The Bad and Good Teachers

Teachers play such an important role in developing our children at an early age. 

My memories of a bad teacher recounts a Monday morning when I was in the First Grade. On the agenda for the day was sharing about what you did over the weekend. When it was my turn I stood up and said I could see the wind blowing when my dad took us up to a scenic lookout. There were a lot of clouds blowing around the mountains. It was very windy that day. I was so excited to share that with the class. To my surprise the teacher barked at me and to the class "You can't see the wind it's invisible and Drake said he could see the wind blowing." I remember students starting to laugh. I was so humiliated that day. I did report that incident to my mom and she had a nice talk with that teacher to make sure she never behaves that way again. A good teacher would have used my story to explain to the class how the wind works and thank me for my story.

Memories of a good teacher recounts a very dedicated teacher that offered to tutor me after school to bring me up to speed on a subject. Mission accomplished and she rewarded me after school by taking me across the street to get a milkshake. Such a precious moment I remember when I was in the Second Grade.

My advice to new teachers and veteran teachers is that you need to remind yourself daily that you are setting lifelong memories that are good and bad for your students. You play an important role in the development of young minds to be good students. Make a difference and be that good teacher.

What Happened to Hawaii?

I always pass by homeless camps in Hawaii driving so this time I wanted to get a close up look and feel of these camps at a safe distance on foot. I'm not implying these camps are all dangerous, but a Hawaii lawmaker was attacked taking pictures and doing research near the area that I selected Kaka'ako Waterfront Park that is in the heart of Honolulu. In hindsight, I put myself in a precarious position. It did not help that I was dressed up in a Aloha Shirt and dress pants the standard Hawaii business attire. I snapped pictures with my iPhone discreetly and disappeared. 

The homeless problem is all around in Hawaii. Affordable housing does not exist in Hawaii when the wages that the average person earns can't even rent an apartment. Solution live on the streets and keep moving around when you get kicked out of your current location.

The previous Governor and current Mayor of Honolulu both failed on solutions. Only bandaid fixes that don't last. The current Governor is new and he is teaming up with the Honolulu Mayor that failed in the past. The Governor formed a new task force to tackle the mushrooming homeless problem. I will not make any judgements on the current Governor until I see him in action. Is his task force going to succeed with a long term solutions to help the homeless. 

Hawaii is becoming a Banana Republic, but we don't sell bananas we build 1 million+ condominiums and homes. The future of Hawaii is grim for our children because they will all leave Hawaii for a better life on the mainland. Hawaii is failing to bring in industries that will create employment at good wages to buy these 1 million+ homes. The tourism industry that is Hawaii's bread and butter is not a decent living for most. The people in the tourism industry need to hold down an extra part-time job or a second full-time job to stay off the streets. This is ridiculous. Is this America?

It's not an easy fix. The mainland states keep sending their homeless to Hawaii promising them a better life in a warmer state on the streets. That crap needs to stop. There are so many families with young children in these camps it breaks my heart how they have to live in a tent on a sidewalk playing in the street. How do these children get an education when they are living under these circumstances. We can't all be a Rocket Scientist, Doctor or Lawyer, but we need to help these children get a good education so they have an opportunity for good paying jobs in the future.

I'm calling you out Governor and Mayor to perform your duties that you were elected too. It's not rocket science to find solutions to help the homeless. It's a staged long term plan. You can't look for the slam dunk solution it does not exist. Put me on that task force and I will come up with proposals. You can find me here on my blog.

I recall when I was a little kid growing up in Hawaii it was a different place. Hawaii is changing not for the better, but for the worst.

In the background condominiums priced at 1 million+ and such a bargain. Note to self, I need to buy one of these bargains at 1 million+. 

This is the view around 200 yards away from the homeless camps.

