Recently I was asked how to read books by a friend who would love to read but could not stay committed to reading. She is comfortable reading small books with few leaflets and gets discouraged to read when a book has more pages.

After seeing the effects of reading; the change it brings to people and the value it adds to them, she was ready to read but didnt know how. Her story is common to many people- we know its good to read but we cannot get ourselves to read and those who buy books never read them.

Its surprising how Ive become an avid reader, I always dozed off when reading so I never liked reading, until one day a question from a friend got me looking for a book. I cant explain what happened but I found myself in a bookstore buying books.

Being an avid reader is not a gift, its a skill we can all develop if we discipline ourselves, and this was what I had to share with my friend when she asked how to develop the reading habit after having the passion for it.

1. Have a Reading Plan

Everything thats important to you have been planned and scheduled and you will make time and give them the needed attention to execute them, that is how you treat reading. It shouldnt be something you do when you are bored or do to while away time, have a book in mind at the start of your day, include it in your schedule, set timelines, if possible find a place for reading, invest in books- budget for books and buy them, and make time to read. Have a daily plan to read and make the needed sacrifices to make yourself available to read.

2. Set Reading Goals

Challenging yourself to read doesnt happen by accident, you have to set goals to achieve to help you measure your progress. For starters, you can set small achievable goals; how many pages/chapters do you want to read daily, what subject areas do you want to read within a period, how many books do you want to read etc. Developing the reading habit should be as important as every item on your priority list. Have reading goals and targets and commit to achieving them.

3. Be in a Company of Readers

It is said that you are the average of the 5 people you walk with, meaning you are easily influenced and become the dominant character of the company of people you move with. The same thing will happen when you are in the company of people who love to read- you will be influenced by their love for books, you will constantly hear about books when you are with them, find answers to your reading needs, and will be encouraged and motivated to read. I recommendTBH Book Club, areading clubthat helps people to grow their reading habits and personal development.

4. Have Accountability Partner

It is easy to go off track when you start developing the reading habit alone, that is why it is necessary to have an accountability partner. Find someone who you can account your progress to and put you back on track when you veer off your reading goals. Share your goals with them and be ready to listen and submit to their feedback.

5. Be disciplined and Consistent

Discipline is what will keep you on the journey to developing a reading habit. You will not always feel like reading but to grow the reading habit, you have to make time to read. When you choose reading over the feeling and excuse of not reading, you are being disciplined.

Consistency is when you practice the skill daily or continuously within a specified period. You keep reading till it becomes a habit. For a starter, be consistent and disciplined in the small and you will yearn for big.

6. Celebrate Progress

Acknowledge when you are making strides with your reading goals and reward yourself. It is a personal journey and others are not obliged to praise your progress so do it yourself. Celebrating our progress doesnt mean you relax on your reading efforts, it is an encouragement that you are making progress and can do more. Dont be too hard on yourself, give yourself a special treat when you achieve a milestone.

7. Share What You Read

When you begin to share lessons, reviews, and excerpts of the books you read, you build an audience who look forward to hearing from you and this keeps you reading because you have an obligation to your audience. This activity also makes your reading more productive- you learn more and appreciate what you are reading better.

8. Read on Subjects You Enjoy.

Some books are not boring, they are just not the genre you want and you might get discouraged when you start your development process with such books. People might recommend books to you based on their interest and in your bid to grow the reading habit, you start reading, lose interest, and it gives you a perception on reading entirely. When you get the enthusiasm to read, take time and explore your area of interest, dont give up on your first attempt, keep reading till you find your primary area of interest. For variety of books at affordable prices, I recommendThe Book Haven,contactthem for every book you need.

9. Be Curious, Ask Questions, and Learn.

Developing a habit is a continuous learning process and to become an avid reader, you have to stay curious to learn. Ask the right questions from relevant people, share your challenges in your development process and get answers, go for reading events where you can learn more and network and have fun while reading, add variety so it doesnt become monotonous and boring. Doing these stimulate the interest and enthusiasm to read.

10. Stay Focused

Theres the tendency of being distracted by other things when you start the reading journey. A subtle distraction can be comparing your progress to an avid readers. It is good to be motivated by others reading goals to help your progress but do not become a victim of comparison where someones progress makes you feel behind and incompetent, hence neglecting the progress you are already making. Keep your focus on your goals, discipline yourself, and take your reading journey one day at a time.

Reading is a life skill relevant in every area, it is not an option and you shouldnt make excuses for it. Not everyone loves to read but all can develop the reading habit and I hope my tips help.

Originally posted here:
HOW TO DEVELOP A READING HABIT - Thrive Global

Want to hold on to top talent? Check in before they check out.

March 13, 2020 5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Every organizations secret weapon is its employees. The 2019 Work Institutes Retention Report highlighted that more thanone in three workerswould voluntarily quit their jobs each year by 2023. That's why thestay interview, which seeksimprovements in the employer-employee relationshipthrough a kind of real-time fact-finding mission, is today'soptimal workforce-retention tool. Although withouta culture of trust that nurtures honest and transparent feedback, stay interviews won't be nearly as constructive.

Accenture managers, as one example,have been renowned for probing their staff'sprofessional goals and checking in with them about their quality of work-life balance. To make a powerful impact on retention rate, organizations must integratestay interviews alongside more traditional tools like surveys that measure engagement.

TakeWhirlpool Corporation, whichidentified that it waslosing talent at a faster rate than it was attracting new talent, anddeveloped a retention risk-assessment toolkit in response. Leadershipparticipated in stay interviewsand collaborated on solutions with supporting managers.The initial conversations were awkward for many managers and employees, but through building stronger relationships, employees eventually reported that communication improved and doors opened forprofessional learning and growth.

Related: Forget Exit Interviews; Here's Why You Should Conduct a Stay Interview Instead

When organizations are committed to understanding what matters most to their team, they can gain clarity on how to spend time, energy and money on mprovements. So with that in mind, here are seven of the most valuable questions leaders can ask of their employees during stay interviews.

Revealing what inspires an employee about their role provides valuable insight into their intrinsic motivators, their position within the officeand how they contribute to workplace culture. By bringing peoples motivation to the forefront of the conversation, organizations uncover employees'sinterests, their proudest achievementsand how their passions can paint a picture for future opportunities.

It is isnt rocket science; organizations that invest in employee recognition have31 percent lower turnover rates.People want to be respected and feel valued by others for their contributions. Ask your employeehow they like to be acknowledged for their efforts. Recognizing workersfor their outstanding efforts sends a powerful message to the recipient, their peers and other employees throughout the organization.

Work-life balance is a huge retention factor. FlexJobs 2019 study reported that16 percent of workerscurrently looking for a new job experienced lack of flexibility in their current role, and73 percent identifiedwork-life balanceas one of the most critical factors they consider when evaluating a job. By asking about their employees's balance, organizations explore more family friendly policies such as remote work or sabbaticals. At the same time, organizations must be transparent in what they can offer so as not to over-promise and under-deliver.

