success Archives - Dr. Rich Swier

Applying the Success Equation to U.S. K-12 Education.

This is a follow-up to Critically Thinking about Success (Part 1). I’m following the same format, but looking at how we can achieve success by relatively quickly fixing America’s totally broken K-12 education system…

I’ve always had a fascination with why certain people stood out from the crowd and were successful. As I developed my Critical Thinking skills, I researched and paid attention to what common traits these people had — and applied them to a variety of issues that I’ve dealt with.

I contend if we follow the five Traits below, that will maximize our chances of success regarding what to do with the Department of Education (DOEd)…

Trait #1: Have a specific, high, attainable vision of what they want

Successful people are often called dreamers — as they see possibilities that almost everyone else discards as pie-in-the-sky. But their dreams have at least three characteristics:

a) they are precise (not vague),

b) they are aspirational, and

c) they are within reason. These three attributes help a believer to stay focused on their vision.

The VISION is: to transform DOEd so that it facilitates a significant improvement of the US K-12 education system, within five (5) years.

As with almost all visions of successful people, the vast majority of citizens will be skeptical that this can be done. They will have an array of excuses (like the fifteen listed here), but to Critical Thinkers, there are legitimate counters to every concern regarding DOEd.

Trait #2: Don’t reinvent the wheel

One way or another, almost everything has already been done before. (In fact, many historians look at history as a collection of repetitious cycles. A related famous saying is: “If you don’t learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it.”)

There are two primary ways of learning: Education or Experience. I found that those who are successful maximize the education part. In other words, a significant key to success is to learn as much as possible from the failures and accomplishments of others.

Most people are saying something like: “Get rid of DOEd because they have been a disaster.” That statement is absolutely true, but is getting rid of DOEd our best option to bring about our Vision? Unequivocally NO!

Critical Thinkers will approach this situation by saying: “Let’s identify and learn from the multitude of DOEd mistakes made in the past — and see that the transformed DOEd avoids those pitfalls.”

For example, Critical Thinkers will notice that DOEd never spelled out what the top priorities were for our K-12 education system! That is a simply stunning omission that explains a lot.

The good news is that this is easy to fix quickly. This error is compounded by the fact that when I read the Mission Statements of all fifty State Education Departments, there is zero uniformity among these!

So a powerful role that DOEd can play is leadership. The goal would be to get all States to have the same K-12 education objectives. How they achieve them will be left up to each State. See fifteen examples where DOEd leadership can be an extraordinary game changer.

Trait #3: See an exceptional opportunity when it presents itself

We ALL have been presented with (and will continue to be in the future) multiple opportunities. Unfortunately, many people don’t recognize most opportunities until they are in the rearview mirror. Successful people have developed the acuity to recognize a much greater selection of opportunities than others do.

We literally have in our grasp a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to quickly and substantially improve the American K-12 education system. Again please carefully read fifteen powerful examples of what can easily be done.

To not take full advantage of this opportunity will in the future be looked at as a watershed mistake in American history. To consciously choose to make the situation worse (by turning over K-12 education to some fifty failing bureaucracies) would be criminal.

Trait #4: Intelligently take advantage of opportunities when presented

There are talkers and doers… Recognition of opportunities is an essential matter — but it is for naught if it isn’t acted on.

As a physicist, I can tell you that one of the fundamental principles of physics is the Law of Inertia. Basically what it means is that it takes more energy (effort) to get a stopped object to move forward, than it takes to get an already moving object to continue to move forward. The same applies to organizations. If their leaders are in a moving forward mindset, they will be more open to opportunities than someone who is defensively protecting their turf, or who simply decides a priori that something can’t be done, is too much trouble, etc.

The facts are that DOEd Secretary Linda McMahon:

1) can fire anyone at DOEd,

2) can hire anyone for DOEd,

3) can establish whatever policies and procedures she wants,

4) can spend $80± BILLION of annual discretionary funds anyway she sees fit, etc., etc.

What this means is that Linda can scrap the entire DOEd and start over —with essentially full control over every important aspect of it. In other words, Linda has the power to transform DOEd into a major beneficial force regarding American K-12 education.

This needs to be fully appreciated as an unprecedented opportunity, which requires prompt, meaningful action on her part to have DOEd blossom into a fabulously powerful force for good.

Trait #5: Be persistent to overcome the inevitable roadblocks that will be in the way

Every lofty goal comes with an assortment of obstacles. If they weren’t there everyone else would be doing it, and it would no longer be a lofty goal — it would be an everyday matter. So having a positive, persistent attitude is a key attribute of successful people.

There will be obstructions and obstacles in transforming DOEd into what it should be — like a large collection of vocal naysayers who lack the vision of how to convert DOEd into a major success.

We need to keep our eye on the prize, which means staying focused on the extraordinary benefits to America from starting to annually graduate 4± million well-educated, thinking citizens (instead of what’s happening now: annually graduating 4± million non-thinking citizens who are indoctrinated with progressive ideology). Reversing those figures would be profoundly beneficial to America’s future.