A Serendipity moment on YouTube

Is there a minimum age to experience serendipity?  Maybe not!  A four year old girl playing with her mom's smartphone likes to play videos from YouTube.  She loves the movie Frozen.  She can't spell to good yet so she would need her mom's help to type in keywords for the videos she is searching for by pressing the magnifying glass symbol on the YouTube app.  She learned how to retrieve previous searches by typing in the letter "F"  in the search box to pull up her favorite Frozen video's.  One day she discovered the microphone symbol after she pressed the magnifying glass symbol on the app.  A white microphone in a red dot at the bottom of the phone appears and it's radiating rings of circles calling your attention to it.  She speaks into it and it searches for videos she is requesting.  Hey mom I don't need you anymore.

This is just an example of how technology savvy a four year old who is attending preschool can be.  They ask for help and take it to the next steps in the quest for independence.  It's proof that early education makes and impact in a child's life and exposure to technology at an early age stimulates the brain to develop.

Just make sure technology does not consume the child.  They need to go offline just like us adults.

Six year old boy accused of Sexual Harassment

The world is changing every day for the better or for the worst. The politically correct movements are so comical and pure stupid.

Children are basically innocent and learning every day how the world works and need a lot of guidance now that we made it so complicated for them to navigate through. Is a six year old capable of intentional sexual harrasment? Absolutely not! 

A six year old boy in Colorado was suspended for kissing a classmate on the hand. Oh my goodness we need to lock him up and throw away the key. Joking aside we need to wake up and get real already. That Colorado school should have used that incident as an opportunity to educate the children on sexual harrasment in a gentle way since our society expects so much from six year old children. Instead the poor boy gets suspend and is so confused now. Schools please educate and stop creating so much drama. 

This is a true HR policy created years ago in my former Banking days. We were told that you cannot tell a co-worker that you look good. That was deemed sexual harassment. Example if I told a female co-worker that I liked her outfit I would be written up.

Common sense let's bring it back please. Let's teach boys and girls manners. Have the boys open the doors for the young girls and the girls respond back with a nice thank you. Chivalry is what the world lacks. Start teaching manners in schools early to build a foundation for our children to become respectful adults one day.

No Aloha allowed for state workers in Hawaii for Macy's Believe Campaign

When I heard this story it pissed me off. The Hawaii State Ethics Commission has become the Grinch that stole Christmas from the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

http://wish.org 

http://wish.org/content/macys-believe-campaign

Macy's has a campaign "Believe” that urges kids to write letters to Santa to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. This is a great cause and a good class project to practice writing skills. Macy's will donate $1 to Make-A-Wish for each letter that a student turns in to a Macy's store. 

The State of Hawaii commission issued an advisory saying that the state ethics code prohibits state of Hawaii workers to promote charities on work time. Mainland schools participate in this great campaign without harassment from their local government.

State of Hawaii write better laws and make some exceptions on stupid laws that you write.

The Bullies

We are surrounded by bullying at school, work and the Internet to give a small sampling of common areas where bullying occurs. Bullies come from all demographics.

Kids as innocent as they look can be very dark and mean inside so don't underestimate them. Kids tease about the most stupid things. Some bully to be the Alpha Kid and others just to fit in at the expense of others not realizing the hurt they are inflicting on that person.

Playground to the office. The managers with pet employees need to keep an eye on them. Some pet employees are just outright jerks how they wield their borrowed power from their manager to bully staff. In most cases managers are indirectly guilty of bullying because they know what their pets are doing to the staff. To be fair not all pets are bullies. 

The Internet the big Cloud. We are so fortunate to have at your disposal the technology that can enhance our lives and reach out to almost anywhere in the world. What do we do with this technology we take it to the cloud to reach out and bully people. Cyber bullying is just as hurtful as being bullied in person the only difference is the coward bullies are now hiding behind their smartphones, tablets and PC's.

What do we do to combat this disrespectful behavior?  Early education to teach what bullying is. Companies need to step up and enforce zero tolerance for anyone caught bullying. Laws need to be passed when cyber bullying goes too far. 

No easy answers to solve. Awareness is the key, we need to constantly highlight any form of bullying by taking the appropriate action.