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I know it is years away…and maybe not even in my lifetime, but I dream of the day when we will move beyond and say good-bye to the learning disability paradigm and welcome a new order of understanding into our consciousness. See, I believe that the “learning-disabled paradigm,” with its half-baked solutions for helping children who struggle in school, is the epitome of the
weakness myth. I think it is important to state up front that I am not suggesting that the students who are labeled LD do not struggle—they clearly do, and suffer as a result. And I am all for helping kids catch up and learn what they need to know to get ahead in life, but the way in which we do that—with a sole focus on the weakness of the students—is only half the equation. If we are going to remediate weaknesses, we must have an equal commitment to building strengths. To do so will require embracing the philosophies related in this book and then backing them in Congress with the same energy that we enforce No Child Left Behind and with the same vigor with which we federally fund the remediation of weaknesses. This is one of the most powerful ways in which we can help struggling students
succeed.
Furthermore, we don’t help children succeed when we place all the blame for the learning problems on them. This is how the learning disability paradigm operates. We begin by assuming that the unable to concentrate in school. If early instruction in reading and math was poor, a student who cannot catch up may become so frustrated that he gives up. If ever-increasing numbers of middle and high school students are
being diagnosed with LD, then the weaknesses in our antiquated school systems must be reviewed as contributing factors.
We cannot keep holding children back when they are intelligent and sometimes even gifted just because they understand and grow in the world differently than the dominant learning paradigm. How are we so sure we even have it right? Many of the most successful people I know are so called disabled. What a hoax.

It is time to view children not as problems needing to be fixed, but as mysteries needing to discovered and explored. Our future depends on developing the unique strengths of our young people and our young people deserve to discover a path in life that is full of meaning. Why should we wait until we are middle aged to discover what our unique contribution to life can be if we can begin to develop it when we are young? Parents can help children find their strengths by observing their behaviors from a very young age, by listening to them and asking them many questions about their preferences, by taking their input and ideas seriously. One of the problems with our schools and the way we look at kids today is that it seems that adults have forgotten what it actually feels like to be a child. The fact is, we remember so much from our childhoods that it would be careless to overlook the power of building strengths at a young age. Think back and recall your best and worst social experience, your best and worst learning experience, your first friend, your first love. All of these things happened years and years ago for most adults, and yet they have greatly influenced who we have become. The path to meaning and success begins in childhood. This is where we should lay the groundwork for mapping out a career and a work life that promises fulfillment.

I have just returned from Florida, where I had four speaking engagements. The yin and yang of the spirit of the state struck me strongly. In the car on the way to an appearance at News 4 This Morning (WFOR) in Doral, we passed kids exiting the bus and trooping into their elementary school for a day of standardized testing. Yes, it’s FCAT week in Florida. An hour and change later, leaving the TV studio, we tuned in to Moody Radio, WRMB, one of the biggest Christian radio stations in Florida. The hosts of the morning show there were talking about the FCAT tests. “Is this the best we can do?” they were asking. “Certainly there must be better way to measure what students know,” they lamented. They talked about how the tests were so one dimensional. Florida uses FCAT scores to grade its schools in so onerous fashion that the legislature finally is considering amending the law. Everyone in Florida was talking about the FCATs. Except for the kids 15 minutes away on the beach. They were enjoying spring break.

I have been in fifteen cities in the last three weeks and in every one, someone has asked about the role of standardized testing in their child’s education. Not many people have had positive things to say. My position on this is clear. We should have accountability in schools, as we should in all areas where public money is at stake. And our children’s education should not be left to chance. We should have the best programs and the best teachers possible. Teachers should be paid commensurate with the significance of their job. Regrettably, high stakes testing has become both the means and the end in our schools. And the tests yield only one type of assessment of student progress. There certainly are better ways to measure progress, if we have the will to commit to them.

I want to know what you think. If you have a story about standardized testing, as a teacher, as a parent, as a student, share it as a comment below.

