NEW SURVEY: The State of Education in America

The Josephson Institute has just launched a new comprehensive survey for educators (school board members, superintendents, principals and other administrators, teachers and school staff) and parents of children in school. It is designed to be one of the most comprehensive and influential studies of the trends, opinions and actions of administrators, teachers, students and parents. We hope to have at …

MEMO From Michael: Bound for Bogota — and Medellin!

As mentioned in last week’s updates, I’ll be in Colombia next week. I will post dispatches on the What Will Matter Facebook page, so be sure to Like that page so you can stay in the loop. Much of this week has been spent collaborating with Dr. Gary Smit, the de facto dean of our national CHARACTER COUNTS! training faculty, and two of …

Recent Activities at Josephson Institute

What’s new and exciting at Josephson Institute? Here’s an update: Proposal for Colombia. I worked on a major proposal to the Secretary of Education of Bogota, Colombia. They are seeking bids on ways to help them initiate a comprehensive values education program in their 400 or so public schools. The idea is to integrate into their academic program the teaching …

MEMO From Michael

It’s been a busy month for us as we adjust to our new, very lean staff resulting from the downsizing last month. If you value what we do either personally or what we are doing for the world, please, please consider making a donation here. I know these are difficult times for everyone, but even $5 or $10 could make …

Critical Educational Outcomes: Model Standards for Academic, Social, Emotional, and Character Development. Making the Common Core easy.

This week we completed a monumental project: Critical Educational Outcomes: Model Standards for Academic, Social, Emotional, and Character Development. These standards, the first-ever effort to integrate all major educational outcomes, form the backbone of the new CHARACTER COUNTS! 4.0, a fully integrated school improvement and student development system any school can use. If you are an educator, please print them out and share …

OBSERVATION: Ignorant people can be both wise and kind and they are worthy of respect for the qualities they have, not contempt for those they lack.

I was surprised how many people responded to the posting on my What Will Matter Facebook page. It was a picture and quote from Aibileen Clark, a black maid in the movie The Help: “You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” I added this line: “Grammar doesn’t matter nearly as much as the sentiment – one that every parent and …

Memo From Michael: Thoughts on School Graduations

This is a week dominated by thoughts and preparations for my daughter Abrielle’s graduation from high school and a post-ceremony party I’m hosting at our home. As has been the case with the brother and sister that preceded her, and as it will be with the two sisters who will follow her, this occasion – the graduation from high school, …

Memo From Michael: Teachers and Tornadoes

Once I got past the awe of witnessing Mother Nature’s astonishing power to wreak devastation in Oklahoma, I was awed by something more positive and uplifting: the instinctive capacity of our species to care about, come to the aid of, and — for those caught in the middle of the calamity — to even sacrifice their own lives for others.

WORTH SEEING: My Daughter Abrielle

Okay, on Mothers Day I give all the credit to her mom, Anne, for her intelligence, talent and beauty, but I still think of this as a nice Dad’s moment: Daughter Abrielle was selected as the class speaker at her high school graduation. Look out world, another Josephson talker; and, last night, along with her writing partner Catherine, she won …

A Letter from Bogota: What Do You Think About CHARACTER COUNTS! in Colombia?

I am writing this post from Bogota, Colombia. I am halfway through a full week of high-level meetings and various presentations to educators, parents and government officials. What am I talking about? Ethics and character, of course. More specifically, I am sharing my thoughts and the Institute’s strategies and programs dealing with character development, parenting, education reform and the corruption …

Memo from Michael: Bittersweet Moments of Fatherhood

When my four daughters were genuinely little girls, every milestone was a new source of joy and pride. Now that they are young women, there’s still great pride as they reach new stages of emancipation, but joy isn’t really the right word. To be honest, it feels more like sadness invoking all the clichés ever uttered about the bittersweet moments …

A Personal Note From Michael

It’s been an interesting and challenging couple of weeks with three major events taking place in my life: 1) I just returned from a 4-day trip to Hawaii. I was there to address the 4-H Western Regional Leadership Forum – about 300 staff, volunteer and student leaders of one of the oldest youth programs in the nation. 4-H has been …

Memo From Michael: The Loss of Daddyhood

I’ve written extensively about my children. I have five of them: four teenage girls and a son approaching 40 (impossible to believe). I’ve written less about them lately for several reasons: 1) they are not quite as cute; 2) they say really clever things less often; 3) they are much less interested in spending time with me. And, the biggest …

OBSERVATION: Life After Life-Changing Traumas

Research on the the post trauma lives of victims of tragedies like the school shooting in Connecticut, reveal that most survivors eventually escape their dark dungeons of grief and despair and that many actually led happier, more fulfilling lives. This evidence validates Nietzsche’s observation, “What does not kill me, makes

OBSERVATION: A Personal Note on the School Murders in Connecticut

I find myself crying every time I think about what the families of the murdered children and their teachers are experiencing. I feel cowardly as I force myself to think about something else rather than linger on these thoughts. I have even avoided following the story on TV because I find the feelings of empathy and compassion so intense it …

Memo From Michael: Thoughts on Turning 70

I am approaching this last month of 2012 with optimism but a special eagerness to enter a completely new year, a blank canvas on which I hope to paint a grand mural of another year’s worth of challenges and successes. I confess that I have some trepidation approaching my 70th birthday (December 10) – that really, really sounds old to …