r u l y

This month at Ruly we have been discussing organizational strategies for the school/learning environment. Below is a quick recap of this month’s articles, reader comments and relevant news stories.

This month’s articles pointed out that there are two aspects to learning success. The first critical skill is the basic nuts and bolts of having binders and calendars and other physical organizing tools to track key information. The other critical skill is to take a step back and understand your learning style, your strengths and weaknesses, and position yourself for maximum success.

Positioning for Success

• August’s Theme: Organizing for the School Environment (along with a discussion of the reasons why I chose to homeschool my daughter this year)
• Could Defects in Executive Functioning Be Hurting Your Child’s Success in School (how to identify an executive functioning defect and learning and scheduling strategies to compensate)
• Adapting Your Organizing Style to Your School

Lou commented:

“Some professors, you noted, need to ‘hide the main points as obscurely as possible.’ As a young college student, I thought this was a sign of their brilliance and my ignorance. As a graduate student, I felt the professors were somewhat lazy and had not taken time for thoughtful presentation.

One of my mentors in graduate school told me, ‘The grade you get on your work often tells you more about where the professor is coming from, than what you may have learned.’ That advice helped me turn my “B” work into some of my best learning!

 

• Ruly Bookshelf: That Crumpled Paper Was Due Last Week (how to assist a discouraged or underperforming learner using organizational strategies)

Author Ana Homayoun recently Tweeted an article in which she is quoted titled “No. 1 Back-to-School Rule: Get Organized.” How true!

• Ruly Bookshelf: The Shut-Down Learner (a professional psychologist’s view that quite a few discouraged or underperforming learners in our public schools might actually be manifesting visual-spatial dominant thinking and weaknesses in language skills). I received several behind-the-scenes comments that this book struck a chord with people who saw themselves or loved ones.

Ruth commented:

“I don’t know the answer—but in our society the bottom line is if you communicate well–and that means verbal and written–you get hired more often, you make more money, and you have a much better chance at being successful even than someone who may inherently know the subject better but can’t communicate. . . .”

I was surprised to see an article recently on NPR titled: “Think You’re An Auditory Or Visual Learner? Scientists Say It’s Unlikely” indicating that typing people as categories of learners is not appropriate or effective to boost learning. The article indicates that we are better off looking for similarities in learning styles than teaching differently for different styles.

School Organizing Materials and Techniques

• Back-to-School Organizing Ideas from the 2012 IKEA Catalog

IKEA enthusiast Mary thoughtfully commented:

“[R]eceiving the IKEA catalog is a bit like Christmas morning for me! With three people, two home offices, and our array of hobbies and interests in 900 square feet, creative storage is a MUST!!!!! . . . The only thing that makes me laugh is when I actually put “real” items in the cases, they are never as zen and uniform looking as the catalog. . . . I *LOVE* IKEA, but have to remember to be realistic about the end outcome… catalog world and real world are NOT the same!”

• How to Organize School Papers and Your Home Work/Office

Social Commentary

Ruly Ruth shared wisdom from years of school volunteering emphasizing the need for school volunteers and the easiest ways to get involved.

• Ruly Ruth: How to Be a Great School Volunteer

Volunteer diadia commented:

“. . . Every parent helps and often artistic teens thrive on their parents’ underwriting”

Amy commented:

“[O]ne big assist to teachers is just to read with students one on one or small group…that is always a need…and math tutor, too…and definitely a male in the process…so many children without fathers in the home and the male presence always gives a certain feeling of security for the children.”

Sue Shellenbarger wrote a fascinating article for the Wall Street Journal’s The Juggle blog, noting:

“While volunteering used to be just a nice way to get to know your child’s teacher and classroom, now it has become a lot more – the last line of defense against a decline in the quality of education.”

–Sue Shellenbarger, “Needed: Parent Volunteers in Schools,” WSJ.com The Juggle Blog, August 31, 2011.

Other Posts

Finally, in light of the recent earth events occurring on the east coast of the United States, I posted some Hurricane Irene Preparation Tips. I am thankful to report that Irene passed by our house with relatively little impact. We will have more to say about Irene next month. Check back tomorrow to find out how Irene fits into September’s organizing theme.

