|
Dear Jennifer,
Welcome back!
January is such an exciting time – a time for new beginnings.
While January is a time for new beginnings, we also know there
are many people still recovering from the effects of Hurricanes Rita
and Katrina. The MindOH! Foundation would like to help in the
process by giving children a voice to their stories. If you have a
child who was impacted by these devastating events or if you know
someone who was, please share this information with them. You will
find more information about this special project in the right hand
column.
We are honored to have two wonderful guest authors this month.
William Bowman Piper and Dwight Edwards are both parents, educators
and entrepreneurs who provide significant perspectives into life
experiences, lessons and resources. We encourage you to read their
insightful articles and hope you are impacted by their thoughts and
advice.
As always, we'd love to hear from you – ideas for content you'd
like to see, things you like about this issue, as well as things you
don't. By taking the time to give us your perspective, we can make
this newsletter better for everyone.
Wishing all of you the most prosperous of New Years!
Sincerely,
The MindOH! Team
| Guest Article: You’re Never Too Old for Stories,
Reports Retired Professor |
 |
A Talk with William Bowman Piper, Children’s Author
Children love stories. You can tell a child the most
incongruous, incredible, outlandish story, and he will eat it
up. That’s a good thing, of course. Children need the kind of
contact storytelling offers: one person talking to another,
two people sharing ideas (real or incredible), and the
conspiracy of a private insight.
Most important, perhaps, is the sharing of language: one
person offering a word to another, asking “Is this the right
one?”, trying for another or agreeing on a word, and pinning
down one’s vision finally with exactly the right expressions.
The joy of that connection is almost unequaled. And what’s
more, your child never forgets.
|
| Recommended Resource: The Technology Opportunity
Institute (TTOI) |
|
Research overwhelmingly demonstrates the positive effect
that parental involvement has on children’s academic
achievement and with computers fast becoming a permanent
fixture in the classroom, it is becoming increasingly
important for parents to stay abreast of the latest technology
advances. According to a recent poll, 3 out of 10 Texans still
do not use a computer and some of these may have children in
school. To bridge this digital divide, The Technology
Opportunity Institute (TTOI) provides hands-on technology
education, training and professional development to students,
parents and unemployed adults, and promotes improving
families’ quality of life by giving them the tools they need
to succeed in today’s technology-based society.
TTOI is committed to providing quality programs that meet
the needs of the participants it serves. Since inception, TTOI
has conducted more than 300 training classes and has impacted
more than 10,000 underserved youth, their parents, and
unemployed/underemployed adults through its computer and
Internet education and training and professional development
initiatives.
|
| Guest Article: Pinball Living |
|
By Dwight Edwards, author, speaker, and the High
Performance Coach at River Oaks Country Club
Up at 6:30 – to school by 8 – to work by 8:30 – first
meeting at 9 – two morning appointments – a working lunch –
pick up the kids from school – tennis lessons at 5 – dinner at
7 – homework – bing ... boing ... bing.
Ever feel like your life is a never-ending pinball game;
continually bouncing back and forth from activity to activity,
deadline to deadline, meeting to meeting, crisis to crisis?
When was the last time you took a couple of hours off to
simply rest, recharge, and reflect? Or is that even a category
these days?
Perhaps the word that best describes many of our lives is
frenetic. Fast moving, hard charging, rest challenged ... was
life really meant to be lived at such a dizzying pace? And
what is the cost of this mad frenzy? Or, in the words of T.S.
Eliot, “Where is the Life we have lost in living?”
Interestingly, the word frenetic comes from a Greek word
(phrenitikos) which means “inflammation of the mind” or
“delirious”. And therein lies the great danger of our
warp-speed lifestyles. In the midst of the madness of our
daily routines it becomes desperately easy to lose touch with
reality – i.e. the reality of what matters most in life. We
become delirious from the feverish, frantic pace we keep; and
thus our sensitivity to matters of supreme importance is
greatly and tragically diminished.
|
|
|
