I'm trying something new: I'm going to consolidate all of my blogs into one. Rather than finding a blog on this topic or that topic, you're going to find one blog about whatever is on my mind.
If you read a few entries and decide that this is a bad idea, please let me know.
The new url is: http://tedcoine.blogspot.com/.
Hope to see you there!
Ted
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
I'll regret this in the morning.
Okay, it is the morning. Anyway, here goes:
I just read an old post from May 30 on another of my blogs, www.naplesresource.blogspot.com, and discovered to my horror that I give a big thumbs-up to the city of Naples. I've got to amend that.
While it's true that most of my experiences with the city government has been terrific, that is not my experience across the board.
We had to cancel the Animal Lovers' Parade & Fair because of the city of Naples. First, they took away our venue, Gulf View Middle School, because the field was slated for re-sodding - this after they had urged us to use that location because of the beaten-up grass on that field, which would be perfect for animals, including horses, and high human traffic.
Then, they suggested we use Cambier Park - for over $1,000, not the original $270 we had agreed upon for Gulf View. And we would not be able to have all of our events there, such as a horse show or 4-H petting zoo - for some reason, these folks were particularly horrified by the prospect of rabbits, chickens, and one goat being in a pen at their park. Oh, and we could not use a large swath of the lawn there, either.
Throughout this catastrophe - which occurred just 19 days prior to our event - I got the distinct impression that two city bureaucrats in particular were taking some perverse form of delight in denying us our event.
I called and emailed Mayor Barnett, to ask if he would intercede for us. I'm still waiting for a reply. I did hear from someone down the chain of command who emailed to explain that he could not help me - which is why I asked the Mayor for help in the first place.
That is my take. I'm sure those involved - or, in the Mayor's case, conspicuously uninvolved - have a different version of how this went down. Best visit their blogs for that.
By the way: as of this writing, I still have 100 t-shirts commemorating this event that never was. Not only am I out hundreds of hours of my own time spent preparing, plus a few thousand dollars; we were hoping to raise thousands of dollars for the Humane Society, 4-H, Naples Equestrian Challenge, DAS, and quite a number of smaller organizations. Vendors were looking forward to this event to help promote their businesses. Canceling this event wasn't just a matter of canceling a good time.
I've been silent on this matter for about two months now, so as not to step on the toes of those I feel ruined this event for us. Guess I couldn't hold it in any longer. I hope nobody reads this. :)
I just read an old post from May 30 on another of my blogs, www.naplesresource.blogspot.com, and discovered to my horror that I give a big thumbs-up to the city of Naples. I've got to amend that.
While it's true that most of my experiences with the city government has been terrific, that is not my experience across the board.
We had to cancel the Animal Lovers' Parade & Fair because of the city of Naples. First, they took away our venue, Gulf View Middle School, because the field was slated for re-sodding - this after they had urged us to use that location because of the beaten-up grass on that field, which would be perfect for animals, including horses, and high human traffic.
Then, they suggested we use Cambier Park - for over $1,000, not the original $270 we had agreed upon for Gulf View. And we would not be able to have all of our events there, such as a horse show or 4-H petting zoo - for some reason, these folks were particularly horrified by the prospect of rabbits, chickens, and one goat being in a pen at their park. Oh, and we could not use a large swath of the lawn there, either.
Throughout this catastrophe - which occurred just 19 days prior to our event - I got the distinct impression that two city bureaucrats in particular were taking some perverse form of delight in denying us our event.
I called and emailed Mayor Barnett, to ask if he would intercede for us. I'm still waiting for a reply. I did hear from someone down the chain of command who emailed to explain that he could not help me - which is why I asked the Mayor for help in the first place.
That is my take. I'm sure those involved - or, in the Mayor's case, conspicuously uninvolved - have a different version of how this went down. Best visit their blogs for that.
By the way: as of this writing, I still have 100 t-shirts commemorating this event that never was. Not only am I out hundreds of hours of my own time spent preparing, plus a few thousand dollars; we were hoping to raise thousands of dollars for the Humane Society, 4-H, Naples Equestrian Challenge, DAS, and quite a number of smaller organizations. Vendors were looking forward to this event to help promote their businesses. Canceling this event wasn't just a matter of canceling a good time.
I've been silent on this matter for about two months now, so as not to step on the toes of those I feel ruined this event for us. Guess I couldn't hold it in any longer. I hope nobody reads this. :)
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Neapolitan of Note: Threasa Miller
Following is the unabridged version of the interview I did for our e-newsletter - which you can read here before we publish the newsletter! How's that for exclusive!?
If you are clicking over from said newsletter, you will notice that I left the questions in that you may have already read. Sorry. That's blog quality control for you.
If you aren't on the Naples Social Action e-newsletter mailing list and want to be, please let me know and I'll add you: ted.coine@coineinc.com
There are over 500 good causes in Collier County. What makes the top 1% stand out above the rest? Its people. People like Threasa Miller of the PACE Center for Girls in Immokalee.
Neapolitan of Note: Threasa Miller
Name: Threasa (“The- reesa”) Miller
Title: Founder & Executive Director
Organization: The Pace Center for Girls, Collier at Immokalee
www.pacecenter.org
Neapolitan since: 1980
Born in Tennesee
From the PACE website: “PACE provides a non-residential delinquency prevention program in 21 locations statewide, targeting the unique needs of females 12 to 18 who are identified as dependent, truant, runaway, ungovernable, delinquent, or in need of academic skills. PACE (Practical Academic Cultural Education) accepts referrals from the juvenile justice system, the Department of Children and Families, school personnel, community services agencies, parents, family members, friends and self-referrals. Its purpose is to intervene and prevent school withdrawal, juvenile delinquency, teen pregnancy, substance abuse and welfare dependency.”
NSA: How did you get involved in PACE?
Miller: I worked in social services after college – investigating child abuse in foster care, then with the Department of Juvenile Justice. PACE was going to open a center in Southwest Florida, and I helped write the winning grant to bring it to Immokalee rather than Sarasota or Lee. The president of the organization asked me if I wanted to head it up, and I said “No!” – I loved what I was doing – but she isn’t one to take no for an answer, so she asked me to interview people for the job. I didn’t approve of the applicants, after all the hard work I’d put into the project, so she asked me if maybe I shouldn’t do it myself. Like I said, she didn’t take no for an answer. She wore me down, and I’m glad she did.
NSA: Could you explain what the “C” stands for in PACE?
Miller: The word “Cultural” means exposure and appreciation of things that are different for us. It includes all aspects of who we are, including our arts, our belief in humanity; we teach the girls that being different is good. One of our big goals is to stop bullying, and to do that we have to teach the girls to appreciate differences.
In Immokalee, race isn’t usually the problem, but it could be just different size, for instance: maybe the girls are picking on another girl for being big. We have to teach her that to hit is not a solution, and we have to teach them to appreciate her for who she is. That is all included in our cultural education.
Our teachers introduce the girls to the idea of cultural diversity. Well, one time I overheard girls calling it cultural conspiracy. I got a big kick out of the teacher’s explanation of the difference.
NSA: Your SPIRITED GIRLS!® program “teaches positive lifestyle choices.” How?
Miller: One of the things girls tell us is, they’re stressed; even kids these days are suffering from ulcers or high blood pressure. We tell them how to breathe, relax; we help them build a positive body image. We say, “Look at a TV ad. Is this real, is this true life?” Wellness, healthy eating, the need to drink more water are all things we cover. Right now, we’re working on teaching them how to express themselves, how to talk things out rather than fight.
NSA: It seems that PACE steps in to fill a need that the public school system can’t. Is that right?
Miller: This isn’t an either/or – it isn’t true that either they’re at PACE or they’re in public school. Without PACE, most of our girls would have dropped out or been kicked out of public school. There would be 100 more girls on the welfare role; and this is not just for them but for their family members, for all the children they would have.
Sometimes people can get narrow-minded and mean, and say things like ‘Why have a school like PACE? Kids should be able to tough it out with everybody else.’ That’s so wrong. Sometimes, especially when you have victims of trauma, one more hard knock pushes them over the edge. A gang doesn’t always seem so bad when you have that kind of background. We’re here as an alternative.
NSA: PACE has a 10:1 student-teacher ratio, yet it is only a little more costly for you to run than regular public schools, where classes are crammed at least 25 kids to a teacher. How do you do it?
Miller: We have very little administration. I double as a teacher; we’re all cross-and triple-trained because we have to fill in where we’re needed. We also operate less expensively because we use support services from public school administration, so we don’t have to duplicate them. We partner efficiently.
NSA: How important is that 10:1 ratio?
Miller: Class size is the number one factor to our success. Our girls need extra attention, and they get that. Nothing is more important in education than small class size.
NSA: You’ve bragged to me about the quality of your teachers. How do you attract and keep talent?
Miller: It’s always a challenge. Right now we have an awesome pool of teachers. We have alternative teachers; our science teacher is a retired scientist, a Ph.D. from Proctor & Gamble. He retired early, wants to make a difference, drives every day from Marco Island. He says, ‘I have a small class, I can get creative, I like the support from our administration, we have support via behavior management (public school teachers don’t have that to help them), I like to be able to give suggestions and the administration actually listens.’ Our math teacher has patents from his work with U.S. Surgical Steel. Our teachers are quality. We have to support them with the teaching part, because they didn’t study teaching in college; they have the knowledge part. They see that they’re making a difference. That’s what they want; that’s their challenge.
NSA: Is the PACE model something all school kids could benefit from?
Miller: Oh sure. It’s so embedded in respect, and who couldn’t benefit from that?
NSA: Your girls, who themselves are receiving help, also help others through volunteering. You say that makes a difference in their own lives. How?
Miller: They feel so much pride by being able to help someone else. 93% of our girls are on free or reduced breakfast and lunch. That’s a blow to their self-esteem. But once a month they have to serve lunch at the Guadalupe Center soup kitchen. The girls come back and say, “Those people are so poor, they have nothing. I feel so good about myself because I could help them.” I want them know that they’re part of the solution.