Thank you for your readership and comments this month! If you have input for future topics related to school organization, please share in the comments.

 

The school year has begun here and so has the inflow of paper and other school “stuff.” I still have a lot of catch-up filing to do associated with the school year. The paperwork isn’t necessarily academic-related either. For example, I need to update the personal health binders for all of us, particularly in light of all of those school checkup appointments. We need to de-junk the home office (again! . . . a never-ending process) and keep our calendars in sync to manage all the school, personal and business appointments that keep us all busy.

Below are some tips for organizing school papers and office supplies. While these tips are oriented toward younger school students, they really apply to all of us at any age. When we save school papers, we are essentially creating a scrapbook of accomplishments. It is a good idea for all of us to do this throughout our lives. If you are a working professional, it is a good idea to keep a running list of your major accomplishments each year and/or samples of your best work. If you ever need to update your resume or provide a performance review, you have your material at the ready. It is also a great way to keep up your self-esteem if your workplace does not routinely recognize your work. If you are not working, it can also be helpful to maintain a sort of life journal of things you are thinking about, books you read, uplifting letters you received, etc. We all get so busy and it is easy to forget the great things we have done or want to remember.

Tips for Controlling School Papers

You are either a packrat or a minimalist when it comes to school papers. Almost no one falls in the happy medium in the middle. You either have way too many papers and they are starting to clutter up your home or you throw almost everything away the second it comes home (or never bring it home in the first place). There are pluses and minuses to either strategy. It is important to recognize which one you are, though and think ahead about your long-term strategy.

Sentimentality for the Minimalist

If you are a minimalist, you just have to watch for signs that you are not causing hurt feelings in your children due to your streamlined philosophy. Your child may have put a lot of effort into a particular essay, drawing or science project and your tossing it into the trash sends the message that that effort was essentially “junk.” Your child may not care but if your child does, find a way to honor the effort without keeping the stuff. You could save one or two important projects and give them a place of honor in your home, such as on the fridge, on your child’s bedroom door, on a bulletin board, in a re-usable frame or on a shelf. You could photograph or scan important projects. You can re-use some work for wrapping paper, book covers, cards or other projects. You could keep a short journal or list of the projects. If you have a good memory, you could also remember to praise your child’s work to others. “Suze did an amazing collage the other day!” It is also a good idea to talk with your child about why you are throwing things away. “This is excellent work but we can’t keep all of it. We need to keep open space so you have room to create more things in the future.”

Filing for the Packrat

If you are a packrat, you need to create a filing system now to keep up with the paper as it flows in. Some people buy a large plastic bin and just toss all the papers and projects inside for the year. Others use file folders. I like to use a large binder with sheet protectors so that my children can easily review their work but I don’t have to punch holes in everything and the work stays clean. Oversize projects like mobiles and sculptures are kept for a time and then tossed unless there is something worth saving about them.

What makes a school paper worth saving? This is a really personal decision. I prefer to save things that show individuality. I give highest priority to original drawings, stories or ideas. Next are projects that look really cute but aren’t that original in that everyone in the class made the exact same thing. Last priority are routine worksheets or assignments that show knowledge of a concept but aren’t particularly memorable to me or my child.

Desk Organizing

Keeping an organized desk helps to boost productivity. When you start with a clear work surface, your mind opens to focus on the project at hand without the distraction of the 400 other unfinished projects you have to do. If nothing else, it is physically easier to sit down and start working. I am still working on my own desk organizing techniques. When you have a lot going on, it is hard to keep things from piling up. So, I look to others for help with organizing the desk and office space. Below are some tips from other organizing experts.

First, take a look at 3 home office makeovers from RealSimple here. One lesson learned from these makeovers is that you need a megaton of storage in your office space. A few shelves or file drawers are not going to cut it. These makeovers resulted in huge amounts of added storage, from wall-to-wall shelving to large entertainment/storage units.

If your office is struggling with clutter, take a look at your current furniture and storage space and imagine how you would double your storage space if you had to. What shelving, file cabinets, etc. would you add? Note that you don’t necessarily need to fill every inch of storage space that you have and you should discard things you aren’t using. However, also note that you don’t want to pack everything right next to each other either. You need a little breathing space between groupings.

