Clear Life Plan

Amy Phillips, who writes the “60-Second Attention Span” column for The Washington Times Communities section, asks the burning question of the year in a recent opinion piece, Is college worth the money?. This is hardly the latest sally into the fray (click the image to go to an earlier example from Reuters, that comes to a different conclusion), and maybe we should think twice about listening to the advice of someone who can only concentrate on one thing for a minute at a time. But the question needs an answer if you find yourself (or your child) coming up on graduation and you’re not one of the 1% who doesn’t have to count the cost, no matter what you do.

How can a person make a decision in this difficult situation, with so many things to keep track of and worry about, and everybody’s got an opinion about what’s important, but they’re all different?

At Clear Life Plan, our opinion is that the place to start is here and now, with you — the person you are, what you’re interested in, what your strengths and weaknesses are, and with what you need in order to do your best and be happy. And we have a method for you to follow that helps you put your priorities in order.

If you’d like to find out more about the hows, whys, and where-to-starts that we have worked out for people just like you, give us a holler. It’s why we’re here.

Another “bad teacher” in the making?

Stephanie Vincent, an education student at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, writes a thought-provoking essay about her practicum experince in today’s Calgary Herald:

Why I really shouldn’t be a teacher.

Too much work. Not enough recognition. Difficult “customers” (i.e., parents).

But this isn’t the lesson Ms. Vincent draws from her experience:

I want to learn how to teach so that I can spend every day with students and so that we can learn from each other. Each and every student brims with energy and unrealized possibility. I want to help them release that energy and realize their potential. In the end, teaching is the most rewarding and enjoyable job anyone can do.

Some will say that anyone this passionate about teaching will of course make an exceptional teacher — because she’s an exceptional young person.

News flash: ALL teachers start out this way. NOBODY is drawn to teaching because “you get summers off.” Certainly no one is inspired by the salary, or the hours, or the exasperating administrivia that wastes your time and keeps you away from the people you’re hired to work for: the kids.

Ms. Vincent is wise beyond her years. She’s clearly focused on the right stuff — the stuff that matters. To her.

An article in today’s Seattle Times asks a question that sounds all too familiar:

What’s the matter with teachers today?

Author Linda Shaw provides some much-needed historical perspective on the situation, by noting that

• a hundred fifty years ago, when America first began its project of universal public education, the new school boards started on the cheap — they hired women, who would do the work for only a fraction of what a man would demand;
• that we’re still not sure in this country whether teaching is a profession — in contrast to countries such as high-scoring Finland, where teachers enjoy the same high social status as doctors and lawyers; and
• that today, more than ever, teachers are on the hot seat — especially since recent studies (mostly done by economists, not teachers or even “educators”) show that “a good teacher appears to trump just about everything else inside a school when it comes to raising student test scores.”

As a teacher myself for some decades, I find it easy to get defensive about the criticism of politicians, officials, and talking hairdos, who never had to put their back against a blackboard (I guess it’s a whiteboard these days) day-in-day-out and watch our kids struggle to learn in the midst of this rising tide of noise.

But before I break into a rant, I remind myself that the most important lesson anyone can learn is contained in the ancient dictum “Know thyself” — propounded by Socrates, who inspired the founding of the first school in Athens, Plato’s Academy, 2500 years ago.

Whether this lesson can be taught — especially in a complex institutional setting like our public schools — is an open question. But without learning it, how can a person figure out what to do in life? No matter at what age?

This is why I joined Clear Life Plan. It’s where we start in our process, and the standard against which every recommendation and proposal for action is based: who you are. Figure that out first, then make a plan.

If this sounds good to you, contact us.