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As children grow older, play remains important for learning and development. Read how to encourage play for children.
Play is often defined as children’s work. It is through play that children organize and make sense of the world. Play also helps children work through tensions in their lives. Play brings out children’s creativity and so much more.
Think of the importance of play in your own life. As a child, you probably engaged in active play like riding bikes, climbing trees, or jumping rope. You probably also engaged in quieter play like drawing pictures, playing board games, and constructing elaborate structures. You learned much from these experiences, including building your strength and imagination, taking turns, and following rules. Many of us can appreciate the value of play for children under five, but it might still be a stretch to appreciate play for school-agers. And yet, play continues to be important in the lives of children as they enter school. As a matter of fact, play continues to be important even for adults.
Lev Vygosky is one of the foremost child development theorists. Vygotsky believed that play was critical for children’s development. Jean Piaget, another key theorist in children’s development, sees play as building vocabulary, concentration, flexibility, and empathy, among other qualities. Stuart Brown, yet another theorist, describes properties of play. According to Brown, true play is apparently purposeless, voluntary, and free from time constraints. Note that he says “apparently purposeless,” with “apparently” being the key word. Many of us are goal-focused and outcome-driven and might have trouble justifying an activity that is apparently purposeless. Yet we all need unstructured play time, and school-agers are no exception. We also know that while play may look purposeless, it helps children in so many ways. Consider these examples of children learning through play:
So how do we encourage play for school-age children?
Make sure children are not over-scheduled. Leave time for open-ended, unstructured play.
Engage in play with your child when you can. Be willing to participate in pretend play; dress up, act silly, and be creative.
Follow your child’s lead. Take direction from your child and strive to follow what she wants to do, not necessarily what you want to do.
Respect when children want to play on their own. Sometimes children at play want to be on their own and sometimes they want to play with others. As children play and learn, be sure to look in occasionally to see if their preferences have changed and they are now looking for a playmate.
Provide “loose parts.” Loose parts are exactly what they sound like: they are typically lots of small pieces that can be played with in open-ended ways. Often, but not always, they are natural items. They tend to spur children’s creativity because there is no one right way to play with them. Here are just a few examples of loose parts:
The importance of play doesn’t diminish as preschoolers become school-age children. Remember that play is how children learn and offer plenty of chances for schoolagers to play.
Written by: Bright Horizons Education TeamMay 15, 2021
Every year, school systems adopt new educational interventions and initiatives. This can be overwhelming to educators, as it puts a strain on time, resources and emotions. A no- cost, high impact intervention that is easy to integrate into classroom practice and curriculum is improv.
Yes, improv, the comedic art form made of short games where player create a scene, story or situation spontaneously. This is an amazing and transformative educational tool.
If you want to create a trauma responsive classroom, help all your student break through their resistance to writing, create an inclusive classroom community based on trust, respect and that embraces diversity, apply improv. What’s amazing is that improv offers those benefits and more, simultaneously and by playing even the most basic improv games.
Before we get into our list of 23 reasons, let me define improv. The kind of activities I’m talking about here are called “short-form comedic improv.” They only require a small space and a couple of minutes; can be integrated with curricular content so there is no time off task; and engage the entire class simultaneously.
Although recognized for their ability to create comedic ideas or situations, improv is not about being funny and it is important to note that the laughter produced is shared and joyful and never at the expense of others.
Improv produces educational benefits because of improv’s specific rules and structures. These short (1-3 minute) games are similar to improvisational theater games and role-playing activities, but they differ in that they explicitly framed by the rule of “Yes, and.”
When people enjoy a improv as a comedic art, they are focusing on the spontaneity of the performance. Although spontaneous, improv games, are more structured than you realize.
It is the structure provided by the rule of “Yes, and….” and other structures that creates the spontaneity which sometimes results in comedic moments. The “Yes, and…” rule requires that each player unconditionally and without judgement accept the offer given by all other players and add to it. The act of “Yes, and- ing” is not teaching people to agree with everything in real life but is instead an exercise in listening completely to each other and then explore others’ offers and its possibilities.
In the following list, I’ve grouped the 23 benefits of improv into three broad categories: benefits for schools and teachers, benefits for the learner, and emotional intelligence benefits.
When people think about improvisation (improv, for short), they generally think about the benefits for the individual—benefits like improved self-confidence, creativity, and collaborative skills. And certainly, those benefits are real (see the next two sections).
But people often fail to think about the broader benefits that the regular use of improv can have for the classrooms in which it’s used and for the entire school. So, let’s start with the big picture.
Here are eight ways that the regular use of improv can benefit schools, classrooms, and teachers. Improv…
Schools are society’s number one enculturation tool. As such, schools across the country seek to create cultures that honor democratic values. What teaching approach could be more democratic than one (like improv) that engages all students simultaneously and honors each individual’s contribution? Imagine the impact school-wide if every teacher in the school used improv regularly in their classrooms!
In a society as diverse as ours, it’s especially important that teachers use teaching approaches that honor and promote student diversity—and improv does just that. The structure built into all improv games allows students to lend their own unique ideas and perspectives to shape the performance. Learning to open up and give of one’s self while simultaneously learning to accept the ideas of others who differ from us develops the kind of open-minded mindset that teachers seek to develop in their students.
Educators have been talking about the importance of building classroom communities for a long time. We know that, if you get the community right from the beginning of the school year, everything else (both academic and non-academic) goes much more smoothly. One teaching approach that goes hand-in-hand with building strong classroom communities is collaborative learning. Educators understand that collaboration helps students learn how to work together for the good of the group. Improv does not only offer practice collaborating but develops the skills necessary for student to engage in successful collaboration.
