide indirect access to the global market for their suppliers.
Partnerships in complex technological projects. Many technology projects require combining technical, organizational, and capital resources that are beyond the reach of any individual company. For example, the proposed Fukushima Recovery Floating Wind Farm Pilot Project is a consortium of Marubeni Corporation, University of Tokyo, Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., IHI Marin United Inc., Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., Nippon Steel Corporation, Hitachi, Ltd., Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd., Shimizu Corporation, and Mizuho Information & Research Institute, Inc. Japan is highly advantaged in having organizations with world-class expertise across such a broad swath of technologies—project management, turbines, steel, electrical substations, deep-sea construction, environmental analysis, and sophisticated operations and maintenance—in an institutional and managerial setting that allows them to collaborate on complex, long-term projects.
In considering the potential of these examples, it is worth remembering how extensive Japan’s strengths are. Both the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) and the World Bank’s Doing Business (DB) report rate Japan highly overall. The GCR ranks Japan as the world’s sixth most competitive economy, while DB ranks it as the twentieth easiest country in which to do business.
More telling are the factors that drive these high rankings: business sophistication, the quantity and quality of local suppliers, well developed industrial clusters, and production process sophistication. Japan also ranks well for property rights, protection of intellectual property, a low prevalence of bribes, protection of investors, ethical firm behavior, the strength of legal rights, the depth of credit information available, and enforcement of contracts. These institutional factors are critical because open innovation exposes firms to greater risk of having their knowledge or other assets misappropriated and thus can only take place when firms are confident that they can protect their interests. Japan’s well-developed financial markets and sophisticated legal/advisory services support an active merger and acquisition market, an important tool for open innovation.
Many established Japanese firms possess extraordinarily deep and broad stocks of technological knowledge, as well as highly developed production, marketing, and distribution systems with global reach. For decades, they have produced more high quality patents than regional competitors and reinvested their profits into R&D and the development of sophisticated human capital. Because knowledge spillover is strongest between firms that are near each other geographically, Japan’s moderate size and the concentration of industries in certain regions support open innovation.
Japan faces challenges, both social and institutional, in making open innovation flourish. Greater labor mobility is key, given its role in moving knowledge across firm boundaries. Ties with long-term partners or keiretsu-affiliated firms have loosened, a trend that should be continued in order to expand the universe of potential partners. Lastly, Japanese firms should be allowed to fail more frequently and more productively. While always painful, firm failure ideally frees resources, including human capital, for more productive use. Increased openness to mid-career labor mobility would substantially aid this process.
With the struggles of Panasonic, Sony, and Rensas in the headlines, it is easy to overlook Toyota, Fanuc, and dozens of other Japan-based world leaders. These firms and the system that produced them can be a distinct Japanese strength. While iconic firms will fail and deep institutional change is needed, Japan’s efforts to create a more entrepreneurial economy will be more successful if policy makers and managers view the positive aspects of Japan’s “old economy” as part of the solution, not just part of the problem.
Source:
Glenn Hoetker is dean’s council distinguished scholar and associate professor of management in the W.P. Carey School of Business, affiliate professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, and a senior sustainability scholar at Arizona State University. Elements of this essay appeared in 「オープン・イノベーションで日本の強みを活かす」 “Open Innovation de Nihon no tsuyomi o ikasu”, Hitotsubashi Business Review, 2012, 60(2): 42-55.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Teaching & Learning-Salman Khan on Liberating the Classroom for Creativity-Video
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
9/30/11
The founder of Khan Academy, a free educational video library that features over two thousand titles and an interactive dashboard for formative assessment, discusses how his videos can help create a "flipped classroom" that allows blended learning -- online lectures can happen at home and project-based learning can happen during school.
Transcript:
Big Thinkers: Salman Khan on Liberating the Classroom for Creativity
Sal Khan: What Khan Academy is most known for is there's a library for about 2,500 videos. Right now they're all made by me in English, although we are translating them, and they're everything from basic addition all the way to vector calculus and the French Revolution. And there's a video on the debt ceiling, [ laughs ] so a very comprehensive set of videos, and we keep add -- I keep adding more right now. But we've augmented it now that we've gotten funding this past year with an exercise platform, and it's an exercise platform that -- I'd actually written a primitive version of it for my cousins many of years ago, actually before I'd even made the first video, but I didn't have the bandwidth nor the talent to properly do that justice. And so when we got funding, I said, "This is where I think a lot of the meat is is actually giving people exercises and feedback and letting the videos complement that".
