Video of My CBS Interview on Where the Jobs Will Be

I was interviewed yesterday on CBS News in San Francisco about whether government can create jobs and the impact of another Obama administration on jobs. HERE is the link to that interview.

What Should Government Do to Create Jobs?

This morning, the CBS-News producer of the show I'll appear on tomorrow emailed me. He asked, "Is it okay if the host asks you, "What should government do to create jobs?"

HERE was my response:

This Week's Public Appearances

A reader asked me why I don't post most of my upcoming public appearances. I have no good answer.

I can't promise to keep posting them, but I have a particularly busy week coming up so I decided to post it all here:

Sunday 8:45 am: CBS/CW Ch. 44 News with Phil Matier in San Francisco

Sunday 11:00 an to noon  KALW 91.7 FM San Francisco. That's my weekly show, Work with Marty Nemko.

Tuesday:  CBS/Alice 97.1 FM in San Francisco. Airs Sunday July 28, time TBA.


Thursday, 11:00 AM to noon: KGO 810-AM in San Francisco. The Ronn Owens Program. It's among the most listened-to shows on the West Coast. I'm in my 25th year as a regular guest.


Sunday (July 29) 9:15 am, KRON 4 News, interviewed by Ysabel Duran and Marty Gonzales

On most such shows, I am most often asked:

• Why there's so little hiring in the U.S.
• Where I see the job growth in the coming decade
• Emerging careers
• What's working best for my clients in landing a job in this tough job market
• Lower-risk but potentially lucrative yet ethical businesses
• Advice for older job seekers

Also, while I'm updating you, I might mention that this week I was invited to I've been invited to resume writing for U.S. News. I'm considering it but haven't said yet yes . 

As of now, I have two live speaking engagements the following week, both at the Commonwealth Club, America's oldest and largest public affairs forum. Here are the links for information and registration:

Aug 1., 5:15  pm.  What Every Career-Minded Person Should Know for 2013 and beyond. 

Aug. 2: 6:00 pm. Ahead of the Pack Job Search Strategies 

Dream Homework

What word comes to mind when you see the word, "homework?"

 For me, it's "Ugh!" I suspect I'm not alone.

I recall my school days: I was an active (okay, hyperactive) kid forced to sit still from 8:30 to 3...and unable to. If I had gone to school after Ritalin became the kid drug of choice, my teachers would have slammed a Ritalin leash on me faster than I leaped to my feet when she finally said, "Recess!"

Yet among all the calls for education reform, I've yet to hear a call to reinvent homework, that reviled after-school torture: Yet more sitting still?! "Do this worksheet." "Read the chapter and answer the questions at the end." Do problems 1-47, the odds."

Is it any surprise that parents lose hair trying to get kiddie to comply? Is it any surprise that kiddie blows-off homework anyway?

Especially for subjects that many students find difficult, for example math, why not replace problems 1-47 with visual-rich lecturettes by the world's most effective, transformational teachers? I remember not getting Algebra 1. Seymour Schwimmer (That really was his name) would cover the board with formulas and rapid-fire not-explain them with the clarity expected of a math teacher. He usually ended the class period with "Do problems 1-47." I left class sad or scared. I got home, looked at those problems with no more clue on how to do them than when I had left class, usually threw the worksheet back into my (messy) notebook binder, and ran out to play basketball.

Now imagine that instead of that, I turned on my computer or smartphone and watched a YouTube video of The Amazing One: that rare teacher who makes complicated stuff simple, even fun. True, I'd still have to sit still but wouldn't I be more likely to learn from that? To enjoy that? To grow from that? Maybe even to like math, that supposed gateway to all sorts of careers?

I am self-funding a pilot program of that very thing. I call it Dream Homework. At a diverse California public high school, on August 20-25, the first week of actual instruction, the Algebra I teachers will assign half their sections the regular homework while the other sections will instead, watch visual-rich lecturettes covering the same material by Luis Anthony Ast, the math instructor that Pearson Learning, Casio, and Texas Instruments picked to create their video algebra lessons. I'm also hiring WestEd, a top third-party evaluator, to see if the kids in the Dream Homework group do indeed learn more algebra and enjoy it. Stay tuned.

My Simple Pleasures

Most people I know derive most of their pleasure from relationships, travel, sports, TV, clothes, pop culture, yoga, spas, etc.

