the Trickle-Down Theory

I used to think that a reverse-Peter Principle applied to the public school system. Somehow a bad teacher would get a job at a school that couldn't get a good teacher and they both would be stuck for life. Schools don't do much firing and that teacher would never be able to get a transfer. Better schools that found mediocre teachers would force them to transfer, and the only open slots to them would be at the bad schools. By bad schools, I'm thinking inner-city, as depicted on the television show, Boston Public.
It made sense to me that nobody that could escape the old, beat-up schools and the population of students that have many other issues besides learning how to read.
Then I got a part-time job fixing computers in an inner-city school. Then I learned about something first-hand that I had only heard of before...there are really good people that are motivated to help, and would rather be where they are needed than somewhere easier, or where they could make more money. I remain in amazement of these people. Maybe that's why I chose to stay, even when the pay for tech people is less than half of what the private sector pays. I just hope that in some small way I am helping as well.

Tempered Steel

Every once in a while, you will see an ordinary person getting interviewed on television. The person has gone through some hardship or tragedy and the interviewer is asking them how they feel about what has happened. The subject invariably says that they don't like what happened but they feel like they have somehow improved themselves by going through the experience.
I don't know if all of us can relate to that, but I think many can. I went through years of bad times at work and now enjoy a workday of peace and happiness. Did I have to go through the bad times to appreciate the good times? I wonder about that because I work with other people that are unhappy, yet they are working at the same place I do.
In the same vein, maybe the kids that survive the ghetto and live and succeed in our society, have succeeded because of what they went through rather than in spite of it.
Could it be that the best members of our society are the ones with the strength of character and intellect to struggle out of hardship and make it in this world?

Some People Just Don't Like Change

Some people don’t like change. They would like to keep things just the way they are right now, thank you very much. Recently, some employers have used a book called, “Who Moved My Cheese” to help employees adapt to change. I got a chance to look at the book, and while I didn’t like it, I did start to think about change and how it became pivotal to my existence.
First off, although there are some people in the world that fear any change at all, most of us would have little trouble adapting to a shiny new car, a big promotion at work, or winning the lottery. It is the un-asked-for change that seems to diminish our work experience or lifestyle that we resist. The transfer from a position you love to a position you have little interest in, a move from a large house to an apartment, getting demoted or fired from your job. These are the kinds of changes that the author hopes that WMMC (“Who Moved My Cheese”) will help us with. WMMC is a short, cartoon-like book that is written in a style that hopes to pull in non-readers. It is one of those “There are four types of people in the world” kind of books that reduces everything down to a parable about mice. It may have done better as a seminar lecture than as a book.
I grew up as the son of an Air Force officer and that required getting used to rapid change early in life. Up until 3rd grade, I had never spent more than 6 months in one town or school. When I was 11 years old, my family moved to Central Florida and I made myself believe that I would never move again. Compared to my wife, who grew up and still lives in the same town, I have no memories before 3rd grade. She can remember her Kindergarten teacher and names of kids in her class. I couldn’t even tell you what town I lived in. I remember at 16 years old, thinking that I didn’t have anybody outside my family that I had known more than a few years.
Years later, at a job interview, a wise potential employer said to me; “You’ve spent your whole life under an umbrella, first with your family in the military where they will always take care of you and then working for the local government where they will never fire you. You need to take a chance and get out from under the umbrella.” He was a wise man, but there was something that he didn’t know. The military life offers rapid change and stability at the same time, but it also offers something else that a small business rarely offers: the chance to give your life for your country. What he didn’t know was that my life from 11 to 18 was spent knowing that my father was in a Vietnamese prison camp and that I could do nothing about it..