More Updates on JATP...

I am very pleased to learn that a school in Cobb County has been added to the JATP panel. The most recent addition is The Walker School, located on 700 Cobb Parkway North, Marietta GA 30062.

For many months the families that I have encountered who have asked for consultative assistance have a definitive path to success. Many of the students have made significant academic and cognitive gains that sometimes I have had to stop and ask, "how old are you". When a three year old tells you that they are making sandwiches out of paper and foam - and explain that it is an expression of abstract art, I have to remind myself that there is a certain optimism that I have for the future.

This is my public thank you to those families who have worked very hard in these last few months. I know that we have accomplished a great deal in the last few months and I am very proud of your children and yourselves in keeping up with this path to educational excellence. Your children have been such a pleasure to work with and I expect nothing but the best results because of what we have done - together!

Here's to the last stretch..........

If You're Smart and You Know It (Don't Just) Clap Your Hands...

Every week I encounter at least one parent who brags about how intelligent their child is. I know what this sounds like because my mom had bragged about each and every one of her five children to anyone who was not hard of hearing. She would tell complete strangers about all of us.  Stories of my oldest brother - "The Businessman", myself, "Miss Resourceful", my younger brother, "The Righteous Man", my little sister, "Social Smartie" and my youngest brother, "The Fact Checker" would travel through the sidewalks of my hometown. Nobody brags more professionally than my mother, or at least that's what I thought.

When my mom (or anyone else in my family) would brag - we would always wait until there was some type of tangible accomplishment received that was worthy of the "bragging". For me, it was rows and rows of certificates, letters of commendation, and a bastion of statues that were won for a "job well done". At a young age, I learned to never bragged about what I could do because bragging was looked down upon in the eyes of my father. It was compulsory for us to always do our best - which inevitably meant the best grade possible. Like many students in my generation - I had a great deal to be proud of. I was unusually quick when it came to matters that were difficult for other students and remained quiet in the classroom. I didn't need to prove to everyone in the class that I knew the answer by raising my hand - I just showed it off to my parents at the end of the grading period. As a result, my teachers never - ever had anything negative to say about me. Even my high school principal knew me by name and took me out to lunch because of the type of "status" I had in my community.

What I am noticing now is that students do not have the same motivation to succeed, on their own. Instead of parents showing me what their child has accomplished, they instead show me what their IQ is (which really doesn't tell me much). As an educator, an IQ is an indication of what an individual can accomplish, if that is what they want to do. There are many individuals who have been classified as "gifted" but sometimes parents have been "enabling" them to rest on their laurels and allow them to not accomplish what they could accomplish. Trying to complete an essay on your own or a set of math problems without the assistance of mom or dad can never hurt. When students are young, they should view homework as a time that they can "problem solve" and learn "self-reliance". It should not be a time where they fight with their mom and dad to tell the teacher that they had other, more trivial things to do.

My opinion is if your child is intelligent - please encourage them to prove themselves in each and every task that they encounter. They will feel more accomplished as a result.

"Learning Center Itis"

When I was a public school teacher, I had a conference with a parent that was "praising the Gods" about a particular learning center's approach to academics. She said that this program was the reason why her son was doing so well in math and reading and that he attended the program religiously each and every week.

After the conference, I shook my head back and forth multiple times because he was failing all of his classes. I am sure that the program has merits in whatever it is that they do well, but what boggled me was that a great deal of what he was learning did not carry over to the everyday rigor of his school work. If the program is so good, why are his grades "so bad"?

One reason why is that the program is good at what it is intended to be good at: providing a program. Many of the places that have been open for many years exist because they have a format to follow. Some of them are flexible - most of them are not. Some of them have teachers on staff - most of them may not. Regardless of what it is that you are looking for, it is rare to find the person who is at the head of the learning center an individual who understands not only the curriculum that is being taught at the schools today, but also well suited to reverse engineer a lesson that did not sink well with a student.

On a personal note, I have actually worked in these centers (on my own expense). I know what they are capable of doing - and not doing. To be quite honest with you - some of these learning centers have even approached me to help train their staff and (more comically) work with their children. I do not know if their motive is the same as mine - to make a difference in the lives of each child that you can touch, but I can certainly tell you that they do not have the same fervor for education that I do.  They went into this business to make a quick buck. It's insulting to me because nothing that you do well should ever be for money. Education  and health medicine  are fields where you do not want the person who is helping you to be the one that is doing it for the money. Trust me - I know. I have been misdiagnosed by many, many ER doctors because they are out to make a buck. I know that I was made to work with kids. Whenever I have free time and I am out in a public place, like a restaurant, or the office supply store, or the library, parents watch their kids gaze at me wondering who I am. They realize after the 4th glance that I am no ordinary stranger - I am an educator who has always had a certain magnetism when working with kids. I speak their language, know their story. I didn't need to buy into a franchise to become that because I live it every day.

The main difference between these learning centers and me is I stand behind what I do - and think about what lasting impressions my curriculum choices and methodologies are. What good is it if your student can solve complex algebra problems - but have an aversion to a word problem?  I want to develop a humble, well-rounded and highly talented individual, not a parrot.