Unlike cooperative learning, where students can sometimes hide behind the efforts of others, in collaborative improv they co-create as equals. They learn they are responsible and accountable to each other at all times. Students learn how to take turns stepping up to speak (taking the attention) and stepping back (giving the attention) to let others have their say. Communication, attunement, empathy, trust, respect and more are all practiced. Improv rapidly transforms the classroom into a supportive community of learners.
Thanks to recent trauma informed trainings, teachers understand that behaviors detrimental to academic success may be manifestations of trauma. Unfortunately, knowledge alone does not equip teachers with classroom practices to create an environment helpful to students suffering from trauma. Improv, with its ability to create a sense of safety and belonging, develop mindfulness and co-regulation, develop empathy and resilience, decrease anxiety and depression and more, creates a trauma responsive environment. It helps students get into a better mental state in which to learn. As teachers, we seldom know which students are suffering from past or ongoing trauma. We don’t know what kind of trauma or how it is affecting them. The practice of improv creates an trauma responsive environment for all students.
Educators often bemoan the lack of intrinsic motivation in their students, complaining that students have to be forced, threatened, or bribed to engage and learn. Not so. Today’s students are just as likely to fully engage with their learning as students from the past. The keys to such engagement are relevant curriculum and engaging instructional approaches.
Improv offers an instructional approach that builds intrinsic motivation—as long as the curricular content being processed during the particular improv game is relevant. Using William Glasser’s (1988) framework from his book, Choice Theory in the Classroom, as a lens, improv provides for all five of the key motivating factors all humans share: (1) improv satisfies students’ survival needs by structuring the activities in such a way that threat is reduced and trust in others and confidence in one’s self is increased; (2) it satisfies students’ needs for autonomy by allowing for self-expression, choice, and creativity; (3) it satisfies their needs for belonging by providing opportunities to collaborate with others, which, over time, builds community; (4) it satisfies their needs for power/competence because of it simple guiding frameworks within each game and because students draw upon their own experience and knowledge; and (5) while not every improv experience may feel enjoyable, the supportive playfulness and laughter, satisfies students’ needs for fun. Thus improv, if used regularly, can be a powerful tool for building intrinsic motivation in all of the school’s students.
Most classrooms, most of the time, could be described as “top down.” The teacher makes the majority of the decisions—what to study, how long to spend on it, how the material is presented, how learning is to be assessed, etc. And much of that is as it should be. But this fact only makes the rare opportunities for students to learn inductively and discover meaning that much more important. And improv provides just that. While the general parameters and content of an improv game may be set beforehand, there’s no telling what students will discover about the content and themselves as they play the game. When students regularly get to be in charge of the direction of their learning (even if it is just for a couple of minutes at a time), their attitudes toward learning are often more positive.
As I already noted, improv games are short (:30-3 minutes each), they require only a small space, and they engage the entire class simultaneously. Sure, it takes a little longer to introduce a new game to a class the first time, but you only have to do that once with each game structure. After that, you can just announce, “We’re going to be playing ‘Yes, And—Shared Memory’” (or whatever the game is you’ll be playing) and the students know the structure. Today, when many of the suggested activities in the curriculum require long stretches of time or the use of some technology that has to be booted up before one can use it, activities that teachers can implement in am instant are appreciated.
Oftentimes, we teachers think we have all the answers. After all, we’re putting together the curriculum, the unit plans, and the lesson plans. We know what we want the students to learn and we know how we want to get them from point A (not knowing the material) to point B (knowing the material). The danger is that, when we figure all of this out in advance, we can fall into the trap of telling all the time, which can shut down our willingness to listen. Students have their own background knowledge, they have their own learning needs, and they have their own stories to share. Using improv regularly forces us to hear what our students create in the moment, and this can be a surprising experience. We can often learn more about our students in a two-minute improv game than we can in a whole unit of instruction delivered the traditional way.
Traditional classroom management language tends to have a lot of “No’s” and “Don’ts” in it. Classrooms structured on “rules and consequences” (even when these are developed jointly between teacher and students) thus can sometimes come across as oppressive environments. Classrooms that use improv regularly, however, offer teachers another set of terms to address classroom behavior—a vocabulary that’s focused more on building the kinds of classroom communities we say we want.
Two side-coachings of improv are the skills of “giving attention” and “taking attention.” Student are empowered as they learn they have the power to give and take attention. This may seem obvious to the teacher, but often the class feels powerless as the teacher struggles and often fails to manage students who disrupt. Those who want to learn are often frustrated with what they perceive as the teacher’s lack of ability to control the class. With the practice of improv, students quickly realize the power they have. They are now empowered and see their role and responsibility in creating an enjoyable and effective learning environment.
Here’s a list of ways improv can help students learn more, improve academic skills, and become more confident as learners. Improv…
Education says it values creativity, but does it? How open-ended are most assignments? In school, students spend a lot of time trying to find the right answer, self-correct, and edit their work, but how often do they get to truly use their creativity? The initial stage of any creative act requires one to generate ideas without judging. Only once a solid set of “raw material” has been generated in such a fashion can revising and editing work profitably. The “Yes, and” structure of all improv games gives students practice in idea generation without editing, which develops the proper mindset they will need to create in all areas of their lives.
The wide variety of improv games give teachers a great deal of flexibility for retrieving information and transferring this learning to new situations. For example, the whole category of expert games (such as Hot Seat, Flip and Flop, and Expert Interview) require one or more students to act as an expert while other players challenge them or bombard them with questions or opinions they must answer or respond. This makes for an engaging (and challenging) review of material.