The United Arts Council sent a teacher out here a few years ago who taught them how to make pottery. The girls sold it and made $1,500, which they had to give away. The first year, they donated the money to buy snacks for the diabetic kids at Highlands Elementary School, because they were visiting and noticed that some kids weren’t getting anything at snack time, and they asked why. The girls made Highland’s nurse come and give a report on how their money was spent – it was terrific! The second year, they raised money and gave it to the Make a Wish Foundation. Giving deeply affects our girls. It’s so good for them.
NSA: The PACE website says you “deliver just and fair consequences and (the girls must) be accountable for our actions.” This isn’t the usual touchy-feely approach, is it?
Miller: Kids need rules and they need structure. There are some good consequences, and that is praise and reward. There are also bad consequences. If a girl comes in wearing flip-flops, that violates our dress code. We have shoes for her to wear – she may not like the shoes, so maybe she won’t do it again. If she swears, she’ll have to pick up trash. Our girls don’t swear that much.
NSA: Brilliant! Your advice to parents…?
Miller: Don’t make threats; don’t even say a word if you aren’t going to do it. “If you do that again, you’ll be grounded for a year!” You’re not going to ground anyone for a year. Try a night. And don’t say, “If you do it again.” They’ll do it again. Consequences have to be reliable.
NSA: What do you do if a student gets pregnant? Does PACE council its girls on birth control options? Do you provide birth control for them? What about if one of your students gets caught drunk or high – even off campus and after school hours?
Miller: We have partnered with Planned Parenthood, who taught them about abstinence. We teach them to have goals and a future; they can have kids any time. We train the girls to wait, but not all girls will wait. They can go to Collier County Health Services. If they get pregnant, we transfer them to the Teen As Parents Program (TAPP), where they get parenting classes and healthcare – that’s a critical need, and they can have their classes scheduled around their healthcare needs.
We lose about one girl a year this way. It’s always depressing, and we examine what we did wrong, where we can improve.
One way we handle this is through our Baby Can Wait program – we have an actual computerized baby, named Erin Pace. A girl will carry this heavy computerized baby around with her everywhere she goes, all day and night. We can check when it was changed, how long it was ignored - everything. It even has computer. In the car, it goes in a baby seat. At first, they think they want a baby, but we can barely make them keep it for 3 days. The girls say, “Would you do something with this baby?! It’s driving me nuts!” and we say, “No. it’s a baby. What can we do?” Any trick you can pull….
As for drugs: if you ignore that someone’s using, you’re condoning it. You can’t ignore the possibility that they’re high. Confront it. We have substance abuse prevention for high-risk girls. We refer them to David Lawrence for more intensive counciling if it’s needed.
One way we keep the girls from possessing drugs on campus is that they don’t carry anything – no purse, no book bag. There’s no place for them to hide drugs.
NSA: What about when a girl’s family is uncooperative or hostile to her involvement in PACE?
Miller: We sit down and talk with them. Usually when they’re upset, they’re angry because they feel they’re being ignored. When we listen to them, they usually calm down. It’s how respectful you are and how you treat the other person. You can give them the worst news in the world, and if you tell it to them in the right way, respectfully, you won’t have a problem.
NSA: Is there ever a time when you turn an applicant away as hopeless?
Miller: No. We don’t turn girls away.
But last year, for the first time, we sent two kids back to the public school, which I consider a loss on our part. We just had to tell them, you aren’t ready to change, to try counciling, to work on yourself, and our tax money is being wasted.
NSA: What happens to your girls? What percentage graduate? Do they work in the fields? Do any of them go on to college? Once they’re gone, do you give them any kind of follow-up support?
Miller: We stay with the girls after graduation, giving them at least three years of follow-up – we do everything, whatever they need. Tutoring, college applications, helping them find a job, crisis counciling…. One of our first graduates came here after a fight with her dad, a few years after graduation. She said she came here because she knew we’d listen. And we did. I spent an hour with her, talking it over in my office.
Last year eight girls graduated, and six went to college. We hired one of our former graduates to be our chef – she went to culinary arts school, and now she’s back to help us. Now she teaches the girls how to cook, and she says, “Look at all their energy! They can’t stay still.” We tell her, “Yes, that was you.” We’re very proud of her – and she’s a great chef!
NSA: The PACE Center, the actual facility, is an oasis in Immokalee – it’s gorgeous inside and out. I understand that its funding and construction was a huge feat: congratulations are in order! Now that is behind you, what is your next big challenge?
Miller: There are a million things I want to do. I want to truly do a culinary arts program where our kids run a business. I want us to have full-time nursing care. Now, we have a girl with lupus; earlier, we had a girl with a halo brace for a neck injury. I want to set up good solid career training, so that employers say, “This is a PACE graduate. They know how to do this – interview, dress for work, MS Office, spread sheets…. Yes, I’ll hire this person, because she’s from PACE.” I want us to have an after-school program for middle schoolers – we have the facility right now, and nowhere else in Immokalee does that. We just need funding to get it started.
If you are clicking over from said newsletter, you will notice that I left the questions in that you may have already read. Sorry. That's blog quality control for you.
If you aren't on the Naples Social Action e-newsletter mailing list and want to be, please let me know and I'll add you: ted.coine@coineinc.com
There are over 500 good causes in Collier County. What makes the top 1% stand out above the rest? Its people. People like Threasa Miller of the PACE Center for Girls in Immokalee.
Neapolitan of Note: Threasa Miller
Name: Threasa (“The- reesa”) Miller
Title: Founder & Executive Director
Organization: The Pace Center for Girls, Collier at Immokalee
www.pacecenter.org
Neapolitan since: 1980
Born in Tennesee
From the PACE website: “PACE provides a non-residential delinquency prevention program in 21 locations statewide, targeting the unique needs of females 12 to 18 who are identified as dependent, truant, runaway, ungovernable, delinquent, or in need of academic skills. PACE (Practical Academic Cultural Education) accepts referrals from the juvenile justice system, the Department of Children and Families, school personnel, community services agencies, parents, family members, friends and self-referrals. Its purpose is to intervene and prevent school withdrawal, juvenile delinquency, teen pregnancy, substance abuse and welfare dependency.”
NSA: How did you get involved in PACE?
Miller: I worked in social services after college – investigating child abuse in foster care, then with the Department of Juvenile Justice. PACE was going to open a center in Southwest Florida, and I helped write the winning grant to bring it to Immokalee rather than Sarasota or Lee. The president of the organization asked me if I wanted to head it up, and I said “No!” – I loved what I was doing – but she isn’t one to take no for an answer, so she asked me to interview people for the job. I didn’t approve of the applicants, after all the hard work I’d put into the project, so she asked me if maybe I shouldn’t do it myself. Like I said, she didn’t take no for an answer. She wore me down, and I’m glad she did.
NSA: Could you explain what the “C” stands for in PACE?
Miller: The word “Cultural” means exposure and appreciation of things that are different for us. It includes all aspects of who we are, including our arts, our belief in humanity; we teach the girls that being different is good. One of our big goals is to stop bullying, and to do that we have to teach the girls to appreciate differences.
In Immokalee, race isn’t usually the problem, but it could be just different size, for instance: maybe the girls are picking on another girl for being big. We have to teach her that to hit is not a solution, and we have to teach them to appreciate her for who she is. That is all included in our cultural education.
Our teachers introduce the girls to the idea of cultural diversity. Well, one time I overheard girls calling it cultural conspiracy. I got a big kick out of the teacher’s explanation of the difference.
NSA: Your SPIRITED GIRLS!® program “teaches positive lifestyle choices.” How?
Miller: One of the things girls tell us is, they’re stressed; even kids these days are suffering from ulcers or high blood pressure. We tell them how to breathe, relax; we help them build a positive body image. We say, “Look at a TV ad. Is this real, is this true life?” Wellness, healthy eating, the need to drink more water are all things we cover. Right now, we’re working on teaching them how to express themselves, how to talk things out rather than fight.
NSA: It seems that PACE steps in to fill a need that the public school system can’t. Is that right?
Miller: This isn’t an either/or – it isn’t true that either they’re at PACE or they’re in public school. Without PACE, most of our girls would have dropped out or been kicked out of public school. There would be 100 more girls on the welfare role; and this is not just for them but for their family members, for all the children they would have.
Sometimes people can get narrow-minded and mean, and say things like ‘Why have a school like PACE? Kids should be able to tough it out with everybody else.’ That’s so wrong. Sometimes, especially when you have victims of trauma, one more hard knock pushes them over the edge. A gang doesn’t always seem so bad when you have that kind of background. We’re here as an alternative.
NSA: PACE has a 10:1 student-teacher ratio, yet it is only a little more costly for you to run than regular public schools, where classes are crammed at least 25 kids to a teacher. How do you do it?
Miller: We have very little administration. I double as a teacher; we’re all cross-and triple-trained because we have to fill in where we’re needed. We also operate less expensively because we use support services from public school administration, so we don’t have to duplicate them. We partner efficiently.
NSA: How important is that 10:1 ratio?
Miller: Class size is the number one factor to our success. Our girls need extra attention, and they get that. Nothing is more important in education than small class size.
NSA: You’ve bragged to me about the quality of your teachers. How do you attract and keep talent?
Miller: It’s always a challenge. Right now we have an awesome pool of teachers. We have alternative teachers; our science teacher is a retired scientist, a Ph.D. from Proctor & Gamble. He retired early, wants to make a difference, drives every day from Marco Island. He says, ‘I have a small class, I can get creative, I like the support from our administration, we have support via behavior management (public school teachers don’t have that to help them), I like to be able to give suggestions and the administration actually listens.’ Our math teacher has patents from his work with U.S. Surgical Steel. Our teachers are quality. We have to support them with the teaching part, because they didn’t study teaching in college; they have the knowledge part. They see that they’re making a difference. That’s what they want; that’s their challenge.
NSA: Is the PACE model something all school kids could benefit from?
Miller: Oh sure. It’s so embedded in respect, and who couldn’t benefit from that?
NSA: Your girls, who themselves are receiving help, also help others through volunteering. You say that makes a difference in their own lives. How?
Miller: They feel so much pride by being able to help someone else. 93% of our girls are on free or reduced breakfast and lunch. That’s a blow to their self-esteem. But once a month they have to serve lunch at the Guadalupe Center soup kitchen. The girls come back and say, “Those people are so poor, they have nothing. I feel so good about myself because I could help them.” I want them know that they’re part of the solution.