Sal Khan: My name is Salman Khan, and I'm the founder of the Khan Academy, and I'm currently its only faculty member, but that might be changing soon.
Sal Khan: And we generally view ourselves in kind of the top of the first inning right now. We got our funding about nine months ago, and we were able to hire a real engineering team to work on this, so we still think it's in early days. Our goal is to have this exercise. The video libraries keep going, cover everything that we can cover, do justice to in this type of a form factor, have exercises where someone can start at one plus one equals two. It focuses on mastery-based learning, where you master a concept before you progress to the next. It focuses on self-paced differentiated learning. Any kid can learn at their own pace, and they can also provide that data to parents or teachers, so they can use them in maybe a more structured framework. So, if it's used in a classroom, a teacher can finally have every kid going at their own pace and have the teacher really focus on what we would consider kind of higher value-add activities, which is running simulations with students, doing actual interventions, getting the students to teach each other the concept.
Sal Khan: We don't want to force a role out to every school in the country. What we want to do -- and this is what we're trying to do in our pilot program this year is we want to show that this is a viable way to run a classroom that has positive outcomes, both subjective and objective outcomes in multiple different use cases, so it works in an affluent public school district like Los Altos, but, frankly, some of the most amazing numbers we saw in Los Altos were in the remedial classes, where the students were not affluent. But it works in charter schools. It works in private schools. It works in public schools. It works with different demographics, and we think if we can show that it works and that if we can give a toolkit so that we can document how it's worked in all of these classrooms and we can give it to any student -- any teacher or parent in the world, then, you know, let the world decide for themselves if it's something they want to do, and we'll hope to support them more and more in doing it and making it a richer and richer offering.
Sal Khan: I mean, I think everyone can testify that in college they learned most of what they're learning the night before the exam from their peers, and then all the way fast-forward to now, what we're seeing in Los Altos is what's happening is all the kids are working at their own pace. They are watching the videos on their own when they have a question. Some students might get 90 percent from a video. Some students might get 60 percent from a video, but when they start to connect with each other, they can start to point out other things, and then they can look for other resources on the Web and they get each other to 100 percent. And this is something I really want to stress is that we don't -- there's a mindset, and I think some of the press that's been written about this makes it sound like we think or someone thinks that Khan Academy is this tool that's going to get -- you just watch a video and, bam, 100 percent. And hopefully that happens. You know, we're going to try to make the videos as good as possible, but what we think it does is it takes lecture out of the room. We think we're really effective in getting the lecture out of the room and allowing these videos to be consumed in a way that different people can take what they can from them and from other things on the Internet, frankly, and then when they go into the classroom, since the lecture's off the table now, they are now liberated to actually communicate with each other and they're liberated to have a conversation about mathematics. They're liberated to, like, sit next to their teacher. So the power, the real beauty isn't actually like, you know, some magic that Khan Academy has a neural plug-in to your brain and can deliver -- the real magic, I think, is that class has so much potential that we're letting happen now, because we're taking all that other stuff that was kind of disrupting traditional class out of the way. And so the real magic is actually what happens when you let people talk to each other.
Sal Khan: For me, like, the deepest learning happens with a project-based story, but the projects can only be useful if people go into the projects with the core toolkit that -- so they can understand what's actually going into -- going in an analytical way. So every student working at their own pace, it doesn't matter what grade they are, what age they are. In fact, we're starting a few pilots with multi-age groups in the same classroom, and some can work on things that are below grade level. Some can work on things that are above grade level, but what it does is at least on the core concepts it allows every student to make sure that they have at least the core basics done and gives data to the teacher on where there is need. And then what we're hoping is it informs the teacher enough, saying, "You know what? I think the students in my class are ready for this type of a project and that type of a project". And I think right now we are putting it on the teacher, like, "We've kind of liberated a lot of this core stuff off of you. You won't have to give the traditional lecture. You won't have to do the traditional homework, but you how have, I would say, maybe a larger responsibility to do more of this less-traditional stuff, which is invent an interesting project or find an interesting project". Two summers ago I was running a little summer camp myself and I wanted to experiment with this, just eat my own dog food, to some degree, on what's going on. So what I did is I had the students that used the videos and the primitive kind of the exercises back then to learn a little bit about probability and multiplying decimals and fractions and all that. And then what I wanted them to really internalize what probability is and what expected value is. I did a bunch of simulations. One of them had the -- I don't know if you've ever played "Settlers of Catan". It's like a trading game, right? So, like, we're all in one civilization and we can build roads, but we trade. Like, to build a road you need, like -- I don't know. I forgot -- like, two woods and three bricks, and you can build a road. And you might have four woods, and so we'll try to trade. We're competitive, but we're also trading with each other, but obviously if you see students who've already mastered the basics of probability, they've watched some of those videos on expected value, then this would be an ideal exercise for them, because they're really going to internalize what expected value is.
