The framework

I've decided to eliminate the pressure to translate my thought-burps into coherent posts, and henceforth shall document my actual notes without necessarily framing them into something that could be understood by anyone but me. That said, if these scribbles do make sense, or inspire commentary, please feel free to ask questions or hurl ridicule. Collaborative conversat-ing is the whole point.

What follows are some notes I jotted into a notebook on one of my flights to and from Miami this year.

Education.

Residential program

Student body:

• Section 8 housing
• Foster kids
• Others in the system? homeless? on probation?

Age group: middle school.

The middle school years have been targeted as a critical point in a student's personal development where an intervention may successfully redirect a student's focus while developing life-long interests.
- Teaching Success, from the Spring 2008 Dwight Hall at Yale newsletter

--> How to matrix in with other social services' agencies?

• ACS
• juvenile detention
• Youth At Risk
  
• etc.?

--> Cross-reference with institutions of higher learning

• PhDs in Education
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Social work

Scaleable should not be the goal -->
"scaleable" = "thing-centered"; "scaleable" <> "person-centered" -->
must be at all times a person-centered endeavor

--> Can the Deep Springs model work for urban youth?
--> Do we want it to?

Funding sources?

Keep labor costs low; source talent a la Teach for America --> partner w/Teach for America?

Operations:
--> put together in a detailed roadmap / func spec?

Board of Advisors:

• Former U.S. Grant leaders (Gastic, King, Abbott, Morales, Falcon?)
  
• Else?

--> Find a template for the documentation of this & begin socializing
--> Mixers & teas to circulate ideas & brainstorm?
--> Who else cares about education issues?

At what point does the exercise become a burdensome, paternal imposition of values?

[What exercise is not an imposition of a moral code?]

Unsolved, earlier questions:

• How can we systematically share information across multiple touch-points in order to more effectively serve the underserved?
• How can we democratize access to "high culture" such as classical music?