Self-Advocacy at 10 years old...

I remember it like yesterday. It was my first day of sixth grade and I received my schedule of classes for the school year. In comparing the schedule with my friends - I noticed that I was in a math class that I did not think that I belonged in. Rather than being upset - or worse, talking to my dad (who would oftentimes blame my teachers, but never in their face) I decided to take matters into my own hands.

Naturally talented in "math facts", I went up to my teacher on the first day and asked how I can move up to the "accelerated math class" that all of my industrious friends were placed in. I mentioned to her very politely, "I think that there was a mistake. I am a very good math student. What do I need to do in order to be in the accelerated math class with the other students?". Her abrupt response to me was "You need to have a 100 average in order to move up to the next level."

One-hundred? Very well. For me, that was something that did not require just an extreme amount of pressure, but self-determination - and precision. Each and every single math problem that I did needed to be perfect. Not just  "perfect";  but almost a work of art. Enough to show my fellow students, teacher, teachers, department, and school how math was done. I remember at the beginning of each class the teacher would hold up my work and show the entire class what your math homework needed to look like. What I did was no secret - I listened in class (very intently), did my homework, lined up each step as if it was drawn by Picasso. Eventually the papers that were handed back were filled with more 100's than a stack of Benjamin Franklin bills. It was not a matter of pride or revenge - it was the policy that the math department had set in order for students to move up. Yes, I was upset, but my frustration with the situation was leveraged with my own sense of self-worth. Years later, my grandfather reaffirmed the notion by telling me, "You can accomplish anything that you put your mind to." My quiet response to him was "I think that I already have...".

Each quarter of that school year I was in a different math class. I noticed that with every group that I was in, I would observe the amount that was demanded of each student and was glad to move up at the end of every quarter. A new class meant new teachers and friends - something that my curious mind was always observant of. I never mentioned this to my father or mother - they always knew that out of their five children - I was not one to give them any problems when it came to school. There were times when my dad would plug the phone because teachers would call him during his morning coffee to tell him how great of a student I was. (Sorry Dad, I know how important that time is to you. They should have written you a note that I may have kept for myself..)

In school, I learned to do what I knew I could do and was expected of me - I used the system to my advantage and never had another conversation with a teacher about what I had to do. I did it all on my own and the success of my accomplishment was landing in the very last "accelerated" class with the rest of my friends. (To my disappointment, it wasn't as difficult as I had imagined. It had a label of accelerated, but not the work or the expectation.)

When I look back, I realized that back then my drive to succeed was way beyond anyone else's in the school - because nobody had accomplished what I had. My mother has always said that it is a rarity for me to ask someone to help me learn things - like reading, writing, doing math, or even riding a bike (I have the scabs to prove it.). I share that story with many of my students so that they know that sometimes the person that you can look to when things get a little complicated is right in front of you. Your parents have done such an excellent job with you - that sometimes all it takes is just listening to what they have been telling you all your life.

In the words of my mother, "Work hard, very hard. What you accomplish on your own nobody can take away from you. No matter how hard they try."

What Expectations Do You Set For Your Children?

As I have watched the news unfold about education - I have become even less detached with the idea of standardizing education. Many parents look to the schools to set standards for education. What I have noticed now more than ever is that students are becoming less and less prepared for the world that they will be living in when they are done with college.

Unlike today's generation - our generation has been raised with the idea that when you give students a template of ideas and concepts to learn from - they will use those skills to build something even more comprehensive. The system as I have seen it has been more tactical in the approach to help students rather than strategic. Focusing on test-taking is not as important as understanding the subject material. Having good grades is futile if application is not part of the process. Shifting blame rather than taking personal responsibility shows lack of determination and interest in what is truly important.

The bottom line is that as a parent - it is ultimately you that determines how successful your child is both in and out of the classroom. Good grades are great in showing how your child navigated through the curriculum during a certain time frame, however, isn't it more important to show how they are able to apply the information that they have accumulated through the years. What benefit is it for your sixth grader to be a straight A student in math if they are unable to apply a real-life word problem to see how many invitations they will need to buy for a birthday party? Or how a kindergarten child is able to go through five study guides in math but cannot articulate what those numbers actually mean. In the words of a very close family member: "Set expectations higher than what is expected. You will never feel disappointed when you reach them."

What's the Problem With Kids and Math?

Over the last few weeks, I've worked with some students trying to understand their thought process as it pertains to math. For some reason, the "wonder of math" has slowly started to slip away from the classrooms and has been replaced by technology devices that are to fit in the palm of your hand.

It is really a shame that students do not enjoy math - like my generation did. For some reason they fail to see that math is all around them. From the moment that they wake up in the morning to the time that they fall asleep - a math problem is abound in their heads. The misplaced priorities has given way to countless errors in logical and critical reasoning that guides many of our decisions later on in life.

This is why I support bringing math on the agenda by offering a Math curriculum to your student. As an avid fan of math - I use this curriculum to help your child not only understand math like they did before, but also to have an appreciation of the process. If you would like to know more about this math program, you can view the information on my website.