The Success of Failure

"Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment."

This blog transition is rife with failures in formatting and wording. I see that as a positive. I choose to see it as a positive.

Jeff Selingo, from The Chronicle of Higher Education, posted an article this week on LinkedIn. It was called "College Majors of the Future?"

He challenged the overall need for majors in most cases, noting that most children want to be football players, nurses, teachers, doctors, and firefighters. The kids grow up. They learn new options. New career options are created. Majors don't matter, kids. Ironically, this post went public on LinkedIn, where there may not be a plethora of high school upperclassmen in the readership. Not sure he cares, though. This seemed to be "a conversation that was meant to be overheard."

He admonishes entering freshmen to do four things to become successful:

• Focus Less on Classes and More on Faculty. One study shows new students need to connect to at least one professor, personally.
• Dive Into a Research Project. This gives you a chance to "put it all together" when results are unknown.
• Study Abroad. Selingo notes many have life-changing experiences during these.
• Find Uncomfortable Experiences. You know, FAIL at stuff...and find places where such failure doesn't kill you.

Yes, these ideas probably make sense for students. Working among the liberal education leaders in higher education, I can vouch that they feel comfortable with these admonitions. In fact, they may be four good goals to have as a new student. Jeff tells the reader that businesses want people who can think for themselves and know how to learn new things. He goes on to say that (with some exceptions like Engineering) majors don't necessarily matter. I would say it still might be tougher to get a marketing job with a classics degree. "I know how to learn this" isn't as effective as "I learned this, already." If there's something you love, perhaps your college years are the ones where you jump in with both feet.

That's because if you really love marketing, a marketing major doesn't necessarily keep you from working in another field...like classical studies.

I usually point out that higher education would do well to pay attention to trends in K-12 education. However, this is one key area where higher education (especially liberal education) has approaches that would benefit the public schools in the United States. The whole idea of temporary failure should be promoted. I'm not alone. So does Will Rogers. In fact, Peter Dewitt thinks failure is a good thing for education. So do the fine folks at NITLE, my employer.

Kai Vallon asked about this "failure potential" when posting about Jeff Selingo's article in Conjectural Technologies. He lamented what has become of public schools and wondered openly what is holding us back.

Imagine a world where elementary school students have meaningful relationships with their teachers, are regularly exposed to new ideas and places, junior-high students start to take responsibility for their own learning by researching topics of interest to them, and high school students have the opportunity to see new lands and meet new people as a regular part of their education. How would the world be different with such students entering college or the workforce?

My guess is...better.

We encourage our kids to try new things. Youth soccer is a good example. Look at Pflugerville--God's Country--the 7-8-6-6-0: Eventually, over 12 soccer teams made up of 6-year-old boys become two teams of 14-year-olds. Eventually, we expect our children to fail at some of these things. Trying soccer, learning from the experience, and moving on is normal. Kids quit. Kids find out they're not very good. We encourage failure in the pursuit of success with our children. Sometimes we call it "exploration."

Schools, on the other hand, can't fail. We will close a school and throw problematic lives into further chaos. We will punish buildings, if that's what makes us feel better. "We" can't fail. There's no chance for a school (or its students) to try new things. When a student falls behind in reading or mathematics, everything else falls by the wayside in deference to the two most tested subjects.

That's unfortunate.

As of this writing, 71% of Texas school districts are failing. This, despite the "research-based" methods that Texas throws at districts. I thought we determined failure was not an option (unless you're the Gates Foundation). 

If the whole goal of a college major, a K-12 education, a lifetime, is to "not fail," well, you pretty much guarantee failure. You're going to miss the mark.

And the point.

Ahead and Behind

Here are two things I say quite often these days:

1. I used to be somebody.


2. The older I get, the better I used to be.

I've managed to end up in the recesses of the public eye (comparatively), choosing to foster the genius of this world rather than try to be that genius. That genius comes from my work, from my marriage, and from my kids.

When I was building my reputation about a decade and a half ago, I used technology heavily. There are people now being paid handsomely and lauded for things I was doing in 1999. These people are "visionaries." I was just creative...with the exception that I never capitalized and created "Henley University" or anything. I was isolated. Technology helped. Some kids in Singapore are probably still mad at the way I judged their website, but looking back, I may have saved some future developers' careers. Now, that contest is being judged by multi-millionaires with names I recognize.

The fact was that in 1999, I was overwhelmed by the possibilities of technology...and more than a little frustrated with some of the boneheads in it. To this day, I do not understand how some people in technology continue to make a living, knowing less than my kids do. Still, I directed my focus elsewhere--choosing to focus on people and only using that technology which was necessary at the time to help them. That effort landed me at a job where I didn't need technology so much.

Then, I got a little behind. It's not that bad, really. Still, I'm frustrated that I have failed to harness the power of technology by getting bogged down in the stupid (keep reading--not sure I've improved anything). In my work to "keep up" with events of importance, I've made too many things important (and forgotten a password or two). That means that when one of my very favorite authors tweets that he will be in the Austin area, I may miss it while focusing on other things. That just happened. Justin Halpern ("Sh*t My Dad Says") came to promote his new book. Let me just say that readers of this blog may want to hit that link and read the opening chapter on Scribd (see? not that far behind).

Getting in trouble for laughing too hard is kind of a goal, right?