Sal Khan: A large degree of what we're doing is being inspected directly by teachers, so a lot of those dashboards, a lot of the new modules you see, a lot of the videos you see are direct feedback from teachers saying, "Hey, Sal, we need a video like this," or, "Hey, Sal, can you do another video"? or, "That's not the language we use. Can you change the language in a different one"? You know, the traditional reform mindset towards education is let's micromanage teachers more. Like, a good number of really great teachers are getting handicapped by this micromanaging, teaching to the test, whatever else, and forcing on Tuesday, September 27 you have to cover this, and you can't question that and you have to say these words and you have no time to run your own project and you have no time to think of your own curriculum or whatever you want to do. We genuinely feel like the teachers are getting liberated here. Do what you want on whatever day and the students are going to do what they want on this day, and we're freeing tons of class time for you to do what I think you went into teaching to begin with. Like, when I ran my little summer camp -- and I won't claim to have 30 years of experience and all the rest, but what was fun for me was not having to give a lecture on these common multiples, not having to give a lecture on probability, to know that that was out of the way and getting to do this super fun simulation where the kids are trading pieces and all this. And I felt like I was able to express my creativity. I was able to go home and say, "What would be a really cool way to understand this concept intuitively"? And when I went to classroom, that's what we did, and I felt like it was a much richer experience. And so we genuinely feel and we genuinely hope that it's doing that for teachers, and the teachers of Los Altos have expressed that, that they love -- that they feel liberated. They feel like they have data that they've never had before. The fifth-grade teachers, they teach all the classes, because they're in elementary school, and they feel handicapped in their other classes now, because they are doing that -- the lecture. They are doing the stuff that I would say is lower value than what they're doing in their math classes, which is the projects, which are the one-on-one interactions. And so they're actually asking us as quickly as possible, "When are the grammar videos coming? When are the grammar exercises coming so I can do more interesting things with that part of my day in class"?
Sal Khan: So, one of the neat things is when I make these videos I sometimes imagine that my kids, who are right now two and a half and one months old -- one month old will be the future viewers of this video 15 years, 20 years in the future. So, all the videos, to some degree, I view as for them and for other students. But the ones that I've kind of -- especially now having a daughter -- thought about making is actually kind of like life-advice stuff. And I don't know if I'll put this in a separate place someplace, or it might not make Khan Academy in the first couple -- like, even dating advice, because there's a reality that right now I can call on my cousins, who are about 15 years younger than me, and they take me kind of seriously. They're like, "You know, Sal isn't that far from the action. He kind of remembers what my life is like," but they completely zone out their 50-year-old parents. And I kind of feel like my daughter and son will be likely to listen to the 34-year-old Sal and not the 50-year-old Sal. So I can kind of do a time-shift now, just like, "Look, if you know you're not going to marry the guy, end it," you know? [ laughs ] Don't let this turn into one of those momentum relationships. You don't know what'll happen, you know? Or, like, these are what you should look for and this is what it means to be a good person, and this is what -- I think that that could be an interesting thing.
Source: www.edutopia.org
9/30/11
The founder of Khan Academy, a free educational video library that features over two thousand titles and an interactive dashboard for formative assessment, discusses how his videos can help create a "flipped classroom" that allows blended learning -- online lectures can happen at home and project-based learning can happen during school.
