It's a post PC World, and the largest PC Manufacturer just blinked (or stumbled, or had a senior moment, or lost its mind). When I started this post the HP announcement was hours old. It is now about a month old and at HP much has changed, Leo Apotheker is out and now Meg Whitman is in charge. Hewlett Packard's stock tanked after Apotheker decision to kill the TouchPad and to spin-off the PC division. It rose on rumors of his imminent departure. It fell again when Whitman was named CEO.

The reality is whatever HP's strategy is moving forward, the last month makes it look like an indecisive, business amateur not a seasoned, innovative, PC market leader. HP under new leadership could reverse all of Apotheker recent decisions or they could decide to stay the course, recent news from HP indicates they are staying the course, let's see how long that lasts.

---

Let's focus for a moment on HP's announcement about their PC business, and not the webOS decision. So who benefits most from HP PC business decision? Is it Hewlett Packard (HP), Dell, Apple, Lenovo or some other company?

 

[HP]

Well clearly HP believes that the PC business is either a distraction or a drain on financials of the company or both, but the PC business still has a legimate life with someone else or as a standalone business. HP must also believe that the rest of Hewlett Packard will be stronger without the PC business moving forward, or else why do it. HP must also believe that it can survive without its PC business and that the cash flow it provides was actually a loss leader. Best thing that could happed to HP's PC business is a spin-off and make it quick before the vultures start circling their Corporate Customers away from them.

Flipside:

• HP decision could go wrong fast, from the announcement to the end of the current fiscal quarter, if HP's PC business is currently a cash flow positive operation, then expect that to be made tougher by the announcement.
• If the PC business acted as a business entry for other products and services, then expect that to be made tougher by by the announcement. 
• Announcing you will be exiting a business or selling a business tends to put a damper or delay on new contracts and contract renewals. If a Business Customer was on the fence, they may choose someone else and the related software, services and accessory equipment that goes along with it.
  • Consumers may still choose to buy from HP during the transition, they'll look for good deals, discounts, etc that HP is sure to offer to keep sales flowing.
  • Business Customers want partners that will support the equipment today, next week and next year.
• If HP was doing any government business, will that have to shift if they sell to a non US Manufacturer, possibly making the idea of a selling to a foreign entity less likely and a spin-off more likely.

 

[DELL]

Dell has been in a downward trend for awhile now. The vultures aren't circling, but Dell has tried to rebrand, rethink and reinvent its core businesses and it still survives. They've already announced their own stronger push to be a Software and Services company as well. Dell could see a reinvigorated PC Laptop business if HP's attempts to sell or spin-off their PC business is stalled in anyway. Some companies may choose to do business with Dell, just because they offer other services, products and accessories, something a new HP spin-off will likely not be able to offer out of the chute. From a Corporate Customer standpoint, DELL looks poised to be the Big Winner if HP decides to sell or spin-off its PC division.  Would HP even consider selling its PC business to Dell? How would that change or impact the PC landscape? 

Flipside:

• Dell was already struggling, making one wonder if they could even respond adequately to increased demand from Corporate Customers.
• Dell / IBM / HP were the former darlings of the Corporate PC environment. These computer manufacturers were exchanging customers every 3 years or so when contracts ran out.
• Who knows where Dell loyalties lay? Windows OS, Android, Windows Mobile or the next new thing to come along. It may give some Corporate Customers pause.

[APPLE]

Apple is in a very strong position, its iPad business is growing extremely fast, its iPhone and iPod business are still growing. Even its Computer business grew significantly although overshadowed by the iPad/iPhone growth. Apple has been increasing its share of Business Customers with iPhones and iPads, think of them as entry products. An exit by HP in the PC business could push more Corporate Customers to purchase a larger % of Apple Computers (MacBook Pros, MacBook Air, even the Mac Mini). The Apple products already made the switch to Intel CPUs, and it is easy enough to use BootCamp to create a dual boot machine (Windows and OSX) or create a Virtual Machine on an OS X box,  allowing Corporate Customers to continue to run their Windows applications.

Flipside:

• Price point for Apple Computers is higher than comparably equipped PCs.
• Many PC users and open environment proponents often knock Apples locked down environment. That may make some Corporate Customers shy away from them (still others will embrace it).
• The Corporate Customers have long been PC havens, and Apple Computers / Macs have long been relegated to the Marketing and Creative departments.
• Corporate Customers may shy away from the Mac App Store approach, unless they can control what their employees can buy.

