Tag Archives: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

INSURANCE BUSINESS CAN BE MESSY

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#insurance #healthinsurance #riskmanagement
The insurance business can be messy and complicated.

Some insurance is mandated. For example, a minimum amount of auto insurance, usually liability insurance, in case someone else gets hurt, is required in most states.

Health insurance, under the Affordable Care Act, is now mandated. We can certainly debate the necessity of that – perhaps later.

Life insurance may be the only one that is completely optional, meaning it’s not mandated and many people can live without it.

But even if insurance isn’t mandated, it may be – or should be – something we can’t really live without. When a person doesn’t buy flood insurance because it’s too expensive, but lives in a flood-prone area and gets flooded, many thoughts crowd her mind, and the minds of others watching. Those others watching may want to help, but may cringe at a Go Fund Me request to help HER. They might prefer to help the responsible folks take care of necessities that their flood insurance may not cover.

As for health insurance, the business model may seem complicated.

All insurance business models are about “risk management,” which may seem like a vague term to most, but we’ll use health insurance as an example as we break it down.

The health insurer collects premiums from folks who are healthy, and not making any, or are making very few, claims. When a person gets to a point in his life that he needs to make perhaps significant claims, those premiums he paid all those years may not matter.

The insurer will use all kinds of gimmicks, technicalities and even trickery to find ways to either not pay a claim, or pay as little as possible. They may often put consumers, already dealing with what ails them, through an incredible process to get their money. The more daunting the process, the more likely people will give up.

Remember this: just as consumers don’t like to be put through a wringer to get what they are owed, the insurers don’t like to be pestered day in and day out, either. The rule of thumb: if your policy says you are covered, fight for what you are owed. If the company doesn’t pay, sue.

Then, we have the standoffs between providers, usually big providers who may be the only game in town, and insurers over fees, reimbursements etc. You see insurers use their leverage to give the least to the provider, and you see the provider using its leverage by not taking the insurer’s policyholders as patients.

Remember, an insurer’s promise of coverage with your provider is made to be broken. In standoffs like these, the patients (policyholders) suffer and no one cares.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote that despite the exit of some big insurers from the Affordable Care Act marketplace, the law is working well, reducing the number of uninsured Americans considerably. His column was published Aug. 22, 2016, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Though some insurers’ exit from the marketplace is a concern, Krugman says the problem can be fixed if people can learn to work together to do so.

The U.S. is the only major nation in the world in which health insurance is left up to the free market. Some advocate that we move to the single-payer system, in which we’d all have health insurance through the government. There are pitfalls here, too.

The insurance industry provides many, good-paying jobs. Many of those would be gone in a single-payer system. Drug and device companies rely on their U.S. profits for much of the money that goes to researching new and better treatments.

What to do? Determine what insurance you need and buy it. You may have to give up some pleasure and deal with some messy situations along the way, but going without can create far worse consequences. Remember the Fram Oil Man ads: pay me now, or pay me later.

If you are having trouble paying your premiums, look for other ways to make money. There are many part-time options out there that could even give you enough to surpass your main income. To check out one of the best, message me.
Insurance is messy. You may have to shop around frequently for the best deal, but paying penalties, or just taking the risk that you won’t need it, is a recipe for disaster.