Transcript:
Big Thinkers: Salman Khan on Liberating the Classroom for Creativity
Sal Khan: What Khan Academy is most known for is there's a library for about 2,500 videos. Right now they're all made by me in English, although we are translating them, and they're everything from basic addition all the way to vector calculus and the French Revolution. And there's a video on the debt ceiling, [ laughs ] so a very comprehensive set of videos, and we keep add -- I keep adding more right now. But we've augmented it now that we've gotten funding this past year with an exercise platform, and it's an exercise platform that -- I'd actually written a primitive version of it for my cousins many of years ago, actually before I'd even made the first video, but I didn't have the bandwidth nor the talent to properly do that justice. And so when we got funding, I said, "This is where I think a lot of the meat is is actually giving people exercises and feedback and letting the videos complement that".
Sal Khan: My name is Salman Khan, and I'm the founder of the Khan Academy, and I'm currently its only faculty member, but that might be changing soon.
Sal Khan: And we generally view ourselves in kind of the top of the first inning right now. We got our funding about nine months ago, and we were able to hire a real engineering team to work on this, so we still think it's in early days. Our goal is to have this exercise. The video libraries keep going, cover everything that we can cover, do justice to in this type of a form factor, have exercises where someone can start at one plus one equals two. It focuses on mastery-based learning, where you master a concept before you progress to the next. It focuses on self-paced differentiated learning. Any kid can learn at their own pace, and they can also provide that data to parents or teachers, so they can use them in maybe a more structured framework. So, if it's used in a classroom, a teacher can finally have every kid going at their own pace and have the teacher really focus on what we would consider kind of higher value-add activities, which is running simulations with students, doing actual interventions, getting the students to teach each other the concept.
Sal Khan: We don't want to force a role out to every school in the country. What we want to do -- and this is what we're trying to do in our pilot program this year is we want to show that this is a viable way to run a classroom that has positive outcomes, both subjective and objective outcomes in multiple different use cases, so it works in an affluent public school district like Los Altos, but, frankly, some of the most amazing numbers we saw in Los Altos were in the remedial classes, where the students were not affluent. But it works in charter schools. It works in private schools. It works in public schools. It works with different demographics, and we think if we can show that it works and that if we can give a toolkit so that we can document how it's worked in all of these classrooms and we can give it to any student -- any teacher or parent in the world, then, you know, let the world decide for themselves if it's something they want to do, and we'll hope to support them more and more in doing it and making it a richer and richer offering.
Sal Khan: I mean, I think everyone can testify that in college they learned most of what they're learning the night before the exam from their peers, and then all the way fast-forward to now, what we're seeing in Los Altos is what's happening is all the kids are working at their own pace. They are watching the videos on their own when they have a question. Some students might get 90 percent from a video. Some students might get 60 percent from a video, but when they start to connect with each other, they can start to point out other things, and then they can look for other resources on the Web and they get each other to 100 percent. And this is something I really want to stress is that we don't -- there's a mindset, and I think some of the press that's been written about this makes it sound like we think or someone thinks that Khan Academy is this tool that's going to get -- you just watch a video and, bam, 100 percent. And hopefully that happens. You know, we're going to try to make the videos as good as possible, but what we think it does is it takes lecture out of the room. We think we're really effective in getting the lecture out of the room and allowing these videos to be consumed in a way that different people can take what they can from them and from other things on the Internet, frankly, and then when they go into the classroom, since the lecture's off the table now, they are now liberated to actually communicate with each other and they're liberated to have a conversation about mathematics. They're liberated to, like, sit next to their teacher. So the power, the real beauty isn't actually like, you know, some magic that Khan Academy has a neural plug-in to your brain and can deliver -- the real magic, I think, is that class has so much potential that we're letting happen now, because we're taking all that other stuff that was kind of disrupting traditional class out of the way. And so the real magic is actually what happens when you let people talk to each other.
