Veterans Day => It’s A Wonderful Life!

As I watched a bit of the matinee for our schools Veteran’s Day program, a coincidence occurred to me. In the same auditorium on the same day, our students were gathered to pay tribute to our nation’s veterans as well as to watch a matinee performance of our fall production of It’s a Wonderful Life. The coincidence? One does not come without the other. In this great nation we live in, we in fact live a wonderful life due to the men and women who fought for it. The irony that both programs took place in the same room within a few hours of each other caused me to reflect a great deal on our current status in the world. It troubles me at times that we have thousands of soldiers deployed in harms way, yet it is often quite easy to forget that we are a nation at war. It is like we have decided to go on with life and let those folks do what they do. I know it can’t be that way for the families of those men and women. It makes me question how we can be so focused on issues like getting rid of judges in our state, fighting over issues related to tolerance, and pointing fingers across the isle at one another in Congress, yet soldiers are placing their lives on the line every day and many of us hardly seem to notice. I remember the body counts announced every night during Vietnam, and while I am sure no one wants to return to that time, it makes me wonder why we are not more focused on the faces of those that serve. Yes, we live a wonderful life, but I think it is imperative that we constantly keep in mind those that have given it to us.

Brain Matters

Three years ago I attended a general session at the NASSP National Convention that featured Daniel Pink as the keynote speaker. I have referenced him in other posts and strongly encourage you to read his two most recent books Drive and A Whole New Mind. In each of those he addresses how he sees us moving ahead in the future and how we will need to interact in the American economy if the United States is to remain the leading nation in the world. I have included a clip that features Pink on how we need to look differently at how we train individuals to be contributors in our new global economy.