The 2018 LinkedIn Learning Report highlighted that94 percent of employeeswould remain in their current role longer if the organization had invested in their professional development. Lifelong learning provides a flexible and easy way for upskilling, encourages collaboration and brings awareness to the latest trends and developments in the marketplace.

There are amplecost-effective developmentopportunities to support a teams continuing education.Udemyhosts thousands of online courses onleadership, IT and software to personal development, whileLinkedIn Learningdelivers growth opportunities ranging from effective planning and building presentations to career-management courses.

This is apowerful question that encourages employees to share what they enjoy and how they can make a difference, and it opens the door for feedback on managementstyle. Some leadersmay feel as if they need to lock themselvesin for a bumpy ride, but it can also provide welcome opportunties for learning how to adapt and evolve.

Related: Knowing When to Leave a Job or Stay

The purpose of this question is to gain insight into what holdsemployees back, unlocking any complaints, concerns or injustices they have about their role, workplace or culture that compels them to look for alternate employment. Also, the question identifies standout or critical challenges for yourbusiness. And these additional, related inquiries can allow you to delve even deeper:

Sometimes organizations fail totap into the full potential of their people. As the employee journey evolves, exploring their passion invites additional opportunities in which employees can assist their colleagues or close gaps within the business. This information is invaluable when matching future projects with the best employee, and underscores how important it is to check in with your team before they check out.

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How Stay Interviews Became the Hottest Workforce-Retention Tool - Entrepreneur

Cannabis is an industry and the boom in jobs has been huge. Even with some layoffs and business closures, cannabis is beating the manufacturing industry in job creation. The Motley Fool states that the North American cannabis market is expected to grow by 28% through 2021. All this growth means that jobs in cannabis are going to be created for years to come.

We have already seen a boost in jobs:

There are many out there looking to make the career transition into the cannabis industry and may be wondering if a job in cannabis will still allow the payment of bills and care for family. CNBC reports that cannabis jobs pay 11% more than the average salary in the United States. Cannabis is hot and the range of cannabis jobs is even hotter.

RELATED: Despite Layoffs, Cannabis Industry Job Growth Continues To Boom

Photo by boonchai wedmakawand/Getty Images

According to Indeed:

Salaries vary by company, location, and recreational vs. medicinal legality. Because cannabis is a newer industry with many people wanting to make a transition, a lot of newcomers are in competition for getting hired.

RELATED: How To Succeed At Marijuana Job Fairs

Photo by Zummolo/Getty Images

Preparing for the transition of a new job in cannabis means self-mastery/self-motivation. Cannabis is a new industry and something that employers like to see: prospective employees that take ownership of their career development. Though job training is almost always offered, it is always a plus when employers see that candidates have already started the process on their own. It shows leadership that the candidate took their personal development seriously for a transition into a new industry.

Interested in landing a job in the booming cannabis industry? Here are some online training institutions that can help get you started: Cannabis Training University, THC University, Cannabis Training Institute, Clover Leaf University, The Trichome Institute.

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5 Of The Hottest Jobs In Cannabis Right Now - The Fresh Toast

SUS-200313-140606001

Positive Placements started in West Sussex but expanded last summer to include Eastbourne and Hailsham and is now actively working with young people in this area.

The YMCA charity says the project can make a really positive difference.

A young person who benefitted from the scheme said, I would recommend Positive Placements mentoring to anyone it changed me, my confidence, my future.

Positive Placements is a mentoring project run by YMCA DownsLink Group in which young people are matched with volunteer mentors from the local community who support them in weekly meetings of an hour to build confidence, identify their strengths and aspirations, set goals and find opportunities for education or work.

It has been successfully running in other areas of Sussex and Surrey for several years and in the last year alone has supported approximately 80 young people on their journey into work or education.

It opened in the Eastbourne and Hailsham areas in July 2019 and has now recruited and trained its first cohort of volunteers and is matching them with local 16-25 year olds.

Volunteers have been recruited come from a wide range of backgrounds and offer diverse experience and knowledge.

Formal qualifications arent needed - patience, empathy and a non-judgemental approach are the most important skills. In return volunteers receive comprehensive training both face-to-face and online, an enhanced DBS check, ongoing support and personal development, as well as support from others in the role and a dedicated YMCA coordinator to ensure they are confident and comfortable with the mentoring relationship.

One mentor said, Becoming a mentor and working with my mentee has been one of the most rewarding volunteering activities I have done. It has taught me to see situations from another perspective, and together with my mentee we have worked hard to develop a plan and a path forward into employment.

Positive Placements is open to all young people in Eastbourne and Hailsham. If you know of a young person who would benefit or you are interested in volunteering, email Suzanne Cleverley, Eastbournes Positive Placements coordinator,at suzanne.cleverley@ymcadlg.org

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Could you help change the lives of young people in Eastbourne and Hailsham by volunteering for the YMCA? - Eastbourne Herald

Some 40% of people have experienced financial loss due to procrastination.

There is a reason that productivity and time management are hugely important to every entrepreneur - because at the core of it all, most of us are truly trying to figure out why we procrastinate. The side effects of procrastination are very real. Bottom lines, relationships, health, etc., show measurable decline when you chronically procrastinate. Its normal to procrastinate once in a while, but if its baked into almost every activity of your daily life and your seeing negative side effects for yourself - its time to tackle your procrastination tendencies.

Procrastinationcomes in a variety of forms and patterns. The main indicator - you feel guilty. In a world of constant stimulation and endless choices from social media, entertainmentand news outlets, it's hard to make ourselves do less stimulating things - like your work. Im just as guilty as anyone and struggle with the frustration that comes with it.

I spoke with Daria Tsvenger, founder of the Dream Sprint, to ask how she helps her clientsbe a procrastination.Daria uses a variety of brainpower toolsthat she learned at Stanford University as well as from top neuroscientists in the world. Shesworked with hundreds of people who are struggling to get things done andachievepeak mental performance. "And believe me, it's beyond scheduling and time management. It's all in your brain, she tells me.

These are Darias top four tips for beatingprocrastination if you feel like its become aproblem in your life.

4 Ways To Stop Procrastinating And Start Doing | Stephanie Burns

1. No Vague Goals

"Our brain works like a navigation system. If it doesn't have a clear destination, it won't optimize for reaching it.At the beginning of every single day ask yourself "What are the most important things that I want to do today?' Prioritize them, says Tsvenger.Youve probably heard this a million times, but its time to actually do it. Getting your to-dos out of your head and onto a list is key. Once youve done that, then you can actually decide whats most important to get done. Choose the things that will actually move your towards your goals. If you have a lot of to-dos that need to get done, but you dont feel like they will move you towards your goals - either drop them, or outsource them.

2. Name Your Fears

"Our brain is amazing, it's designed to keep us alive & safe by eliminating all potential threats. Back in the day, if your ancestors saw a threat (for example, a tiger), the brain & body will activate its 'fight or flight response. The same thing happens today when our brain perceives work as athreat.' It will keep you from approaching thethreatand this is where procrastination can happen. We delay tasks that seem scary - sometimes not knowing what were scared of. Its biological,Tsvenger says.