Many home office makeovers I have seen make heavy use of decorative monochromatic file storage boxes stacked in a group on shelves. They look really pretty but I have never yet used this technique. If you are a proponent of this technique, you would have to get in the habit of taking works in progress and dumping them in a box (with a label, of course!) routinely. You would also need to remember to scan your boxes just as you would a set of file folder labels to see what needs doing or write these projects down on your master to do list.

Some more office tidying tips:

1. Your desk drawer. Real Simple’s version and their streamlined version of essential office supplies.

2. Pegboards. If you like pegboards for your tools in the garage, you might like them for your home office tools as well. Real Simple’s version and a small and large version from Martha Stewart.

3. Recycled Materials. Get organized without spending a lot of money. Real Simple gives tips for using steel cans and glass jars in the office to hold supplies.

4. Crafting Supplies. Martha Stewart’s clever design for organizing supplies like glue, paper, pens, pencils and other creative tools.

5. Quick-change labels. Another gem from Martha Stewart to use clothespins and index cards to label containers that are constantly changing contents.

6. Hiding cables and cords. If there is one thing that is universally aesthetically unpleasing in an office, it is hanging electrical and computer cords. Some people get really perfectionistic about how to wind up and label these cords. You could do something extensive, like this idea from Martha Stewart or something ingeniously simple, like this tip from Lauri Ward, to hide your cords with a sheet of painted foam core.

Do you have a tip for organizing school papers or the home office workspace? Please share in the comments.

As if experiencing an earthquake and aftershocks for the last several days was not enough, Hurricane Irene has an uncertain course for our area. Here in the Fredericksburg area, we had a preview of the storm this afternoon with heavy rain and high winds. If you are also in an area that may be affected by Hurricane Irene, a few emergency tips.

Evacuate, if you are directed to do so. If you are not asked to evacuate, assume that in the worst case, you will need to shelter in place without power, telephone or internet service for several days and that you may not be able to drive anywhere due to downed trees along the roads.

To the extent you can, prepare an emergency kit according to guidelines from sites like ready.gov or the American Red Cross. If these supply lists are too overwhelming for you, at a minimum, observe the following.

Make sure you have water, both for drinking and sanitation. If you can’t drain your home’s water heater for non-drinking water, fill a bathtub before the storm hits.

Fill your car with a full tank of gas before the storm hits.

Refill any prescriptions or purchase additional medical/personal supplies you routinely use (such as baby diapers and formula) to carry you through for a few days to a week in case of widespread storm damage or blocked access to roads.

Stop by the ATM to get some cash if you don’t have any emergency cash on hand.

Check to make sure you have at least one working flashlight.

Have some food ready to eat that does not require refrigeration. At a minimum, a few boxes of cereal and some powdered milk (to reconstitute with your water supply), honey, peanut butter and bread for sandwiches, granola bars, nuts, cookies, crackers, fruit snacks, boxed juices, beef jerky, etc. You may also want to check my list of grocery store emergency preparedness foods here.

In case of widespread power and telephone outages, have at least one way of hearing communication from the outside world. This most likely is a radio with batteries or a hand-cranked emergency radio. Your cell phone might work if the cell network is not overloaded and your cell phone battery is not depleted.

Let your family/friends know how you will communicate with them in the event of a communications outage lasting several days. If necessary, set up a telephone tree where you will call, email or text one designated person and ask them to spread the word on your behalf. A site like the American Red Cross’ Safe and Well program may be a good central check-in point.  Note that during the recent earthquake, the cell phone network was very overloaded and it was hard to get calls through. FEMA has requested that during an emergency you text, email or use social networking instead of making calls on your cell phone during the height of the emergency so that the cell phone network is available to emergency personnel and people needing emergency assistance.

Charge your camera/videocamera batteries and clear off your memory cards so that you are ready to record your experience. (While you are at it, charge your cell phone and keep it on the charger until the power goes out to maximize your communications time.)

If you expect damage such as fallen trees, look up the number of a good tree-cutting service and/or your home insurance carrier for damage claims.

Try to minimize damage and danger by securing or storing any loose objects in your yard, like garbage cans or patio furniture.

