Beat Your Goliath

“If you’re gonna play, then play sitting in front of your desk.” When I was in elementary school, it was routine for my younger brother and me to go to our local public library and “play” there until my mother finished her shift at work. She would promptly pick us up everyday at 4:30pm and jet us straight to swim practice at the YMCA. But after swimming, there was always something else: Monday was drilling math at Eye Level;  Tuesday was English with Sharon (a local English tutor); Wednesday was piano lessons; Thursday was advanced math with Dad (he was a math tutor); Friday was church; Saturday was for Korean school and Tae Kwon Do; and Sunday was church again. I turn 37-years-old this week. My younger brother (35) will have another child in May. And our youngest brother (27) will begin graduate school this Fall. Though we are all in different stages of our lives, one of the many things we share in common is our adoration for our now aging “Toothless Tiger Mom.” T...

Author: David Tswamuno At the end of 2015, I randomly came across a PBS special that was debating the value of the growing number of entrepreneurship-based learning programs at Liberal Arts Colleges. I learned about the MiddCore program at Middlebury College from this special. MiddCore is a mentor-driven, experiential learning program where students build solutions to real life problems through developing products or services. I had mixed feelings when I volunteered with MiddCore in Vermont this January. Such a program didn’t exist when I was in college and in my five years as a VC, I have only encountered two businesses founded by Middlebury entrepreneurs. The program thoroughly overwhelmed my expectations! The students’ ideas and write-ups were among the most well thought out and eloquent I’ve encountered. I've spent a few weeks contemplating on why entrepreneurship and Liberal Arts are so complementary. At the core of both entrepreneurship and Liberal Arts is the ...

Braxton Moral is 16-years-old. This coming May 2019, he'll receive two diplomas: his high school diploma from Ulysses High in Kansas and his bachelor's degree from Harvard University. Braxton’s amazing and successful accomplishments are the result of personalizing education to his unique talents and needs. Imagine tailoring YOUR children’s entire educational journey to their individual needs, so that they reach optimal outcome  Instead of tailoring your children to meet the current education system, tailor the education system to meet your children. For example... Social Emotional Learning.  To keep your child socially and emotionally balanced, you send them to part-time to public school to take advantage of the social scene. But…. Core Academics.  To keep your child’s learning on his/her own unique pace (which can be faster on some subjects and slower on other subjects) you have him/her learn one-on-one with the best teacher(s) for your child on core sub...

Morgan Leverett, an African-American banker, shared the following observation with me: “White families let their kids ask questions and actually answer them as though they’re questions coming from adults. This wasn’t something I had growing up.” Although epitomizing white families and respecting children at the same level as adults are not winning educational strategies, I do acknowledge Morgan’s point about the importance of questioning. Often times, busy parents can feel frustrated with the incessant questions that keep coming at them. However, unless your child is being annoying for the sake of being annoying (e.g., children are astute enough to pick-up on — and can take playful pleasure — when their parents are getting annoyed by strings of “why” questions), encouraging them to ask questions, and seriously taking the moment to ponder them together, can be helpful not only to their self-confidence, but future development as critical and creative thinkers. To really understan...

Check out this video that's gone viral: Amado Candelario, who lives in Chicago with his single mother and two sisters, just heard back from Harvard. He got in! What a crazy wonderful Christmas gift! Every year, as the Head of Asia for ACT.org and a peak education performance advisor, I get the privilege and joy of hearing good news, like Amado's, from all over the world. With college acceptance rates (to the top US colleges) being at an all time low (see here and here ), it's even more of a thrill to hear such sweet news. Mark Zuckerberg's Harvard Acceptance Now check out this clip: The audio background in Mark's YouTube clip perfectly captures the genuine surprise and joy that a proud father feels at the very moment his son gets into one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world. Say what you want about Mark, but one undeniable truth is that he was a very hard working and smart kid back in high school (and probably still is). ...

How much can one learn from behind the desk with his/her eyes locked on a computer screen? A lot; yet not so much. I am a huge advocate of learning through reading. Reading, I believe, is one of the best (sometimes the only) way to increase ones knowledge as well as the capacity to empathize (to be and to feel from another’s shoes). However, how many articles or books must you read before you can perform heart surgery? Put it differently, how many online articles or books must I read before you can trust me to perform heart surgery on you? There are clear limitations to what we can gain and learn from merely reading. Argo there are clear limits to what students are learning today from a traditional class structure, wherein students are assigned readings and then gather for discussion or lecture. With so much information dispersed and shared via internet, technology, and social media, it’s easy to be under the delusion that we already have all the education we need at the tip of ...