So what the way out? Through. Take 10 minutes to write down your top fears regarding the process or the result of your work. Even if they seem small - write them down, so you have more clarity on whats going on beneath the surface.

"For my clients, this works like a spell.For example, one of my recent clients procrastinated on writing content for her social media channels and a job description for the new role she was hiring. We figured out that she was afraid of what people may think about her content - what if she doesn't have enough expertise? Or what if she spends too much time on hiring a person who won't get a job done?Those were just her fears, once she recognized them - her productivity skyrocketed,Tsvenger recounts.

3. Visualize The Process

The biggest mistake I see in the personal development world is this advice of constantly visualizing 'your dreams as they've already happened.This type of thinking is the reason for procrastination. When we give our brain the perfect picture, it doesn't distinguish reality from imagination and it starts to believe that it's already happened. Frequent visualizations cause us to receive thecheap' dopamine (the neurotransmitter of achievement) giving us the illusion of having the desirable outcome without doing the work. This contributes to less motivation and more procrastination when things get difficult. Visualize the process. When we imagine things that weve already primed ourselves to perform, which are doable and close to our reality, this is where the productivity lies, saysTsvenger.

4. Take Micro-Actions

"In order not to scare your brain (and you know what happens when we do this), break down your big tasks into small ones. Schedule them in 30-minute slots, set atimer and get to work, advises Tsvenger. When you take the time to chunk down a big project, name any fears that might crop up and visualize going through the process, its easier to beat procrastination.

It doesnt take a lot of time to set yourself up to be productive. If you take 20-30 minutes to go through these steps, you might just save yourself hours of wasted time scrollingthrough social media!

Read the rest here:
4 Ways To Stop Procrastinating And Start Doing - Forbes

with Heather Gilmore, MSW, LLMSW, BCBA

Since applied behavior analysis is consider a science, ABA aligns itself with the attitudes of science which include determinism, empiricism, experimentation, replication, parsimony, and philosophic doubt.

In this article, we will cover the idea of determinism.

Determinism is one of the many principles that make up the identify of science.

Determinism is based on the idea that behavior is lawful, that it is determined. Determinism assumes that behavior of living organisms is based on cause and effect. That is to say that behavior is caused by something and that behavior can effect other things.

According to the views based on determinism, behavior occurs because of things that happen in the environment.

Determinism states that there is a rational explanation for the behavior of living organisms. There is a natural order to things.

Without the perspective of determinism, the cause of behavior would not be understood. The opposite of determinism is believing that behavior does not have a cause, that behavior happens randomly or that behavior is predetermined.

Determinism is one of the primary characteristics of applied behavior analysis. Determinism assumes that all behavior is the result of certain events. Once these events are identified, future occurrences of a behavior can be modified.

Determinism is a primary characteristic of science which also means that it is a primary characteristic of ABA.

Professionals who help change peoples behavior can use the perspective of determinism to support their work to improve their clients quality of life.

Parents can help improve the lives and behaviors of their children and their families by believing in the concept of determinism, that people can improve their behaviors and quality of life can be improved based upon identifying the causes of behavior.

People, in general, can improve habits, health, and life experiences by believing that there is a rational explanation for the things that happen in life.

Heather is a freelance writer, Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), and social worker. Heather takes interest in topics related to parenting, children, families, personal development, health and wellness, applied behavior analysis, as well as Autism, ADHD, Depression and Anxiety. Contact Heather if you would like to inquire about obtaining her freelance writing services.You can view more articles and resources from Heather at http://www.abaparenttraining.com and email her at [emailprotected] can also advertise your autism services at one of Heather's websites: http://www.LocalAutismServices.com.Heather is the developer of the "One-Year ABA Parent Training Curriculum."

APA Reference Gilmore, H. (2020). Determinism: What is Determinism from an ABA Perspective? (FK-03). Psych Central. Retrieved on March 15, 2020, from https://pro.psychcentral.com/child-therapist/2020/03/determinism-what-is-determinism-from-an-aba-perspective-fk-03/

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Determinism: What is Determinism from an ABA Perspective? (FK-03) - PsychCentral.com

PUBLISHED: 13:03 13 March 2020 | UPDATED: 13:13 13 March 2020

Gemma Jarvis

Anglia Sunshine Nurseries in Sudbury is celebrating its third successive 'Outstanding' assessment by Ofsted. Picture: ANGLIA SUNSHINE NURSERIES

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Anglia Sunshine Nurseries in Sudbury was praised by the standards body for its 'understanding of children's needs and the close relationships they build with the families'.

The inspection took place in February and the Outstanding rating was applied in all assessment categories - quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management.

Praise was given for 'encouraging the older children to be extremely ambitious learners, developing exceptional imagination and language skills'.

'Children new to the nursery settle very swiftly. This is because staff gain a deep understanding of their needs and build close relationships with their families.'

Ofsted said babies in Anglia Sunshine's care showed 'show extremely high levels of curiosity and perseverance' and 'younger children immerse themselves in a wide range of activities, which encourages early exploration'.

'Children develop a strong sense of right and wrong. They consistently display excellent behaviour due to well-established boundaries and carefully structured

routines,' the report added.

Relationships with parents were described as 'excellent'.

'Parents are very complimentary about the nursery. They stress how confident they feel when leaving their children,' it said.

Staff were praised as well trained and knowledgable in their roles.

The nursery opened in September 2003 and cares for children aged from newborn up to five-years-old. It also has a kidzone room for school children aged between four and 14 years. It was previously assessed in 2014 and 2010.

An Eylog online observation system allows parents to view what their child is up to during the day where they can comment and share their child's achievements at home.

Nursery manager Felicity Rose said: 'I am thrilled and believe that 'Outstanding' reflects the determination and commitment of all of us at Anglia Sunshine and our belief in giving every child the best start in life.'

Nursery owner Jacqui Stoneman added: 'I am so proud of them and the positive influence they have on the next generation.'

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Anglia Sunshine Nursey in Sudbury achieves outstanding Ofsted rating for third time - East Anglian Daily Times

PUBLISHED: 12:19 13 March 2020 | UPDATED: 12:19 13 March 2020

Blenheim Park School

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Blenheim Park Academy based in Sculthorpe, between Fakenham and Docking, was given the rating from Ofsted inspectors when they visited for two days from January 22.

The inspection team noted that behaviour, attitudes, personal development, leadership and management was good but that the quality of education and early years provision requires improvement.

The report, published on February 12, read: 'Since the school became an academy, leaders have taken effective action to improve all aspects of school life. There is now a stable staff team who work closely together to improve pupils' education.

'Leaders have recently undertaken a complete review of the curriculum in all subjects other than English and mathematics. They have gone back to the core of each subject and considered exactly what pupils need to experience to make progress. This is all carefully planned out to a good quality. It has begun to be implemented but is at an early stage. It is too soon to be able to tell if it will be effective.'

At the time of the inspection, the school had 87 pupils registered.

READ MORE: Ofsted inspectors have highlighted dozens of schools across Norfolk which need to make improvements.