This Thursday, February 28th, The Strengths Movement in Schools will launch a brand new website in coordination with the release of Jenifer Fox’s new book, Your Child’s Strengths: Discover Them, Develop Them Use Them (Viking, 2008). The new site will feature resources for parents and teachers, an interactive community, forums for people to share ideas about their kids and even a presence in Second Life, the leading virtual community. So bookmark us (Ctrl + D) now and check back on Thursday to discover exciting new tools to help your children discover their strengths.

Over the past two weeks, the Strengths Movement has gathered a new wave of supporters and activists. Of particular note are the Best Buy Corporation and celebrated documentary film maker, Robert Levi. Best Buy is corporate leader committed to developing strengths in their employees. Throughout March and April, Best Buy will follow the book tour and feature Your Child’s Strengths in their stores. We will visit ten stores on the book tour to meet with Best Buy strengths zealots who will act as the foot soldiers in the Strengths Movement.
As we move with Best Buy to deliver the strengths message across the nation over the next few weeks, we will be joined by award-winning documentary film maker, Robert Levi.

Levi has received three Best Script nominations from the Writers Guild of America for his documentary work. He most recently won the Writers Guild of America Best Television Documentary Award for BILLY STRAYHORN: LUSH LIFE, a feature-length PBS film about the pianist William Thomas Strayhorn, Duke Ellington’s arranger and co-composer. Other nominees for this award included Ken Burns. LUSH LIFE was also among New York Magazine’s, Top Ten Television Programs of 2007. Rob is also an Emmy and Oscar award winning film artist. His work has screened at festivals including Berlin, London, Melbourne, Munich and AFI. As a director of photography, Levi has collaborated with directors, including Norman Jewison, and taught cinematography at Columbia University’s Graduate Film School. And now he has signed on to document the Strengths Movement. The strengths message resonates with Rob both because he is a father who cares deeply about his child’s future, and also because he followed his own strengths to achieve success.

These new developments demonstrate the rising tide for the ideas of strengths. We launch next week. The time is now. Please revisit this website in the next ten days to see our newly redesigned site.

The poet and philosopher Khalil Gibran wrote in his poem entitled “On Children”:

“Your children are not your children.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.”

Knowing your own strengths will help your children understand theirs. Parents sometimes think they can tell their children what their strengths are, but they can’t. A strength is an activity that energizes you. Only the person doing the activity will know whether or not it is energizing to them.
I once knew a man who was a fly fishing guide. The last I heard he had a child whom he named River. “He’s going to be a great fisherman.” I cringe at this expectation. What if the boy is not energized by fishing? Often parents impose their likes and strengths onto children and children, desperately wanting to please parents (there is nothing children dislike more than disappointing their parents) take on activities that they may not really be interested in. When a child has a talent at something he is not interested in, sometimes he will feel guilty if he wants to discontinue the activity. In general, you can help kids discover their strengths by listening to their likes and dislikes. You can notice what they are drawn to and take note of those things. Ask them questions and try to avoid laying too many of your own expectations on them. IN the end, they are THEIR strengths they are developing.

Momentum is gathering across the nation to replace harsh, ineffective measures of dealing with juvenile offenders with programs that address the welfare of young people while preserving safe communities. The MacArthur Foundation has committed 100 million dollars to discovering ways to help youth who are in trouble discover better approaches to life rather than merely locking them up and throwing away the keys to their futures.
To me, this sounds like natural territory for the Strengths Movement. Children in the juvenile justice system, as well as ever growing population of drop-outs are people who can best be supported by developing their strengths. If we are to truly embrace a philosophy of strengths, we must assume that every child is born with inherent value and worth and that by discovering their strengths, they will be able to discern a pathway to a healthy future. The ways in which young people are treated in the criminal justice system are often at odds with research findings about how and when humans develop mature moral, psychological, and cognitive capacities. A strengths model can surely serve to make a lasting difference in the lives of this population.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this recently. The Strengths Movement has many places it can move to reach youth: after school programs, the justice system, athletics, to name just a few. A movement gets legs when people are able to stand up and take action, as well as to change on a personal level. Strengths are to be discovered for personal enhancement, and then there are actions we can all get behind. The actions are what will determine whether or not we can change anything.