The United Arts Council sent a teacher out here a few years ago who taught them how to make pottery. The girls sold it and made $1,500, which they had to give away. The first year, they donated the money to buy snacks for the diabetic kids at Highlands Elementary School, because they were visiting and noticed that some kids weren’t getting anything at snack time, and they asked why. The girls made Highland’s nurse come and give a report on how their money was spent – it was terrific! The second year, they raised money and gave it to the Make a Wish Foundation. Giving deeply affects our girls. It’s so good for them.
NSA: The PACE website says you “deliver just and fair consequences and (the girls must) be accountable for our actions.” This isn’t the usual touchy-feely approach, is it?
Miller: Kids need rules and they need structure. There are some good consequences, and that is praise and reward. There are also bad consequences. If a girl comes in wearing flip-flops, that violates our dress code. We have shoes for her to wear – she may not like the shoes, so maybe she won’t do it again. If she swears, she’ll have to pick up trash. Our girls don’t swear that much.
NSA: Brilliant! Your advice to parents…?
Miller: Don’t make threats; don’t even say a word if you aren’t going to do it. “If you do that again, you’ll be grounded for a year!” You’re not going to ground anyone for a year. Try a night. And don’t say, “If you do it again.” They’ll do it again. Consequences have to be reliable.
NSA: What do you do if a student gets pregnant? Does PACE council its girls on birth control options? Do you provide birth control for them? What about if one of your students gets caught drunk or high – even off campus and after school hours?
Miller: We have partnered with Planned Parenthood, who taught them about abstinence. We teach them to have goals and a future; they can have kids any time. We train the girls to wait, but not all girls will wait. They can go to Collier County Health Services. If they get pregnant, we transfer them to the Teen As Parents Program (TAPP), where they get parenting classes and healthcare – that’s a critical need, and they can have their classes scheduled around their healthcare needs.
We lose about one girl a year this way. It’s always depressing, and we examine what we did wrong, where we can improve.
One way we handle this is through our Baby Can Wait program – we have an actual computerized baby, named Erin Pace. A girl will carry this heavy computerized baby around with her everywhere she goes, all day and night. We can check when it was changed, how long it was ignored - everything. It even has computer. In the car, it goes in a baby seat. At first, they think they want a baby, but we can barely make them keep it for 3 days. The girls say, “Would you do something with this baby?! It’s driving me nuts!” and we say, “No. it’s a baby. What can we do?” Any trick you can pull….
As for drugs: if you ignore that someone’s using, you’re condoning it. You can’t ignore the possibility that they’re high. Confront it. We have substance abuse prevention for high-risk girls. We refer them to David Lawrence for more intensive counciling if it’s needed.
One way we keep the girls from possessing drugs on campus is that they don’t carry anything – no purse, no book bag. There’s no place for them to hide drugs.
NSA: What about when a girl’s family is uncooperative or hostile to her involvement in PACE?
Miller: We sit down and talk with them. Usually when they’re upset, they’re angry because they feel they’re being ignored. When we listen to them, they usually calm down. It’s how respectful you are and how you treat the other person. You can give them the worst news in the world, and if you tell it to them in the right way, respectfully, you won’t have a problem.
NSA: Is there ever a time when you turn an applicant away as hopeless?
Miller: No. We don’t turn girls away.
But last year, for the first time, we sent two kids back to the public school, which I consider a loss on our part. We just had to tell them, you aren’t ready to change, to try counciling, to work on yourself, and our tax money is being wasted.
NSA: What happens to your girls? What percentage graduate? Do they work in the fields? Do any of them go on to college? Once they’re gone, do you give them any kind of follow-up support?
Miller: We stay with the girls after graduation, giving them at least three years of follow-up – we do everything, whatever they need. Tutoring, college applications, helping them find a job, crisis counciling…. One of our first graduates came here after a fight with her dad, a few years after graduation. She said she came here because she knew we’d listen. And we did. I spent an hour with her, talking it over in my office.
Last year eight girls graduated, and six went to college. We hired one of our former graduates to be our chef – she went to culinary arts school, and now she’s back to help us. Now she teaches the girls how to cook, and she says, “Look at all their energy! They can’t stay still.” We tell her, “Yes, that was you.” We’re very proud of her – and she’s a great chef!
NSA: The PACE Center, the actual facility, is an oasis in Immokalee – it’s gorgeous inside and out. I understand that its funding and construction was a huge feat: congratulations are in order! Now that is behind you, what is your next big challenge?
Miller: There are a million things I want to do. I want to truly do a culinary arts program where our kids run a business. I want us to have full-time nursing care. Now, we have a girl with lupus; earlier, we had a girl with a halo brace for a neck injury. I want to set up good solid career training, so that employers say, “This is a PACE graduate. They know how to do this – interview, dress for work, MS Office, spread sheets…. Yes, I’ll hire this person, because she’s from PACE.” I want us to have an after-school program for middle schoolers – we have the facility right now, and nowhere else in Immokalee does that. We just need funding to get it started.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
OLPC story - New York Times
September 24, 2007
Buy a Laptop for a Child, Get Another Laptop Free
By STEVE LOHR
One Laptop Per Child, an ambitious project to bring computing to the developing world’s children, has considerable momentum. Years of work by engineers and scientists have paid off in a pioneering low-cost machine that is light, rugged and surprisingly versatile. The early reviews have been glowing, and mass production is set to start next month.
Orders, however, are slow. “I have to some degree underestimated the difference between shaking the hand of a head of state and having a check written,” said Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of the nonprofit project. “And yes, it has been a disappointment.”
But Mr. Negroponte, the founding director of the M.I.T. Media Laboratory, views the problem as a temporary one in the long-term pursuit of using technology as a new channel of learning and self-expression for children worldwide.
And he is reaching out to the public to try to give the laptop campaign a boost. The marketing program, to be announced today, is called “Give 1 Get 1,” in which Americans and Canadians can buy two laptops for $399.
One of the machines will be given to a child in a developing nation, and the other one will be shipped to the purchaser by Christmas. The donated computer is a tax-deductible charitable contribution. The program will run for two weeks, with orders accepted from Nov. 12 to Nov. 26.
Just what Americans will do with the slender green-and-white laptops is uncertain. Some people may donate them to local schools or youth organizations, said Walter Bender, president of the laptop project, while others will keep them for their own family or their own use.
The machines have high-resolution screens, cameras and peer-to-peer technology so the laptops can communicate wirelessly with one another. The machine runs on free, open source software. “Everything in the machine is open to the hacker, so people can poke at it, change it and make it their own,” said Mr. Bender, a computer researcher. “Part of what we’re doing here is broadening the community of users, broadening the base of ideas and contributions, and that will be tremendously valuable.”
The machine, called the XO Laptop, was not engineered with affluent children in mind. It was intended to be inexpensive, with costs eventually approaching $100 a machine, and sturdy enough to withstand harsh conditions in rural villages. It is also extremely energy efficient, with power consumption that is 10 percent or less of a conventional laptop computer.
Staff members of the laptop project were concerned that American children might try the pared-down machines and find them lacking compared to their Apple, Hewlett-Packard or Dell laptops. Then, in this era of immediate global communications, they might post their criticisms on Web sites and blogs read around the world, damaging the reputation of the XO Laptop, the project staff worried.
So the laptop project sponsored focus-group research with American children, ages 7 to 11, at the end of August. The results were reassuringly positive. The focus-group subjects liked the fact that the machine was intended specifically for children, and appreciated features like the machine-to-machine wireless communication. “Completely beastly” was the verdict of one boy. Another environmentally conscious youngster noted that the laptop “prevents global warming.”
Still, the “Give 1 Get 1” initiative is mainly about the giving. “The real reason is to get this thing started,” Mr. Negroponte said.
He said that if, for example, donations reached $40 million, that would mean 100,000 laptops could be distributed free in the developing world. The idea, he said, would be to give perhaps 5,000 machines to 20 countries to try out and get started.
“It could trigger a lot of things,” Mr. Negroponte said.
Late last year, Mr. Negroponte said he had hoped for orders for three million laptops, but those pledges have fallen short. Orders of a million each from populous Nigeria and Brazil did not materialize.
Still, the project has had successes. Peru, for example, will buy and distribute 250,000 of the laptops over the next year — many of them allocated for remote rural areas. Mexico and Uruguay, Mr. Negroponte noted, have made firm commitments. In a sponsorship program, the government of Italy has agreed to purchase 50,000 laptops for distribution in Ethiopia.
Each country will have different ideas about how to use the machines. Alan Kay, a computer researcher and adviser to the laptop project, said he expects one popular use will be to load textbooks at 25 cents or so each on the laptops, which has a high-resolution screen for easy reading.
“It’s probably going to be mundane in the early stages,” said Mr. Kay, who heads a nonprofit education group, whose learning software will be on the XO Laptop. “I’m an optimist that this will eventually work out,” Mr. Kay said.
Buy a Laptop for a Child, Get Another Laptop Free
By STEVE LOHR
One Laptop Per Child, an ambitious project to bring computing to the developing world’s children, has considerable momentum. Years of work by engineers and scientists have paid off in a pioneering low-cost machine that is light, rugged and surprisingly versatile. The early reviews have been glowing, and mass production is set to start next month.
Orders, however, are slow. “I have to some degree underestimated the difference between shaking the hand of a head of state and having a check written,” said Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of the nonprofit project. “And yes, it has been a disappointment.”
But Mr. Negroponte, the founding director of the M.I.T. Media Laboratory, views the problem as a temporary one in the long-term pursuit of using technology as a new channel of learning and self-expression for children worldwide.
And he is reaching out to the public to try to give the laptop campaign a boost. The marketing program, to be announced today, is called “Give 1 Get 1,” in which Americans and Canadians can buy two laptops for $399.
One of the machines will be given to a child in a developing nation, and the other one will be shipped to the purchaser by Christmas. The donated computer is a tax-deductible charitable contribution. The program will run for two weeks, with orders accepted from Nov. 12 to Nov. 26.
Just what Americans will do with the slender green-and-white laptops is uncertain. Some people may donate them to local schools or youth organizations, said Walter Bender, president of the laptop project, while others will keep them for their own family or their own use.