[LENOVO]

Is Lenovo in a buying mood, financial strength and frame of mind to buy HP PC business? I doubt it,  but they could stand to benefit from a transition of HP PC business, there will be a vacuum as Consumers and Corporate Customers alike decide what to buy for the Back to School or Holiday Shopping. I don't think Lenovo will benefit from a US Consumer push, but they may just land a few Corporate Customers unwilling, or unable to wait on the outcome of HP's PC Business transition. 

Flipside:

• Regardless of where all PC components are manufactured, Corporate and US Consumers are currently on a buy US made or US owned where they can. This hurts Lenovo
• Until HP's announcement Lenovo's outlook and the PC market in general has been in a downward trend. Blame it on the economy or the Post PC World, it doesn't matter. PC Sales as a global trend is down.

 

Whenever a company announces it's going to make a change before it actually does Business Focus, Sales, Profits and Cash Flow suffer. HP's decision will impact the next few fiscal quarters until a deal (Spin-Off or Sale) is completed, and there is no getting around that. What we non insiders don't know about the decision could fill volumes:

1. Did HP alert any major Corporate Customers of its decision before it was announced? Unlikely since we know that the majority of the employees and executives did not know of the decision before the announcement.
2. How many Corporate Customers will wait out the transition from HP division to HP spin-off, subsidary or divestiture of the PC business to a new owner? What Fiscal impact does HP anticipate?
3. Why did Leo Apotheker and Board make the decision? Was it to make room for the Autonomy acquisition?
4. Is Apotheker trying to compete or bury his old employer SAP, using HP to do it?
   1. CEOs using their new companies to compete with their old ones never works out well. Just ask Antonio Perez who manage to make Kodak into a Printer Company, by selling off Medical, Surveillance Systems and other businesses while buying up Large Format Printers and investing and using Kodaks Patents for Long Life Pigment inks. Where is Kodak today? Less than $4 / share and trying to sell patents to keep afloat.
   2. Talented employees in HPs PC Business unit are likely already searching for and preparing to leave for greener pastures. HP on the other hand will likely be paying incentives to keep some of the that talent stable and happy. In this current economy employees don't trust 99% of employers to look out for them, so they must look out for themselves. Expect HP to lose key Engineering and Business Talent during the transition.

 

I would like to believe that the big Winner from the HP decision to spin-off or sell its PC Business is APPLE. I think the Mac Computers just got a boost in time for Corporate Buying contracts for 2012 and Back To School all ahead of the expected October new iPhone announcement.

 

It's a post PC World, and the most innovative company looks poised to win on multiple fronts. The winner may depend on what your definition of innovative is.

 

 

 

 

from the mind of Henry Patterson for thinkitmapit.com ©2011

 

 

The only conclusion that I can come to is that the only company with the desire to making printing easy from Mobile devices is the same company who left Printing as an after thought in their iDevices, especially the iPad.

 

An iOS device, the size of the 2nd Gen AppleTV, that 1) makes the printer you own today accessible from the cloud, and 2) allows me to download or purchase the drivers I need from the App Store that works with my printer(s). Apple make AirPrint truely AirPrint, what we have today is a hack at best. I'll say it again, I shouldn't need to buy a new printer to print from my mobile devices, nor should I have to send my print job to the HP cloud to access a printer less than 20 feet from me.

 

 

 

When I mindmap on the iPad, it feels as easy as mind-mapping with paper and pen, with the added benefit that my mindmap can be:

1.       stored electronically,

2.       expanded over time,

3.       corrected as I gain new information or insights,

 

Because my iPad is almost always with me, more so than my notebook pc ever was, it feels like the information will always be close at hand if I should choose to review it later on.

 

I still feel the need to hand-draw mindmaps. It feels great to capture those random thoughts and ideas or plan out blog posts with a simple pen and paper. I started a mindmap a few weeks ago, and I took the time to try and draw pictures/sketches of what I was thinking about. Not being a great artist, well to be honest not even a fair artist I was constantly sketching and erasing as I realized I hadn’t quite captured what was in my head on paper. I was fixated though on completing what I had started, it took several hours but it was a nice addition to my notebook.

 

I started a new story about my search for the perfect journal / notebook, something to replace the moleskine notebooks I occasionally carry. I took out a large drawing pad and began to sketch the thoughts I wanted to get across in a mindmap and related blog post.