Lastly, from my experiences so far, a lot of emergency situations tend to end up being a few hours of heart-attack inducing excitement and then a whole lot of boredom. After sitting for an hour without power, Internet or telephone access, many people get a little restless. Think of some ways to entertain yourself. If you have good light to work by, perhaps catch up on some reading or knitting, or play a board game.  Otherwise, take a walk, do some exercise or get busy with some organizing or cleaning projects.

May Irene be kind to us all!

Have an Irene preparedness tip? Please share in the comments.

Apologies for the posting delay, but my nerves are in a much better state today and ready to continue our discussion of school organization strategies.

Today’s book review continues the exploration of why some children seem to be particularly challenged by school and what frustrated parents can do to help their children succeed academically. Psychologist Richard Selznick, Ph.D.’s book The Shut-Down Learner: Helping your Academically Discouraged Child argues that many of the children parents and teachers write off simplistically as “unmotivated,” “not trying hard enough” or “ADD” are actually suffering from a variety of learning challenges. One of the primary challenges for these learners is that their brains tend to be wired to be exceptionally strong with spatial and visual perception but far weaker in language skills. While many of these learners tend to be boys, girls are also affected.

“I also refer to these kids as Lego kids. Lego play is the perfect medium for the child who is being described. . . . In the conference setting, one parent after another will tell me that their kid loved to play with Lego bricks when they were younger. . . . A typical dialogue goes like this. . .

‘When he was five he built these really complex designs from his mind. He was so creative. I thought he was a genius. What happened? How could he go from doing something so well to failing in school?’

What happened is the curriculum got in the way. The child was thriving when he was in a classroom that tapped into his strengths. As the curriculum shifted in the first grade to more language-based activities, the decline in confidence and performance started.

–Richard Selznick, Ph.D., The Shut-Down Learner

Shut-Down Learners also tend to be very strong with computers and hooking up various electronic systems. They tend to avoid tasks like reading and “find writing deadly.”

“It is my impression that many of the kids considered ADD or ADHD have difficulty, albeit subtle, with the processing of complex verbal and written language. While they may look severely inattentive, often their inattention is largely a functional weakness from taking in too much language and information that they do not understand readily. Their circuits become overloaded and shut down.”

–Richard Selznick, Ph.D., The Shut-Down Learner

Dr. Selznick points out the many good attributes of Shut-Down Learners, however. They can be very intelligent, creative children and may be demonstrating this in various ways that are not appreciated by the school system. For example:

“I recently assessed Brian, a twelve-year-old boy who struggled in school. His teachers saw him as disconnected, uninterested and unmotivated. Yet his mother said he spent much of his weekend at the nearby pond collecting animal and plant life for elaborate terrariums that he set up in his garage. The terrariums were incredibly sophisticated, showing creativity and a real depth of understanding, yet the same kid was getting a D in science.”

–Richard Selznick, Ph.D., The Shut-Down Learner

Dr. Selznick’s book goes into detail about the specific language problems shut-down learners are facing and what to do about them. Some of his recommendations include individualized interventions by a “learning therapist,” reinvigorating a system of vocational education in our schools and finding ways within the school system and within the family to forge positive emotional connections that support self-esteem and emphasize what the child does well.

On the latter point, I was most impressed when I first started reading this book with Dr. Selznick’s dedication.

“This book is dedicated to the memory of my father, Mel Selznick, who would never let a child shut down on his watch.

Reminding me that it ‘is often the intangibles that matter most with children.’ No one understood the art of developing a child’s self-esteem better than he did.”

–Richard Selznick, Ph.D., The Shut-Down Learner

With such a beautiful tribute, I knew Dr. Selznick must be a special person himself and the book proved this to be the case. Dr. Selznick, although not a Shut-Down Learner type himself, identifies with the Shut-Down Learner and appears to bridge the gap for these children. The last section of the book provides success stories from several children Dr. Selznick worked with, showing the promising careers shut-down learners can achieve with the right coaching and interventions.

I really enjoyed this book. It is particularly interesting if you know someone who is a high-spatial learner as you will see that person reflected in so many of the examples Dr. Selznick provides. This book should be required reading for all teachers and for any parent who believes their child could do better in school if he/she just “tried harder.”

