Words & Banter

8th Launch Box: Video Series Created By A High School Senior

DAY 8: We started to call our Videos section "Retro" because initially it will only contain videos created by a high school senior back when we keynoted at YES Prep High School in 2012. (We hope to get all eight of them posted in the next few weeks.)

However, since Black's notorious for looking ahead and working backward, we decided "Videos" would be more accurate … as we have an assortment of ideas for future videos, not to mention interviews and presentations that can be edited into short videos or snippets. (Red's daughter, Sawyer, hopes to make a career in film editing, so this might be a great project for her.)

Although Black prefers to look forward, tomorrow we'll be looking back as we introduce our Memory Lane section.

Thanksgiving’s in the rearview mirror, and the New Year is within sight, so we’re in the midst of what Red calls the “silly season”. And she’ll be the first to tell you that when you feel like you’re running in circles, looking at the “big picture” is the last thing you want to do. While Black understands Red feels that way, she explains why Red needs to do it anyway,

I look 20 years out and where I want to be … which makes it easier to make day-to-day decisions as I ask myself whether they are pointing me in the right direction. It does not mean I will not make exceptions – but those are conscious decisions. And, I always remember that life is a journey … not a destination.
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When Red first heard Black talking about the importance of "soft skills," she didn't even know what she was referring to, let alone that they would be important to her life. So, Black explained that it was a term used to describe intangible but essential skills, such as critical thinking and problem-solving, communications, and conflict management.

Red, trying to be sarcastic, then asked if there was such a thing as “hard skills,” Black matter-of-factly told her those are tangible and technical skills such as computer skills.

Of course, Black couldn’t pass up an opportunity for sarcasm and explained that although there’s consensus about the importance of soft skills, there’s debate about what they should be called, with her favorite being the Texas Education Agency (TEA) calling them "21st Century Skills" – although she's old enough to remember they were important in the 20th Century, too.

But would anyone call them “Mom Skills”? Well, Red couldn’t help but remember the time Black told her, “Your job is every bit as demanding as a corporate position, and, in fact, you use many of the same skill sets.”Not something Red could ever have imagined, but it made sense once she better understood what soft skills are and how they are used. But then Black took it a step further,

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Red was your typical straight-A student, getting great grades starting in kindergarten straight through to graduating from college.(Black’s grades were less than stellar, plus she was a discipline problem – some things never change.) And then, excited and proud of herself, Red thought she was done. Black, on the other hand, thinks of education as something that never ends, and much to the chagrin of students, will tell them,

Homework never ends; it just is called “research” when you get older.

Over the last few years, Red has come around to Black’s way of thinking and realizes it’s a mindset. And that education is more than the classes you take in school.

September is when students of all ages are back in school, but it’s also National Literacy Month, which is about so much more than reading and writing. Literacy includes things like Digital Literacy , Financial Literacy , Health Literacy , and even News Literacy . (As the linked Conversation Starters indicate, Red was the “poster child” of a highly educated person who lacked many of these basic literacy skills.)

So, we challenge you to find a topic that interests you or one you could benefit from learning (personally or professionally) and start doing your homework.

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