 

When I have time sketching like this, feels relaxing all encompassing something you do not always get from mind-mapping in a digital format. I was also getting frustrated as I was having trouble getting the sketch to come out the way that I wanted, I was again sketching and erasing, sketching and erasing, often getting one aspect of the mindmap out of proportion with the rest of the map. I kept thinking there must be a better way, and one that doesn’t rely on my electronic mind mapping applications.

I realized then that I had the right tool on my iPad, in fact several applications that would do just fine, drawing and sketching on the iPad can even make my artistic ability easier. So I started up the brushes app and finished a mindmap for a post about the love of paper and pen. Don’t think it didn’t dawn on me that I had completed the mindmap electronically and not with paper and pen, but it felt natural like a good pen and paper does.

 

The Mind Map above was created with the BrushesApp, if feels like all the goodness of a hand drawn mind map and the advantages of digital in the same product. If you add in the wonderful feature that BrushesApp has to record you actions and then using the Brushes Viewer export your movie of how your masterpiece was created.

 

You can create a mind map on the iPad and get that satisfaction and feeling of mind-mapping on paper in many of the drawing / sketching programs. I like using the Brushes the most, but Adobe Ideas, Air Sketch and Sketchbook Pro can be just as effective. In fact, where my artistic ability fails me I can even include photos from the library in the mindmap along with my creations.

 

So all of you mind-mapping enthusiasts out there, still looking for that perfect mind-mapping application, which feels more like mind-mapping on paper, forget the mind-mapping apps and embrace the simple drawing programs.

 

Product of Henry Patterson for ThinkItMapIt.com ©2011

 

I am not all about technology and gadgets, the simplicity of a simple Pen and Paper is great. Rarely do people watch over your shoulder if you are using pen or pencil and writing in a notebook. Pull out your iPad or start MindMapping and the questions begin.

 

A product of mind of Henry Patterson for ThinkItMapIt.com ©2011

iThoughtsHD versus the Rest

 

 

I had intended to compare iMindMap MobileHD (iMindMap for the iPad) shortly after the app went on sale ($16. versus $32.) last month (July) to iThoughtsHD. I felt I should do a similar comparison as I did with Mindjet for iPad. I rethought my approach, after determining that iMindMap MobileHD is still not able to import from the iMindMap Desktop almost 11 months after its release.

 

So I decided to compare all of my iPad MindMap apps to each other, and see how they fared head-to-head. I used the same scoresheet as “Mindjet for iPad vs. iThoughtsHD”, but this time I started with a simple mindmap on the iPad to evaluate each product. See my results below.

 

Final Conclusion we have 1) THE GOOD, 2) THE BAD and 3) THE REST:

 

·         THE GOOD:

• iThoughtsHD (#1) –Developer, Craig Scott, has created a very solid, feature rich product. He thinks through how the product will be used and the roadmap on the iPad (and iPhone) more thoroughly than other developers. What stood out for me is just how much Craig has put into this product and the information on his website (Tips & Tricks, Compatibility, Compatibility Details, etc.) there is so much more that you can do with this product that you may have (and I have) overlooked some features, like Merge topics and the larger Colours palette.
• Mindo (#2) – It surprised me how much this product has improved since it was released. Originally called MindPad, there have been some significant and very nice feature additions, a few key features are still missing (Topic Tasks, Topic Notes and Images) but there is a lot to like about Mindo as a Mind Mapping app. [Note: Mindo does have a bug, when emailing png files it incorrectly adds the extension pdf instead of png]

 

·         THE BAD:

• iMindMap MobileHD (#7) – So why would I say the iMindMap MobileHD is THE BAD, when it didn’t rank at the bottom of my list: because it crashed over 10 times during my evaluation. I finally stopped trying when I tried to correct the background color and each attempt just caused the app to close again and again. No updates, bug fixes, or other improvements since being dropped into the iTunes store 08/31/2010, very disappointing and if the iPad app had been my first exposure to ThinkBuzan, I would never buy another product from them again. If I had gone back and added a criteria, that weighted if the app crashes more than 10 times during the evaluation, automatic fail, this product Failed!!! 