Headteacher Nikki Taylor said she was pleased with all of the 'positive steps' taken at Blenheim Park Academy. She added: 'Our next stage is the implementation stage of our curriculum. We have spent a lot of time on it.

'This is a positive move and we've come such a long way - it's an on-going process.'

Ms Taylor said she was pleased with how positive inspectors were about behaviour at the school and she vowed to 'continue the good work'.

The report added: 'Leaders have raised the standard of teaching since the school became an academy.

'The teaching of reading is strong. Pupils' achievement reflects this.'

Staff was also praised for engaging parents and making sure pupils were 'knowledgeable about British values and what they mean in real life'.

Blenheim Park Academy converted to become an academy on March 1, 2017, and has not been previously inspected as an academy. It is part of the Ad Meliora multi-academy trust, which consists of three schools.

When its predecessor school, Blenheim Park Primary School, was last inspected by Ofsted, it was judged to be inadequate overall.

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Blenheim Park Academy rated as requiring improvement by Ofsted inspectors | Fakenham and Wells-next-the-sea News - Fakenham & Wells Times

The April 1968 issue of the American magazine Progressive Architecture and the May 1968 issue of the UK Architectural Design journal both featured a thematic focus on matters regarding education and architecture. The School Scene: Change and More Change was Progressive Architectures cover claim, whereas AD asked: What about Learning? The cover illustrations of both magazines suggested a technological overhaul of the traditional classroom, with images of computers cut and pasted into a print of a Victorian classroom at Progressive Architecture and a small television set worn like a wristwatch at AD.

Instructional and communication technologies ranked prominently in both magazines reports and case studies from the intersecting fields of building and learning, of educational and urban planning, of spatial programs for a rapidly shifting landscape of knowledge production and acquisition. However, the notion of technology that appeared to be most sought after was technology in the sense of environment, consumerism, and mobility.

Cedric Price guest-edited the AD issue on education (and contributed the cover montage). In his editorial essay, Price made clear how he wanted the change in the school scene to be understood. He attacked education, once an institution of emancipatory potential, as having degraded into little more than a method of distorting the individuals mental and behavioral life span to enable him to benefit from existing social and economic patterning.1

In the final paragraphs of his rant, Price admonishes architects to respond appropriately to a situation that requires a radical break with the established forms and structures of learning and education. Acknowledging the fact that learning can no longer be contained in four-wall units and limited to a particular period in an individuals life, Price claimed education needs to be re-thought. This resonsideration was supposed to attend to the conditions of a social and economic reality informed by technological change and marked by the spatial and temporal ubiquity of learning. For Price, whats key is the reformulation of the architects and planners roles, since their ideas of spatial flexibility, for example, dont adequately respond to the particular time management and privacy needs of a contemporary teenage student. Thus, the architects task would be to provide an individually operable space.

Regarding the transformation of the educational realm, the editors of Progressive Architecture put a similar emphasis on the expansion and the urge to change the attitudes of planners and architects. Introducing their thematic focus, they first offer economic and demographic data about the annual $52 billion paid for education by the US government, the almost-seventy million students between the age of 524, and the approximately two million teachers needed to educate them.

The coupling of econometric and demographic data was meant to be indicative of a new role to be played by the educational sector in terms of the political economy at large. The systems of elementary and secondary education, the editors venture, are taking on the attributes and responsibilities of civic leaders, sociological catalysts, and seminal agents for urban rejuvenation, as well as their traditional responsibilities for formal education.2

Like Price, Progressive Architecture asked for a new thinking as well as a redefinition of participation and interdisciplinary cooperation. Rather than programming separate schools in suburban areas, the journals editors argued, the school must be worked into the community fabric, and must become a contributory member of the community, both to help and ameliorate its ills and to enrich it through involvement with its life and culture. Repeatedly stressing the need for involvement was a way of saying that there was an alarming dearth of integration to be addressed by educational planning, or, using a more poignant terminology, that the social and political fact of segregation was educations main object. There is a feeling, the editorial further tries to explain, that education is being asked to purify all our national problems of racial injustice, violence, poverty, and hatred; to act as a sort of filter through which these impurities might be removed in the process of educating our children and involving their elders the process.

In 1968, education was invested with the hope that it could take on a central role in social and economic change, to become the therapeutic medium to cure the nations disease. In the US, the protests and organizing of the civil rights movement and militant black activism made inevitable the acknowledgment of the imminent social and political crisis of the city caused by racialized urban politics, suburbanization, white flight, and so-called ghettoization. Thus, before, during, and after the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, the issues of race, class, and urban renewal were granted high priority on the agendas of public authorities and academic research in education, sociology, urban studies, and the like.

Looking for a response to the crisis of the city, education was considered the key remedying force, and with it the places and spaces of learning. If the analysis of neoliberal governmentality often refers to a depoliticizing educationalization of social problems, the governmental turn to education in the 1960s certainly preceded this contemporary tendency.3 The physical, but also the technological and social environment of education became the object of far reaching conceptual and planning activity informed by a reformist social and urban politics aimed at pacifying inner city unrest. At times, it even sought to heal the wounds of anti-black violence inflicted by municipal governments, their housing politics, and misguided educational policies.

AD and Price seemed primarily concerned with the reconfiguration of the spatiality of learning in the interest of individualized and, ultimately, uncommitted spaces of calm and potential self-education. Progressive Architecture was more openly looking for models of civic participation and the socially and economically generative role of education. However, the approaches certainly shared an interest in nonpedagogical, nonadministrative educational programming, as well as in the future roles of architects and planners in it.4

In line with such gestures of radical breaks with notions and structures of education, both magazines featured articles on the 1967 Rice Design Fete, a twelve-day-long workshop or charrette organized at the School of Architecture at Rice University in Houston, Texas.5 The first three previous iterations of the Design Fete had been devoted to community colleges, fall-out shelters and mental health centers. The fourth, 1967 edition it focused on New Schools for New Towns. The outcomes of this particular event are exemplary of a somewhat split consciousness: of self-proclaimed progressive design and educational endeavors that address the demands of social change, while at the same time disavow the political and social conflicts dominating the discussion in that period.

The event was co-sponsored by the Educational Facilities Laboratories, a New York-based consultancy agency on school building and educational economies funded by the Ford Foundation and long-time proponent of modular-prefab open plan architecture and the SCSD (School Construction Systems Development) system of flexible construction.6 The School of Architecture at Rice, headed by William Cannady, invited Charles Colbert, Niklaus Morgenthaler, Cedric Price, Robert Venturi, and Thomas Vreeland, as well as Paul Kennon, a professor at Rice, to team up with students from various universities joining the charrette to develop a project on the basis of different programs drawn up for the workshop by professional educators for new towns and their education systems.

