Been A While

Listen...

No, listen...

Don't hear that? You aren't listening close enough.

You can hear the pulse of your surroundings. It mingles with your own pulse and forms a synergistic relationship with your environment. The rush of the cars, the hum of jets, commerce, key strokes. They all blend together to form one perception. One moment that will be muddled and likely forgotten. Don't lose sight of your temporality. Measured ticks and tocks become rhythms, melodies, music. 

Synapses fire; smiles form; feet tap. Follow the beat and start dancing through life.

- Inspired by Alan Watts.

Caution...

In response to such an awful event, I admonish everyone to focus on love and understanding, rather than anger and judgment.

Emotions are powerful forces. How will we use this force? For example, these moments bring us all closer together. There is a sudden and recognizable swell of compassion and altruism in the wake of these events. Yet, there is a concomitant misattribution of blame due to our lack of understanding, and with this blame usually comes anger. If this blame and anger is misdirected, then we may cause additional harm (could be mental and not just physical) to others that had no involvement in this event.

Rather than causing judgment, these events should cause us to question our assumptions. My assumption is that these sort of events shouldn't occur, but this assumption may not be valid. These acts of violence seem to be happening on a monthly, or even weekly basis now (stabbings at the Texas community college). Not to mention a daily, hourly, and secondly basis when you consider conflicts occurring in specific neighborhoods in this country, and other nations around the world.

Take this time to reflect on some possible root causes of this event. Don't rush to snap judgments. Don't point fingers. Don't give in purely to your system 1 response to tragedy. If we react to these occurrences based on our assumptions, we risk causing greater damage. Quickly consider this. The person behind this attack lost someone in a similar act of violence. He/she lives in a society notorious for its lack of justice. Might this have been a retaliation and not a provocation? Violence begets violence (just consider that this act may have been the latter violence in this sentence.)

Just to be clear, I do not condone this act in any way or under any circumstances. But I worry about our natural inclination to rush to judge others in order to protect our (often false) sense of security.

We must seek to understand the impetus of these events, because only then can we hope to prevent them in the future.

But in the meantime, don't get angry and don't be afraid. Take this opportunity to demonstrate the true power of love.

Quick Thought on Plans

Although I am consumed with my final two projects of the semester, I need to come up for air. So here is a quick not about goals, plans, and strategy.

Just like businesses and organizations, individuals need to have plans.

I as an individual have pretty much delineated the rest of my experience here at Vanderbilt. That is my 1-year plan. My longer plan is a little vague, but I believe that I will probably return to Asia, and eventually try to start my own schools that operate on a one-to-one or say one-to-five model (Profits from a school that is very profitable and serves wealthier upper class students will help subsidize the operation of 1-5 schools that operate in low-SES neighborhoods and/or developing countries). I believe that my coursework in the coming year supports this goal and vision.

Yet, operationalizing this idea will require a great deal of tailoring. My goal is not to get it right all at once, but rather, to start small and gradually tailor and expand my model. The goal is not to adjust, adapt, or pivot. My goal is to incorporate additional information, experience, and input, and then transform.

...(quick addendum) Education Spending

Yes, we spend more than any other nation in the world, but that is because we are THE WEALTHIEST nation in the world. That doesn't mean that we are spending it wisely or evenly (http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/piechart_2013_US_fed). Also, federal spending on education is just 4%...really? Don't give me absolute spending numbers, I am human, I like proportions. We always are at the top in terms of spending.

Valuing Education

Teacher's compensation in America is fourth from the bottom amongst OECD countries (OECD, 2010). Seriously? We are so proud of being the wealthiest country in the world, but how can we continue to defend our lack of investment in our future citizenry?

This is truly disgraceful. I knew our public expenditure on education was pathetic, but I didn't realize it was this bad.

Seriously? Our value system, to the core, needs to be re-analyzed.

In terms of pursuing a true meritocracy, maximizing our return on our investments, and maintaining our comparative advantage in the global economy, we need to invest heavily in our education system, especially, in the communities and students that need it the most. Why? Because the majority of the population and our labor force needs help.