Peter

IMMIGRANTS BENEFIT ECONOMY

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#immigration #prosperity #workforce
Believe it or not, to quote the first line of a newspaper editorial, “immigrants are not the enemy.”
The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville commented on reports compiled by the bipartisan Partnership for A New American Economy showing how immigrants are contributing to the workforce, tax rolls and the overall economy, the editorial reads. It was published in the Aug. 14, 2016, edition.
In Tennessee, the newspaper says, 300,000 residents are foreign-born, or nearly 5 percent of the state’s population. But, they make up 6 percent of the state’s workforce, the editorial says. In 1990, immigrants made up only 1.2 percent of Tennessee’s population.
The editorial cites some notable stats from the report:
• Immigrants annually earn $7.9 billion, pay $493 million in taxes and have the spending power of $5.9 billion.
• They make up 7.8 percent of entrepreneurs.
• They are 32 percent more likely to work than the native-born population (57.8 percent of employed immigrants vs. 43.7 percent of employed natives.)
• Immigrants make up 7 percent of jobs in science, technology, engineering and math (the STEM skills).
Meanwhile, in an article published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Aug. 15, 2016, Tim Henderson of the Tribune News Service writes that many officials in small towns nationwide that have lost population in recent years are asking that refugees from the Middle East and elsewhere be relocated to their towns to take jobs they can’t fill, live in apartments and houses that are now vacant and to shop in local stores. The refugees will take the places of native-born residents who’ve moved elsewhere in large numbers.
Immigrants have basically gotten a bad reputation. Some see them as moochers, stealers of benefits and taking opportunities away from native-born Americans. The report, on which the Tennessean editorial was based, tells a different tale.
“(Undocumented workers) are demonized for their legal status, but overall they are giving back more to society than they are getting back,” the editorial says.
Undocumented workers, “though they don’t directly benefit from federal and state aid, but they annually earn $2.1 billion, pay $250 million in state and federal taxes and have $1.8 billion in spending power, “ the editorial says.
Immigrants do jobs native-born Americans won’t do. They are doing many highly technical jobs – not just manual labor – that relatively few native-born Americans are qualified for. Many get their training here, and overstay their visas.
The economic partnership that compiled the Tennessean report is aiming for sensible immigration reform.
It’s easy to blame immigrants, or something else, for one’s hard times.
It’s much more difficult to look for one’s own solutions to the hard times.
If you are looking for something to come into YOUR life that will change things for the betterment of you, there are many such vehicles out there. To check out one of the best, message me. You’ll see people from various races, and nearly all backgrounds, who have taken a step to turn their own lives around.
The economy is changing in ways that we can’t revert. One either has to accept that change and ensure that they can have what they want as the economy changes, or they can blame various people and institutions for their hardship.
If one thinks about it, one can only hope we all choose to accept and ensure. The next time you are working with, or being serviced by, someone who may not look or talk the way you do, know that the person is contributing greatly to the economy, and to the well-being of all of us.
Peter

FRANCHISEE DRIVES FOR UBER AS HE WAITS FOR HIS FRANCHISE TO GROW

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#Uber #franchisees #franchises
It appears Uber is more than a ride-sharing service.
It’s a good part-time job for those starting franchises and waiting for them to grow.
Lindsay Moore, reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, discussed how one man, Erik Lingren, decided to go from unemployed, to a Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt franchise owner, while driving for Uber part-time.
The story was published in the August 7, 2016, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
When one buys into a franchise, it can take a while before the franchise makes enough for the owner to make a decent living.
In Lingren’s case, he went from one store to two, employing 18 and planning to add another 12 to 15 employees, Moore writes.
Between working on his franchises and driving for Uber, Lingren works 60 to 65 hours a week, Moore writes.
Besides having to set up a franchise and wait for it to grow, there’s another rub. The average Menchie’s store costs between $229,557 and $425,310 in startup costs, Moore quotes from the company’s Web site.
Not everyone who suddenly loses a job has the ability to jump into a franchise.
If you’re at a crossroads in your life, or, as Lingren calls it, a bridge, but can’t just jump into a franchise, there are other ways out there to make money without having a traditional W-2 job, and without having to dump your life savings, or borrowed money, into startup costs. To check out one of the best, message me.
Here’s a bonus: you have the opportunity to build an income that could surpass that from a traditional franchise, without the employees, overhead, inventory and other headaches. The startup cost is nothing close to that for a Menchie’s franchise.
Lingren actually likes driving for Uber. Moore writes that he intends to keep his ride-sharing account active as his frozen yogurt empire expands.
As job security becomes elusive for many, it’s important, too, that while you are working you save as much money as you can.
Put the money you save into investments that are comfortable for you, and get good, trustworthy advice.
If you’re a fro-yo fan, or a fan of another type of franchise, the money you save could allow you to buy in, should your job go away.
Though it is admirable to help others by creating jobs for them, managing people can be difficult. Making sure your business has everything it needs can keep you up at night.
Working part time as a driver as you wait for your business to grow may not be ideal.
A better idea might be to participate in something you can do part time with little sweat while you still have a job, that could produce an income that would allow you to walk away with a smile if your job suddenly goes away.
Peter

