Citizen Brand

Our declining science IQ

I told you recently about the election here in Kansas that returned order, at least for now, to our State Board of Education.  In the past six years, that important body which sets policy for public schools in Kansas, has been led by a majority of people who have used their own personal agendas to put in place policies that made Kansas the laughingstock of the nation.

More importantly, these policies could have set Kansas on a course of creating a generation of scientifically illiterate people.  The primary election was but a win of a battle, not the war.  And in yesterday's New York Times, a professor of physics and astronomy at Case Western University uses our experience here in Kansas to demonstrate to the rest of the country why winning these battles are important to the future of not just science education, but to society as a whole.  It is definitely worth your time to read.

Lawrence Krauss closes his column with this reminder:

"As we continue to work to improve the abysmal state of science education in our schools, we will continue to battle those who feel that knowledge is a threat to faith.

But when we win minor skirmishes, as we did in Kansas, we must remember that the issue is far deeper than this. We must hold our elected school officials to certain basic standards of knowledge about the world. The battle is not against faith, but against ignorance."

Faith and science can live together in the same world.  We cannot tolerate ignorance in any world and expect that world to be a worthwhile place to live.  Food for thought.

Order has been restored

We have taken a lot of heat here in Kansas because of six people who have controlled the State Board of Education the past few years.  Their actions have included removing the teaching of evolution in the schools and the teaching of abstinence as the sole method of sex education. 

Kansas voters took care of this problem yesterday.  Read more in the Lawrence Journal World and the Kansas City Star.

Kansas has always been such a progressive state in so many ways and yet our reputation in the past few years has been denigrated because of a handful of individuals.  This is one of those moments that restores your faith in our electoral process.

The Cause Generation

If you are between the ages of 18 and 30, then it is likely you are part of the generation that will tip the balance in moving cause and corporate social responsibility from a nice to have in business to business as usual.

Proof of this comes from the 5th Annual College Explorer Study sponsored by Alloy Media + Marketing and conducted by Harris Interactive.

Calling all brands.  Are you paying attention?

Urban Sprouts

Urban Sprouts is a great program in San Francisco that should be emulated everywhere.  This is from their website:

"Urban Sprouts is a school garden program that serves low-income youth from San Francisco’s under-served neighborhoods. We teach youth to grow, harvest, prepare and eat vegetables from the school garden, in order to help youth become more engaged in school, eat better and exercise more, and connect with the environment and each other."

This is a great opportunity for any company involved in the food industry.  What could be better than children learning to appreciate and understand where our food comes from and learning to prepare food in a healthy and nutritious manner.

There is more information available on the Urban Sprouts blog.  Big thanks to Britt for bringing this to our attention.

More on 100 Best Corporate Citizens

Andrea has a great follow up to my recent post on Business Ethics magazine's Top 100 Best Corporate Citizens.

One thing she talks about is the need for corporate social responsibility courses to become standard operating procedure in business schools at the university level.  What about it college and university presidents and business school deans?  Who wants to be a real leader?

For that matter, why don't journalism schools offer the same thing as part of a truly comprehensive marketing communications education.  This is the wave of the future.  Which university will be the one to recognize it and take action?

Children and Books go together

Imagine your childhood without books.  Too many children among us don't have to imagine.  And that is where First Book comes in.

I have had the opportunity to become more familiar with this great organization this week.  I had long heard about it and the work they do to make sure that children from low income families have the same access to new books that my kids had when they grew up.

First Book has had incredible results.  Consider this excerpt from their website:

Noted pollster Louis Harris has conducted an independent study to determine the effectiveness of the First Book model. This study, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Fund for the Improvement of Education, surveyed 2,564 individuals over a 14-month period. The results of this study are compelling:

• First Book works for children. More than half of the children -- 55% -- reported having an increased interest in reading. Additionally, the number of young people demonstrating a "high interest in reading" nearly tripled (increasing from 23% to 61%) after receiving books from First Book.
  
  
• First Book works for local programs. 78% of the mentors, administrators and professionals running community-based tutoring and mentoring programs estimated that the "impact of First Book books on a child's desire to read" was "very important."
  
  
• First Book works for the community. The members of the First Book Local Advisory Boards surveyed were also overwhelmingly supportive of our efforts in their communities. 98% of them state that their community was "better off" because of First Book's work.

 There are so many ways to get involved with First Book.  If you know of companies that need a good cause, this is certainly one worth consideration.  Or if you just want to buy some new books yourself, the folks at First Book can help you find a good home for them.

Give a kid a chance

Two good points are made in this post from Peter Himler.  The passion of the president at Amherst College to bring big change to his campus is noteworthy and it might be premature to turn the last spade of dirt over on the mainstream media just yet.