So, Here is the idea…it seems so simple really.Why don’t we all look for what is right about the people in the world? Why don’t we believe we can make a difference and then, by god, go out there and make one?
I work with young people. They all believe they can change the world and the only thing in their way is lack of resources and cynics (called adults).
My world is all about waking up one day at age 45 and saying, it is now or never. I am setting out to change the world. Three months later I had a major book deal, a year later, I am leading a movement to change the educational system. Is this “the secret” at work? I don’t think so. This is the result of resolve, hard work, commitment and desire for a better world. We must get kids to focus on their strengths because they are going to have to solve many big problems in the world. We cannot motivate young people to take on these problems unless we give them a positive outlook on themselves and the world.
Perhaps this sounds Pollyanna to some people. What is easy about being positive? Seems as though there is nothing easy about it. It is easy to be cynical and critical of the world. It is much more difficult to get out there and do something. Children do not respond well to cynics–only adults do. Does this make me wibbly-wobbly kind of soft and feeble-minded? I don’t think so, that would be a conversation about egos, not need for action. We have a need for action here. It involves looking for what is right in a person as the first step. That is a significant challenge. It is hard for me, too.

2008 is sure to be a banner year for the Strengths Movement as it spreads across the nation and around the world joining schools, parents, businesses and communities around the goal of developing strengths in young people.

I will set out on a second year of touring and promoting the Strengths Movement, as well as publishing the Affinities Program; The strengths-based curriculum for grades k-12 and an after-school program.These materials will be available on this site in February.

Please see this website for information about the tour, the book and the curriculum as well as my blog posts.

Important note to teachers: Each of the presentations on the book tour is designed to provide teachers with one Continuing Professional Development Unit. At the presentation, teachers will receive an Evaluation form and Evidence of Completion forms that will be signed for you to bring to your district to receive credit. Teachers will also receive curriculum materials to bring back to their schools.

Most Americans today would probably agree with the proposition that success in education leads to success in career / business. Many parents spend a great deal of time and money preparing their kids for college entrance exams. Indeed, in 2004, the Census Bureau published results that showed the difference in average income between adults with a bachelor’s degree and those with just a high school diploma was $23,000.

But today, the costs of a college education has skyrocketed. A survey for 4 year and 2 year institutions, both public and private, shows that tuition costs have nearly tripled during the since the id 1980’s. On average, college tuition has risen to over $14,000 per year; almost double that for private colleges. And these costs don’t take into account the non-tuition expenses associated with sending a child to college. A whole school loan industry was born to support sending our children to college. USA Today reported in 2005 that the average undergraduate student left college with a degree and $19,300 in debt, paying on average $210 per month upon graduation. This represented a 60% increase from the early 1990’s. These trends operated across economic strata, with borrowing increasing among students from families in the top income brackets. The situation has only worsened since. Yet, according to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute, median family income in the first part of the 21st century have actually declined 2.% in real terms. To quote the authors in the introduction to the report:

The answer to be gleaned from this year’s edition for people who want to know how to get rich is the same as for the little girl who wants to know how to become a queen: Be born that way. The book shows how the growing concentration of capital income and wealth among the very wealthiest few and the parallel shift within the economy from labor-based to capital-based income is fueling the widening inequality gap not just between the top and the bottom, but also between the top and both upper-middle and middle income families. The authors calculate that the shift is equivalent to an annual transfer of $3,043 from every wage-and-salary employee in the bottom 80% of workers to those in the top 20%.

Couple this with the growing trend in offshoring routine professional and white collar work, and the return on investment in a traditional college education is not looking that good for today’s families.

So what about those who have been successful in terms of growing their family net worth (vs. just growing their income). In his book The Millionaire Mind, Thomas Stanley published the results of his survey of nearly 1,000 families that had built a networth of $1 million or more, without having inherited it or attained through any other kind of largess other than their own work. He examined the factors that this group reported as contributing to their success. Good grades in school and high SAT scores were a neutral to slightly negative correlate. The key contributions of education for these individuals were:

• Learning to fight for your goals because someone labeled you as having “average or less ability.”

• Influential in determinig that hard work was more important than genetic high intellect in achieving.

Helping our kids develop and leverage their strengths, as well sa giving them the freedom to explore and expand their character are be true road map to success.