Difference between revisions of "Sustainable Business Learning Community Conversations, January 2016 - February 2016"

Revision as of 16:48, 1 February 2017

==Sustainable Business Conversation, January 26, 2017 Topic:

Sustainability Discussion, January 26, 2017 Topic this week: Food and food systems We started out talking about the Detroit school closures that are in the news. They are listing Pershing, Osborne and Denby all for closure. These schools are located all in a row. Where are the kids in those communities going to go? They are saying to go to schools in the suburbs – but that does not make sense. Closing schools breaks down communities. DPS schools have fewer and fewer attractions – there used to be good football teams and sports fields – now they’re gone. Food: Keep Growing Detroit has the goal of making Detroit a food sovereign city where more than half the fruits and vegetables used in the city are grown in Detroit. The group provides education, seeds and tools for growing food. The city has family gardens, school gardens, community gardens and market gardens. There is a growing green economy. With hard winters, you cannot grow veggies year round without a heated greenhouse. What about soil contamination? Soil can be tested for lead and other common contaminates for $25 a sample. Someone estimated that about 1/3 of soil tested is contaminated. It’s very expensive to replace contaminated soil. Raised beds may help in some situations, but its not easy. Urban gardening is now cool but it used to be part of survival for everyone. Lots of people left the farm in years past because its hard work and can be really hard to make money. Detroit has changed zoning to allow farm stands and tree farms in some neighborhoods. Farm animals are not allowed. Some stores (Meijer, Kroger) are selling local produce in season. You can freeze or can food for the winter. But lots of produce still comes from around the world. What is the cost of moving blueberries from Chili or apples from New Zealand? We are used to cheap meat – how is it that a hamburger can cost $1.00? Does that really reflect the cost of raising and processing beef? Is cheap food a good thing? Poor people have more access to food – but how much is big agriculture subsidized to produce all the cattle feed and use big feed lots. What about the environment? In America, we waste too much food. One estimate is that half the food cooked goes into the garbage. Kids are growing up not knowing how to cook. People get a box of produce from a community garden – and then have no idea what to do with veggies. Cooking involves passing on cultural traditions, community building and family connections. How many of us have Grandma’s recipes? The younger generation is changing. Many millennials don’t want to own a fast car or a big house. They want to make a difference and care about environmental issues and social justice. Yet many of us still have one foot in consumerism. Now they’re recommending that pregnant women eat peanut butter to lessen the number of children with peanut allergies. If you live too clean, your body doesn’t know how to fight germs. It can be a good thing for kids to play in the dirt. Farm kids seem to have fewer allergies.

Sustainable Business Conversation, January 19, 2017 Topic: Education and Vocational Ed in Detroit, Part 2

College track vs. life skills/trades:

• Today it seems that most schools are focused on college and not on ordinary life skills. A lot of kids get out of high school and are completely lost.
• All students benefit from electives and vocational training.
• It used to be that the options started in Junior High when you could take music, shop or cooking. Now if a student wants a cooking curriculum, for example, there’s only one school in Detroit that offers it and it may be impossible for most students to get there.
• Wayne County Community College (WCCC) is concerned about those who are not headed to college. In some cases dual enrollment is available to high school students.
• Why is there money to build expensive sports stadiums but vocational education is being de-funded?

Teachers matter!: A teacher/mentor encouraged Kimberly's husband to go into architectural drafting when he was in high school. This led him to getting a college degree in architecture – and a career that wouldn’t have happened without the encouragement of that teacher.

We have to look at learning holistically - education must serve the entire person:

• Children bring issues related to poverty and unstable home life into the classroom - these issues need to be addressed in order for them to learn.
• Many young people today are not used to delaying gratification. They need help to think through problems and examine the consequences of their actions.
• First generation college students need extra help with the college hunt/application process as well as financial aid. They also need extra support once they get to their college or university. The media often portrays college life as a big party, downplaying the actual hard work and dedication that is required to obtain a college degree.

Charter schools get way less money than regular public schools. A study by a group at the University of Arkansas found that in general the total per pupil funding for public charter schools in the US was about 55% of the per pupil funding for public schools in 2014. The study notes that the discrepancy has been getting worse over time. Spending less money on education seems like the wrong way to go.

How can we do something productive to help in education?

• Volunteer at your local school.
• Help fund a scholarship.
• Join a tutoring program
• Help students with the college search and application process
• Is there a way to help connect students with vocational training opportunities?
• Talk to your state representative about education policy in the state. If the system isn't working, we need to be vocal about improving it.

Teachers need support:

• One school administrator noted that many of his best teachers had not been at the top of their class when they were in school, but were more likely in the middle.
• It’s the job of school leadership to provide support and help them become good teachers. Education should be about helping people grow.
• We are losing a lot of talented college graduates to business and finance. Even those who wish to teach find the school environment difficult and the pay too low. Once we lose these people from education, they find it hard to walk away from a job they may not like because the pay is too good compared to teaching.

Sustainable Business Conversation, January 12, 2017 Topic: Education/Vocational Ed in Detroit

What are we teaching the next generation?

How do we prepare the next generation to be thoughtful?

Schools should teach us to think and ask questions, but it seems that education frequently just promotes lowest price and immediate utility.

Education should make people think about their purchasing choices. Is it profitable to educate people to think deeply about consumer choices? Some of us have been dismayed to visit Walmart and find hardly anything that’s made in the US. There can be issues with pollution and human rights in manufacturing plants in other countries.

We need to look deeply at what the purpose of education is:

• What would schools look like if they were designed to promote critical thinking skills and problem solving skills?
• Education now focuses on standardized tests and not on encouraging critical thinking.
• Sometimes we seem to be creating robotic thinkers.
• Students should learn how to recognize and name a problem.

The ideal school would be both local and global. Culture strongly affects education.

• Japanese students are very different from American students, some differences are good (focus and discipline) and some differences are bad (high stress cram exams).
• In the US our kids do exactly what we tell them to do: look for instant gratification and upward mobility, be a consumer and think more of the individual rather than themselves as part of a wider society.

There were once a number of Detroit high schools with strong vocational education programs; Chadsey, Cass Tech. Now we try to put everyone on a path to college- but that may not be right for everyone.

Boggs School is thinking about having a vocational place for high school students after school. There could be programs in green construction, agriculture, cooking and sewing. The goal is to provide tools to reach ambitious goals and live meaningful lives.

Every option should be open and valued – not just college education.

Are students being educated to the reality of their lives – or about how to do well on tests?

Working on your passion creates flow – the work needs to be not too easy but not too hard. Kids at Boggs School love their passion projects every Friday and work hard across grade levels.

Teachers can measure growth in their students – it’s not necessary to have grades and test scores.

Too many teachers have become drained and are leaving the profession. Students in teacher training programs are way down.

Every child innately wants to learn. What’s wrong with the bureaucracy that’s changing education?