Another way improv can improve learning is by making abstract (and thus difficult to learn) ideas, concepts, or processes more concrete. Any process or sequence, or anything that has individual components can be made concrete and taught through games (such as Yes, and, Describe It Another Way, or some of the Story games.) Such games can also be used to assess whether students really understood the initial teaching or not.
Many students struggle with writing. Improv can be a powerful tool for getting over an occasional writer’s block or a chronic reluctance to write. Teachers often do not know if a student’s reluctance is due to a literacy deficit or a social-emotional issue. Improv addresses both simultaneously. Students develop social-emotional skills that can impact writing. At the same time, a scaffolded use of the games helps students transition rapidly from collaborative speech to individual writing, an essential and often developmental progression (DeMichele, 2015). More information about this approach can be found in my book Improv ‘n Ink: Overcoming, “I Don’t Know What to Write!”
Some students will respond positively to improv games and surprise you with their quick wit and natural performance skills—and the students who do so are very often students who don’t shine at most other academic tasks. Teachers new to improv are always shocked by this phenomenon. The great thing about this is that these students who are finally given a way of interacting with school content that matches their personalities and learning styles often blossom right before your eyes, gaining confidence and feeling pride in themselves that they’ve never experienced before.
Teachers often choose to add improv games to their classroom repertoire because of one or more of the academic benefits listed in the previous section. But the benefits don’t end there. Improv also confers a whole host of social-emotional benefits on students, as well, and it could be argued that these benefits are even greater than the academic benefits.
Here are a few of the powerful emotional intelligence benefits you can expect. Improv…
You can’t play an improv game by yourself. Every game structure requires input from each participant, and from the audience, as well. It’s truly a collaborative event where responsibility is shared, and everyone is accountable to each other. So much of education is done individually that students don’t get enough practice at learning how to work effectively with others. A good description of most improv games would be: “working together with others to produce a creative product or solution in a short period of time.” That would also be an accurate description of the work environment in most businesses today, which is why business leaders consistently name collaborative skills among the most prized attributes for new employees.
The development resiliency is so important to the success of our students not only in the classroom, but in life. Currently, our culture attempts to protect students from feeling the failure for fear their self-esteem may be irreparably damaged. How can they learn and practice reliance if they are never given the opportunity to fail? Improv is the answer for this. Because improv is intrinsically motivating, as described in benefit number 4, even when students “fail,” they jump right back up to participate again. They practice resilience.
Failure in improv may be when a student freezes or denies “Yes, and.” Because they still feel a sense of belonging, autonomy, security, competence, and fun, they don’t quit, but jump up to participate again. And what is really cool is they are not failing in secret. They are failing in front of their peers. They learn they can survive failure. They learn to be resilient.
Mindfulness is being adopted in classroom practices—and for good reason. Studies have shown that mindfulness practice (focusing on the present moment through some type of focusing mechanism, such as one’s breath, a sound, or an object such as a candle flame) develops the ability to tune out distractions and focus on the needs of the moment, which is a skill very useful in all areas of life.
Improv games support the development of mindfulness skills as they require players to stay in the moment, listen to the offer of the player preceding them, and say “Yes, and” to that offer in some way. The moment a player loses focus on the present moment and lets his mind wander, he loses the thread of the game and consequently receives immediate feedback as the energy or flow of the game stops. Every time a student plays an improv game, he develops the skills necessary to achieve focus in any area of his life.
Everyone knows that public speaking is one of the biggest fears for many people. Getting up in front of a class of one’s peers can be scary indeed, especially for those students who are naturally shy, who feel like they don’t have great vocabularies, or who are second language learners. Improv provides a safe structure within which to build confidence in speaking before a group. Since no single student is ever “on stage” for very long in any improv game, they get practice in short doses and in an engaging, non-judgmental, and often fun environment.
As described in the section about mindfulness above, to perform well in an improv game, a player must stay in the moment, listen to the player who precedes them, and then say “Yes, and” to that offering. The listening skills developed by regularly playing improv games are highly valuable in life outside of school as well, as listening intently so that the person speaking feels truly heard is a powerful way to build positive relationships.
Many students have trust issues. Home environments, abuse, bullying…the list of situations that could lead to a lack of trust is long. And it’s often hard for these students to open up and become a part of a classroom community because of these issues. The regular use of improv can help these students learn that not all people are out to hurt them. The unconditional acceptance created by the frame of “Yes, and…” nurtures a trust in one’s self, as well as a growing trust in others.
I’ve already talked about how improv improves listening skills. But it goes way beyond that. To truly listen to another player, you have to not only be tuned in to what he’s saying, but also be tuned in to his body language and emotions. This attunement is the first step toward developing empathy. Add to this the overarching rule of improv (“Yes, and”) where all players unconditionally accept what the previous player offers (again, verbally and emotionally), and you can see how regularly playing improv games can develop empathy. And in today’s often contentious environment (politically, socially, culturally, you name it), there’s probably no skill more needed than empathy.
Some students have trouble with impulse control. They think of something they want, and they immediately act on it—whether that action is to the detriment of others in the environment or not. Obviously, this often gets them in trouble.
Improv games provide a structure in which such students learn that, for the game to proceed successfully, they must inhibit their needs to be the center of attention or to say whatever they want to say whenever they want to say it. Regular practice listening and accepting the offers of others, relinquishing control so to add to those offers and appropriately giving attention until it’s their turn to contribute, can be helpful in building impulse control.
Students who tend to be oppositional often receive more benefit from improv than anyone. This is because these students’ natural reaction to just about any situation is to disagree, argue, or rebel. The primary rule of “Yes, and,” on the other hand, requires that they agree with whatever the preceding player says and then add on to it. Learning to listen, accept and explore an idea is a fantastic practice for these students.