Here was a tool (Twitter) that was trying to tell me how to really, really enjoy a night two weeks ago. I was busy doing something less meaningful. Probably playing Bejewelled. I've also missed Austin City Limits taping announcements and other "important" events through this "other" focus.

Bummed that I missed out, I decided to try to keep up with YouTube. A guy should know about things like the Honey Badger--you know, for conversation and all. That's when I realized that I may be alright.

Getting stuck in the political world is a good reason to leave a job. I don't miss that. My life was stuck in this mire in 2008, when Barack Obama harnessed youth and technology to out-fundraise everyone from Hillary Clinton to the entire Republican Party. The messages got annoying, and I'm ready to block texts from "622-62" from my iPhone. Still, I do scan headlines online and at the convenience store. Also, I am surrounded by "illegals," including friends and friends of my kids. Apparently, it is time for Barack Obama to shore up the Hispanic vote. He's starting to act like Candidate Obama again.

During his announcement in the Rose Garden, a reporter blurted out an attack question. The "liberal media" never seemed to do this 5 years ago. Except for some guy in Iraq who was throwing shoes at our president. Ugh. It was one of the most watched videos of the day. What was more interesting to me was the trail of comments, which is crossing the 7000 mark as I write this. A few examples:

and this is what we get for letting a monkey become president.....

codyyy1997

Voluminous and powerful insight came from my new political guru, GOP 2010. The Republican Party must be so proud:

OBAMA = ANTI-AMERICAN PIECE OF SHIT

Obama plops 800K illegals in the system while unemp for minority teen citizens: Hispanic 30.5%, Black 40.5%

Obama joins Mexican Govt criticizing our own state, AZ

Obama raises Military h/c premiums 345% by year 5 but builds Gitmo detainees $750K soccer field

Obama promotes taxpayer-susdzd branch of ACORN, Project Vote, yet sues FL for purging illegal voters

Obama denied FEMA $ to CT flood victims then sends Muslim nations billions to "enhance technology"

2010GOP

--and a caveat comment from this same commenter:

If you ever want to succeed in life, you may want to learn what punctuation is, dipshit. 2010GOP

And let's not miss the other meaningful side of the discussion:

I bet Mexican would take over off all u motherfuckers white people for being bitchass rasist FifaBeast247

--and

Fuck whoever is against Obama you racist, eloquent, ignorant fucks. I'm voting for Obama again :) chingas49 *[Note the smiley!]

Guess I'm not so far off the curve.

Wait. These people don't actually vote, do they?

Strategically Missing the Point

When people write blogs, they hope to get a half million hits and go viral. This has not been my experience. Nobody from one particular liberal arts college has read any of my previous posts. That's understood. My bad marketing. New plan for this LAC: put initial employment data online for everyone to see.

In May, the college will begin publishing employment and salary data for the class of 2011, building on it with every class. A spokeswoman for the Council of Independent Colleges said its president and researcher had never heard of a nonprofit, private college making such data public.Anderson knows the risks: "First, people might look at your data and not be impressed. The other risk, though, is that you have no data, and you're this black box where people dump $50,000 a year for four years."If I could pick one of those two risks, I'm going to take the first one."

I'm not naming the college, but suffice it to say the school just dropped from contention for any Henley family tuition money. It strikes me as a liberal arts college that has lost the key ideas behind the purpose of LAC's.

It all stems from the perspective of a father, I guess. What's the real purpose of higher education? Is it to prepare them for their first job at age 23...or their last job (not to mention all the ones in the middle)? This ignores what kind of mother, daughter, sister, voter, leader, and person I'm trying to create out of the 16-year-old clay I was given. It also ignores the 12-year-old son and my sick daughter of 11 years on the couch downstairs.

When I came out of college with a music education degree, my first job was at Dunn and Bradstreet (my student teaching supervising teacher got fired--bad taste in my mouth for teaching). I've held multiple jobs with multiple foci. My wife's job changes (significantly) every year...and she never leaves the elementary school she's working in. She's constantly getting more schooling to make up for her "focused" degree. My job at NITLE has shifted significantly in less than a year. My personality, a high school debate coach, other relationships, and sheer fear guide me through transitions.

If you have 4 years to prepare for a life that demands constant change, then where do you go? I think the answer is LACs, if you can afford them. This should be a priority. I think wedding rings should have precious metal in them, too. Meanwhile, a girl named Indigo prepares for her first on-campus concert in front of her peers--a chance to explore, become adventurous.

If we drop the purpose of higher education to job training for twenty-somethings, then LACs don't hold up. The smart move, then, becomes two years at a community college to get the "generals" out of the way. Then two years at a public in-state institution for the degree. Then the job. Done. Texas wants to offer degrees for $10,000, total. That's a savings of a quarter million if tuition rises. The Edpunks Guide...makes it even cheaper. Who needs integrated learning, undergraduate research, personal attention from PhD's, a community of learners...any of that? I used to have a button on my jacket that said, "I don't need college. Just the degree."

And that's what most 18-year-olds think. Except you have to work for another 45 years after college. And at age 25, you realize that you HATE accounting, or that you can't be a partner unless you can bring in business...and they fire you if you can't. Next thing you know, you're wearing a Statue of Liberty outfit, trying to get people to bring their income taxes to you instead of using Turbotax.

If only there were an integrated accounting-theatre course you had taken...