The programmatic brief of the Design Fete as a whole was drafted by Albert Canfield and John Tirrell, two educational consultants who had recently been employed by the Oakland Community College near Detroit.7 Canfield and Tirrell were extensively cited in Progressive Architecture and published their article Goodbye to the Classroom in the May 1968 Architectural Design issue. They advocated the technologically enhanced programming of small learning steps, the constancy of learning as a continuing element in life. They also argued for the maximum utilization of all community facilities as well as of home study through portable packages, thus spreading communication among the community, so that it becomes an integral part of community living and the personal growth of the citizen.8

In their AD article, Canfield and Tirrell were convinced that due to an increasing effectiveness of self-instructional materials, the need for teachers and tutors will decrease.9 Moreover, they proposed a node for cultural/recreational activities in each of the neighborhoods as well as in industrial, business and commercial establishments. For them, education was on the way from the school building and moving into the domestic sphere, the workplace, and new leisure architectures: cultural/recreation centers will enhance and combine many of the cultural/educational/recreation activities formerly associated with separate institutions, such as the sports ground, art gallery, library, museum, elementary and secondary schools, university and factory.10

These attempts to think differently about education sought to overcome its institutional paralysis, the dependence on spatial conditions such as the schoolhouse, and become more geographically dispersed and temporally extended. However, Canfield and Tirrells proposals remained within a planners mindset. And while they were ingrained by a technological optimism that may have been critical of the established forms and designs of schooling, they happily went along with larger economic and urban trends.

As for the selecting the educational requirements of new towns as its theme, the booklet published about the Rice Design Fete claims : A new town presents an unmatched opportunity to explore new educational approaches and new ways of housing education without the constraints of continuity.11 The blank slate approach of unfettered planning and design in brand new urban environments was intended to engender transfers into existing cities. The program had no strings attached, and thus aimed to bolster the creative energy of the participants.

Among the leading assumptions of the Design Fete was the increasing influence of technology on the learning experience, or the issue of instructional media and electronic teaching assistance. Other concerns were the necessity to involve (or intermix) the educational realm and the community, and last but not least, the importance of mobility in contemporary urban reality, or in other words, the need to find ways of making the time spent in trains and automobiles educational.

Visualization of the proposal by the group led by Charles Colbert. Source: New Schools in New Towns. The Future, Progressive Architecture (April 1968).

Elevations and sections of the proposal by the group led by Charles Colbert. Source: New Schools in New Towns. The Future, Progressive Architecture (April 1968).

Typical plans of the proposal by the group led by Charles Colbert. Source: New Schools in New Towns. The Future, Progressive Architecture (April 1968).

Individualized education diagram, from the proposal by the group led by Charles Colbert. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967)

Shoulder carrel prototype, from the proposal by the group led by Charles Colbert. Source: Progressive Architecture (April 1968).

Unsurprisingly, the results of each of the working groups happened to be quite different. Charles Colbert, an architect from New Orleans, and his group proposed educational towers constructed of steel pipe, for the envisioned new town would be developed by a steel company in relation to a new steel mill about thirty miles from Houston and was thought to evolve into a self-contained 150,000-resident satellite city. The Towers school facilities would be available 24 hrs a day, serving students at high-school level and above, including adult education.12

Plans show the proposed school facilities; the floors above these would house corporate offices. Although Canfield and Tirrell, the two educational consultants in charge of the program, were advocating the collapse of boundaries between institutions such as museums, libraries, parks, and the educational activity of the community, Colberts educational towers were considered to be bring corporate offices and schools too closely together. Whats more, even though the concentration of high school-level education in the community center seemed to respond to Canfield and Tirrells notion of the community node, it also wildly contradicted the ideas of decentralized, dispersed education. The Colbert group addressed this in almost satirical fashion, with its prototype of a shoulder carrel: a super-individualized learning device incorporating instructional media of all kinds, from television and tapes to computer connection, two-way radio, telephone, slide projector, and screen.

Model of the proposal by the group led by Paul Colbert. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

Diagram of "movement through activities instead of past them," from the proposal by the group led by Paul Colbert. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

Diagram of the "Grand Intermix," from the proposal by the group led by Paul Colbert. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

Sketch of the computerized carrel cars, from the proposal by the group led by Paul Colbert. Source: New Schools in New Towns. The Future, Progressive Architecture (April 1968).

The individualized space of study has always been a particular task for designers of library and workplace furniture. Around 1967, it was already possible to conceive of a mobile learner interface with limitless access to audiovisual and textual archives, a sturdy precursor of what by has become everyones handheld wireless device. Yet freeing the individual from any larger architectural structure and entitling them to become this architecture resembles the nightmarish opposite of any community-centered notion of involvement via education.

Houston-based architect Paul Kennon came up with an educational plan structurally similar to Colberts proposal, yet different in its architectural references. Rather than designing towers, Kennon was drawing on the horizontal model of the suburban shopping mall. Responding to a brief by Dorothy M. Knoell, a programmer at the State University of New York and author of the 1966 book Toward Educational Opportunity for All, for a new town thirty miles east of Los Angeles, Kennons Educational Concourse was a university campus based on a notion of the university as a generator of community services.13

The multifunctional megastructure of the new town is designed as an urban strip with the educational hub as a kind of central machinery. Computerized Carrel Cars allow for speedy commuting for constant learners. The carrel car is in reality a flexible space, the commentary in Progressive Architecture elaborates, [a space] that can be attached to homes as study rooms, serve as a mobile study, docked at the school or drawn up in a protective semicircle like covered wagons to ward off the arrows of ignorance.14 In diagrams, the Kennon group visualized the intermix and the type of movement that would be an ongoing and total engagement with this educational-consumerist environment.

Mobile teaching unit, from the proposal by the group led by Thomas Vreeland. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

Individual hand-carried unit, from the proposal by the group led by Thomas Vreeland. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

Central control, from the proposal by the group led by Thomas Vreeland. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

Child care center, from the proposal by the group led by Thomas Vreeland. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

Individual study unit, from the proposal by the group led by Thomas Vreeland. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

Drive-in study unit, from the proposal by the group led by Thomas Vreeland. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

The group of Thomas Vreeland, who founded the CASE group in 1964 together with Peter Eisenman, Colin Rowe and others, was advised by educators Cyril Sargent and Judith Ruchkin to come up with a proposal for the subtle, minimally invasive makeover of an existing, multi-ethnic, but deteriorating community adjacent to downtown Houston. The program called for an experimental approach to manipulate urban space but refrain from razing the neighborhoods buildings or other ways of creating a blank slate from which to build anew. Starting from the assumption that all participants are learners, with no age barriers who tend to be dispersed, the rehabilitation of the community in decay was designed to be facilitated by the restructuring of learners time, attention to varied learning rhythms, and the potential displacement of learning facilities, even overnight, if necessary.15 The project was strongly informed by the educators ideas about a linear community school that would be equipped with cybernetic devices to retrieve and feedback on data from an electronic database. The purpose of such a linear school would be to foster development of personal qualities of independence, creativity, imagination as well as sympathy, reliability, and responsibility. In the community school the learner becomes free to search, to investigate.