GREETINGS: HOW THEY’RE PHRASED CAN SEND DIFFERENT MESSAGES

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#greetings #messages #DifferentMessages
So how was your weekend?
Robert Lentz of Business Management Daily took on this greeting and phrased it in different ways.
“Good weekend?” says you don’t care about details. You are just being nice, Lentz wrote in an article published Aug. 7, 2016, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Did you have a good weekend?” That conveys more courtesy, Lentz writes.
“Did you do anything interesting this weekend?” commits you to a conversation, writes Lentz.
“What did you do this weekend” demonstrates actual interest in someone’s life, according to Lentz.
We greet each other in different ways for different reasons. Sometimes, we really don’t want to know how someone is, or what they have done, but ask anyway, just to be nice.
Other times, we genuinely want to know how someone is doing, or what cool things they have done, and really want to talk to them.
It’s not just how one greets people. It’s how one responds to a greeting.
If someone asks how you are, do you respond positively and with enthusiasm?
If someone asks you what you did over the weekend, do you proceed to tell them in great detail, whether you think they want to know or not?
Greetings, and responses to them, don’t just have different meanings, they say a lot about people.
If things aren’t going well in your life, do you want to dump your problems onto others, or do you want others to think all is well with you?
It’s best to have an attitude of gratitude. It’s best not only to be positive and enthusiastic around others, but to actually feel that way.
Sometimes, when you are going through a rough patch, it takes work to remain positive. A rule of thumb here is to always think about the GOOD things in your life, to get you through those rough patches. It may be easier said than done, but it can be done.
If you ask someone how he or she is doing, or how his or her weekend was, take a genuine interest in what they say, and invite conversation. Sometimes, that one conversation could uplift you, especially if you have hit a rough patch.
If you’ve hit a financial rough patch, there are many solutions out there. Message me if you want to know about one of the best. You’ll learn about lots of happy people who’ve built great relationships and solved their financial issues.
Happiness can take work, but it is well worth it. The next time someone asks how your weekend was, respond with enthusiasm and be curious about how that person’s was.
That may not only brighten your day, but it might enhance your life.
Peter

WOMEN EARN LESS THAN MEN IN RETIREMENT

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#WomenInRetirement #EarningsOfWomenVs.Men #jobs #layoffs
During their working years, women tend to earn less than men.
When they retire, women are more likely to live in poverty.
So says an article by Adam Allington of the Associated Press, published in the July 11, 2016, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Women who raised children and cared for the sick and elderly family members often take what savings and income they have and spend it on something other than their own retirement security, Allington writes.
He quotes the National Institute on Retirement Security, which reports that women are 80 percent more likely than men to be impoverished at age 65 and older. Women 75 to 79 are three times more likely, Allington writes.
“I’ve had jobs that included a 401(k) and I was able to put some money aside every month,” Allington quotes Marsha Hall, 60. “But then I would get laid off and have to cash out the 401(k) to have money to live on,” he quotes Hall, who was born and raised in Detroit, is divorced and has no children.
Hall works part time as a file clerk, and she and her siblings chip in to care for their 75-year-old mother, Allington writes.
“If it wasn’t for Section 8 (a housing subsidy), I don’t know where I’d be living,” Allington quotes Hall.
Many men also have undergone a layoff in the last few years. Many families have lost their homes and have had to liquidate some, if not all, of their retirement savings.
Some see themselves scraping together a living via Social Security, part-time or even full-time jobs well into their golden years – presuming they can find those. For many, trying to reproduce the income they had in a job they lost is nearly impossible, as they see it.
Fortunately, there are solutions out there that can produce an income – even a better income than one has ever had – that don’t involve subsidies, or working at a traditional W-2 job in your golden years, and allow a person to help others do the same. For one of the best, message me.
Traditionally, women have borne the brunt of caregiving. They have also, in many cases, had to take off some work time to have children.
Much research has shown that, in general, they have also earned cents on the dollar vs. men.
These phenomena may have put women behind in earnings, thereby putting them behind in terms of retirement savings.
But both men and women are facing what Hall has faced in recent years: layoffs and not being able to replace a lost job with one that yields as good or better income than what was lost.
It’s important for everyone to have a Plan B in case the worst happens. If you have a good job, stay with it and save as much of your income as you can. Invest those savings well, with the help of a trusted adviser. If life forces you to take a break from work, try not to deplete those savings, though that may be easier said than done.
Most of all, make a secure retirement a priority in your life by spending less and saving more.
Peter

TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE NOT ALWAYS GOOD, BUT …

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It may not have been as devastating as the Great Depression, but the recession of 2008 changed a lot of lives, in many cases, not for the better.
As New York Times columnist David Brooks writes, after such a change, “a certain number of people are dispossessed. They lose identity, self-respect and hope.
“They begin to base their sense of self-worth on their tribe, not their behavior,” he continues.
“They become mired in their resentments, spiraling deeper into the addiction of their own victimology,” he adds.
Brooks discussed this in relation to national politics in a column published July 15, 2016, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
If you were dealt a blow sometime around 2008, or since, you probably can relate.
Perhaps you lost a job, and haven’t been able to find one that pays you anywhere close to the job you lost. Perhaps you lost your house.
You keep hearing that things are getting better. The economy is picking up, say the experts. Yet, you don’t feel it.
You tend to blame people, or things, that really are not to blame. Even the employer who canned you, if that happened to you, probably was forced to.
Bear this in mind: blaming takes valuable energy away from solving the problem at hand.
Blaming is also easy. Solving the problem may be more difficult.
You may also hear that employers WANT to hire more people now. Yet, you are not among those they are looking for.
An example might be that police forces and the military are looking for new recruits. But you might not be the best candidate for that because, for example, you are too old. Even if you are the right age, perhaps you are not in the kind of physical shape to deal with the rigors of the job.
Perhaps you’ve just graduated college, with a good bit of debt, but employers want something more than just your raw brain to train. They want built-in expertise that you don’t have.
Therefore, you feel you have nowhere to turn. The natural instinct is to blame.
However, there are many ways out there to take your problem into your own hands, and help others do the same. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
The economy is going through a transition to the information age. As Brooks points out, it went through something similar in the 1880s, when it transitioned from an agriculture base to an industrial base.
“America still has great resources at the local and social level,” Brooks writes. He believes local is more powerful.
When a natural disaster befalls us, we must decide to rebuild or move. The choice is clearly in our hands. In this era, we have choices. The choice to be a victim is not healthy. The choice to take matters into our own hands, perhaps with the help of great local resources, is preferable.
Doing so may mean changing what you did, and how you did it, or getting used to something new, different and, at least at first, uncomfortable. But it can be done if you just look for the right vehicle for you.
If you have the urge to blame, remember this: You can’t embrace what is gone forever. But it can help you embrace what comes next.
Peter

COLLEGE GRADS’ JOB PROSPECTS IMPROVING? DON’T STAND AND APPLAUD YET

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#CollegeGrads #employment #jobs #StudentDebt
It may be the best time to graduate college since the Great Recession. But they are still not great.
So writes Ruth Serven of The Kansas City Star. Her story was published July 3, 2016, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The unemployment rate for college grads is less than 5 percent, and job prospects are getting brighter, Serven writes. But 45 percent of those recent grads have jobs that don’t require their degrees, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Serven writes.
Though there is more work available, grads still face stagnant wages and the highest debt load ever, the article says.
In fact, 42 million people owe $1.3 trillion in student debt, according to the cover story in the August 2016 issue of Consumer Reports magazine, which condensed and reprinted an article by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting.
“I feel I kind of ruined my life by going to college,” the CR article quotes Jackie Krowen, 32, of Portland, Ore., who owes $162,000 in student debt.
We’ve recently discussed this topic in this space, but it bears hearing another perspective.
Many graduates are coming out of college with debt the size of a home mortgage. How can they be expected to 1) buy a house? 2) begin saving for retirement? or 3) buy some of the essential things they need to live a decent life?
On top of the debt, the students’ expensive education is not giving them work that would be worth the investment, in many cases.
Also, some students are getting calls at all hours with prods, if not threats, to make payments on that debt.
Though most consider a home mortgage not just productive debt, but an actual financial vehicle, college debt, without having a commensurate job to make its burden light, is not productive debt.
Certainly, all education has value. But some education has more value than others. If a student goes on to be a doctor, for example, and goes into debt to make that happen, that’s, more or less, expected.
A medical practice can be lucrative and usually, before the doctor gets too old, it is usually paid off. Some even practice medicine in less lucrative places, in exchange for some eventual debt relief, among other inducements.
But if one studies, say, the liberal arts, and goes into debt to pay for that education, it’s very possible, even likely, that, if he gets a job at all, it will not be terribly lucrative. The student debt, therefore, becomes perhaps a lifelong burden. As that student ages, the burden may be so great that he will retire with little or nothing to help him get through old age.
Fortunately, there are solutions that don’t involve stiffing one’s debtor. There are ways to earn an extra income for a few part-time hours a week that might not only pay better than the job you are doing, but has the potential to make you financially free eventually. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
By all means, before a student decides to go to college, sit down with parents and other advisers and do the math. If you have to borrow money to cover most of the costs, think about how you would pay it back. If you don’t have a good answer, reconsider your future.
Colleges and universities, too, should contemplate their futures. How good would it look to produce thousands, even millions, of graduates that are so crushed with debt, they’ll be paying on it forever? Someone needs to retool education to prevent this.
We have a love-hate relationship with education. We may love it while we’re in school, but, when we graduate, often we don’t love it nearly as much.
Peter