The machines have high-resolution screens, cameras and peer-to-peer technology so the laptops can communicate wirelessly with one another. The machine runs on free, open source software. “Everything in the machine is open to the hacker, so people can poke at it, change it and make it their own,” said Mr. Bender, a computer researcher. “Part of what we’re doing here is broadening the community of users, broadening the base of ideas and contributions, and that will be tremendously valuable.”
The machine, called the XO Laptop, was not engineered with affluent children in mind. It was intended to be inexpensive, with costs eventually approaching $100 a machine, and sturdy enough to withstand harsh conditions in rural villages. It is also extremely energy efficient, with power consumption that is 10 percent or less of a conventional laptop computer.
Staff members of the laptop project were concerned that American children might try the pared-down machines and find them lacking compared to their Apple, Hewlett-Packard or Dell laptops. Then, in this era of immediate global communications, they might post their criticisms on Web sites and blogs read around the world, damaging the reputation of the XO Laptop, the project staff worried.
So the laptop project sponsored focus-group research with American children, ages 7 to 11, at the end of August. The results were reassuringly positive. The focus-group subjects liked the fact that the machine was intended specifically for children, and appreciated features like the machine-to-machine wireless communication. “Completely beastly” was the verdict of one boy. Another environmentally conscious youngster noted that the laptop “prevents global warming.”
Still, the “Give 1 Get 1” initiative is mainly about the giving. “The real reason is to get this thing started,” Mr. Negroponte said.
He said that if, for example, donations reached $40 million, that would mean 100,000 laptops could be distributed free in the developing world. The idea, he said, would be to give perhaps 5,000 machines to 20 countries to try out and get started.
“It could trigger a lot of things,” Mr. Negroponte said.
Late last year, Mr. Negroponte said he had hoped for orders for three million laptops, but those pledges have fallen short. Orders of a million each from populous Nigeria and Brazil did not materialize.
Still, the project has had successes. Peru, for example, will buy and distribute 250,000 of the laptops over the next year — many of them allocated for remote rural areas. Mexico and Uruguay, Mr. Negroponte noted, have made firm commitments. In a sponsorship program, the government of Italy has agreed to purchase 50,000 laptops for distribution in Ethiopia.
Each country will have different ideas about how to use the machines. Alan Kay, a computer researcher and adviser to the laptop project, said he expects one popular use will be to load textbooks at 25 cents or so each on the laptops, which has a high-resolution screen for easy reading.
“It’s probably going to be mundane in the early stages,” said Mr. Kay, who heads a nonprofit education group, whose learning software will be on the XO Laptop. “I’m an optimist that this will eventually work out,” Mr. Kay said.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
My friend Michael isn't as sold on the XO $100 laptop as I am. His gripe is that kids in the Third World need food to eat, water pumps that work, can openers, pencils and paper.... What follows is my reply to his email to that effect, which was also copied to a couple of other interested parties who are part of this conversation.
My friend Steve Popper travels the globe purchasing lumber. He says that traveling from the airport to his meetings in the third world is horrendous - the poverty is so incredible, he doesn't even like to look out the car window. So a few years ago he and his family established a school in a village in Haiti. He figured, "Hey, there's no school; that's why these kids will spend their whole lives in penury. Let's fix that." Steve's upper-middle-class; I think a school in Haiti is pretty affordable.
The problem is that the kids didn't learn much in their new school. The reason? They were hungry. I can't pay attention if I'm late for snack time. I can't even imagine what it's like for kids who are actually starving. So Steve did some research and found Kids Against Hunger. He brought it to our Rotary club, and in less than a month, in two events he - and a few hundred of his closest friends - packaged over 600,000 meals. About half went to the poor here in SWFL, the remainder to Haiti and Jamaica - the poorest parts in the South of Jamaica, hit worst by Dean. To avoid pilfering (99% of foreign aid to Haiti is stolen, mostly by the gov.), we sent the meals to Rotary clubs in the villages where the food is needed. We have 8 more packaging events lined up this season.
Poor people need food. And fresh water, and shoes, and $.01 drops of medicine to fight ringworm, and affordable (but not free) condoms, and mosquito netting.... People need education and micro credit, too, so that they can take care of themselves, rather than hope that the largess from America continues unabated. My vote is, if this guy or that group is passionate about one of those things, then why tell them to wait until other needs have been met first? Steve wants to feed kids, I want to give them laptops, and Michael wants them to have can openers. They need all 3, so good for all of us! By pursuing what inspires us most, we'll each be more effective and we'll stay engaged longer.
Now, to introduce Tim Falconer: he is well ahead of me in his efforts to get the XO to the kids who need it. He and some friends (www.waveplace.com) are about to start a project with some XOs in St. John (the US Virgin Island). It's a small population - only about twice as many kids as Immokalee. And, like Immokalee, if you want to make a living wage, you have to leave to do it.
Waveplace isn't just going to buy laptops from MIT and hand them over to a bunch of kids, then split town. Their project includes teaching the children how to use the laptops, and really it's about teaching them effectively through the conduit of a laptop. Tim's idea is to train the children of the Caribbean, starting with St. John, to apply their creative talents to IT work, sourced all over the globe via the Internet.
Kids in poverty world-wide are physically removed from the teachers and resources they need to have an education that is every bit as good as, say, our two girls here in Naples. But with an XO and a Internet connection, these children can enjoy access to the best the world has to offer. My good friend and colleague, Tim King, who is running Coine Language School for us up in Boston, has done a lot of real-time tutoring over the years through an online course out of Taiwan. Because of the XO, kids in St. John will be able to have world-class teachers like Tim King at their disposal.
What a brave new world is this!
My friend Steve Popper travels the globe purchasing lumber. He says that traveling from the airport to his meetings in the third world is horrendous - the poverty is so incredible, he doesn't even like to look out the car window. So a few years ago he and his family established a school in a village in Haiti. He figured, "Hey, there's no school; that's why these kids will spend their whole lives in penury. Let's fix that." Steve's upper-middle-class; I think a school in Haiti is pretty affordable.
The problem is that the kids didn't learn much in their new school. The reason? They were hungry. I can't pay attention if I'm late for snack time. I can't even imagine what it's like for kids who are actually starving. So Steve did some research and found Kids Against Hunger. He brought it to our Rotary club, and in less than a month, in two events he - and a few hundred of his closest friends - packaged over 600,000 meals. About half went to the poor here in SWFL, the remainder to Haiti and Jamaica - the poorest parts in the South of Jamaica, hit worst by Dean. To avoid pilfering (99% of foreign aid to Haiti is stolen, mostly by the gov.), we sent the meals to Rotary clubs in the villages where the food is needed. We have 8 more packaging events lined up this season.
Poor people need food. And fresh water, and shoes, and $.01 drops of medicine to fight ringworm, and affordable (but not free) condoms, and mosquito netting.... People need education and micro credit, too, so that they can take care of themselves, rather than hope that the largess from America continues unabated. My vote is, if this guy or that group is passionate about one of those things, then why tell them to wait until other needs have been met first? Steve wants to feed kids, I want to give them laptops, and Michael wants them to have can openers. They need all 3, so good for all of us! By pursuing what inspires us most, we'll each be more effective and we'll stay engaged longer.
Now, to introduce Tim Falconer: he is well ahead of me in his efforts to get the XO to the kids who need it. He and some friends (www.waveplace.com) are about to start a project with some XOs in St. John (the US Virgin Island). It's a small population - only about twice as many kids as Immokalee. And, like Immokalee, if you want to make a living wage, you have to leave to do it.
Waveplace isn't just going to buy laptops from MIT and hand them over to a bunch of kids, then split town. Their project includes teaching the children how to use the laptops, and really it's about teaching them effectively through the conduit of a laptop. Tim's idea is to train the children of the Caribbean, starting with St. John, to apply their creative talents to IT work, sourced all over the globe via the Internet.
Kids in poverty world-wide are physically removed from the teachers and resources they need to have an education that is every bit as good as, say, our two girls here in Naples. But with an XO and a Internet connection, these children can enjoy access to the best the world has to offer. My good friend and colleague, Tim King, who is running Coine Language School for us up in Boston, has done a lot of real-time tutoring over the years through an online course out of Taiwan. Because of the XO, kids in St. John will be able to have world-class teachers like Tim King at their disposal.
What a brave new world is this!
Monday, September 24, 2007
Guest spot on OLPC
Wayan Vota was kind enough to post this for me: http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/donors/americans_help_olpc.html. Thanks Wayan!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
One Laptop Links
As I promised my audience at the Unitarian Universalist Forum this morning, here are some links to different sites with more information on my favorite project, the One Laptop Per Child Innitiative (OLPC).
Please note the second link. I found it just this minute - apparently, starting Nov. 12, you will be able to buy one XO for your child when you buy one for a child in the Third World. I know what Ayla and Maryn are getting for early & late birthday presents, respectively.
60 Minutes story: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/20/60minutes/main2830058.shtml?source=search_story
Donate or "Buy two, get one": http://www.xogiving.org/
MIT Media Lab's site: http://laptop.org/
MIT Media Lab's wiki: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Home
An unofficial site dedicated to OLPC: http://www.olpcnews.com/
Please note the second link. I found it just this minute - apparently, starting Nov. 12, you will be able to buy one XO for your child when you buy one for a child in the Third World. I know what Ayla and Maryn are getting for early & late birthday presents, respectively.
60 Minutes story: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/20/60minutes/main2830058.shtml?source=search_story
Donate or "Buy two, get one": http://www.xogiving.org/
MIT Media Lab's site: http://laptop.org/
MIT Media Lab's wiki: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Home
An unofficial site dedicated to OLPC: http://www.olpcnews.com/
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Laptops for Immokalee
Okay, so a pal of mine spoke with a billionaire (a real one, with a B), who is ready to write a check for 10,000 "XO" $179 laptops. I confirmed this, and it's legit.
So I called MIT again, and here's the skinny:
1. These are Linux-based systems. They accept Mmicrosoft (MS) software, but don't come with it installed. (Linux users prefer it vastly over DOS (MS's language), but.... well, if you want MS, you want MS).
2. We could try to contact the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation about this. They've got money...
3. The computers aren't available for sale yet, and a release date of late October is only a goal, nothing more.
4. For now, they're only looking for purchases of 250,000 computers and up (so governments are the only ones buying, at this stage).