Dr. Selznick was kind enough to answer some interview questions for Ruly, below:

Ruly: Many parents are first alerted their child has a problem with school by a teacher who recommends the child (usually a boy) be screened for ADHD. What advice would you give to a parent who has just received this recommendation?

Dr. Selznick: There is tremendous variation in the field in terms of the nature of assessments and “screening for ADHD” can mean many things depending upon whose professional doorstep. For me the most important early screening (that is often overlooked by the schools), is the one that would screen for whether the child is at risk for a reading/learning disability. Children who are at risk can be predicted and identified quite accurately in kindergarten and first grade. Most struggling children in the early years have trouble with the development of core skills – this leads to much off-task behavior.

Ruly: Aside from ADHD what other mental health conditions are commonly found in shut-down learners?

Dr. Selznick: I tend to think of the shut-down learner kids as predominantly a combination of reading/learning disability and ADHD as a general theme. Certainly, as the kids get older other emotional issues can become more pronounced, such as anxiety, anger/oppositional behavior and perhaps depression, as a result of the long term struggling.

Ruly: In the book you mention several times that a shut-down learner simply cannot perform at a high level on language-related tasks no matter the effort put forth. This is likely to be discouraging news for parents and kids. Is the situation really that hopeless?

Dr. Selznick: I hope I wasn’t that negative. I certainly don’t think that way when I am assessing and interacting with the kids and their family. Mine is not a deficit-based approach. I am trying to emphasize that these kids do have wonderful strengths. (See the “Million Dollar Challenge” in terms of the approach and mindset.) I try and have kids walk out of the center after they’ve been assessed feeling pretty good about themselves. Verbal skills and language abilities are very responsive to good remediation. Vocabulary, for example, is one of the best skills to target. I emphasize the language based issues in the book, because they are at the core of the kid’s struggling and the parents need to understand it so they can target it more specifically. Also note the section on comprehension. Teaching comprehension is teaching language, by and large.

Ruly: When I read the list of high-spatial characteristics to my husband, he said they sounded like “geek” interests. I find it troubling to know that our school system may be discouraging large numbers of our future scientists and engineers. If the school system were to change to adapt to shut-down learners, what types of changes would occur? Would we see a return to gender-segregated classes since shut-down learners tend to be boys more than girls?

Dr. Selznick: So exciting to let you know that a school in South Jersey has made curriculum change specifically inspired by the Shut Down Learner. It’s a bit too detailed to get into for the moment, but go on my website www.shutdownlearner.com and check out the blog from a couple months back on the Logan School. I think the blog is called “The Game Changer.”

Many thanks to Dr. Selznick for his interview responses and his wonderful book! Since reading this book, it has changed my perspective dramatically and I believe that more schools need to take a look at the Shut-Down Learner concerns and implement change.

Now that I am aware of the issue, I am seeing references to the Shut-Down Learner problem in many different areas. For example, Don Peck’s interesting article in The Atlantic Monthly, “Can the Middle Class Be Saved?” mirrors a lot of Dr. Selznick’s observations and recommendations.

“One of the great puzzles of the past 30 years has been the way that men, as a group, have responded to the declining market for blue-collar jobs. Opportunities have expanded for college graduates over that span, and for nongraduates, jobs have proliferated within the service sector (at wages ranging from rock-bottom to middling). Yet in the main, men have pursued neither higher education nor service jobs. The proportion of young men with a bachelor’s degree today is about the same as it was in 1980. And as the sociologists Maria Charles and David Grusky noted in their 2004 book, Occupational Ghettos, while men and women now mix more easily on different rungs of the career ladder, many industries and occupations have remained astonishingly segregated, with men continuing to seek work in a dwindling number of manual jobs, and women “crowding into nonmanual occupations that, on average, confer more pay and prestige. . . .

As we continue to push for better K–12 schooling and wider college access, we also need to build more paths into the middle class that do not depend on a four-year college degree. One promising approach, as noted by Haskins and Sawhill, is the development of ‘career academies’—schools of 100 to 150 students, within larger high schools, offering a curriculum that mixes academic coursework with hands-on technical courses designed to build work skills.”

–Don Peck, “Can the Middle Class Be Saved?” The Atlantic Monthly, September 2011.