BUILDING A PERSON FROM SCRATCH — IN A LAB

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#cloning #HumanGenome #BuildingAPersonFromScratch
A couple decades ago, there was talk of cloning, or making an exact copy of an animal, person etc. Dolly, the cloned sheep, became a household name.
Now, scientists are beginning a 10-year program that will re-create the human genome which, if successful, could lead to creating people without the help of parents.
The proposal was published June 2, 2016, in the journal Science, and was the subject of an article by New York Times reporter Andrew Pollack. Pollack’s article was republished in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The idea of building people in a lab is fraught with moral considerations. The potential for huge advancements in medical science is intriguing. Still, Dr. Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health — the main funder of medical research in the United States – said that while the NIH is interested in encouraging advances in DNA synthesis, it “has not considered the time to be right for funding a large-scale, production-oriented” project like this one, according to Pollack’s article.
Collins also said such a project immediately raises “numerous ethical and philosophical red flags,” according to Pollack’s article.
The nonprofit Center of Excellence for Engineering Biology, which will run the project, intends to get funding from several public and private sources, according to Pollack’s article.
It’s fairly easy to see the medical advancement potential here. “It might be possible to make organisms resistant to all viruses, for instance, or make pig organs suitable for transplant into people,” Pollack writes.
But to make a whole person, piece by piece, in a lab? That’s delving into areas that will challenge ethics, potentially alter population mix and a host of other things that could change mankind as we know it.
We live in a diverse world. We celebrate that diversity. We work with, and live with, nature, while allowing it to be natural. We certainly like to manufacture things that will benefit us, but manufacturing people may be beyond what we should be doing.
Instead, if we don’t like our situation, or we don’t like whom we’ve become, let’s remake ourselves without making a new person from scratch. We all have the ability to change, to become better people, without changing our DNA, or becoming artificial.
One of the ways we can change is to help others more. To check out one of the best ways to do that, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You can see how people helping people potentially can help make all involved prosperous.
There are many things we, as smart humans, can do to make the world a better place. There are diseases to fight, physical, economic and other challenges to overcome.
But creating people in labs potentially will dehumanize us as a whole. Imagine a person created in a lab being asked where he or she came from, what his or her family background is etc. Those are all things that make us who we are. How does adding to an already overpopulated world from a lab enhance the world experience?
If this project remains limited in scope, much good could come from it. The danger lies in carrying it out to its fullest potential.
Let’s hope the researchers, presuming they get the funding to do this, will be mindful of all ramifications of their research as they conduct it. Just because something CAN be done, doesn’t mean it SHOULD be done.
Peter