Sal Khan: For me, like, the deepest learning happens with a project-based story, but the projects can only be useful if people go into the projects with the core toolkit that -- so they can understand what's actually going into -- going in an analytical way. So every student working at their own pace, it doesn't matter what grade they are, what age they are. In fact, we're starting a few pilots with multi-age groups in the same classroom, and some can work on things that are below grade level. Some can work on things that are above grade level, but what it does is at least on the core concepts it allows every student to make sure that they have at least the core basics done and gives data to the teacher on where there is need. And then what we're hoping is it informs the teacher enough, saying, "You know what? I think the students in my class are ready for this type of a project and that type of a project". And I think right now we are putting it on the teacher, like, "We've kind of liberated a lot of this core stuff off of you. You won't have to give the traditional lecture. You won't have to do the traditional homework, but you how have, I would say, maybe a larger responsibility to do more of this less-traditional stuff, which is invent an interesting project or find an interesting project". Two summers ago I was running a little summer camp myself and I wanted to experiment with this, just eat my own dog food, to some degree, on what's going on. So what I did is I had the students that used the videos and the primitive kind of the exercises back then to learn a little bit about probability and multiplying decimals and fractions and all that. And then what I wanted them to really internalize what probability is and what expected value is. I did a bunch of simulations. One of them had the -- I don't know if you've ever played "Settlers of Catan". It's like a trading game, right? So, like, we're all in one civilization and we can build roads, but we trade. Like, to build a road you need, like -- I don't know. I forgot -- like, two woods and three bricks, and you can build a road. And you might have four woods, and so we'll try to trade. We're competitive, but we're also trading with each other, but obviously if you see students who've already mastered the basics of probability, they've watched some of those videos on expected value, then this would be an ideal exercise for them, because they're really going to internalize what expected value is.
Sal Khan: A large degree of what we're doing is being inspected directly by teachers, so a lot of those dashboards, a lot of the new modules you see, a lot of the videos you see are direct feedback from teachers saying, "Hey, Sal, we need a video like this," or, "Hey, Sal, can you do another video"? or, "That's not the language we use. Can you change the language in a different one"? You know, the traditional reform mindset towards education is let's micromanage teachers more. Like, a good number of really great teachers are getting handicapped by this micromanaging, teaching to the test, whatever else, and forcing on Tuesday, September 27 you have to cover this, and you can't question that and you have to say these words and you have no time to run your own project and you have no time to think of your own curriculum or whatever you want to do. We genuinely feel like the teachers are getting liberated here. Do what you want on whatever day and the students are going to do what they want on this day, and we're freeing tons of class time for you to do what I think you went into teaching to begin with. Like, when I ran my little summer camp -- and I won't claim to have 30 years of experience and all the rest, but what was fun for me was not having to give a lecture on these common multiples, not having to give a lecture on probability, to know that that was out of the way and getting to do this super fun simulation where the kids are trading pieces and all this. And I felt like I was able to express my creativity. I was able to go home and say, "What would be a really cool way to understand this concept intuitively"? And when I went to classroom, that's what we did, and I felt like it was a much richer experience. And so we genuinely feel and we genuinely hope that it's doing that for teachers, and the teachers of Los Altos have expressed that, that they love -- that they feel liberated. They feel like they have data that they've never had before. The fifth-grade teachers, they teach all the classes, because they're in elementary school, and they feel handicapped in their other classes now, because they are doing that -- the lecture. They are doing the stuff that I would say is lower value than what they're doing in their math classes, which is the projects, which are the one-on-one interactions. And so they're actually asking us as quickly as possible, "When are the grammar videos coming? When are the grammar exercises coming so I can do more interesting things with that part of my day in class"?
Sal Khan: So, one of the neat things is when I make these videos I sometimes imagine that my kids, who are right now two and a half and one months old -- one month old will be the future viewers of this video 15 years, 20 years in the future. So, all the videos, to some degree, I view as for them and for other students. But the ones that I've kind of -- especially now having a daughter -- thought about making is actually kind of like life-advice stuff. And I don't know if I'll put this in a separate place someplace, or it might not make Khan Academy in the first couple -- like, even dating advice, because there's a reality that right now I can call on my cousins, who are about 15 years younger than me, and they take me kind of seriously. They're like, "You know, Sal isn't that far from the action. He kind of remembers what my life is like," but they completely zone out their 50-year-old parents. And I kind of feel like my daughter and son will be likely to listen to the 34-year-old Sal and not the 50-year-old Sal. So I can kind of do a time-shift now, just like, "Look, if you know you're not going to marry the guy, end it," you know? [ laughs ] Don't let this turn into one of those momentum relationships. You don't know what'll happen, you know? Or, like, these are what you should look for and this is what it means to be a good person, and this is what -- I think that that could be an interesting thing.
Source: www.edutopia.org
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