My Take on Boxtops for Education

I was pouring my cereal this morning wondering what to blog about, and one of those little Boxtops for Education rectangles looked at me the whole time, mocking me.  I have issues with them.

Don’t get me wrong: I do approve of money for schools, and I do believe that corporations should contribute to communities.  Also, I do not believe that I’m the first person to say what I’m about to say, I’d just like to say it in my own words.

Civil War Actors by lapstrake on Flickr

Overall, it strikes me as wrong that we’d need $0.10 coupons to fund K-8 education.  Put it this way:  would we accept that our cereal boxes told us to go to BoxTops4Ballistics.com to earn a dime for national security?  Is education important or not?

$0.10?  Really?

Dime 2 by mikedemers on Flickr

I’m put off, first of all, by the piddling amount offered per boxtop: ten cents.  To earn each dime, you need to harvest each boxtop and keep track of them all.  To earn any useful of money, many people need to do this, and then you then need someone to coordinate the efforts and collect the results.  It’s a lot of involvement for a little profit.

Their website says  “Each month, find exciting new opportunities to earn thousands of Bonus Box Tops for your school.”  Thousands?  Let’s say 3,000.  At $0.10 each, that’s $300.  So that’s what, three textbooks?  Over the course of the year, you could enough for one class of 36!

The Benevolent Corporation?

Book Cover: When Corporations Rule the World

Then there’s the question of how many thousands of dollars in General Mills products need to be purchased to earn another $300 for one cheap computer.  They are not hurting for money, and the presence of Boxtops on their products doesn’t hurt their sales.  These factors are naturally not mentioned on the BoxTops website.  It rubs me the wrong way that such a huge, successful corporation is giving out these tiny table-scraps with an air of such generosity.

I also have to admit that corporate involvement in schools, even to share some of their wealth, worries me.  Successful corporations succeed because they put their own interests and power first.  If you haven’t thought much about their influence before, skim some David C. Korten – it’s well-researched and readable.

What Would Help?

My central objection, though, is that BoxTops nickel and dime schools whose real issue is being underfunded by millions of dollars every year.  They don’t need a trickle of funds, “earned” when individuals spend more money elsewhere; they need real support that comes automatically year after year.

I’m not saying that General Mills should be responsible for providing this.  I am saying that maybe everyone’s time and money would be better spent lobbying for sufficient government funds or researching the impact of a decently-funded education.

Concessions and Conclusion

Before I end this, I need to step back and remember that yes, small actions do make a difference.  And a whole bunch of dimes do add up to a bunch of dollars.  It’s important never to forget that.  And General Mills is giving away money to schools, which is at least something.  High-five to General Mills for doing something.

But what does it say about our commitment to education, especially education in poorer school districts, that school budgets need to be supplemented by a series of $0.10 boxtops?

Recommended Reading

Here’s an extremely mixed bag of reads I’ve found worthwhile:

Career Stuff: I recently had to update my resume because I’ll be supervising our next VISTA.  While I was at it, I wish I’d seen this:

Avoid These Phrases to Keep Your Resume Relevant

Productivity: Since on a slow day I’m interrupted 25 times, I’m constantly looking for tips and tricks to get back on task and not have days escape from me.  This one fit my needs nicely:

Take 18 Minutes to Keep Your Days On Track

Social Change: I’m pretty aware that I’m a person who’s white working in a community of color.  In this post, Allison points toward a documentary she found worthwhile and has plenty of her own commentary about the importance of communities helping themselves.

Social Change and Being Black in America

On Attitude: Sometimes you need it.  You just have to be able to stand up for yourself and your work.  Chris Brogan does so briefly, strongly, and in his own words.  We all need to be able to do this in our own words.

Why I Use Affiliate Links When Reviewing Items

Humor: If you don’t read xkcd.com, you should.

Lease
Estimation

Older or Wiser or Just Different

I’m really not trying to pose as a seasoned veteran of the nonprofit sector when I say this, but I’ve noticed that I’m less inclined to try to change systems now than I was when I started.

It’s on all levels, from seeing if we can get a more efficient volunteer timesheet system to sinking a couple of hours into managing my contacts more effectively to seeking additional programming for my students to sending emails to my representatives regarding Adult Basic Education.  I would have been all over all of those things three years ago, but right now they’re on the back burner.

Now I’m finding myself throwing more energy into trainings, gaining deeper knowledge of what resources I have, and focusing more on volunteer recruitment, retention, and recognition.

Vintage wine by Guttorm Flatabø on Flickr

In what may be a parallel situation, for the first time in the year plus that I’ve had an RSS feed, I’m seriously considering drastically reducing the number of blogs I read so I have more time to actively comment, write my own content, and read outside of my computer box.

Am I growing up or getting old?

ESL Student Blog

I just wanted to point you toward a great ESL student blog. It is written by adult students who attend free English classes similar to the ones at my center.

This is a recent post of intermediate student writing.

And this post shows the students’ garden! The pictures are beautiful. Inspired and looking for a great, easy-to-read novel?  Try Seedfolks!

Traditional Libraries and ABE

Many thanks to The Centered Librarian for pointing out this article by William H. Wisner in the Christian Science Monitor.

Wisner basically talks about the changing role of the Reference Librarian from facilitator of patiently research to that person who changes the printer paper.  The article focuses on the idea that libraries are being dumbed-down by the switch in focus from knowledge to information.  I noticed that he also equates additional noise with additional technological distractions.

I need to sit on this article for a bit and think more about it.  He makes many points, some I agree with, some I disagree with, and some I hadn’t thought about before.