MIDDLE CLASS DECLINING IN MANY METRO AREAS

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#MiddleClass #MedianIncome #population
“The widening wealth gap is moving more households into either higher- or lower-income groups in major metro areas, with fewer remaining in the middle.”
So writes Christopher Rugaber of the Associated Press. His article was published in the May 12, 2016, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Rugaber based his article on a Pew Research Center analysis and report. Pew defines the middle class as households with incomes between two-thirds and twice the median income, adjusted for household size and local cost of living, according to Rugaber’s article.
Middle-class adults now make up less than half the population in such cities as New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Houston.
“(The shrinking of the middle class) has increased the polarization of incomes,” Rugaber quotes Rakesh Kochhar, associate research director at Pew and lead author of the report.
Nationally, the proportion of middle class adults shrank to 51 percent in 2014 from 55 percent in 2000, Rugaber quotes the report. Upper-income adults now constitute 20 percent of the population, up from 17 percent. The lower-income share has risen to 29 percent from 28 percent, the article says.
So what happened? People who lost jobs in the Great Recession, if they have found new ones, are now working for less money. The article tells of a Detroit man, age 52, who was earning $28 an hour as a factory worker, but now works for $17 an hour in another company’s shipping department.
That’s pretty close to half of his salary gone.
The good jobs that had been available, whether unionized or not, are disappearing. Make no mistake. Regardless of how you feel about labor unions, they helped build the middle class. As their power wanes, so does the middle class. Many of those who rail against unions today either once belonged to a union, or had a close family member who did. Many today have unions to thank for whatever life they have built or inherited.
Not only have people lost good jobs only to take lesser paying ones, many have lost good benefits. What their good jobs used to pay for, i.e. health insurance, their new jobs probably do not.
So many are making less, and paying more out of pocket for life’s necessities. Fortunately for them, the price of oil has dropped significantly, so they are saving lots at the pump.
It’s easy to look at the downside of a shrinking middle class. But let’s check out the reverse: some people are actually making more than middle-class wages.
That could be the result of one of several things. Some may be getting highly educated, particularly in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Skills in those areas can bring someone a big-paying job.
Still, companies often have to look outside the United States to find people with those skills. Apparently, America is not producing those highly educated people in large numbers.
Some could be boosting their net worth by investing well in the markets. One could start relatively poor, save a little each week out of his meager paycheck, put it away and watch it grow. Then, that person must stay disciplined enough to manage it, but not touch it, until his or her elder years.
Finally, there are ways other than a traditional job that one can earn extra income. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You’ll see people who started in a variety of financial positions – low, middle or high income – and worked part time on something that made them a fortune. There are no guarantees, of course, but a few people saw something special and worked with it.
The lesson here is that to improve one’s financial position, he may have to look for something that may not be readily apparent. Stick with a job, even a lower-paying one, if you must, but always be on the lookout for something better. There are good things out there for those who look for them.
Peter

DO SCHOOLS REALLY HAVE TO BE BORING?

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#BoringSchools #education #HappyStudents
A graduate from an affluent New York high school told a panel of education experts that school was like a prison.
“The only difference,” said Nikhil Goyal, “is that in schools, students are paroled at the same time every day. Does school really have to be this horrible, this boring and monotonous thing that you have to wake up every day at 7 a.m. and go to?” he asked.
Goyal was quoted in a June 13, 2016, column by Maureen Downey, education columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Goyal, now 21, has written a book titled, “Schools on Trial: How Freedom and Creativity Can Fix Our Educational Malpractice,” Downey writes.
Schools should bend to accommodate students rather than forcing children to learn in lockstep and labeling them as failures if they fall out of step, Downey writes, attributing the statement to Goyal.
Why can’t we design schools “where kids are happy and excited to be there?” Downey quotes Goyal.
As we’ve learned, particularly in recent years, it’s difficult to absolutely quantify learning.
Couple that with the advancing technology, in which information is readily available, and we begin to wonder what we are teaching kids, and whether those things are going to actually help them.
The best way we know to quantify learning is through test scores, term papers and the like. In many instances, the students are merely spitting back information they might not ever use – not to mention how easy it will be to find if they do use it.
Employers may not be looking for what a person knows, but how he thinks and whether his way of thinking will mesh with what the company wants to accomplish.
We want to teach kids how to think, but exactly how to do that, in a way that is quantifiable, is a real challenge for educators.
Perhaps, as the educators perfect that, students will feel more excited in school.
Downey says Goyal told her that students measured their self-worth by the number of Advanced Placement classes they took and the academic honors they received. Most were sleep-deprived and some depended on prescription drugs, like Adder-all and Ritalin, to survive, Downey writes.
Certainly, some independent schools, with less emphasis on quantifying learning, let students rely on their own innate curiosity and creativity to lead them to what they should learn, Downey writes. That, she attributes to Goyal, will allow students to learn with enthusiasm and joy.
As the debate continues on how best to educate children, and how much that education should cost, it’s important for children to know that education of any type is valuable, though not all education will make one a living.
There are many ways out there to earn money, regardless of education. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
Meanwhile, as a society, we need to find the best way to educate children for today’s world. We also know that education that creates enthusiasm among students can only benefit them in the long run.
Peter