5. I was told that "By this time next year, sure, you'll be able to buy just one if you want. But not right now."
I'm going to check with Intel. The gal at MIT says their version is still up around $300, but I'd like to find out for myself.
I'll keep you posted, Dear Readers.
So I called MIT again, and here's the skinny:
1. These are Linux-based systems. They accept Mmicrosoft (MS) software, but don't come with it installed. (Linux users prefer it vastly over DOS (MS's language), but.... well, if you want MS, you want MS).
2. We could try to contact the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation about this. They've got money...
3. The computers aren't available for sale yet, and a release date of late October is only a goal, nothing more.
4. For now, they're only looking for purchases of 250,000 computers and up (so governments are the only ones buying, at this stage).
5. I was told that "By this time next year, sure, you'll be able to buy just one if you want. But not right now."
I'm going to check with Intel. The gal at MIT says their version is still up around $300, but I'd like to find out for myself.
I'll keep you posted, Dear Readers.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Latest on the One Laptop Initiative
If you've been following my story of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Initiative, then you may find this link interesting: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Core_principles#child_ownership
If you find it a bunch of "happy crap," that's your perogative. But just keep one thing in mind: While you're criticizing, others are doing. And we're going to keep on doing with or without your help.
People were born to dream. When you give up dreaming, you give up living.
If you find it a bunch of "happy crap," that's your perogative. But just keep one thing in mind: While you're criticizing, others are doing. And we're going to keep on doing with or without your help.
People were born to dream. When you give up dreaming, you give up living.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Naples Social Action
You know what I like about our work creating NSA? It's completely organic, even more than Coine Language School was in the early days.
Take our newsletter as an example. For issue #4, out 8 days ago, we used a really cool and inexpensive online service to create a hot new look - if you haven't seen it, email me and ask to get on our emailing list. I liked the look of it, as did Jane, the newsletter's editor-in-chief. So we were delighted with the results, and I must say proud.
...But quite unexpectedly, we started getting all these people contacting us asking to be on our mailing list. I mean, each of the first three issues won us a fair share of praise from well-wishers who liked the content. But with this new look, all of a sudden Naples Social Action is a media player here in Naples. I even have the executive editor of a respected magazine taking me to lunch (while Jane's away on business) to see how we can help each other.
I never intended for NSA to become a media company. But here we are. We threw some spaghetti against the wall, and it stuck. That's how I do things, and... see? Sometimes it works out.
The Bicycle Series page is another clump of spaghetti that I just figured I'd throw up there. I like to ride my bike. Naturally, that led me to make friends with other cyclists, some of whom are involved in philanthropy like me. I learned that the cycling events in town are no better coordinated than the nonprofit fundraisers, so what the heck, we knitted together a bike series.
And three days later, we started our runner's series, which we'll have posted shortly on the biking page, right underneath. More spaghetti sticking to the wall.
I think my Tigger-like enthusiasm make some people nervous. Engineers, finance types, librarians, many computer programmers - many of these folks don't get how I can pull things off. But you know what? I'm not half the flake they might think I am, for one thing - I'm actually very efficient; I just don't brag about it: I'd rather have those outside the board room just think I'm fun, if a tad eccentric. For another thing, I'm relentless. I don't sit and plan, and I don't worry if something falls flat. I just grab another strand of spaghetti and fling it against the wall. If it sticks, we know it's time to dig in!
I don't think NSA could be half as wonderful as it is if we didn't let it grow as it will. We have to try a multitude of services to the community, and see which ones the community likes, which it finds unimpressive. This experimenting is fun. I guarantee you, some day Local Social Action will be huge, and - if Jane and I are not really careful - kinda... set in its ways. But now is the fun part. Now, to me, is the part worth doing. We'll let someone else cross the i's and dot the t's.
Take our newsletter as an example. For issue #4, out 8 days ago, we used a really cool and inexpensive online service to create a hot new look - if you haven't seen it, email me and ask to get on our emailing list. I liked the look of it, as did Jane, the newsletter's editor-in-chief. So we were delighted with the results, and I must say proud.
...But quite unexpectedly, we started getting all these people contacting us asking to be on our mailing list. I mean, each of the first three issues won us a fair share of praise from well-wishers who liked the content. But with this new look, all of a sudden Naples Social Action is a media player here in Naples. I even have the executive editor of a respected magazine taking me to lunch (while Jane's away on business) to see how we can help each other.
I never intended for NSA to become a media company. But here we are. We threw some spaghetti against the wall, and it stuck. That's how I do things, and... see? Sometimes it works out.
The Bicycle Series page is another clump of spaghetti that I just figured I'd throw up there. I like to ride my bike. Naturally, that led me to make friends with other cyclists, some of whom are involved in philanthropy like me. I learned that the cycling events in town are no better coordinated than the nonprofit fundraisers, so what the heck, we knitted together a bike series.
And three days later, we started our runner's series, which we'll have posted shortly on the biking page, right underneath. More spaghetti sticking to the wall.
I think my Tigger-like enthusiasm make some people nervous. Engineers, finance types, librarians, many computer programmers - many of these folks don't get how I can pull things off. But you know what? I'm not half the flake they might think I am, for one thing - I'm actually very efficient; I just don't brag about it: I'd rather have those outside the board room just think I'm fun, if a tad eccentric. For another thing, I'm relentless. I don't sit and plan, and I don't worry if something falls flat. I just grab another strand of spaghetti and fling it against the wall. If it sticks, we know it's time to dig in!
I don't think NSA could be half as wonderful as it is if we didn't let it grow as it will. We have to try a multitude of services to the community, and see which ones the community likes, which it finds unimpressive. This experimenting is fun. I guarantee you, some day Local Social Action will be huge, and - if Jane and I are not really careful - kinda... set in its ways. But now is the fun part. Now, to me, is the part worth doing. We'll let someone else cross the i's and dot the t's.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
More fun than...
I can honestly say that nothing has ever delighted me so much as the work I'm doing creating Naples Social Action. Six months ago it didn't exist, not even as a vague idea. Somewhere in February, the idea struck me to put together a calendar for the entire nonprofit community; I spoke with Michael Junkowski at VSM.net shortly thereafter to pitch him on it - after all, somebody had to to the heavy lifting, the actual tech work. Without Michael... well, I shudder to think.
March 27th we went live. That was almost exactly 5 months ago. Since then, Michael has single-handedly created a masterpiece. The website is much more robust than I'd ever thought possible.
Jane and I have been more than a little busy populating his work with content. We're still reaching out to nonprofits to tell them we're here and give them passwords; now we have an additional teammate, Lois Barrowcliff, who is our liaison to the art community.
It took me over two months of round-the-clock work to make the CAN Ride happen. Probably only about 5 hours total, start-to-finish, was stressful. The rest was just plain fun, as I got to meet all sorts of nice people all over Naples. I've taught, I've sold, I've written, and I've managed, but I've never done anything like organize an event of any kind. Kathy Nicklaus and her board, volunteers, and the entire CAN operation were just great to work with.
When you look at the money we raised - about $9,000 for our two groups to split - you could easily argue that it wasn't cost effective. After all, my one-day speaking fee is more than that; I was even asked by a few skeptics why I didn't just give some talks and donate the fees to CAN.
Well, yeah, the money is important to any nonprofit, and CAN is no exception - neither, for that matter, is Naples Social Action. But I chose to take the long view, and I stand behind that choice. You see, Naples Social Action is growing in scope, and I need to get my hands dirty now so I can guide it when it's huge. I couldn't run a language school if I weren't a very experienced teacher. Jane and I could never write about and teach customer service if we weren't steeped in that field ourselves. I come to the nonprofit realm with no background what-so-ever. I'm educating myself, that's all. And class is a pleasure.
It's fun for Jane and me to sit back and watch our newest endeavor unfold - as with Coine Language School when we started, we really don't know what the final form of Naples Social Action (and later Local Social Action, when we export it to the rest of the nation) will be. First we were an online calendar.
Now we're that, plus we throw fundraisers, hopefully about one every month once we get up some steam.
Then there's the newsletter. It took me the entire day today, starting at 4:45 a.m., but I sent the newsletter out to about 400 individuals plus a few group email lists, which together bring the number of recipients up over 1,000. And we're only on issue 4.
Is NSA going to turn into a media empire, as we sell advertising to fund the causes we support? Stay tuned - right now, your guess is as good as ours. All we know is, we're enjoying our work immensely.
"Do what you love, and you'll never work another day in your life," as a wise man once said.
March 27th we went live. That was almost exactly 5 months ago. Since then, Michael has single-handedly created a masterpiece. The website is much more robust than I'd ever thought possible.
Jane and I have been more than a little busy populating his work with content. We're still reaching out to nonprofits to tell them we're here and give them passwords; now we have an additional teammate, Lois Barrowcliff, who is our liaison to the art community.
It took me over two months of round-the-clock work to make the CAN Ride happen. Probably only about 5 hours total, start-to-finish, was stressful. The rest was just plain fun, as I got to meet all sorts of nice people all over Naples. I've taught, I've sold, I've written, and I've managed, but I've never done anything like organize an event of any kind. Kathy Nicklaus and her board, volunteers, and the entire CAN operation were just great to work with.
When you look at the money we raised - about $9,000 for our two groups to split - you could easily argue that it wasn't cost effective. After all, my one-day speaking fee is more than that; I was even asked by a few skeptics why I didn't just give some talks and donate the fees to CAN.
Well, yeah, the money is important to any nonprofit, and CAN is no exception - neither, for that matter, is Naples Social Action. But I chose to take the long view, and I stand behind that choice. You see, Naples Social Action is growing in scope, and I need to get my hands dirty now so I can guide it when it's huge. I couldn't run a language school if I weren't a very experienced teacher. Jane and I could never write about and teach customer service if we weren't steeped in that field ourselves. I come to the nonprofit realm with no background what-so-ever. I'm educating myself, that's all. And class is a pleasure.
It's fun for Jane and me to sit back and watch our newest endeavor unfold - as with Coine Language School when we started, we really don't know what the final form of Naples Social Action (and later Local Social Action, when we export it to the rest of the nation) will be. First we were an online calendar.
