Mom Behind the Curtain

every mom wants to be an all-powerful wizard

How important is doing well in school to success? – Most Likely to Succeed Part 3/11

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Does your kid hate school? Have you told them that it's for important so they can get a good job? How important is doing well in school to success?In my last post, I talked being able to relate to the experience of the makers of the documentary Most Likely to Succeed, because my kids don’t like school.

Their dislike of school started at a young age, but at this point I will admit that I might not be helping any. Because I also identified with the narrator when he realized that what he was telling his child about school – that you need to do well in school to get a good job – wasn’t true. In the past I’ve used statements, almost exactly like the ones he used, when talking to my own kids. Things like —

“You want to flip burgers the rest of your life? If not, you’ve got to do well in school.”…

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I hate school – Most Likely to Succeed, Part 2/11

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"I hate school." Does your kid hate school? Do kids they really hate it because they have to work hard and they are lazy, or is there another reason?I hate school.

I don’t want to go to school.

Have your kids ever said those things?

One way I judge the validity of ideas in books or documentaries is if they match up with what I’m hearing or experiencing personally. It’s not just me, lots of people are experiencing the same thing. It’s a bigger problem than I thought.

There are several ideas in Most Likely to Succeed, a documentary based on the book, Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era by Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith, that really resonated with me.

To begin with, my kids started disliking school around the same age as the daughter in the film, somewhere around 3rd-5th grade. Before that, they varied between liking and even loving school….

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Most Likely to Succeed Documentary Review and Discussion – Part 1/11

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Most Likely to SucceedWhen I realize that I’ve come across a recommendation for a book in more than one place, it seems a sure sign I should read it. In this case, Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era by Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith, the book, was on my reading list for quite a while from various sources. I had even checked it out from the library twice but not managed to read it. Then I heard that our superintendent would be showing the documentary with the same name to both the teachers and parents in our school district. So I bought the book and started reading it….

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Employment Numbers – How to choose a college major Part 3

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How do you choose a college major? Questions for college career centers. The numbers for STEM science college degrees might surprise you.How do you choose a college major? Based on my own experiences and the job search experiences of several women I know, picking a major based on the classes you like isn’t a good method. And you have a good chance of ending up un- or under-employed. Unfortunately, this method of picking your major based on favorite classes is most likely to be recommended to good students, the kids who have worked the hardest. And, unfortunately, because girls are more likely to be model students, this probably happens to a greater number of women than men.

Colleges and universities should do a better job educating the students about what kinds of majors lead to which jobs….

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College Majors – How to choose a college major Part 2

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Is a STEM degree in science a good choice for a college major? What jobs can you get if your college major is in science? How to choose a college major.In my last post, I summarized the experiences of several of my friends who chose their college major largely by the classes they enjoyed in school. I won’t go into all the reasons I ended up there, but my college major was in Chemistry.

Over the course of my summer internships, I realized didn’t really want to go into research. I don’t think I ever really thought I wanted to go into research, but research was where I was able to find summer internships. (And I worked really hard to find my summer internships. It wasn’t easy.)

As I neared the end of the completion of my degree, I spent hours in my universities “career office” …

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You’re majoring in what? – How to choose a college major Part 1

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You’re majoring in what? It's not just English majors. Did you know you can’t get a decent job with a chemistry degree? A biology degree? A math degree?You’re majoring in what? And what are you planning to do with that college major?

You’re probably thinking that I’d be asking that of an English major. At least, that’s the way the classic joke goes. Everyone knows you can’t get a job with an English degree. “Everyone” knows that English isn’t a “practical” college major.

But did you know you can’t get a decent job with a college chemistry degree? A biology degree? A math degree?…

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Success biography – Scalia, stellar student

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In my reading I’ve noticed a lot of anecdotes about people who achieve outstanding success, and they usually don’t get there by the normal academic route. There’s Steve Jobs, of course, who I covered in this series of posts. Then there are several mentions of successful people in Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. The idea that college isn’t needed for success came up again in How Children Succeed, by Paul Tough.

As a former top performing student, I wonder how much to encourage my kids to stay top performing. (That’s where my kids are now.) Because I’m starting to think that being a stellar student actually teaches out (or un-learns) some skills you need. I’m still collecting data. So, I’m also going to start taking note when I hear of someone who is a success who was a stellar student….

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Steve Jobs vs Becoming Steve Jobs biographies – my own observations, Part 7/7

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Steve Jobs biographies - my own observationsBoth of the Steve Jobs biographies I read, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, were written by people who knew Steve Jobs personally. But there are a couple of small points that I think they overlooked….

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Steps to becoming a successful entrepreneur – what can be learned from Steve Jobs, Part 6/7

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Steps to becoming a successful entrepreneur - what can be learned from Steve JobsI’ve read quite a bit of information about becoming an entrepreneur. Not that I’ve been able to put much of it into practice, but I’ve done a lot of research. Enough that  while I was reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, and Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli,  I was surprised to notice when Jobs’ success occurred not because he followed what is often given as common advice, but when he deviated from it….

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Steve Jobs’ weaknesses as a leader – Part 5/7

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Steve Jobs' weaknesses as a leader - Becoming Steve JobsBecoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli points out that Job’s success in his second career at Apple depended not only on what he learned from the failures of NeXT and the successes of Pixar, but on him evolving personally, learning how to manage his weaknesses and fine tune his strengths. I went over some of his strengths in a previous post. So what were his characteristics that hampered him, especially earlier in his career? What were Steve Jobs’ weaknesses as a leader?…

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