There you have it. Twenty-three reasons why improv is a powerful tool for supporting the goals of schools and teachers, for developing academic skills, and for developing positive social-emotional habits.
So, the only question remaining is, “Why wouldn’t you use improv?” Improv provides so much value, is so easy to learn and use, and it’s flexible enough to be used from kindergarten to college, in any content area, that it doesn’t really make sense not to use it!
As a classroom teacher, I understand the concern of having the time to integrate yet another instructional approach. Improv, however, is so easy to integrate into daily classroom practice and the benefits to learning are immediate and sustainable.
I wrote the book One Rule Improv: The Fast, Easy, No Fear Approach to Teaching, Learning and Applying Improv (2019) and started my website with the express intention of making the teaching and regular use of improv as simple as possible. Improv is based on a very simple process and once this is understood and practiced all the benefits come quickly. You can do this!
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Mary DeMichele is a coach, consultant, author and improviser with over 25 years of experience in educational, clinical and professional settings. She is the author of One Rule Improv: The Fast, Easy, No Fear Approach to Teaching, Learning and Applying Improv and Improv ’n Ink: Overcoming “I Don’t Know What to Write! Mary holds a Master’s degree from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. For more information visit OneRuleImprov.com.
By Donna St. George October 27, 2021 at 6:18 p.m. EDT
Montgomery County teachers and support workers are protesting staff shortages in Maryland’s largest school system, saying they are exhausted and stressed out less than two months into the school year.
Leaders of two employee unions led a rally outside school system headquarters Tuesday evening, supported by a long line of members driving cars in a procession with headlights on and horns blaring.
Car windows were taped with signs referring to “skeleton crews” in schools and teachers “drowning” in the workload. Teacher working conditions are student learning conditions, other signs said.
Amid the staffing shortages, educators say they are being tapped to cover other classes during their lunch and planning periods. They say they get less support from principals, who are tasked with public health duties related to the continuing pandemic.Advertisement
And nearly half of requests for substitute teachers in Montgomery County go unfilled, according to the school system data — which educators describe as a major problem.
“We are being set up for failure, and our students are being set up for failure,” said Jennifer Martin, president of the Montgomery County Education Association, the 14,000-member teachers union. “The demands are unreasonable.”
Martin said school system leaders failed to plan for the realities of the school year, and workers are at a breaking point. She called for greater collaboration between school system leaders and employee unions.
Teachers can get $15 for covering another educator’s class during what should be their planning period, Martin said, but she described the money as “not a professional salary” and said educators still are left with their usual responsibilities.Advertisement
“What we really need is time to do our jobs,” she said.
Pia Morrison, president of Local 500 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents almost 9,000 school system support staff, pointed to fallout for her members too: Bus drivers are doing extra runs because of staff shortages, she said, and other employees are “literally trying to do the work of an additional person.”
“The staff are being asked to do more work,” in a system that is down hundreds of people, she said.
School system officials in Montgomery County acknowledge staffing shortages — a problem that is widespread in the region and the nation.
The system, with more than 200 schools and about 24,600 employees, has vacancies for 325 teachers, about 105 paraeducators, nearly 100 other support staff and about 120 bus drivers, according to recent school system data.
Montgomery County schools spokesman Christopher Cram agreed that the system has more jobs than people willing to fill them.
“People are doing more work and stepping up to ensure administratively schools have what they need and students are getting the content they need but there is anxiety over increased workloads,” he said.
Still, he said, the system’s human resources department is working to recruit new personnel. The system continues to “actively and strategically” recruit highly effective teachers, he said, and is working with local colleges and universities to hire December graduates.
Bus driver shortages, he said, are being addressed by using supervisors and trainers to drive routes. But he said some drivers still need to make more than one trip to cover all of the system’s routes.
Union leaders say the school system could do more — especially since it has received an influx of federal funding to help ensure students get back on track with their learning.Advertisement
That money is being used to support schools, including counselors and mental health professionals, Cram said. “But you still have to find people to fill those positions,” he said.
Kember Kane, a kindergarten teacher, said that educators are trying to make the best of a bad situation but the demands are overwhelming and not sustainable.
“You can’t ask someone on life support to run a marathon,” she said.
Union leaders are calling on the school system to restore planning time and comply with requirements to give educators a lunch break.
Teachers union votes no-confidence in reopening plan in Feb. 2021
Cram said there is “no doubt that teachers are giving 100 percent and more,” but those who are not getting lunch periods or planning periods should “collaborate with their building leadership to ensure they are maintained.”
Chelsea Van Tassell, a middle school English teacher, said the school board has yet to acknowledge the gravity of the problem.
Students need high-quality classes and support, but teachers are becoming stretched worryingly thin, she said. “It’s pretty serious,” she said, “and it’s not going away.”
By Michele L. Norris Columnist October 26, 2021 at 3:05 p.m. EDT
Claudette Colvin was 15 years old when she was arrested in Montgomery, Ala., and placed on indefinite probation, after refusing to vacate her seat on a bus so a young White woman could sit down.
This was March 1955 — nine months before Rosa Parks was arrested for violating Alabama’s racial segregation laws after refusing to give up her seat to a White man, an act that sparked the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott. Parks, who died in 2005, went on to become an icon, widely celebrated as the “mother of the civil rights movement.”
What about Colvin? Though she was one of four female plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, the Supreme Court case that overturned Montgomery’s bus segregation laws, her role in challenging the Jim Crow system has been largely overshadowed. What’s worse, Colvin, who is now 82, was never taken off probation.