 

·         THE REST:

• MindMeister (#3) – Really good product, great collaboration mindmap and the web app integrates with the iPad app. You get even more features on the Web if you are a Premium customer, relatively inexpensive compared to other monthly fees I’ve seen. Only iPad Mind Mapping app, currently, with full Topic Task(s).
• Mindjet for iPad (#4) – In my recent evaluation of Mindjet for iPad, I said how the product was released too early, still features missing, some glaring, but I thought that if they continued to issue updates and fix bugs it could be a solid product. Mindjet has already issued one update about a month after releasing the new app. The product has potential as long as mindjet continues to develop & improve it.
• Popplet (#5) and SimpleMind for iPad (#6) only 1 point separated these two in my scoring. What Popplet does well it does extremely well, but what is missing is equally disappointing (can’t export a local Popplet to the Web Popplet App). SimpleMind+  (SimpleMind for iPad) another really solid simple MindMapping tool with a recently added Desktop App for Windows and Mac, only downside is some features aren’t supported on iPad that are on the Desktop.
• Maptini (#8) –A basic outlining type mind mapping app, its greatest feature is not on my scoring criteria, Collaboration. It would have ranked higher given that addition.This is a dead simple, solid outline type Mind Mapping Tool and you have the option of keeping the Mind Map Private View, Public View, Allow Edits by users you grant access or to Anyone. It is a wonderful collaboration tool or CrowdMap (its original Product Name).

 

MindMapping on the iPad seems to fall into 1 of 3 or 1 of 2 categories of use:

·         Pre-Production Only:

• Start a Mind Map on the iPad but you’ll need to export it to a Desktop App to finish the look, flow and structure for a presentation or sharing with others.
  • [iMindMap MobileHD, Popplet, Mindjet for iPad, SimpleMind+ (SimpleMind for iPad), MindMeister  - you’ll need the Desktop or Web Apps to create something to share widely]

·         Production:

• Create and Finish your MindMap masterpiece that can be shared or presented to others on the iPad or exported to be shared on the web.
  • [iThoughtsHD, Mindo, Maptini]

·         Post Production:

• Put the finishing touches on your Mind Map Slide Presentation or Flow. Think about Movie Editing where you can add Music, Audio Tracks, Zoom In/Out, Pan In/Out, Create Titles, End Credits, Even Export to YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
  • No iPad Mind Mapping App currently fall into this category. To get these effect you'll need to invest in Desktop apps or other iPad apps to finish/polish the Mind Maps i.e. iMovie, ReelDirector, Videolicious, and Keynote for starters.

 

Conclusion: iThoughtsHD is a step above all of the other iPad Mind Mapping apps. What may work best for you is the App that works best with your Desktop or Web App. If you are a fan of iMindMap Desktop, you will be disappointed in the iPad product; clearly iMindMap MobileHD is not ready for primetime, and if no updates in almost a year is any indication, they don't intend to.

 

Scoring Notes: A Zero (0) indicates that this criterion is not applicable, if the Desktop and/or Web App also don’t support the same feature/criteria that I am looking for.

 

This review is a product of Henry Patterson for ThinkItMapIt.com ©2011

 

 

 

I'll state clearly and upfront that I hate the idea of a T-Mobile acquisition by AT&T. AT&T has left a lasting bad taste in my mouth for poor customer service: 1) from botching a new phone number when my Father moved, leaving him without service for 5 days; or 2) continuing to bill me 6 months after I closed a broadband account, and going through endless voice transfers and being cut–off at the end each time; or 3) simply managing billing for an att.net email account.

 

I think that HP should consider buying T-Mobile via a Joint Venture with another Manufacturer (perhaps Samsung (a potential WebOS licensee)) or Cisco or even another Carrier (Rogers, Telcel Mexico, or American Movil) and Deutsche Telekom. The advantages for such an investment by HP:

-          HP will have better leverage with AT&T if there is more than one GSM carrier in the US.

-          HP would have greater access for WebOS devices like the Pre and TouchPad to reach consumers.

-          Prevent the WebOS devices from being blocked from entrance to certain markets.

o   Think Microsoft & Nokia (behemoth partnership);

o   Google Android and the army of Manufacturers eager to knock the iPhone & iPad down a notch or two; and

o   then Apple, every Carrier would like the iPhone, because millions of their customers want an iPhone. Gives Apple a lot of control as well.

I believe that first of all that the US should not put the GSM network in the hands of a single provider. If the AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile is allowed to go through that is exactly what will happen.

1.       AT&T promises aside, AT&T could decide to block features on phones or start billing for services and features built into the phones today that they believe customers should pay for unless they are on contract (ie. Mobile HotSpot, Tethering, VOiP over WiFi).

2.       Government Regulators seem to have already been swayed because of promises AT&T has made, and the increased lobbying efforts AT&T has done with members of congress.

3.       If Regulators do decide to let the AT&T and T-Mobile acquisition to go through, then they should further protect customer choice by speeding the acceptance of other GSM carriers into the US, like Rogers Communication of Canada, Telcel Mexico and American Movil.