Vreeland and his group abstained from the kind of architectural design and urban planning approach that Kennon and Colbert had opted for, although they share a certain technological optimism. Vreeland rather went for micro-interventions into the existing environment of the neighborhood and for an inversion of the spatiality of the traditional school model. A Volkswagen bus carries educational content and instructional technology to the learners in the city, rather than transporting the students to far away schools.

Through the image of the Volkswagen bus as mobile educational unit, Vreeland also inserted an, if implicit, commentary on the heated debates around the pros and cons of school busing in relation to segregation. Among the measures proposed at the time to desegregate the system were large, centralized, and integrated school campus structures, so called education parks. Such school centers were to be linked with more distant communities mostly by busing. Reminiscent of key events in the civil rights movement of the 1950s, the controversy around busing garnered considerable attention in the 1960s and 1970s. In the process, the image of the bus and of students being transported from inner cities to new suburban education hubs to benefit from integrated schools developed into an icon of educational politics across racial and political divides.16

For Vreeland, the portability of educational hardware was a key methodology to disseminate the school into the community and facilitate educational activity from the point of view of the learners, their interests and needs. But it wasnt only about turning around common ideas of the student and of schooling, of doing away with compulsory learning, grading, and other forms of educational control. Vreelands project aimed for urban regeneration rather than renewal. Their network approach was meant to be capable of functioning as a major regenerative force in the life of the community, a force capable of effectuating gradual social, economic, and cultural changes. At the same time, their project was expected to be productive in scientific terms. Designed as all-pervasive, the network was to touch the community unobtrusively at as many points as possible It works by feeding information about the community for scientific analysis. It forms a sensitive communications network.17

A typology or taxonomy of educational facilities became a tool to visualize and systematize the projects logic and economy, from the individual hand-carried unit (a battery-powered, transistorized radio receiver) to portable conference rooms, mobile teaching units such as the Volkswagen bus, prefab learning centers of different size and functionality, and the central computer bank, monitoring and programming center. The miniaturizing and modularizing of education by way of technological devices, prefab building systems, portability and mobility of spatial units, and centralized databases was a telling attempt at imagining the new town as an essentially nomadic, DIY trailer park environment, deliberately neglecting the symbolism of institutional representation. Immersed in self-organized, autonomous, interest-driven educational activity, this envisioned community is a piece of systems aesthetics, if not a fantasy of alternative cyberneticism. Although (or because) Vreelands project was the only one in the Fete about a multi-ethnic part of the city, it still transcended all troubling divides of race, class, and gender, generalizing the identity of the learner about everything else.

Kit of parts, from the proposal by the group led by Cedric Price. Source: New Schools in New Towns. The Future, Progressive Architecture (April 1968).

(OAS) Open-Air Servicing, from the proposal by the group led by Cedric Price. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

(OAS) Open-Air Servicing, from the proposal by the group led by Cedric Price. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

(IESC) Industrial/Educational Showcase, from the proposal by the group led by Cedric Price. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

(IESC) Industrial/Educational Showcase, from the proposal by the group led by Cedric Price. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

(RTS) Rapid Transit Servicing, from the proposal by the group led by Cedric Price. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

(CESC) Commercial/Educational Showcase, from the proposal by the group led by Cedric Price. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

Cedric Price had been invited to Houston with the knowledge of his outstanding portfolio of peculiar projects of designs for new types of educational environments. Potteries Thinkbelt, for instance, was a large scale project to convert an existing industrial site and its infrastructure in North Staffordshire into a vast educational network for 20,000 students, who he imagined to be hired as wage earners rather than paying tuition fees or receiving grants. Price brought some elements from Potteries Thinkbelt to the Rice Design Fete, where he developed them further. What Vreeland has called the components of the educational experience, Price named parts. For the project that he proposed on the grounds of John Tirrell and Albert Canfields program, Price also came up with a list or taxonomy, a kit of parts.

Using acronyms and little symbols, the kit of parts contained all sorts of technological devices from telephone headsets, slide and film projectors, and assorted items of outdoor and indoor furniture and architecture, including electronic display panels, a portable canopy, and bleacher seating. In his urban-scale taxonomy, Price listed (TB) The Town Brain: Central production and servicing for Educational Facilities (EF), (IESC) Industrial/Educational Showcase: Displays to explain industry to the public, (AL) Auto Link: Education facilities made available to private cars with radio, two-way telephones, and charts, (RTS) Rapid Transit Servicing: Education facilities in buses, trains, etc., including informational panels, and more.

His project for a Total Learning Environment with a Kit of Parts reveled in the potential of manipulating and modifying the urban environment to generate educational situations and place knowledge hubs (or nodes) at the most unexpected sites. A part of the educational landscape could thus be a wrecked car suspended upside down below an elevated expressway, or a boat mounted on the roof of a strip mall. Public parks were to be turned into educational arenas, stressing the equivalence of sport event and schooling; industrial or infrastructural buildings repurposed as screens on which industry would educate the public about what it does while hidden from view; car interiors or bus seats transformed into multi-media learning carrels.

The new town selected for this project was a residential satellite city of medium density thirty miles southwest of Chicago, located on a major radial freeway with a highly educated population of 200,000a population predominantly professional, semiprofessional, and skilled.18 In the article Price published in the May 1968 issue of Architectural Design, the Rice project and its brief had been replaced, while elements of it remained. Renaming it Atom, he abandoned the idea of the plannable finite town, and declared the concept of settlement built for long-term usage obsolete. Instead, he was convinced of the inevitable fragmentation of infrastructural servicing and increased individual mobility and personal independence, and sought to explore its effects on how urban societies are organized.

Price didnt entirely refrain from designing new architectural spaces, as is demonstrated by the LC or Life Conditioner: a simple, box-like structure to contain maximally flexible learning units and placed alongside the freeway. Price explains the typological background as: Two forms, box and tent. Box contains intensive teaching learning facilities and controlled medium-sized volumes food drink and CESC [Commercial/Educational Show-case]. Tentworkshops, laboratories, experimental buildings, etc. Boxes likely to be less frequent in Phase III because of growth of HSS [Home Study Station], while tents likely to increase.19

These presumably cheap, makeshift, highly flexible, and ephemeral structures were meant to constantly be assembled and disassembled and discarded once they no longer fit into an evolved educational way of thinking. For Price, the built environment was rapidly becoming less and less socially relevant, as it is based on ideas of economic growth unaware of the entropic nature of contemporary societies of communication. Fortunately, Price maintained, it is unlikely that education, now entering a period of mammoth expansion in scope and content, will wait around for such stultifying recognition.

Cedric Proce, Atom project: educational facilities network, 1967. Source: Cedric Price fonds, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montral. CCA.

The Educational Facilities (EF) diagrammed in a 1967 drawing, however, show how much organization and geometric order seemed necessary to form the fragmented and de-differentiated urbanscape of learning. It also provided the kind of intelligibility or readability aspired by the community of planners and educators.