That needs to change — and perhaps now it will. Today, Colvin goes back to Montgomery to petition for her record to be cleared. She is also, in a carefully detailed 30-point affidavit, addressing something else: the fact that her story was largely expunged because civil rights leaders didn’t see her as an appropriate symbol for the movement.
Colvin got pregnant not long after her arrest. And she was defiant. She was also charged with a felony for assaulting a police officer who said she had kicked and scratched him.
I interviewed Colvin in March 2020, and offstage she told me she believed there was another reason her story was shunted aside. “Rosa Parks had the right background and the right skin color,” she said. Colvin, whose skin is a beautiful shade of chocolate, said the bias still stings, but she let go of anger a long time ago. “We were all seeking one thing,” she said. “Justice.”
Now the gray-haired Colvin seeks delayed justice, addressing the Juvenile Court for Montgomery County. She’ll be accompanied by the 90-year-old Fred Gray, the civil rights lawyer who represented her back in 1956.
For a woman silenced so many decades ago, it is fitting to let her tell her own story now. She does so in the following excerpts from her affidavit, beginning with the day she got out of school early and walked downtown to catch a bus home.
“When the bus arrived, I paid my fare and I sat near the front of the colored section. I did not violate the segregation law.”
“But a young White woman got on the bus and there were no seats left in the section designated for White people. The driver told my friends and I that we would all have to clear out of our row so the White woman could sit. All four of us were going to have to stand up so she would have the whole row to herself. …”
“My three seatmates got up, but I felt glued to the seat. People think it was just about a seat on a bus but it was about so much more than that. It was about my constitutional rights. It was about history. It was about injustices that I personally witnessed every day.”
Colvin explains that she feared for her life.
“I was dragged off the bus, handcuffed and taken to the jail. I remember the sound of the key turning in the lock. I remember there was no mattress on the cot, but I curled up and tried to sleep. …”
“I sat in jail and thought about heaven and hell. …”
“Eventually, I was sentenced to probation pending good behavior. I cried when that happened.”
Colvin did behave well and tried to move on, earning a GED. Life in Alabama was hard, though, because Black and White residents shunned her as a troublemaker.
“I was afraid to work as a domestic servant because you never knew who might be in the Klan. … So I worked at restaurants. And over and over again, I was fired from those jobs after my bosses found out that I was ‘that girl’ who had sat on the bus.”
Around age 20, Colvin was a single mother with two sons. She says she left Montgomery because she couldn’t find a job.
“I moved to the Bronx and found a community of Jamaican women. We worked as domestics, but we unionized with 1199. I’m proud of that.”
Summers, she returned to Alabama to visit family.
“I know they were terrified every time I came home because I was on probation from the court. … Every time [they] saw a police car in the neighborhood, they thought the police were there to get me.”
Colvin lived in New York for decades.
“Things were better and safer for me there. People did not know me for what I did. …”
“I am an old woman now. Having my records expunged will mean something to my grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And it will mean something for other Black children.”
Clearing Colvin’s record — in a moment when so many people are trying to expunge the teaching of America’s troubling racial history — will also mean something significant for the city of Montgomery, the state of Alabama and the entire United States of America.
Opinion by Michele Norris is a columnist and consultant for Post Opinions and founding director of The Race Card Project.
By Erin Blakemore October 23, 2021 at 7:30 a.m. EDT
Overdoses and emotional difficulties. Crushing loneliness and stress. Grief and depression. The pandemic has accelerated mental health crises among children.
The problem has ballooned to emergency proportions because of a shortage of child psychiatrists, a growing wave of suicidality and the ongoing stress over covid-19, a group of experts say. U.S. coronavirus cases tracker and map
In a declaration of a national state of emergency in child mental health, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association point to a litany of challenges faced by children in the United States.
Emergency department visits for mental health have increased dramatically, they say, and children and families face “enormous adversity and disruption.”
And this month, UNICEF issued a report estimating that 13 percent of adolescents ages 10 to 19 live with a diagnosed mental disorder. The agency called for commitment and action from governments and societies around the world to protect child mental health.
The American groups provided a similar message, calling for more federal funding for children with mental health challenges, better school-based mental health care, and community-based support for kids and parents.
They point to structural racism as a particular challenge to youth mental health.
In 2020, mental health crises were particularly acute. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, they increased 24 percent for 5- to 11-year-olds and 31 percent for 12- to 17-year-olds. Suspected suicide attempts increased as much as 50 percent for teenage girls during February and March of this year compared to the same period in 2019. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for adolescents in the United States, and it has been rising for the past decade.
“We are caring for young people with soaring rates of depression, anxiety, trauma, loneliness, and suicidality that will have lasting impacts on them, their families, and their communities,” the groups wrote. “We must identify strategies to meet these challenges.”
If you are in crisis, call the toll-free National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255), available 24 hours and seven days a week.
Seth is a motivational speaker and keynote speaker. He uses storytelling and communication exercises to help build strong business communities and ignite positive organizational change.
Article reprinted as published in the Spring 2006 Journal for Quality & Participation.
In 1996, five people in a large, multinational organization of 15,000 had a radical idea for refocusing the core business. As a first step they brought together the 60 people they considered critical to their mission’s success. The goal of the event: The group of five would become the de facto owners of the change initiative, garnering the support of everyone in attendance. The biggest obstacle: Many of the 60 had competing, even hostile, agendas—securing their unified support was daunting. After everyone had filed in, the emotional tension in the room was palpable.