Now we're that, plus we throw fundraisers, hopefully about one every month once we get up some steam.
Then there's the newsletter. It took me the entire day today, starting at 4:45 a.m., but I sent the newsletter out to about 400 individuals plus a few group email lists, which together bring the number of recipients up over 1,000. And we're only on issue 4.
Is NSA going to turn into a media empire, as we sell advertising to fund the causes we support? Stay tuned - right now, your guess is as good as ours. All we know is, we're enjoying our work immensely.
"Do what you love, and you'll never work another day in your life," as a wise man once said.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
12 Years - Too Little Time?
I've committed to ending poverty in Immokalee by the year 2020, which is a little more than 12 years from now. Can we do it, or have we set ourselves up for failure, even ridicule? You decide.
In 12 years, companies have gone from one person's idea to mulit-billion-dollar operations.
You could get 3 Ph.D.s in that time.
I don't think it's that daunting a project, but the thing is, we'll never get there if we don't try.
As management guru Jim Collins says, we need a BHAG - a Big Hairy Audacious Goal - or people won't take us seriously.
How will we do it?
We're going to get one laptop for every school kid in Immokalee.
We're going to help create more and more microlending funds.
We're going to come up with solutions that will bring the graduation rate from 50% to 99%+.
We'll attract industry to the enterprise zone out at the airport, so that there are great-paying jobs right there in Immokalee, and plenty of room for start-ups, too.
We'll make sure that everyone living there has access to English, literacy, and parenting classes, run the right way (we've already started with Immokalee Non-Profit Housing, and Habitat for Humanity is joining us after Aug. 20th.)
I've known hundreds of very affluent people in my life, and this year I'll be creating a high school course and textbook that will show poor and middle-class kids how to make the move from the slums to Port Royal and its like, using the experience and advice of others just like them, others who have gone before them and made that move.
12 years? Once this thing gains some steam, we'll look back and say, "We thought it would take how long? We should have had more confidence!"
In 12 years, companies have gone from one person's idea to mulit-billion-dollar operations.
You could get 3 Ph.D.s in that time.
I don't think it's that daunting a project, but the thing is, we'll never get there if we don't try.
As management guru Jim Collins says, we need a BHAG - a Big Hairy Audacious Goal - or people won't take us seriously.
How will we do it?
We're going to get one laptop for every school kid in Immokalee.
We're going to help create more and more microlending funds.
We're going to come up with solutions that will bring the graduation rate from 50% to 99%+.
We'll attract industry to the enterprise zone out at the airport, so that there are great-paying jobs right there in Immokalee, and plenty of room for start-ups, too.
We'll make sure that everyone living there has access to English, literacy, and parenting classes, run the right way (we've already started with Immokalee Non-Profit Housing, and Habitat for Humanity is joining us after Aug. 20th.)
I've known hundreds of very affluent people in my life, and this year I'll be creating a high school course and textbook that will show poor and middle-class kids how to make the move from the slums to Port Royal and its like, using the experience and advice of others just like them, others who have gone before them and made that move.
12 years? Once this thing gains some steam, we'll look back and say, "We thought it would take how long? We should have had more confidence!"
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Inspiration
Any fan of the Incredible Hulk knows that adversity only makes him stronger. That's me.
Now, in the Hulk's case, adversity comes in the form of nefarious super villains out to get him: to kill him, or steal his super powers and leave him un-super. As with any super hero, they always make the same mistake: they underestimate his will to win. Worse, they fail to realize that their efforts actually spur him on and make him more powerful - more motivated to succeed, if you will.
I don't have enemies, and nobody's trying to kill me or steal my super powers (at least not as far as I know). Indeed, most of the people I've met in the nonprofit realm are rooting for us here at Naples Social Action, and many of those moral-supporters are actually helping us. Why wouldn't they? After all, our entire mission is to help them!
But I've bumped into a few organizations who don't get what we're about, or who maybe take my enthusiasm as too eccentric for their taste - or who, perhaps, see our desire to bring the community together as a threat to their hegemony.
To be just a tad more specific, three groups have actively decided not to work with us on joint fundraising projects, and one other organization - I've eluded to this one before - has pointedly ignored us. This one is one of several 800-pound gorillas in town, and I think they're afraid of us because we don't need them. They "help" nonprofits, we help nonprofits.... you can see their concern.
Thank you for your lack of support.
I'm the Hulk. With no resistance, I run the risk of mellowing out: when that happens to the Hulk, he relaxes. He goes from giant green monster to mild-mannered Dr. Bruce Banner.
Ah, but when someone tells me I can't do something... that's when I really shine!
I was a terrible student through eighth grade; the fact that my principal and most of my teachers thought that I was a failure inspired me to go to prep school (it was my idea) and I threw myself into my studies; two years later I transferred back to public school, crushed at my A-level and AP classes, graduated near the top of my class, and was off to a top-tier college. Thanks, guys, for underestimating me.
My junior year in high school, I finally qualified for the YMCA Nationals, but I was on the perennial national-champion team, and the coach had to select which qualifiers would travel. I learned I was not on his nationals list, and... let's just say, I made his team. By a lot. His failure to bet on me spurred me on to accomplish great things.
Fast-forward to my thirties. My employer, owner of a private English-language school in Boston, passed on my offer to partner up with her on a new venture I'd created. Spurned, I bided my time, laid my plans, and founded my own school. While not direct competitors with her - Coine Language School serves a different niche - we eat her lunch. If we saw any advantage to it, we'd buy her school. Oops.
Don't bet against me.
So now we're throwing the Animal Lovers' Parade, and two organizations have bowed out of participation: one told me they don't think we can possibly pull it off in two months. Thank God they did! I've got to show them - not that they were wrong in not participating, but that they were wrong, dead wrong, in underestimating my ability to pull it off.
Of course we can make our next venture a success. Of course! But how much better it will be now that I know someone is betting we'll fail.
The Hulk may not be all that smart, but he always wins. Always.
*N.B. - Okay, unlike the Hulk, I suppose I'm pretty bright. And just for the record, we have very good friends leading the United Way and the Wine Festival. These are not the afore-mentioned gorilla.
Now, in the Hulk's case, adversity comes in the form of nefarious super villains out to get him: to kill him, or steal his super powers and leave him un-super. As with any super hero, they always make the same mistake: they underestimate his will to win. Worse, they fail to realize that their efforts actually spur him on and make him more powerful - more motivated to succeed, if you will.
I don't have enemies, and nobody's trying to kill me or steal my super powers (at least not as far as I know). Indeed, most of the people I've met in the nonprofit realm are rooting for us here at Naples Social Action, and many of those moral-supporters are actually helping us. Why wouldn't they? After all, our entire mission is to help them!
But I've bumped into a few organizations who don't get what we're about, or who maybe take my enthusiasm as too eccentric for their taste - or who, perhaps, see our desire to bring the community together as a threat to their hegemony.
To be just a tad more specific, three groups have actively decided not to work with us on joint fundraising projects, and one other organization - I've eluded to this one before - has pointedly ignored us. This one is one of several 800-pound gorillas in town, and I think they're afraid of us because we don't need them. They "help" nonprofits, we help nonprofits.... you can see their concern.
Thank you for your lack of support.
I'm the Hulk. With no resistance, I run the risk of mellowing out: when that happens to the Hulk, he relaxes. He goes from giant green monster to mild-mannered Dr. Bruce Banner.
Ah, but when someone tells me I can't do something... that's when I really shine!
I was a terrible student through eighth grade; the fact that my principal and most of my teachers thought that I was a failure inspired me to go to prep school (it was my idea) and I threw myself into my studies; two years later I transferred back to public school, crushed at my A-level and AP classes, graduated near the top of my class, and was off to a top-tier college. Thanks, guys, for underestimating me.
My junior year in high school, I finally qualified for the YMCA Nationals, but I was on the perennial national-champion team, and the coach had to select which qualifiers would travel. I learned I was not on his nationals list, and... let's just say, I made his team. By a lot. His failure to bet on me spurred me on to accomplish great things.
Fast-forward to my thirties. My employer, owner of a private English-language school in Boston, passed on my offer to partner up with her on a new venture I'd created. Spurned, I bided my time, laid my plans, and founded my own school. While not direct competitors with her - Coine Language School serves a different niche - we eat her lunch. If we saw any advantage to it, we'd buy her school. Oops.
Don't bet against me.
So now we're throwing the Animal Lovers' Parade, and two organizations have bowed out of participation: one told me they don't think we can possibly pull it off in two months. Thank God they did! I've got to show them - not that they were wrong in not participating, but that they were wrong, dead wrong, in underestimating my ability to pull it off.
Of course we can make our next venture a success. Of course! But how much better it will be now that I know someone is betting we'll fail.
The Hulk may not be all that smart, but he always wins. Always.
*N.B. - Okay, unlike the Hulk, I suppose I'm pretty bright. And just for the record, we have very good friends leading the United Way and the Wine Festival. These are not the afore-mentioned gorilla.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
In 40 Years Or So
I don't think a lot of people understand where I'm coming from when it comes to my obsession with our nonprofit endeavors, but Jane sure does, and that's the most important thing for me.
Without your spouse's support... good luck. But Jane isn't just supporting me; she's egging me on. Several times now, she's told me, "This is the best thing you've done yet. I have a good feeling about it."
Now, before I go on, let me point out that this is actually the best thing that we've done yet. Jane and I are running Naples Social Action together - the Coine Foundation, too. Maybe she gives me credit for these endeavors being mine because she doesn't spend quite 100 hours a week at it, or maybe because a lot of our ideas start in my head: I have an idea, I run it by her, and she fine-tunes it or laughs at me. So maybe to her, these are "my" ideas.
In any event, here is my story: anyone can get rich - I'm convinced of it; I know too many successful people to still think amassing a fortune is anything all that tough. When I focus on it, I'm pretty good at making money myself. So sure, it's great and all to build a business from scratch (Coine Language School), and then to do it again even faster (Coine Training). I doubt I'll ever abandon those endeavors.
But... well, forty years from now, when I imagine I'll have to start slowing down and limiting my work week some, what will I have? A pile of money? A lot of people I know would say, "Yeah, great!" A couple of businesses with my name on them? Again, this is a fine life's work in many people's eyes. I agree, those are two cool things to accomplish in life.