For Price, teaming up with progressive educators such as Canfield and Tirrell had been following Prices prior work from a distance and were about to adapt his notion of thinkbelt for their own planning of community colleges in the Detroit area. Their collaboration in the Fete proved inspiring. [The] value of this programme [referring to Canfield and Tirrells conceptual launchpad] at such a time, Price wrote,

is that it has enabled me to show that the built environment together with its integral artifactual kit of parts can help to increase the rate of fruitful fragmentation of educational servicing However the acceptance of educational servicing as continuous, essential feed to the total lifespan, does demand an acceptance of the fact that education together with other essential services must be made available in means and methods comparable with other forms of invisible servicing.20

This rhetoric of educational spaces and technologies becoming invisible or indistinguishable ran against any notion of architecture as built and a potentially monumental statement. Rather, Prices somewhat passive-aggressive de-centering and devaluating of more traditional ideas of shelter and brick and mortar containers privileges a decidedly environmental approach. His approach suggested a wholesale activation of everything towards a new educational functionality that already constitutes the urban infrastructure, from the micro to the macro level.

Like most of his colleagues, Price didnt speak much about what exactly he thinks could be taught and learned in this fragmented, entropic, splintered environment saturated with educational offers and incentives. The curriculum, it could be argued, yields in the training of a different attitude, an attitude directed towards an arguably post-institutional reality of learning. But this reality remained as patterned, albeit non-differentiated of a life-world as the techno-spatial environment it presupposed.

Diagram of the proposal by the group led by Robert Venturi. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

Proposal to use billboards for education by the group led by Robert Venturi. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

Town plan of the proposal by the group led by Robert Venturi. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

Sketch of learning centers within the Educational-Commercial Strip, from the proposal by the group led by Robert Venturi. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

Sketch of learning centers within the Educational-Commercial Strip, from the proposal by the group led by Robert Venturi. Source: New Schools for New Towns, ed. William Cannady, School of Architecture, Rice University and Educational Facilities Laboratories (Houston, TX: self-published, 1967).

In many respects, interpreting the new town as a space of learning, understanding urban education as educationalizing the urban, and making the presence of the school in the expanded field of the city unavoidable anticipated the proverbial notion of learning from. A year before Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Steven Izenour, and their Yale students started research into the cityscape of Las Vegas in the fall of 1968, Venturi developed a project at the Design Fete that displayed a similar interest in the semiotics and semantics of the commercial street and the futility of good design.

Carol Lubin and Ronald W. Haase envisioned a self-contained 150,000-resident new town halfway between Washington DC and Baltimore for the Venturi group, and called for a library-centered educational system. Responding to the brief, the Venturi group equipped neighborhoods of 500 families with twenty-four-hour Learning Resource Centers, one for small children, one for young mothers, and another for retired persons. These center facilities could be enlarged by the use of both mobile visiting units and closed-circuit television. Special plug-in areas for bookmobiles, artmobiles, scientific exhibitions, and healthmobiles to visit and service the neighborhood would be provided.21 Besides the basic Learning Resource Centers, larger centers such as Town Learning Centers, Senior Learning Centers, and major City Learning Centers were to be distributed throughout the new town grid.

The Venturi group also proposed even smaller learning units in the form of Service Stations. The architecture of these and the Town Learning Centers were to be simple, skeletal, and placed on the educational strip so as to be reachable by car and bus. Fully in compliance with the main street model of the common American settlement and the suburban town modeled after it, Venturi conceived an intermix of educational, commercial, and mobility systems, with the educational strip as the generator of the new town. A commercial educational strip arrangement for a new town provides a constantly diverting route for the pedestrian and the motorist. Rather than denying the existence of and the necessity for the freeway and the attendant jumble of buildings and automobiles, [the project] mingles education facilities directly with those for commercealong a town-bisecting freewayand creates a varied smorgasbord of attractions to compete for the attention of the pedestrian and motorist learner.22

Further archival research is necessary to ascertain how the proposals from the New Schools for New Towns Rice Design Fete were received in the respective circles of planners, educators, and architects. However, already in 1967, blending education into the consumerist environment of the capitalist city, embracing the suspiciously commercial as well as the neo-vernacular of the pop age, and suspending any culturally inherited divisions between high and low, learning and working, education and consumerism in favor of a model of the citizen as constant, life-long learner could be seen as an enervating, even obnoxious stance by critics of the culture of capitalist order.

On the other hand, the scandalizing of traditional, and particularly Marxist modes of critique and criticality as performed by Venturi and others could be read as an early expression of post-modernist avant-gardism. It could also be read as a sign of the refusal to be aligned with more openly political movements and organizations, or only an academic, political, administrative and managerial class that was increasingly concerned with issues of racism, segregation, and integration.

In 1967 Alvin Toffler, a journalist about to assume celebrity status for the 1970 futurologist bestseller Future Shock (written together with his partner Heidi Toffler), edited a collection of talks that had been delivered in a 1966 conference titled Schoolhouse in the City. It focused on the perceived urban crisis which was caused by the continuing racializing of space, real estate speculation and the mega-business of renewal that has led to the deterioration and ghettoization of downtown and urban residential areas, and the production of the suburban sprawl for a white population deserting the city. In many respects, the programs and the results of the Rice Design Fete in 1967 were a reaction to the kind of discussion documented in this volume.

Throughout, the texts in Tofflers anthology were driven by the alarming facts and statistics evidencing urban decay and ongoing segregation. The book tried hard to provide analysis as well as educational and design proposals to solve the crisis. The prominent black leader as Bayard Rustin, for instance, addressed the boxed-in feeling, the sense of no place to go, the lack of outlet in the African-American ghetto communities, as well as the reasons why schools have become a primary target of the ghetto activist.23 Unless there is a master plan to cover housing, jobs, and health, Rustin argued, every plan for the schools will fall on its face. No piecemeal strategy can work.24

Accordingly, educator Robert J. Havighurst emphasized how this crisis requires the active participation of schools and making and implementing policy for social urban renewal. This big-city crisis is reflected in feelings of uncertainty and anxiety on the part of parents and citizens.25 Community schools, Havighurst reported, have made attempts to respond to the crisis by involving the various constituencies in decisions about school policy and practice to foster the links to the community.

Education is embodied in built environments and in the various groups and clients it hosts, employs, and trains, from students and parents to teachers, administration, municipal governments, urban developers, architects, and educators. Drawing on education as a palliative, order- and equality-inspiring institution had become a default mode of crisis management on a national and local scale by the 1960s. The programming of space and behavior through architecture, design, and technology was meant to remedy the obvious lack of political tools to organize public debate and negotiationthat is, of democratic governance.

Proposals for large-scale community schools and education parks by Quinlivan Pierik & Krause/Architects; Emil A. Schmidlin, Architects; and Kiff, Voss & Franklin, Architects,commissioned and published by theEducational Facilities Laboratories prior to 1967.