Just after stating the topic at hand, each person was asked to tell the story of how he/she came to be in the room. Any kind of story would do, as long as it was true. People could play it safe and describe how they got up that morning and made it from their house to the Metro to work, or they could put some of their cards on the table, drawing the connection between their careers and the meeting’s importance.
Within minutes there was a dramatic change in the atmosphere of the room. It became rambunctious and fun-filled as people took successive trips down memory lane. Others chimed in to add their two cents. By the time the exercise was over, just 30 minutes later, the tone of the room was transformed, from tension, quiet, and unease to enthusiasm, laughter, and collaboration. The hard work was done.
Next, each person was asked to describe his/her ideal future for the organization. The details of these future-stories were captured on flipcharts. At the meeting’s conclusion, the group of five had established itself as the shepherds of the fledgling initiative.
Storytelling launched that meeting and continued to play a fundamental role in the change initiative. The effort made rapid progress in the next two years— from an unfunded idea to a worldwide program with $60 million in annual allocation. The program manager of the small group was so enamored with the capacity for story to spark change that he wrote a book about it. I was a member of that team of five that used storytelling to work its magic. Engendering collaboration throughout the organization continued to play a pivotal role for the success of our initiative. Storytelling was used again and again— across disciplines, across organizational boundaries, and among people from many different cultures.
This global change initiative was the first of three where I applied my storytelling skills to generate high performance collaboration among professionals at the World Bank. In subsequent years I have used these techniques while working with organizations that include the Peace Corps, National Institute on Aging, the Fulbright Association, Center for Association Leadership, and many others. I have fine-tuned the technique with the help of facilitators around the world who have put it to use. I call it JumpStart Storytelling.
Imagine a two-day think tank of business professionals coming together to address critical issues. The first session is the toughest because everyone brings their competing views to the table and kicks off the event with a prove-it-to-me attitude that says, “Show me what you can do for me.” That’s the kind of event that I have been asked to lead over and over again. Each time I have seen Jumpstart Storytelling propel the retreat into a high-performance collaboration event, drawing everyone together and highlighting the diversity of perspectives without pushing for consensus.
This process lifts the collective spirit and maximizes the impact of people’s time together. It quickly engages participants in the business at hand and accelerates productive work. Although designed for groups of 10-100, it has been customized for as few as three and as many as 2,500. It takes 45-60 minutes regardless of the number of people, creating an esprit de corps that sets the stage for high-performance collaboration.
JumpStart Storytelling is based on my work at the World Bank where it was field tested on multicultural gatherings more than 100 times. It also draws on techniques I learned while studying under a fellowship at the Center for Narrative Studies, and working as a “visionary” for the Center for Association Leadership to increase the effectiveness of professional meetings and conventions.
1.) Place people in groups of six to eight participants and ask them to think of a story drawn from their own experience that has to do with the primary business objectives of the meeting. For example, at a recent meeting of CEOs facing the prospects of competing with China, I asked them to tell a story about a time in their lives when they faced a daunting challenge that changed the way they see the world. Participants tell their stories to the other members at the table—in just 90 seconds. They only have time to relay the essence of their experience. I encourage them to give enough background to explain why the challenge was daunting, how they met it, and how their worldview changed. In other words, without saying as much, I encourage them to tell the arc of their personal story.
Keep time, letting them know when each person has 30 seconds left, and then call for the next person after 90 seconds. “However,” I tell the participants, “while it may be my job to get the whole room through the process in nine minutes (for tables of six), it’s not your job. So, if your story is a little long, go with it. If your story is over in less time, move on to the next person.” I encourage each group to selfmanage its time so the participants get the spirit that they are in charge of their experience. This is an important element, setting the stage for the ownership that effective collaboration requires.
When the first round of stories is done, ask the participants to look around the table, bring to mind the story that most impacted them, and remember the teller.
2.) Then, get everyone up out of his/her chair and find a new table with mostly new faces; it’s time for the second round. People are to tell the same story they told in the first round. In U.S. audiences I typically hear groans at this point because we seem to be uncomfortable with repeating ourselves. I make light of the situation, explaining that in other cultures people enjoy telling their stories over and over; it’s a way of life. I ask people to notice what changes and what stays the same when they tell their stories a second time and to notice how interesting it is that the words may be different, but the story is the same. I use the same process as in the first round, moving people through their stories in 90-second intervals.
3.) Now the real fun begins. Ask everyone in the room to recall the story that most impacted them—either because they found it moving or because the information it contained was so relevant to today’s gathering. Then, the participants are to get out of their seats and find the person who told that story. When they find the storyteller, they are to put their hand on the person’s shoulder and keep it there. What happens next is remarkable—a live demonstration of social networking that I call “clusters and chains.”
The room appears to go into chaos as people search for others and move around the room with trailing chains and clusters of people attached to them. In short order, no matter what the number of participants, this process sorts itself out. The room is literally a configuration of clusters and chains, with those tellers who made the most impact having the most hands on their shoulders.
4.) I ask for those with the most hands on their shoulders to come to the front of the room and tell their stories to the plenary group. The participants, not the conveners or the facilitator, selected these stories. So, the information embedded in these stories was prioritized as having the most impact by the participants. We spend some time together unpacking these stories and discovering why they were chosen.
The magic of JumpStart Storytelling occurs when participants tell and listen to each other’s stories, engaging the hearts and minds of their colleagues. It is a great way to begin a business gathering, involving everyone in the room. Ideas cross-pollinate, and rapport increases. The entire meeting comes to life in a way that naturally and predictably focuses the audience’s collective enthusiasm on the business at hand through the participants’ personal stories.
Storytelling is part of human experience. When people share their stories, listeners naturally focus their attention, engaging in the teller’s experience. The deliberate and effective use of storytelling establishes links between participants and sets the stage for high performance.