Another note, does nobody else find the brain drain effect to be concerning? Yes, we are attracting the best labor from around the world to the US, but this also implies that Americans skilled labor force is less competitive than other nations. How can this be? Are Americans just not capable of becoming scientists and knowledge workers? Of course not! Yet, we continually fail to meet our own demand for a skilled labor force. College graduates often have skill sets that match personal interests, but don't match the demand in the labor market. Seriously? We don't have the largest population in the world, but we certainly have a large enough population to meet our labor demands. And so many Americans are capable of more! Everyone knows somebody who is certainly intelligent but school, as it currently is designed, wasn't for them. I bet that this missed talent pool is much wider and deeper than any of us currently imagine.

...tangent after tangent...Brain drain continued...On the other end, the international students often do not return to their own countries, which especially in the case of developing nations is a huge problem! Let me be clear, I am not saying to send immigrants, international students, or anyone packing or anything of the sort. These are paradoxes that are above my pay scale, I just want more people to talk about these things. (In summary, we have a demand for highly skilled labor; our own citizenry doesn't meet this demand; we hire citizens of other nations. This is completely rational...but is it the most beneficial...maybe not for our society or theirs...fair?)

Simply, how do we not see that it is better for the country if everyone is a valuable contributor to our economy and society? An unemployed, unskilled worker should be viewed as untapped potential. But how do we get there? We invest in our education system. Let's start thinking more macro and long-term.

Education reaches down to our most core values...I hope... For example, if we all believe in the ideal of democracy, then it relies upon an engaged and educated citizenry. Why? Because ignorant and myopic participation can cause a lot of harm to a lot of people...agreed?

A lot of what I said in this post is sure to be contentious to many of you. GOOD! The only way to progress is to work past our differences and get at solutions. Then once we have collaborated to design solutions, INVEST IN THEM!

We as a nation have a lot of money, and how we spend it reflects our values. It is CLEAR that as a whole, our nation does not truly value education. My family and community did, sure, but Marblehead is a carbon copy of the American Dream. I was given this dream when I was adopted. I didn't earn it or get it by merit. Yet, this dream, for a large portion of Americans, is kept just out of reach, and one of the levers keeping it this way is the dilapidated and outdated education system. Is this fair? Is this just? Is this merit?

So where do we begin? Honesty with ourselves. For example, don't ever claim that you got where you are on your own because that just isn't true. Were you born...how did you do that without your parents? If they were "awful" parents and you made it, then that negative INTERACTION probably pushed you to separate yourself from them. Did you ever have a teacher? A friend? Did you ever have a job? Who paid you? Did you read books? Who were they written by? Be humble and realize you can't do anything on your own.

Ok, I need to get back to my studies, but I needed to rant a bit. The more you learn, the more problems you see. This is good, because seeing the problems means you can address them!

OECD. (2011). Lessons from PISA for the United States, Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education. OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264096660-en

A note about children's stories

So I am reading this children's story, seems to be going great. This dog named rover is letting everyone share his doghouse during a rainstorm. All the animals are getting along, they are cuddled up next to each other. They are keeping each other safe and warm.

Then, for no reason at all the skunk decides to spray his odeur in the dog's home, and I begin to lose sight of the point of this story. So, it is not about hospitality, sharing, and manners. That is fine. How about friendship? Meh, probably not seeing as only the dog has a name (which I refuse to use here because I don't feel like he is even the protagonist, and therefore I don't feel that he deserves any extra recognition...much like the partridge in a pear tree...nor do those gold rings deserve an extra bar in that song either...back to the point).

Furthermore, after everything, this dog is "happy he's alone." Now, don't get me wrong, learning how to spend meaningful time alone is an important skill. The inability to be comfortable alone has many negative long term effects on one's self-efficacy because that person invariably ties his/her agency to others. Yet, in first grade, in my humblest opinion, I think that it is equally if not more important to be more interested in experience acquisition, and that means spending quality time with others. If civil society is to prosper, its constituents need to be active, engaged, and amicable.

So the ending I would have liked to see is Rover and the neglected skunk in the doghouse together. And Rover, being above judgment, and befriending this character that gets a bad rap as either a smelly animal or a borderline sexual deviant (sorry Pepe and homage to Dave Chappelle).