I want to accomplish something altogether more spectacular, though. And not alone, either. I want to inspire, guide, maybe even lead others to change the world - not just a little, but fundamentally.
Imagine a world without poverty. Or, if you're one of those "realistic" people who keeps getting in the way, let's try this on for size: imagine a world where poverty occurs in only two cases:
1. Temporarily, as when there is a major economic upheaval, or when a person first immigrates to a new country, and has to start at the bottom of the labor-ladder for a year or two before moving up, or...
2. By choice. Let's face it, some people will always make bad decisions. We would be denying our fellow humans a basic right by protecting them from themselves - that's called paternalism, and it's a scourge on society when not taken in small doses. If people choose to gamble their money away, abuse drugs, go into massive debt, or just be lazy and work very little, we can't stop them. So these people may very well be poor even after our best efforts have been expended.
However, very few people will make self-defeating choices throughout their lives. If we can eradicate poverty for most of us, and create a world where we assist those who choose to find a better way and stop being poor, then I'll feel our work is done.
How do we do it? Poverty eradication is all about providing poor people with the tools they need to lift themselves from their current state.
The poor need basic, living wages, so that they can at least keep their heads above water before they decide to swim with a business of their own.
The poor need credit - not all that much, just a tiny bit to get started in business for themselves.
The poor need freedom - capitalistic freedom to create wealth, without the impediment of government or corporate corruption. Many people flee the third world because those countries don't give their citizens a chance, no matter how hard or how smart those citizens are. If your tribe is out of power and so you can't get a business license, there's no way you can win.
People need peace. War can be necessary, but most conflicts are only destructive. When war hits a nation, people are often unable to care for themselves beyond merely surviving.
People need freedom from disease. How could we ever expect sub-Saharan Africa to lift itself from its current circle of despair and failure when half of some countries' adult populations are dying of AIDS? And what of Malaria, Typhus, Cholera...? Disease hasn't been a first-world problem for two generations. We've forgotten how it can shatter lives, and economies.
People need education. If you can't read, you can't get ahead. If you have never learned to add, it will be hard for you to balance your business's books. If you do not speak the language of your country, you can forget ever escaping poverty. In the 21st century, people will need to master technology on an ever-increasing scale. Without education, you just can't get ahead.
So why am I so obsessed with our nonprofit work? I hope this doesn't sound trite or corny, because for me it isn't at all: when I look back at my life's work, I want to be proud of myself. I want to say to my wife and children and close friends, "We've done something spectacular here. We've made a difference. We can rest now."
That's why I get up in the morning. And no pot of gold ever motivated me so well.
Without your spouse's support... good luck. But Jane isn't just supporting me; she's egging me on. Several times now, she's told me, "This is the best thing you've done yet. I have a good feeling about it."
Now, before I go on, let me point out that this is actually the best thing that we've done yet. Jane and I are running Naples Social Action together - the Coine Foundation, too. Maybe she gives me credit for these endeavors being mine because she doesn't spend quite 100 hours a week at it, or maybe because a lot of our ideas start in my head: I have an idea, I run it by her, and she fine-tunes it or laughs at me. So maybe to her, these are "my" ideas.
In any event, here is my story: anyone can get rich - I'm convinced of it; I know too many successful people to still think amassing a fortune is anything all that tough. When I focus on it, I'm pretty good at making money myself. So sure, it's great and all to build a business from scratch (Coine Language School), and then to do it again even faster (Coine Training). I doubt I'll ever abandon those endeavors.
But... well, forty years from now, when I imagine I'll have to start slowing down and limiting my work week some, what will I have? A pile of money? A lot of people I know would say, "Yeah, great!" A couple of businesses with my name on them? Again, this is a fine life's work in many people's eyes. I agree, those are two cool things to accomplish in life.
I want to accomplish something altogether more spectacular, though. And not alone, either. I want to inspire, guide, maybe even lead others to change the world - not just a little, but fundamentally.
Imagine a world without poverty. Or, if you're one of those "realistic" people who keeps getting in the way, let's try this on for size: imagine a world where poverty occurs in only two cases:
1. Temporarily, as when there is a major economic upheaval, or when a person first immigrates to a new country, and has to start at the bottom of the labor-ladder for a year or two before moving up, or...
2. By choice. Let's face it, some people will always make bad decisions. We would be denying our fellow humans a basic right by protecting them from themselves - that's called paternalism, and it's a scourge on society when not taken in small doses. If people choose to gamble their money away, abuse drugs, go into massive debt, or just be lazy and work very little, we can't stop them. So these people may very well be poor even after our best efforts have been expended.
However, very few people will make self-defeating choices throughout their lives. If we can eradicate poverty for most of us, and create a world where we assist those who choose to find a better way and stop being poor, then I'll feel our work is done.
How do we do it? Poverty eradication is all about providing poor people with the tools they need to lift themselves from their current state.
The poor need basic, living wages, so that they can at least keep their heads above water before they decide to swim with a business of their own.
The poor need credit - not all that much, just a tiny bit to get started in business for themselves.
The poor need freedom - capitalistic freedom to create wealth, without the impediment of government or corporate corruption. Many people flee the third world because those countries don't give their citizens a chance, no matter how hard or how smart those citizens are. If your tribe is out of power and so you can't get a business license, there's no way you can win.
People need peace. War can be necessary, but most conflicts are only destructive. When war hits a nation, people are often unable to care for themselves beyond merely surviving.
People need freedom from disease. How could we ever expect sub-Saharan Africa to lift itself from its current circle of despair and failure when half of some countries' adult populations are dying of AIDS? And what of Malaria, Typhus, Cholera...? Disease hasn't been a first-world problem for two generations. We've forgotten how it can shatter lives, and economies.
People need education. If you can't read, you can't get ahead. If you have never learned to add, it will be hard for you to balance your business's books. If you do not speak the language of your country, you can forget ever escaping poverty. In the 21st century, people will need to master technology on an ever-increasing scale. Without education, you just can't get ahead.
So why am I so obsessed with our nonprofit work? I hope this doesn't sound trite or corny, because for me it isn't at all: when I look back at my life's work, I want to be proud of myself. I want to say to my wife and children and close friends, "We've done something spectacular here. We've made a difference. We can rest now."
That's why I get up in the morning. And no pot of gold ever motivated me so well.
Monday, June 25, 2007
One Laptop Per Child Link
Here's the 60 Minutes story I referred to earlier today:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/20/60minutes/main2830058.shtml?source=search_story
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/20/60minutes/main2830058.shtml?source=search_story
Quote
"No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an unchartered land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit."
-- Hellen Keller
Immokalee 2020 - more thoughts
Jane and I are still making contacts and collecting information about Immokalee. Jane is leading one mother's & children's family literacy class at Immokalee Non-Profit Housing (INPH) with the help of the talented Miss Sylvia; today I'll be following up with Habitat for Humanity about some of their residents joining us at INPH.
Meanwhile, as I said, we're trying to meet every player out there, and join the discussion on plans to rid Immokalee of poverty in the next 12 years. Here are some of the ideas we've been working on:
Attract more businesses to the trade zone at the airport. Help the airport become all that it can be in terms of flights and trade.
Attract higher-paying skilled-labor types of industries to the area. Immokalee has a sizable and trainable workforce. The problem with the Florida economy in general, though, is that the types of industry we have here are (a) limited in number and (b) much lower-paying than in the northeast and west coast. People in Immokalee don't just need jobs, they need jobs that pay well.
Back to the trade zone: there's a great incubator set up there with $1 per-foot rent, for instance, but it's underutilized. People don't just need jobs; we also have to encourage entrepreneurialism. Owning a business or being a partner in an enterprise means that we benefit more fully from our own labor. I'd rather see two hundred companies of five people each than ten companies with 100 employees each. Few people achieve wealth as employees.
Redefine expectations. Jane and I are passionate about not just making people less poor, but helping them strive for wealth. Why not? There is no reason that the children of Immokalee can't amass fortunes, if they choose, just as we'd expect the kids of Naples to. We have to change the entire conversation.
English and literacy are huge components of that effort. You can't get ahead in this country until you speak the language. We are going to make sure that every person in Immokalee has the same access to ESL and literacy education as the rest of us.
Toward that end, we are working to secure $900,000 to purchase 9,000 laptop computers, one for each child in the Immokalee school system. Yes, you read right: those computers will only cost $100 each. Right now Intel and MIT are test-driving competing versions of these remarkable laptops. I've blogged on this before; 60 Minutes ran a terrific profile on the One Laptop Per Child Innitiative less than a month ago.
Right now there's a 50% dropout rate at Immokalee High. We're going to work closely with the schools and social organizations to bring that to 0%. I've blogged on this before. There is no reason to accept failure.
I have made a number of extremely wealthy friends in my life - decamillionaires, centamillionaires; even a few billionaires. Some of those have agreed to speak to groups of high school kids around town, and to be featured in a high school textbook I am writing, in order to show at-risk kids the way to wealth. The people featured will be completely self-made, from poor or middle class backgrounds, and they will be active donors and volunteers.
Right now, poor workers are wasting their money on substandard housing. We will work with other groups to bring that to an end. We want affordable and humane housing for every resident of Immokalee, both year-round and migrant.
There is still slavery in Immokalee. No joke. In 2007. Just recently, the UN sent a human rights task force down here for three weeks. This slavery will end, well before 2020.
Gangs will be driven from the community.
Poor people deserve microcredit. If you haven't read Muhammad Yunnis' "Banker to the Poor," you need to. Right away. You're not an anti-poverty activist until you are familiar with his work - it's that important.
As I said, these are only a few of the ideas that we are promoting. Immokalee 2020 is going to be a massive effort, with people and groups contributing their time, effort, and treasure in many ways. We hope you join us.
Friday, June 22, 2007
My favorite 2 hours
Every Wednesday night I volunteer my time to teach an ESL (English as a Second Language) class at the East Naples headquarters of Literacy Volunteers of Collier County, on whose board I serve.
It is by far the best two hours of my always-fun week.
Alright, to be fair to Jane and the girls, it is the best two hours of my 100-hour work week. ...And at least 90 of those hours are fun, so this is saying something.