To create an atmosphere of collaboration, it is necessary to shift away from a “broadcast” mode in which one person speaks while everyone else listens. By activating a “beehive” in which everyone is sharing, the conversation moves off the podium and out onto the floor. This form of storytelling has the effect of filling the room with relevant activity and enthusiasm.
Social networking is one of the primary reasons people attend professional gatherings. Many transactions take place in the hallways; valuable news is exchanged, services and jobs are brokered, new members are integrated within existing communities or not. The capacity for each person to build and develop relationships during the meeting increases as they are informally introduced to others and invited to share their stories in the context of business. This sharing is personal and face-to-face, providing a rich interaction, which significantly increases the capacity of the group for social networking.
High quality collaboration relies on multiple, conflicting points of view coming together in a collective intelligence that honors the contribution of each perspective. Building community is often mistakenly thought of as creating an environment where everybody likes each other. People perform effectively without mutual admiration. Yet, it is critical to establish an atmosphere of collective aspiration built upon respect and the capacity for each person to contribute to the group’s objectives. Storytelling brings together differing points of view in the spirit of collaboration.
Innovation doesn’t require genius, luck, or magic–but it does require talking to the right people, being able to clearly articulate a vision, and putting the right partnerships in place.
I first read Peter Senge’s book, The Fifth Discipline: the Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, in the mid 1990s. At the time I was working on the fledgling team behind a new initiative at the World Bank called “knowledge management,” which would later help earn the organization recognition as one of the World’s Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises.
I had never heard of Senge and was impressed by his approach. I shared the book with my boss, who said to me, “Why read when we can talk to the author?” Within a couple of weeks we were in sitting in Senge’s office in Cambridge discussing our organization’s plans in detail. This is the first secret of great innovation leaders: Talk to the right people. In addition, to get innovation right, leaders must clearly articulate the way forward and build informal partnerships that generate synergy.
Secret #1. Talk to the Right People
Your most important asset is your mind. Your experience, expertise, and know-how governs your understanding of what is possible, the options you see, the strategy you formulate, and your assessments of the environment around you. To expand your vision, meet with other minds! Make it a habit to identify and visit the people who will provide you with fresh ideas, key learning, new tactics, and strong strategies.
My World Bank group’s ability to quickly meet and learn from Senge greatly accelerated our success. We experienced significant gains in the year ahead and received international recognition for our program. Part of our triumph was due to finding and meeting with the people who could draw us into substantive conversations that expanded our thinking, provided valuable insights, and uncovered solutions to problems we were facing.
Secret #2. Articulate the Way Forward
People rely on their leaders to craft a vision of the future that makes sense and can guide their everyday decisions. Most of the leaders I have met improvise this activity and many do it badly. And yet articulating a rousing vision of the future isn’t difficult. It can be your secret super-power, if you just master three tactics:
Communication is a crucial step toward coherent action. By clearly and repeatedly taking the time to spell out what you are trying to do you will build a base of informed actors to help you innovate.
Secret #3. Build Informal Partnerships that Generate Synergy
Leadership today is largely about identifying the partnerships that will lead to broad, powerful impact and growth. Let me be clear–I’m talking about supportive and symbiotic relationships here, not contractual business partnerships. There is a tremendous amount that can be done on the basis of mutual interest alone.
Too many leaders shy away from informal partnerships, fearing the vulnerability that comes with relationships. If you overcome that fear, you get the benefits. Here are tips to help you master the third secret of innovation leaders:
Make it your job to keep everyone happy with the results of your informal partnerships. You’ll reap the rewards together.
Math: 1+1+1 = A Lot
These three tasks required of innovative leaders–talking to the right people, articulating the way forward, and building informal partnerships–work together. The interaction of these contributions produces a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual components. Together they ensure your leadership is well informed, a source of unambiguous guidance, and reinforced by powerful allies.
That’s a healthy platform for continuous innovation.
–Seth Kahan is a change specialist who has consulted with CEOs and senior managers at over 60 organizations including World Bank, Shell, Peace Corps, and 30+ associations. This is an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Getting Innovation Right: How Leaders Create Inflection Points that Drive Success in the Marketplace, to be published by Jossey-Bass in early 2013.
I help leaders with change, innovation, and growth. My latest book is “Getting Innovation Right.” My first book, “Getting Change Right,” was a business bestseller. home office: (301) 229-2221, USA – email: Seth@VisionaryLeadership.com
Tim DenningFollowSep 28 · 6 min read
Money is the most misunderstood subject on Earth.
We’re misled by money because it’s hard to understand (by design). There’s a reason the finance industry exists. It’s to unpack the complexity of money for you for a nice fee.
I like to challenge my thoughts about money. It helps me get to the next level of my life. The problem is my 9-5 job didn’t teach me the hard truth about money. Only from the outside looking in does it all make sense now.
Don’t be misguided the way I’ve been. Here are the brutal facts on money.
Don’t save money by investing time, save time by investing money — Wisdom Theory
If there’s a great secret about money it’s investing. You should be obsessed with investing. You should take a course on it. You should understand every type of asset and why you need each one.
With the costs of everything rising at a record rate, the only way to stay ahead is to invest money that grows faster than the number of US dollars created out of thin air and the rate of inflation. Inflation is hard to calculate. When you play with the calculation, you quickly realize it’s either invest in assets or be torn apart financially by a legacy financial system that is currently being rebuilt.
My investing philosophy: Earn once, get paid twice.
Make money from the price of assets going up. Make money from any interest or financial return some assets offer. Combine the earnings with your regular income, and you’ve got a simple formula for basic, non-Lambo, freedom.
