The Koreans have the “indomitable  spirit”  as their fifth tenet of Tae Kwan Do.  Young students learning martial arts learn to confront their weaknesses and turn them into areas of strength.   Like the African word “kente” meaning that which cannot be broken, a strong spirit has never been more needed than it is today.   Both terms describe an inner strength that all students can learn—and need to learn—to tackle tough challenges for themselves and others and to make the world a better place.

Over the last ten years, the number of students with severe mental illness has increased more than 10 percentage points, according to the American Psychological Association. In a recent NPR story, “Depression On The Rise In College Students,” health experts said a large part of this increase is due to more effective counseling being implemented in younger school-age students. By the time these students are getting to college, they have already been diagnosed and are seeking help from the college to manage their learning disabilities or emotional problems. But are we over-diagnosing students with depression, anxiety, and learning disabilities? Is the rising number of prescribed students due in part to increased availability of problem-solving pills? While there are certainly situations that require medication, are there still many others where meds are a default used instead of working through emotional problems with the same perseverance required to succeed at math?

In Ken Robinson’s TED lecture, “Changing Education Paradigms,” he calls the increase in students getting diagnosed with ADHD a “fictitious epidemic.” Are students getting prescribed to focus or punished for being bored in a boring class? New generations are growing up in a multi-tasking, quick moving world that demands a 20 second attention span everywhere but the classroom. Many educators know technology will only become more engrained in all our lives and are looking for ways to engage students with a 21st Century experience. Is it possible that a large part of the 10 percent increase in mental illness are made up of students that don’t need a drug but need a change in location, a new peer group, a hobby, or someone to talk to?

Have students put their problems in perspective to see the change they can make independently of prescription drugs.  The rate of depression in other countries, where many students are working multiple jobs, going to school full-time and taking advantage of education as a way to improve the lives they came from, is much lower.  There is a connection between being busy, having goals and a purpose and succeeding emotionally, academically and socially.   Where do students see themselves in five years?  What obstacles will they need to overcome to make their dreams happen?  What failures and setbacks can make them stronger as people?   What would the person you want to become say to you today to encourage you out of a rut?   If we can help students build a strong spirit, we give them a tool to overcome a variety of problems.  Once they learn to solve their own problems, they can go on to solve some of the problems which the world needs them to solve.

Finally, for a closing perspective, watch Sir Ken Robinson’s RSA animated lecture, “Changing Education Paradigms.”

There was no increase in the number of jobs available to the Class of 2010 than were available to the Class of 2009, but the percentage of grads seeking jobs and landing the job did increase significantly. A recent NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) study found the increase resulted from the Class of 2010 more readily accepting job offers than any previous class.

• Only 38 percent of students who applied for jobs received at least one offer. This compares with 40 percent in 2009 and 66 percent in 2007.

• Just over 24 percent (24.4 percent) of [Class of 2010] applicants had a job secured for after graduation. In 2009, only 19.7 percent had a job in hand, while in 2007 more than 50 percent of senior applicants had secured a job to go to after graduation.

• Of those receiving a job offer in 2010, more than 59 percent had accepted an offer.

NACE Research Brief: 2010 Student Survey

Did you or someone you know recently accept a job offer they hadn’t expected? What specific or unique skills did you adapt and apply to your new job? Share your story in the comment box below.

The Measures of Effective Teaching project (MET) was created to gain understanding of the common denominators amongst effective classroom teachers. The project gives analysts a chance to evaluate the effective practices behind test scores by allowing them to take a scientific look inside the classroom. Volunteer teachers from six school districts are being videotaped by a camera with a 360 degree view of the classroom and the ability to capture close-up shots like lesson material written on the board. Offsite analysts gather these videos and have a system that translates the environment and strategies the teacher utilizes into a code that can then be measured for their research.

The Gate’s Foundation is spending $45 million on the MET to capture teacher performance in the classroom. This project raises questions and concern due to its Orwellian nature. Are voluntary participants opening the door for videotaping to become common practice in the classroom? How well does monitoring a classroom measure teacher effectiveness when it doesn’t include teacher planning hours outside the classroom? Will teachers behave differently if they know they’re being watched? What happens when the cameras leave?

New ideas, especially ones that feel invasive like the MET project, are hard to get the public and educators behind. But, what do we have to lose? The intimate perspective MET provides could be just what we need to push education reform in the right direction. With Michelle Rhee’s national movement for public education reform, StudentsFirst.org, and the removal of ineffective teachers from classrooms, the MET project could open the mysterious world of underachieving and overachieving classrooms of the nation. Education reform will be static if there aren’t common standards on which to build a better system. We want more effective teachers, but whose definition of “effective teacher” are we using to reach this goal? The MET project is creating a system where effective teaching practices are defined, effective teachers are used as role models and education reform is a concrete goal.

Read more about the MET project at npr.org