 

 

So you might say "Well why not just switch to Verizon or Sprint?" Don't get me started on Sprint; my experience with them is why I jumped to T-Mobile. The advantages of a GSM Phone are:

• It's a Global Phone capable of being used anywhere in the world, Make and receive calls when travelling for business or the family vacation.
• I'm never locked to a phone, if a better more feature attractive phone comes out, just buy the new phone take the SIM card out of the old phone and pop it into the new one and you're are in business.
•  Never buy the cheap or free phone they offer me, because I have one that's solid and works and I deal with the Phone Manufacturer not the carrier to get it fixed. 
• Buy a local prepaid SIM card when you travel and cut out International Roaming charges, pop the old card back in when you get back home and you are all set.

 

It's not the AT&T I remember as a kid. That company is long gone, through divestitures and acquisitions. No this is the new AT&T that held the US monopoly on the iPhone for three years and despite that Monopoly there are an estimated 1 Million iPhones currently using T-Mobile for their service. Quite amazing when you think what customers had to do to buy an iPhone or to get it to work, and then Apple adopted the micro SIM card. Lots of challenges placed in front of T-Mobile customers with dreams of iPhone ownership.

 

I want the HP WebOS devices to succeed, and I want a choice of GSM carriers that I can use my next smart phone on, whether that is an unlocked Palm Pre or iPhone. Apple won me over to iOS devices because they just work and work well. After a year with my NexusOne I like it but we’re strictly platonic J, I’d drop it in a second for either a Palm Pre, iPhone 4 or iPhone 5, the only thing left unknown is who will my future carrier be.

 

[Full Disclosure: T-Mobile Customer (+8 years), NexusOne Owner (1-1/4 years), iPad Owner (1 year), Palm Devotee: from Palm Pilot 1000 -> Palm Pilot 5000 -> Palm Pilot Professional -> Palm III -> Handspring Visor -> Handspring visor Prism (+VisorPhone) -> Treo 600 -> Palm Centro]

 

 You'll find "Should HP buy T-Mobile? and other mindmaps at http://biggerplate.com

 

 

My Favorite Mind Mapping software developers, Mindjet & iThoughts,
going head to head on the iPad. Desktop behemouth vs the nimble Mobile
App Developer, the fight for the Mobile space began on June 1st, when
Mindjet announced that it would be releasing an iPad and iPhone App on
June 15th.

The first 4 rounds go to iThoughtsHD. Put simply 14 months has passed
since the iPad was originally released, and Mindjet had an older
iPhone app that had not been updated in a long-time.

On April 23, 2010 the iThoughtsHD App was released for the iPad and
Craig Scott (the developer, http://ithoughts.co.uk/iThoughtsHD/About.html) hasn't stopped
updating or improving the app since. The last major release V2.0 in
April 2011, included my favorite new feature Topic Images. It is my
most used App on the iPad.

So how do the products stack up against each other? Desktop behemouth
"Mindjet" versus nimble mobile developer "iThoughts". The Categories /
Criteria I used in my comparison:

• 1.0 - How long app has been available on iTunes 
• 2.0 - Images in Topics 
• 3.0 - Import / Export options 
• 4.0 - Compatibility with Mind Manager Desktop for Windows 
• 5.0 - Ease of Use (Touch & Keyboard) 
• 6.0 - Standard Features 
  • 6.1 - Topics / SubTopic Notes 
  • 6.2 - Topic Relationship Lines 
  • 6.3 - Topic Comments / Callouts 
  • 6.4 - Topic Boundary 
  • 6.5 - Topic Links / URLs 
  • 6.6 - Topic Tasks (Start Date, End Date, Resources) 
  • 6.7 - Topic Shape Resize and/or Options 
  • 6.8 - Topic Text Resize and/or Fonts 
  • 6.9 - Topic Icons 
  • 6.10 - Topic & Line Colors 
• 7.0 - Price 

My Scoring Results:
Mindjet for iPad = 72
iThoughtsHD = 143

 

Checkout the images and screenshots of the MindMaps as created in the
desktop version (Mind Manager version 8 and/or 9 for Windows) and how
they compare / appear on the iPad. I also uploaded the "Mindjet for
iPad vs iThoughtsHD.mmap" file to biggerplate if you wish to download
it.