The Takeaway

There are no guarantees in life. Even if you adopt the above five traits, unforeseen circumstances might derail an otherwise good plan. I have a few adages I adhere to, and the most important one is: “Work as if everything depends on you, but pray as if everything depends on God.”

The benefits from properly transforming DOEd reimburse every cost and sacrifice at least a hundred times over. All we need is the vision and an unwavering commitment to make it happen.

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The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has stated that Governor Mitt Romney was correct to note, as he did during a fundraiser dinner in Jerusalem, that Israeli culture plays a large part in Israel’s superior economic performance over the Palestinians.

Governor Romney said “Culture makes all the difference … And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things … As you come here and you see the G.D.P. per capita, for instance, in Israel, which is about $21,000, and compare that with the G.D.P. per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality. And that is also between other countries that are near or next to each other. Chile and Ecuador, Mexico and the United States.”

Palestinian Authority (PA) official Saeb Erekat has denounced Governor Romney’s statement as “racist.” Erekat said, “It is a racist statement and this man doesn’t realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation … It seems to me this man lacks information, knowledge, vision and understanding of this region and its people” Ashley Parker & Richard A. Oppel, ‘Romney Trip Raises Sparks at a 2nd Stop,’ New York Times, July 30, 2012).

ZOA National Chairman of the Board Dr. Michael Goldblatt said, “Governor Romney was correct to observe that culture plays a decisive role in economic performance. In particular, he was right to note that this has produced widely divergent results in economic performance between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

“Israel has a culture of private enterprise, competition, innovation and technology and has had it since its earliest days. In contrast, the PA has been bedeviled from its inception with crony capitalism, endemic corruption, distortions of the market and other malpractices which also affect its economy in drastic ways, not least in the loss of foreign investor confidence.”

“Israeli society is characterized by religious, economic and personal freedom. By contrast, the PA is unsafe for political dissidents or religious or sexual minorities. Bethlehem, under PA control since 1995, has seen its traditionally Christian population dwindle to less than 20%. In Hamas-controlled Gaza, there has been an even sharper flight of Christians. And Palestinian gays who wish to live without fear of death or imprisonment often have only one option: refuge in Israel. It makes sense that a society with Israel’s open and broadly liberal culture would be more stable, better educated, attract greater investment and produce more and better goods.

“Palestinian culture is also afflicted with incitement to hatred and murder, glorification of violence and terror. One only has to look at PA TV programs, radio broadcasts and media features to see that it is the terrorist, not the entrepreneur, who is honored. The PA doesn’t name streets, schools and sports teams after scientists and inventors. It names them after suicide bombers and jailed terrorists.

“In the PA, as the ZOA has pointed out on many occasions, a public square, a summer camp for youth, a computer center and several events have been named in honor of Dalal Mughrabi, who led the terrorists who carried out the 1978 coastal road terrorist attack on an Israeli bus, murdering 37, including a dozen children.

Many Americans will recall that Palestinian enthusiasm for terrorism extends beyond Israel to the U.S., as those Americans who saw on their TV screens Palestinians celebrating the 9/11 attacks need no reminder.

“Saeb Erekat claims that Governor Romney’s statement was racist. This is predictably absurd: there was no reference in Governor Romney’s comparison of Israel and the Palestinians to religion or ethnicity, let alone race. He referred to culture, which indeed can make a major difference. A society which aspires to terrorism and ‘martyrdom’ rather than innovation and wealth-creation is going to perform poorly by comparison in the economic sphere.

“Erekat objects that the PA cannot perform well economically because it is under ‘occupation.’ Some people cannot live without alibis and need to blame others for failure, as Erekat does here. But the facts repudiate this shop-worn, opportunistic charge. Before the PA was established – in other words, when the areas now controlled by the PA were under Israeli control – economic growth was steady among Palestinians. Economic performance tapered off immediately after the PA assumed control in 1994, following the Oslo Accords, and all the attendant problems mentioned earlier came into play.”

“Even then, the PA was doing better in the mid-1990s than it was to do after 2000, when it launched a terrorist war against Israel. Naturally, joint projects, Israeli (and much foreign) investment came to a halt and the resultant hostilities destroyed or damaged much infrastructure. You can have war, but rarely can you have war and development. The Israeli economy also suffered from this war but, because of the general soundness of Israel’s economic culture, it recovered much more quickly once Palestinian terrorism was brought under control.”

“On this point, Governor Romney is right and his critics are wrong.”

NOTE: On May 1, 2012 the author returned from a 10 day visit to Israel and observed the vibrant economy and prosperity in the Israeli community he visited.

RELATED COLUMN:

Culture Does Matter by Mitt Romney in the National Review

Tag Archive for: success

Gov. Romney Is Correct Cultural Differences Explain Israeli Economic Success