Why do I enjoy teaching ESL so much? Well, for one, I'm a ham, and this is my chance to have a captive audience for 120 minutes. That isn't so bad.
For another, I really enjoy helping people who need it. My students are motivated to learn (they're also there voluntarily), they need to learn to make a life here, and by learning English, their life is improving in every way - careerwise, socially, politically. Helping others is an addictive behavior, and I've been hooked for almost 12 years now.
There's one totally selfish pleasure I take from my ESL classes, though. I get to learn all about the rest of the world, from the people who are natives of the countries I study. I haven't traveled all that much - a lot in the US, but outside of that I've only been to Canada, Mexico, Spain, Portugal, and France (for a day).
But I've taught people from 78 different countries on 5 continents. Seeing their countries through their eyes gives you a perspective you can never get from a book, or even from a visit as a tourist. And, while one native may give you a limited perspective, when you teach 4 or a dozen or two hundred people from the same land, you can form a pretty good view of what life must be like there.
Take this past class as an example. I have students from Argentina, Colombia, and Cuba. I don't think I'd ever taught a Cuban before, so I'm learning about a new country. And while we all hear media reports about how so-called communism isn't very pleasant under the Castro Regime, I think the details can seem a little remote; I had missed them altogether, somehow.
Life in Cuba stinks. Physically, it's the jewel of the Caribbean, one of the most beautiful places on Earth. But if you're a citizen... no thank you. I don't blame anyone for leaving.
For instance, people only make $20 a month there. Their medical needs are 100% free, which is nice. Housing is provided for them, such as it is; schooling, too. But food is rationed such that, playing by the rules, you'd starve. Adults are not allowed access to milk; only kids. You only get a couple of eggs a month - six, if I remember correctly. Even rice and bread are rationed. Playing by the rules, you can't possibly fill your stomach.
If you want to make it - at all - you have to participate in the black market. To get by, you have to be a thief. Employees at a grocery store steal food and sell the excess for a profit. Workers in a clothing factory do the same. Police take bribes to keep you out of jail if they catch you, say, driving drunk. Heaven help you if you can't pay your bribe. Heaven help your family if they're hit by a drunk driver who can afford to pay his bribes.
It is a felony to possess five pounds of coffee. Imagine that. If your cow is hit by a truck and dies, you'll go to jail for using its meat. You have to call the police, who will take it away "for" you.
Here's one that I especially love: a native Cuban on her honeymoon at a hotel will be kicked out of her room if a foreign tourist shows up in need of lodging. There's no recourse, because this is government policy. After all, Cuba's shipwrecked economy would be even worse off without those foreign dollars (or Euros or Pesos or Yen). Oh, and speaking of foreign currency: the government charges 22% to convert it. I got to teach the word racket at this point in our lesson, as in "What a racket!"
Cubans also suffer indignity in line at the store, government offices... anywhere there's a line, which is most places. Tourists are allowed straight to the front of the line, even if it's twenty-Cubans deep. Not bad if you're a tourist, though. At least, if you're a tourist without a conscience.
See why I teach English? You don't get this in a magazine, not even National Geographic. I may be helping my students master an essential life-skill. But the experience I get in return... this is a purely selfish endeavor for me.
If you don't teach ESL now, I hope you consider joining a volunteer program like the one at Literacy Volunteers of Collier County (www.Collierliteracy.org) or the Literacy Council of Bonita Springs (www.bonitaliteracy.org). Do it to help others in need, sure. But even more, do it for yourself.
It is by far the best two hours of my always-fun week.
Alright, to be fair to Jane and the girls, it is the best two hours of my 100-hour work week. ...And at least 90 of those hours are fun, so this is saying something.
Why do I enjoy teaching ESL so much? Well, for one, I'm a ham, and this is my chance to have a captive audience for 120 minutes. That isn't so bad.
For another, I really enjoy helping people who need it. My students are motivated to learn (they're also there voluntarily), they need to learn to make a life here, and by learning English, their life is improving in every way - careerwise, socially, politically. Helping others is an addictive behavior, and I've been hooked for almost 12 years now.
There's one totally selfish pleasure I take from my ESL classes, though. I get to learn all about the rest of the world, from the people who are natives of the countries I study. I haven't traveled all that much - a lot in the US, but outside of that I've only been to Canada, Mexico, Spain, Portugal, and France (for a day).
But I've taught people from 78 different countries on 5 continents. Seeing their countries through their eyes gives you a perspective you can never get from a book, or even from a visit as a tourist. And, while one native may give you a limited perspective, when you teach 4 or a dozen or two hundred people from the same land, you can form a pretty good view of what life must be like there.
Take this past class as an example. I have students from Argentina, Colombia, and Cuba. I don't think I'd ever taught a Cuban before, so I'm learning about a new country. And while we all hear media reports about how so-called communism isn't very pleasant under the Castro Regime, I think the details can seem a little remote; I had missed them altogether, somehow.
Life in Cuba stinks. Physically, it's the jewel of the Caribbean, one of the most beautiful places on Earth. But if you're a citizen... no thank you. I don't blame anyone for leaving.
For instance, people only make $20 a month there. Their medical needs are 100% free, which is nice. Housing is provided for them, such as it is; schooling, too. But food is rationed such that, playing by the rules, you'd starve. Adults are not allowed access to milk; only kids. You only get a couple of eggs a month - six, if I remember correctly. Even rice and bread are rationed. Playing by the rules, you can't possibly fill your stomach.
If you want to make it - at all - you have to participate in the black market. To get by, you have to be a thief. Employees at a grocery store steal food and sell the excess for a profit. Workers in a clothing factory do the same. Police take bribes to keep you out of jail if they catch you, say, driving drunk. Heaven help you if you can't pay your bribe. Heaven help your family if they're hit by a drunk driver who can afford to pay his bribes.
It is a felony to possess five pounds of coffee. Imagine that. If your cow is hit by a truck and dies, you'll go to jail for using its meat. You have to call the police, who will take it away "for" you.
Here's one that I especially love: a native Cuban on her honeymoon at a hotel will be kicked out of her room if a foreign tourist shows up in need of lodging. There's no recourse, because this is government policy. After all, Cuba's shipwrecked economy would be even worse off without those foreign dollars (or Euros or Pesos or Yen). Oh, and speaking of foreign currency: the government charges 22% to convert it. I got to teach the word racket at this point in our lesson, as in "What a racket!"
Cubans also suffer indignity in line at the store, government offices... anywhere there's a line, which is most places. Tourists are allowed straight to the front of the line, even if it's twenty-Cubans deep. Not bad if you're a tourist, though. At least, if you're a tourist without a conscience.
See why I teach English? You don't get this in a magazine, not even National Geographic. I may be helping my students master an essential life-skill. But the experience I get in return... this is a purely selfish endeavor for me.
If you don't teach ESL now, I hope you consider joining a volunteer program like the one at Literacy Volunteers of Collier County (www.Collierliteracy.org) or the Literacy Council of Bonita Springs (www.bonitaliteracy.org). Do it to help others in need, sure. But even more, do it for yourself.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Nonprofit Websites
Alright, guys, here's the deal: if you run a nonprofit and your website's latest news is from 2004, or even January 2007, you're dropping the ball. There are plenty of potential donors and volunteers out there who are Internet savvy, and who will pass on helping you because your website lets them down.
A website is a really cool brochure. It is an arm of your sales force. It's pretty cheap compared to other types of marketing (paying sales pros, buying ads; mass mailings). As a business consultant - and don't kid yourself, a nonprofit is very much a business - I am here to tell you, invest your energy in your online presence.
It doesn't have to be fancy. Sharp looking, yes, but frilly graphics can actually distract from your message, and they can also frustrate people who still use DSL or, Heaven forbid, dial up.
If you run the local branch of a national organization, CREATE YOUR OWN WEBSITE! I'll use the following two links as examples.
This one I find incredibly frustrating: www.americanheart.org. How do I find out about my local chapter? I can call, write them a letter, or drop by, sure. But if I want to find out about goings on of my local chapter of the American Heart Association on, say, Sunday evening, I'll have to wait. As far as I can tell, they have no local website.
Note: this is a cause Coine has given to in the past, and we will again in the future. The Heart Association does great work.
Now here's another pair of links that are dead-on: www.bgca.org - on the Boys & Girls' Club's national site, you can look up your chapter and follow the link to your local club's site.
www.bgccc.com - and here is said local site. The local guys clearly said, "Hey, we've got important work to do, and we're going to get it done. Let's make a site of our own."
A website is a really cool brochure. It is an arm of your sales force. It's pretty cheap compared to other types of marketing (paying sales pros, buying ads; mass mailings). As a business consultant - and don't kid yourself, a nonprofit is very much a business - I am here to tell you, invest your energy in your online presence.
It doesn't have to be fancy. Sharp looking, yes, but frilly graphics can actually distract from your message, and they can also frustrate people who still use DSL or, Heaven forbid, dial up.
If you run the local branch of a national organization, CREATE YOUR OWN WEBSITE! I'll use the following two links as examples.
This one I find incredibly frustrating: www.americanheart.org. How do I find out about my local chapter? I can call, write them a letter, or drop by, sure. But if I want to find out about goings on of my local chapter of the American Heart Association on, say, Sunday evening, I'll have to wait. As far as I can tell, they have no local website.
Note: this is a cause Coine has given to in the past, and we will again in the future. The Heart Association does great work.
Now here's another pair of links that are dead-on: www.bgca.org - on the Boys & Girls' Club's national site, you can look up your chapter and follow the link to your local club's site.
www.bgccc.com - and here is said local site. The local guys clearly said, "Hey, we've got important work to do, and we're going to get it done. Let's make a site of our own."
2007-8 Season
We've gotten a lot of inquiries lately, so here's the story: very few organizations have chosen dates for their fundraisers for the coming season.
Unfortunately, quite a number of groups are waiting for their peers to commit, so that they can schedule their fundraisers accordingly. This is a chicken-and-egg scenario, and the chickens aren't laying.
What can I say? Stay tuned.
Unfortunately, quite a number of groups are waiting for their peers to commit, so that they can schedule their fundraisers accordingly. This is a chicken-and-egg scenario, and the chickens aren't laying.
What can I say? Stay tuned.
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