Prior to the publication of the Toffler anthology, the Educational Facilities Laboratories published a small report on the school-city problem, showing a selection of architectural designs for large-scale community schools and education parks.26 These and many more designs produced in this age of rapid educational expansion formed the backdrop of the 1967 Rice Design Fete explorations. It was from there that the architects and their associated teams of educators and designers tried to make sense of the agreed-upon task of educationalizing the city through reprogramming urban space. To involve themselves with the social crisis produced by anti-black urban and educational politics would have been too much of a distraction from their core professional agenda of working the brains of administrations and planning committees. However, it is remarkable how their lack of interest in (or insight into) the stratified and segregated social realities of US cities constituted a common attitude across all projects at the 1967 Rice Design Fete (with the slight exception of the Vreeland groups proposal). As progressive as their designs may have appeared in the eyes of the architectural and educational community and their potential clients, their lack of political traction utterly failed the scale and the urgency of the problems at hand.

The self-critical transgression of traditional architectural languages and its engagement with educational theory and practice at the 1967 Rice Design Fete showed what an assembly of white, male, Western architects was capable of in terms of progressive thinking and doing at the time and in an academic setting. Still, the blind spots of the Design Fetes results are conspicuous, considering the ubiquity of anti-black violence, epistemic and otherwise, in the public sphere and mass media of 1960s America. Some determination must have been required to turn away from these realities, particularly when asked to conceive design solutions for new towns, themselves epitomes of white flight and racial divide.

One may wonder if the task of designing educational facilities muted such concerns. Presumably benevolent to the core, the very envisioning of future learning environments might have lured the participants of the Rice charrette into a fallacious post-urban-crisis, if not post-race state of mind. Why didnt anyone feel the need to refer to the traumatizing experiences and memories of school and academia? Maybe recalling ones own individual suffering in the institutional spaces of education could have instilled some empathy, if not solidarity with those being schooled beyond the color line.

This said, so many of the results from the Design Fete appear utterly contemporary and adventurous compared to the majority of contemporary educational buildings that still have yet to transcend rather traditional conceptions of the spatial conditions of learning. As digital as todays classroom might become, the compulsory presence, often for the entire day, in a built environment known as school, is testament to a key threshold still to be surpassed. The 1967 projects therefore might still prove inspirational, regardless of their blind spots.

This contribution derives from a presentation given at Nottingham Contemporary on November 8, 2019. A video recording of the presentation is available here.

Architectures of Education is a collaboration between Nottingham Contemporary, Kingston University, and e-flux Architecture, and a cross-publication with The Contemporary Journal.

Tom Holert is a researcher, writer, and curator. He is the co-founder of the Harun Farocki Institut in Berlin. Hes currently organising the research and exhibition project Education Shock. Learning, Politics, and Architecture in the 1960s and 1970s, at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (forthcoming September 2020).

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Educationalize and Fail - Architecture - e-flux - E-Flux

Friday March 13 2020

Paul Ngunyi holds a postgraduate degree in Industrial and Organisational Psychology. PHOTO | COURTESY

I dropped out in my second year and went out in search of a new path in IT.

I first worked as a trainer on basic computer knowledge and while at it, I learnt more about computers.

I then advanced to system administration, technology consulting, sales and customer care services.

Paul Ngunyi holds a postgraduate degree in Industrial and Organisational Psychology. He is a business, career and personal success coach, and the author of Youth of Honour and The Art of High Performance.

How has your family shaped your life?

I am the firstborn in a family of 13, so I learnt to be responsible and to take up leadership roles at a very young age. By age 10, I already knew how to cook, clean and do other household chores, and I would do them diligently without needing to be asked.

What kinds of people do you coach?

As an industrial psychologist, I focus on career professionals and entrepreneurs who want to improve their lives and their businesses. I also coach individuals who feel stuck in their careers, businesses and relationships. Additionally, I do group coaching using a 10-week programme called Self and Business Transformation, which focuses on fostering success through self-knowledge, and career and business improvement strategies. More than 100 individuals have so far graduated from this programme.

How do you improve your knowledge?

I regularly read books that offer tips on personal and professional development. I also like discussing the contentious issues on these subjects with different people to get their perspectives. I also source for online content on YouTube, as well as professional and business journals that are available online.

What was the most radical decision youve ever made and what did it teach you?

I had to drop out of college due to lack of school fees, but that ended up being a good thing because out of it, I crafted a new career in information technology.

However, to be truly happy, I had to find my passion, and I realised that guiding others and helping them succeed gives me great satisfaction. I use my experience from the corporate world, and my training in psychology to live up to my purpose in life, which is to be a business and personal success coach. I learnt to make lemonades whenever life handed me a lemon instead of complaining, and I also learnt that optimism, excellence and hard work are important ingredients of success.

Is this the career you envisioned during your youth?

I had planned to be far more successful, but I did not know exactly how I was going to achieve that. Growing up, I wanted to be a mechanical engineer, but I didnt have anyone to guide me.

I was inclined to science-related courses because I was good in sciences. However, I later found out that I was also very empathetic, and a good listener. I was also good in teaching and debates, so I went ahead and created a career in coaching.

Why did you quit your Bachelors course in Mathematics?

I dropped out in my second year and went out in search of a new path in IT. I first worked as a trainer on basic computer knowledge and while at it, I learnt more about computers.

I then advanced to system administration, technology consulting, sales and customer care services. All this time, I found great fulfilment whenever I trained my students and helped them find technological solutions. My IT career grew and soon, I was working for global IT brands. In 2002, I qualified as Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, a highly sought after achievement at that time. I worked for brands such as Hewlett Packard and Lenovo, who enriched my career.

But to become a good success coach, I had to get professional knowledge, so I enrolled for a Masters degree in Industrial Psychology.

Have your parents forgiven you for this?

Yes. They have always known that I am responsible enough to make good decisions, and they are very happy with me. When we were growing up, my family was the poorest in our village. However, the story has since changed. My parents feel very proud when they see me offering guidance to my siblings through coaching and to many other people through my books.

Now that you are 40, which were your most significant milestones?

My coaching and leadership journey started taking shape when I was in secondary school because it is there that I began to understand the world beyond my village. This critical awareness of my surrounding and background grew deeper while I was at the university, after which I went on to record the best years of my life my 30s. In the third decade of my existence, I grew to know myself much better even as I continued working. I became courageous enough to pursue my passion in Psychology. Self-awareness, career growth, establishing a family and personal development made my 30s so fulfilling. I now look forward to even better days ahead.

What are your weaknesses?

I detest operational tasks that are repetitive and which demand keen attention to detail, such as administration. I prefer to just offer solutions. I can also be impatient when progress is slow, and this sometimes makes me come across as demanding and overbearing.

Which chapter of your book would you recommend to young professionals?

Chapter one of The Art of High Performance, which highlights the basic components of success self-knowledge, strategy development, goal setting, all-round development and critical success strategies.

Supporting personal and community development projects. Over the years, I have spent my time and money transforming my rural community by paying school fees for many young people. I also spend a lot on books and enrolling for short courses.

What is the biggest lesson you have learnt?

That it is only by pursuing your passion that you can realise true happiness.

How do you take care of your physical wellness?

I watch what I eat, avoid negative emotions, bad relationships and unhealthy religious practices. I value my family and regularly make efforts to continue growing in my career.

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I was a drop out but Im now loving life! - nation.co.ke