Author James Clear said this. Time is how the factory worker age measured success. It’s not like that anymore.
If you’ve ever wondered how some Twitter gurus work 4 hours a day and make 6-figures, it’s because they’ve worked out how to create value. Once your own source of value is unlocked, you can use leverage to increase the returns without dumping more time into it.
For example, my online school has done well this year. I have a company running Facebook Ads to show the same product to more people. No more time from my side is required.
Build once + Use leverage to amplify + Add in other people = More money
My favorite part of having a business: The ability to give myself a raise instead of waiting for someone else to do it. — Josh George
A job takes forever to get a pay rise. Data shows pay rises hardly happen. The reason is it’s not a management priority to pay you more money for the same work. So what do you do?
Not all of you want to be entrepreneurs. I get it. That’s why I love side hustles. A side hustle means you can give yourself a pay rise. You can simply put in more effort. But my favorite technique is to use creativity to boost my earnings.
You control your income based on your willingness or unwillingness to join the side hustle economy. There’s no limiter on magic internet money.
Stop treating your purpose like a side hustle — M.IAMÖUR
A lot of people in their jobs work their faces off. The trouble is they don’t know why. They’re so removed from the problem their employer solves that it feels like stacking boxes one on top of another for a lifetime.
What’s in the boxes? Who do the boxes help? What if the boxes were full of food for homeless people?
I recently found a neat way to add more meaning. I sold a course. A few people contacted me and said they were unable to afford it. That got me thinking. I could let them go because they came from a third-world country.
I lose. They lose. Or I could just give them the thing they can never afford and receive payment through their gratitude and appreciation. The payment would be a sense that my life lessons actually have meaning.
Get paid from opportunities to extract meaning, especially when money isn’t an option for payment.
Money can be made back. Time is lost forever. Invest your time wisely. — Jose Rosado
People live like they’ve got all the time in the world. They get hung up on silly little debates on Twitter. The time you waste on BS can’t be recouped. You can’t ask the universe for a refund on all the time you pissed up against the wall.
Track where your time goes. Take note of the time you spend doing things you’d rather murder with a samurai sword. Time is wealth, not money.
If your idea of money is what it was yesterday, you will lose it to the people who know what money will be tomorrow
The idea of money is changing. A system of money that can be infinitely manipulated isn’t sustainable. Technology brought transparency. The current cash-in-your-pocket system has little transparency.
Some resist the advances of new forms of internet money like ethereum and bitcoin. This is foolish. Every country will one day have a digital currency. China did it. USA is going to do it. El Salvador really did it with bitcoin.
Old forms of wealth storage like bonds and gold are failing their base use case. The return on a bond is painfully low. Gold has been down 5% over the last 10 years. If you stay stuck in the financial past, you’ll miss the booming 2020s built on Web 3.0. You don’t have to agree, yet.
It’s enough to do the research and stay dialed in to what is happening. When the maturity of Web 3.0 is reached, maybe then it becomes a class of asset you want to be a part of. But don’t put your head in the sand and think the last thing to be disrupted by the internet — money — won’t happen. It will. Nobody knows how, yet. Although bitcoin and ethereum will definitely be part of the new financial system.
Ignorance equals poverty.
Imagine enduring a grueling 30-year career (counting the days until retirement), only to find retirement even more boring than your career.
We like to think this is the low-risk path, but that sounds pretty risky to me. You won’t get a 2nd chance. — Daniel Vassallo
A 9-5 job teaches you to cherish the fantasy of a future retirement. The real risk is to wait and see what retirement is like. Sabbaticals, months off, buying extra vacation time — these are all ways to play with the idea of retirement now. I don’t ever want to retire, though.
Tony Robbins says “to retire is to die.” I agree. I want to work for the rest of my life. The difference is I want to do work that has meaning. I want to forget about the dollar value so I can focus on the enjoyment value. This isn’t taught in jobs.
Jobs teach you that today is about what it will give you tomorrow.
Sounds nice. But what if there are no tomorrows left one day? Look at all the health scare stories on LinkedIn. Cancer can end your pretty retirement delusion faster than you can say “hold o-n-n-n, just one more day!”
Don’t be a delusional psychopath. Don’t wait for retirement.
Some of these money concepts are counterintuitive. It’s easy to dismiss them and say “but my life isn’t fair.” No life is far. Fairness is an idea that either holds you back or gives you the best form of motivation there is.
Take these facts about money and make your life fair. You now have an unfair information advantage to build off. No 9-5 job will tell you that.
This article is for informational purposes only, it should not be considered financial, tax or legal advice. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.
Alejandro Alvarez | aalvarez@wtop.com
October 21, 2021, 8:51 AM
Montgomery County, Maryland’s largest and the nation’s 14th largest school system, is conducting a national search for a new superintendent and wants input on what characteristics, leadership qualities and priorities county residents want in that next school leader.
The Montgomery County Board of Education has scheduled virtual forums it says are designed to gather comment on educational goals and priorities for the next superintendent.
The board also plans interviews and focus groups with community leaders over the coming months. More information will be posted online as it becomes available.
The superintendent oversees the administration of the school district that has 166,000 students, more than 24,000 employees and a budget of $12.6 billion.
A slate of applicants will be presented to the school board for consideration in January.
According to the position’s job listing, the candidate will assume the role next July, succeeding Monifa McKnight who was appointed interim superintendent earlier this year after Jack R. Smith announced his resignation in January.
County residents are invited to these virtual public forums, and to voice their opinions online in a survey.
Interpretation will be available for all events in Spanish and American Sign Language; see the MCPS website for other languages.