Read the rest of this post »

The above images are from a Mindmap I created first on Mind42.com, by embedding Google Chart API graphs/charts with data, I just wanted to see if it was possible and it is possible to create a drill down dashboard mindmap, but I'm still experimenting with how to make this more compelling and effective as a business dashboard. The mindmap was then exported to MindManager as an XML document then saved in MindManager *.mmap format so that I could open it in iThoughtsHD. Once on the iPad I added boundaries around some of the topics, I created comments and inserted the images that were no longer visible but were merely urls to generate the Google Chart Images. When I was done making modifications on the iPad I synced the document back up to MindManager. So the three images above are #1 - iThoughtsHD v2 ; #2 - MindManager 9 from mindjet; and Mind42.com (a web based MindMap application). My objective for the past year has been to do the majority of my mindmapping on the iPad, and with v2 of iThoughtsHD Topic Images are now a reality and I'll be migrating the majority of my mindmap library to the iPad.

 

So what did we users get with iThoughtsHD v2. The latest update from Craig Scott at iThoughts.co.uk, is absolutely wonderful (Images are such a big piece of mindmapping, that you miss it when a product doesn't have that as a feature). It is now one of two iPad Mind Mapping applications that actually handles images from the built-in Photo App (aka Camera Roll). In my next post, I'll show you the same map in MindManager and iThoughtsHD which to my delight iThoughtsHD handled a map with about 50 images easily, giving me access to my Vision Board map in the palm of my hands.

In this new version the following features were added:

• Images in Topics [This was a feature worth waiting for, "Craig Scott - I love what you did with the place!"]
• Hyperlinking Topics
• Improved Note View
• Topic Text Attributes (size, bold, italic etc.)
• Resizable Topic Width (maximum)

Some of the enhancements were:

• Performance Improvements (drawing and layout code)
• Sort maps based on name or date.
• Insert new child level topic option.
• Create a ‘map of maps’ option (using hyperlinking topics.)
• Can now move the root topic.
• Import .TXT files (and re-create structure based on TAB indent)
• Integrates with Freemind Time Management feature (due date)
• Ensure map is visible on load (no more ‘lost maps’)

Read the rest of this post »

Catch McKenzie Martin's Article in the Star & Tribune

So there is growing bipartisan support at the Minnesota Capital that would forbid teen dropouts from getting driver's licenses.

It strikes me as funny and sad that before we actually fix what is wrong with our schools: achievement gap, budgets, and an ever increasing school administration but fewer teachers, we are going to blackmail teens to stay in school for a driver's license. My guess is we don't have a clue why these teens are dropping out of school in the first place:

• bullying
• family
• money
• lack of transportation in the first place
• violence at school or at home
• pure motivation
• support at home
• local school closed
• etc.

Whatever the reasons, my guess is that tying driver's licenses to staying in school doesn't get to the root of the issue. Of those states that have put such legislation in place, has the rate of teen drop outs decreased significantly, reduced the costs of operating the schools, or made the schools better in any measurable way?

My father got ill before I started my senior year in high school. He was officially disabled from working for almost 6 months, and my mother didn't drive. We were one minor catastrophe away (layoff, another illness, etc. ) from forcing me to drop out, so that I could work and support the family, if I couldn't drive to help my family that would have just made matters worse.

I think if we want teens to stay in school, then schools need to get better, not everyone learns at the same pace or in the same way but we continue to move down a path of cookie cutter education. What makes a difference (and made a difference to me):

• great teachers who want to teach,
• a curriculum that challenges both sides of our brains (creative as well as analytical)
• an environment that is safe
• schools that spend more money on the classrooms and in the classrooms then they do on the athletic facilities

I had great teachers who inspired me, I had challenging science and math education, wonderful history and english professors and sports. I can honestly say that these many years later, as an engineer and as a manager I appreciated the way that music, arts, writing, shop, and all other creative education teaches us to think differently. Politicians should learn to think differently as well, we've tried blackmail and coercion with other mandates they rarely help and often hurt those that they believe it will help.

If our Minnesota Politicians want to help Minnesota Schools and Education, work together to solve our budget problem, work to create more jobs for every Minnesotan, and think differently about way to keep teens in school. I for one hope this bill doesn't see the light of day.

 

 

My friend Karen, OneAirSpace, shared the following thought on Facebook today, and I just had to share it:

"Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in TARP money, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in bonuses, and paid no taxes?

Yeah, me neither. Pass it on."

Tried to find the original source for the above quote, but the closest I've come is the following blog: http://www.ohsnapitsjayrod.com/post/4556134241/remember-when-teachers-public-employees-planned

 

Thanks for sharing Karen, and I'm passing it on. :-)