I'm atypical. I don't know if any of you would find it helpful, but here's what gives me greatest pleasure:

• First and foremost, my work. But of course, if you're a regular reader of this blog, you knew that. The more I contribute, the more worthy I feel, the more I feel like I've earned my spot on the planet.
• The feeling I get after drinking a cup of coffee: smarter, more upbeat. Caffeine is my drug of choice.
• My doggie, Einstein, whether it's watching him sleeping on the dog bed next to my desk, taking our daily hike around the lake, or even fake-yelling at him for jumping onto the kitchen counter. (Click on the photo to get a close-up look at my baby.)
• An Indian buffet
• Being musical performance coach to my wife and to my former career counseling client and now friend, Jeffrie Givens.
• Gardening: seeing that amalgamation of the hybridizer's years of work with nature's miracle of growth. 
• Watching a great movie at home. Video on-demand is wonderful. 
• Googling. The world's information is just a few clicks away. Just 25 years ago, that would have been deemed impossible.
• Playing the piano for clients or friends. 
• Watching C-Span, especially the in-depth, fair-minded interviews of people on both the Left and Right.
• Watching YouTube videos of great performances. Last night, Jeffrie and I watched six world-class performances of Take Me or Leave Me from Rent.

Note that all of those pleasures are low-cost or free.

Jeffrie Givens Loses Her Inhibitions

There were cadavers who sang less stiffly than my protege, Jeffrie Givens.

That was then. This is now.

Mandating a College Report Card: The Key to Higher Education Accountability, Transparency, and Reform

First let me apologize to regular readers of this blog, for which this will be largely redundant. But this is my most concise presentation to date of the argument that colleges should be required to show that they provide benefit to students if they want to receive the fortunes in taxpayer aid they currently receive.

Colleges: Want federal aid? Your home page must include a College Report Card
No purchase is made with less informed consent than a college education. If I were the Education Potentate, I'd tell colleges:

We require every home, drug, packaged food, etc. to provide disclosures. For example, every tire must bear a report card rating its treadlife, temperature, and traction.  

If you want federal financial aid, your homepage must include a College Report Card listing, for your institution and your three top overlap institutions, the following:

This version is for so-called four-year institutions. A similar version could be created for "two-year" colleges.

• Your true four-year graduation rate (no exclusion of athletes, legacies, minorities admitted under special compensatory programs, etc.)
• The average freshman-to-senior growth on a specified standardized test of writing, critical thinking, oral communication, quantitative skills, and information literacy. Scores would be reported for each SAT/ACT quintile. To avoid overburdening the institution, only a random sample of 150 freshmen and 150 seniors would take the exam. To ensure examinees give full effort, the scores would be posted on their transcript.
• The full projected four-, five- and six-year cost of attendance, subtracting cash financial aid. A separate number would be reported for different levels of family income and assets. The six-year cost would be estimated by adding the percentage that the college increased its price in the previous six years.
• The percentage of graduates who, 12 months after graduation, are in graduate school or employed in a job requiring a college degree. The results would be broken down by major. That would not unduly burden the institutions: The institution's alumni survey usually contains similar information, and the U.S. Department of Labor categorizes jobs that way. I am agnostic on whether the institution should also report the average salary. Money does matter, especially with higher education costing so much but I fear that students would give projected salary undue weight.
• The results of the most recent student or alumni satisfaction survey. Because those surveys vary widely, the College Report Card would include only three results: the average rating of academic, non-academic (extracurricular, housing, location,) and overall experience at the institution. Each institution would be required to anchor the questions on a four-point scale from "poor" to "excellent."
• The most recent accreditation visiting team report and Association action.

Of course, mandating a College Report Card would empower prospective students to more wisely choose a college. Even more important, shining the light on what's behind the ivy might finally embarrass deficient colleges into reallocating resources from shrubs, sports, showcase buildings, sterile research, and porcine administrations to investments more likely to transform students into excellent thinkers, professionals, and citizens. That may ultimately be America's best hope for its future and may finally enable higher education to become the national treasure it claims to be.

HERE, I more thoroughly present the case for a colleges being required to post a College Report Card.

And HERE, I make the case in The Atlantic.


And here is a video I created to make the case.