After my first quick read, my big question is this: where, in a traditional library focused on scholarship and reverent silence, would my little GED and English classes fit in, and what would this signify about the roles of the traditional library and my students?

My Latest Lists

At work, I’ll periodically get this sinking feeling that I’m forgetting to do something.

Juggling Now, Soon, and In Two Months is hard for me – they don’t feel like they should be on the same list. Also, a list with 25 things on it, some huge and some small, can be kind of scary.

Pen and Paper by LucasTheExperience on Flickr

I’ve tried Checkvist and liked it, and I’ve tried Google Calendar Tasks, but the main problem with both is two-fold:  it doesn’t feel concrete to me when it’s electronic, and I can avoid the list by just not opening the list’s webpage.  Lifehacker has an interesting poll on the five best To-Do List Managers, and for them as for me, pen and paper won.

My latest strategy:

1. Write down every task or project I can think of. I work on this for a day or so to ensure it’s as complete as possible.
2. Estimate time per task. In the left margin, I write in the estimated minutes it will take.  This step eliminates a lot of “this list is scary!” for me.  “60 minutes of stats” is easier for me to tackle than “annoyingly time-consuming volunteer stats.”
3. Rewrite the list in two columns: Longer Term and Shorter Term.  I fill in some details like due dates and collaborators in Longer Term.  I just make a plain bulleted list of the shorter-term projects (which are usually 60 minutes or less).  The process of rewriting it helps me internalize it.
4. Circle my first four tasks. This way I can evaluate what my next priority is in a quick and ongoing way.
5. Check them off when they’re done. It feels gooood. 
6. Keep my list in plain sight. The list lives just to the left of my computer.  It does not get put away, it does not travel, it does not get buried.  And it gets more and more crossed off until it’s done.

It’s not perfect.  I think they keys that make it work for me are that I sit down and really think about it in terms of minutes and that it’s always on my desk and in my face.

What makes a To-Do system work for you?

Observations and the Unknown

I kicked off my first round of teacher observations ever this week with just one, and it seriously blew me away.

Grammar Class by durian on Flickr

I hadn’t done it before for multiple reasons, many of which now sound like excuses. To be fair, I found it genuinely difficult to make the major time investment required based only on the promise of future, possibly intangible returns. There are a good many concrete, measurable, predictable things I need to accomplish at the learning center, and the amorphous notion that I “should” conduct teacher observations just couldn’t compete.

What finally made it happen? My volunteers asked to be observed.

Well, ok, it’s not just that I’m a pushover. I’ve gotten better and better at my job, and more importantly, I’ve gotten better at receiving help. I managed to free up some time I used to spend on the day-to-day admin grunt work so I can now do non-survival things like laminate our previously pathetic classroom signs, clear junk out of our office, and observe my teachers.

The volunteer I watched this week is quite new to teaching.  He used to assistant teach with an experienced teacher; this evening was his first solo class.  It was a resounding success. Watching the learning happen, seeing how his preparation was paying off, and taking note of his natural talent for leading a classroom was simply a joy. I jotted specific notes for him throughout, and it was fun to give him the feedback and debrief. We discussed his challenge for next week: at least 20 minutes of small group work for the students. He seems really excited about it, and I am too!

I really didn’t know what to expect when I walked into his classroom.  What I found there was a beautiful success filled with potential for even more.  Being right there to watch and encourage it was just fantastic.

Observations are officially my favorite.

Training Feedback

Paperwork by luxomedia on Flickr

I’m happy to say that I had a chance to read through the feedback from last week’s Volunteer Training party, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The evaluation was very open-ended, and I was pleased to receive specific comments and suggestions.

There was general approval of the presence of food, and universal enthusiasm for meeting each other. Many commented that they gained new activity ideas, and several mentioned “inspiration.” I was a little surprised by that last one – I wasn’t focused on it at all. Woo positive by-products!

The highest and most convenient praise was the near-unanimous request for more trainings, perhaps quarterly, like the one we just did! In other words, I don’t have to ask yet more of my volunteers by implementing quarterly trainings; I get to deliver something there’s a demand for.

The Pizza Guy by keltickelton on Flickr

There was some constructive criticism as well, asking for more depth and suggesting starting out with more general questions such as “What’s working?” and leading into more specific ones during the level-discussions. Well-taken. They’ll definitely be present in next quarter’s (requested and delivered!) training.

Posting Schedule!

Compact Calendar Card - Design 3 by Joe Lanman on Flickr

I think it’s time I add a little bit of method to my posting madness.  Trent says so.

Starting now, I will be posting once every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

I don’t know how this will work with future Five-Week Courses, or how vacations will fit in, or if the timing structure will cause me to add some content structure. We’ll see how it develops.

Woo Training Party!

I’ve been MIA because I’ve had a ton of planning to do both at work and in my personal life. It’s all going well – it just takes more energy than you’d think.

Just wanted to touch base and report that the Volunteer Training Party we had this evening was great!

I’m most proud of the way we stuck to our objectives when we planned it. We had a great many awesome ideas, and it felt like we threw out 95% of them because there just wasn’t time to include them, but the result was a training that didn’t try to do too much.

For the record, those objectives were to respond to the Volunteer Survey we sent out in the Spring, to give the teachers learning-center-related social time, and to use this to move forward with future trainings and efforts.

The Learning Center is closed this week, and I have some out of town visitors staying with me during my time off. I’m hoping to write some content during this time, but either way I’m not planning to post anything new until at least next week. Just so you know.