Bill Strickland video
I listened to his presentation twice and took notes:
People remember pictures long after they forget words. (So true - most of us are visual learners. Text based learning is usually the least effective way of learning.)
As a high school kid from a tough, high crime Pittsburgh neighborhood, Bill was a lost, alienated student until he met an artist teacher, Mr. Ross who had made a ceramic vessel one day. Bill asked "What is that?" "Ceramics" "I want you to teach me that."
In his final two years, Bill cut all his academic classes, but gave his teachers pottery he made and they gave him passing grades to graduate. The pottery wheel had saved him from dropping out.
Mr. Ross: "You're too smart to die." and helped Bill get into the University of Pittsburg on probation.
Bill had a vision of creating a training center for ex-steel workers, single parents and welfare mothers.
He was adopted by Episcopal bishop and learned that some Episcopalians would give money to support his vision.
He hired a student of Frank Lloyd Wright to design world class training center
Bill's design vision - a school should look like the solution not the problem
Ex-steel workers, single parents, at risk kids and welfare mothers deserve a fountain in the courtyard - water represents life and human possibility and sets an attitude and expectation regarding how you feel about people before you ever say anything.
The building decor is special - everywhere you look there is something beautiful. It is this kind of atmosphere that can redeem the souls of poor people. The deserve hand crafted furniture and beautiful decor - it sets a tone and attitude about how you feel about people. Flowers are everywhere. The cost is small, the gesture is huge. Sunlight and flowers help people believe in hope and possibility.
Heinz company = $1M gift to add a culinary service program
Good food not for rich people, it is for everyone. The training center subsidizes a gourmet lunch for students. What is good for their stomachs is also good for their spirits. It conveys a message - they have value. You can solve the race problem - if you create a world class environment (for example, an elegant dining room) you will see world class behavior
Only thing wrong with poor people is a lack of money, a curable condition.
Training programs include: travel agent, med techs, chem. techs, arts program, photography, ceramics and digital imaging.
How can kids graduate who cannot read their diploma? The system pays for kids who graduate not kids who read.
With flowers, sunshine, good food, affection, good music (Herbie Hancock) and enthusiasm you can bring kids back to life.
Treat children like human beings and they will behave that way. Children will become like the people who teach them. Experts create experts.
Poor kids need a world class gallery to display their art. Parents will always go to where children are being celebrated.
You have to change the way people see themselves before you can change their behavior.
After a Silicon valley presentation - HP and Steelcase donated a demonstration digital imaging center.
Bill built music hall at training center- Dizzy Gillespie played there and donated all the profits from the concert CD with money to support the school. Other artists who performed there include Winton Marselis, Ray Brown, Herbie Hancock, Tito Puente, Jim Hall, Shirley Horn, Nancy Wilson, Count Basie Orchestra, Betty Carter, UN Jazz Orchestra and Joe Williams ("God picked you to do this work, I want you to have my music"). All have performed to sold out audiences - 600 recordings with profits to school. Bill built new video technology recording studio for Nancy Wilson's Christmas album, the rights to which donated to school. An Oprah Winfrey appearance resulted in 10,000 CDs sold.
Built new larger training center with commercial anchor tenants like Mellon Bank, Medical Center, etc. at $20/sq. ft. in the inner city.
New project: building a greenhouse in the center city to train kids to grow flowers for sale to markets. They will include high technology orchids.
Bill: "Be prepared to act on your dreams in case they come true".
Now building world class training center in San Francisco with Willie Brown, mayor of SF and Herbie Hancock as partners. It is located on five acres on the bay and is being supported many donors. One short guy from Silicon Valley - founder or eBay saw Bill's presentation and became involved with a team of people to plan the building.
Bill met with and asked neighbors for their permission to build center - 200 angry disappointed people attended. After 10 pictures they settled down. A woman stood up and said "In 35 years in this God forsaken place you are the only person who has treated us with dignity". They soon supported his vision.
Qunicy Jones wants to help build a center in Los Angeles. Quincy asked: "Where did the idea to build these centers come from?" Bill: "It came from your music when I was 16, Mr. Ross bought in your albums while I was doing pottery."
Bill: I believe in you, your hopes and dreams, your intelligence and your enthusiasm. I am tired of living like this, seeing town after town with people standing around corners with their spirits broken.
$60,000 for a year in jail, $40,000 to go to U/Pitt. medical school. We have to change. I want to build a center in every city in the country in my lifetime. I make a friend in every town and am never lonely.
An atmosphere of high culture and respect will energize even the most troubled students.
My thoughts on Bill:
1) He is an inspiring person who, as an alienated and lost high school kid, had the good fortune to find something that engages him (making ceramics) and a good teacher who became his mentor and friend. Someone believed in him and treated him with respect, dignity and kindness. Also, the availability of a ceramics programs saved him. It is troubling to see arts programs being eliminated as frills so that more focus can be on standardized, no child left behind testing. Ironically, elimination of arts and music probably results in many kids being left behind.
2) Bill's vision that poor people in the inner city are able to rise above their circumstances if they are treated with dignity, kindness, enthusiasm and hope for the future works. His training centers are filled with flowers, sunlight, beautiful music and an elegant nurturing decor (world class environment = world class behavior). The fountain in the courtyard communicates life, hope, respect for people and an appreciation for the fact that all humans need to have someone care about them and have an environment that lifts their spirit and enables them to have hope for a better life.
3) Bill is a great communicator and so good at persuasive networking. He is also not afraid to ask for what he needs to accomplish his vision of humanistic, nurturing training centers in every city. Think of how many he could reach by using technology enabled social and professional networking. He has accomplished so much already and his presentation is very compelling and persuasive.
4) Bill's vision is about lifting peoples' spirits and building their self confidence to enable them to succeed in training and education. Our public schools often seem to do the opposite - the obsession with testing, grades, curriculum and the lack of a nurturing environment that lifts spirits and build self confidence. No wonder so many students are unengaged, failing, dropping out or graduating "without being able to read the words on their diploma."
5) Bill is a role model for effective leadership. He has accomplished so much despite the odds and has created a model for inner city training centers that works. Our public schools should embrace Bill's vision of how to rescue people from poverty and despair. How do we get large entrenched bureaucratic schools to change in ways that enable success? I think we need to encourage innovative charter schools to break the ineffective, bureaucratic, enormously expensive stranglehold on education in big cites by encouraging and funding alternative schools and training centers.
Finally, lifting peoples' spirits and building self confidence is critically important. It is more important than anything else we do. If someone is unengaged, lacking in confidence and feels a lack of respect or support, success in educational programs is unlikely. Also, the importance of art, flowers, beauty, uplifting music, good healthy food, nurturing environments is evident in the success of students in Bill's training centers. It is shortsighted, counterproductive and troubling to see so many programs in art and music being eliminated as "frills" so there can be more focus on No Child Left Behind testing.
Don't be afraid to live your vision and to ask people to help you. Network with people constantly, use technology to effectively communicate and involve other people in your vision of how to make things better. Don't be afraid to ask people to help you with time, money, expertise or anything else they can offer to support your goals for positive change. We are all in this world together and we need to take care of each other. It sounds cliche, but on a deep level it is true.
From Gretchen's post: Making the Impossible Possible
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