Also, the PBS documentary, Between the Folds, offered fascinating insight into the visual-spatial mind. You can’t get much more visual-spatial than origami. The documentary interviewed numerous origami artists all over the world (all men), many of whom were also scientists or engineers at prestigious universities. Interestingly, while these men began their fascination with origami as children and just liked to do it for fun, some eventually merged their pastime with their professional interests and found uses for origami in product packaging, pharmaceutical research and other areas.

In a curious twist on this subject, Anderson Cooper’s interview with Marshall Mathers (rapper Eminem) on 60 Minutes had a fascinating section (approximately 4:57 – 7:40) where Eminem discusses how he “bends words” to create unique rhymes, including a demonstration of numerous words he can think of that rhyme with “orange” and his filing system for his ideas. Despite Eminem’s obvious language abilities and his recreational dictionary reading, he also never did well in school and only completed the ninth grade.

Were you a shut-down learner in school? Do you know someone who fits this criteria? How do you feel about revamping our school systems to adjust to visual-spatial learners? Please share in the comments.

In light of the unexpected earthquake today here in Virginia (and aftershock this evening), I am delaying today’s post until tomorrow. Fortunately we are all well and safe but this experience has certainly given me a lot to think about with regard to emergency preparedness! Hope that all of my readers are well and safe as well!

With school beginning in just a few weeks in many parts of the country, I asked Ruly Ruth, school volunteer extraordinaire, to provide some advice to parents wanting to make a difference by volunteering at their child’s school. Unfortunately, some parents have negative experiences as school volunteers and are easily discouraged from participating in the school system. Ruth shares with us how to set the right expectations and make school volunteering a smooth and easy process.

I have over 8 years of experience volunteering in 4 schools–granted, all at the elementary school level, and have even been named Volunteer of the Year 2 years ago. I truly believe that every parent should volunteer in their child’s school—regardless of what year they are and whether it’s public, private, or even boarding school. This way you know what’s going on scholastically, you get to know teachers and administration on a personal level, the kids in the school, and in my experience you’re personal feedback and requests are honored more often as well.

The following are geared mainly to elementary school. Jr. high/Middle and high school is a whole other ball of wax. They don’t like/need parents in the classroom, but there’s loads you can help out with still–be it the school store, office or lunchroom administration, and PTA or the school’s student/teacher/parent organization, you just have to let the administration know of your desire to be involved.

Here are my tips to volunteering successfully–again, mainly for elementary school:

1) Write in the first week of school a personal note to your child’s teacher(s) expressing your desire to volunteer.

2) To be a good volunteer–and one that is sought after—you need to follow the directions the teacher gives you. They have in mind exactly what they’re looking for. If after working with the teacher for a while and you have a suggestion, you may give it then. Do NOT go in with your own ideas looking to run the classroom–this is a fast way to be short-termed or minimally used. I’ve seen both! Yes, volunteering is like a job! And the teacher is the Boss! (This experience should also be put on your resume, by the way, and that teacher can be used as a reference as well.)

3) Know in advance most teachers will not use volunteers until about October or after Columbus Day. This is so that the students know the teacher is in charge, and that this is THEIR classroom. Once order is established, only then do teachers usually bring in volunteers. Do NOT be offended if you have nothing to do in September. The older the grades, the less you will be used or less often. With younger grades, especially kindergarten, you may be called in almost immediately.

4) You may or may not be working directly with students. If you have a preference, let the teacher know. I’ve been a reading and math tutor as well as a copier/collator/stapler, a project office volunteer where I’ve done die-cuts, and PTA volunteer coordinator–volunteering to get volunteers for specific projects. There’s lots to do in a school! And whether or not you’re a people person doesn’t matter. Follow your passion. If you love science or math or music, let the school know–they’re usually very happy to let you help in your desired interest!

5) Treat the office staff and administration with respect. Do not steamroll or ignore them–they are part of the team. Volunteering, although our time and efforts and talents are given for free, is like a job! And the office staff are the coordinators/contact personnel almost always–not to mention the information vault. And almost always they are more than willing to help!!!

6) Have fun! If you dread going to volunteer, STOP!! This is, after all, volunteering. And although not every day will be a piece of cake, if most of the time you’re not looking forward to it, don’t do it!

I LOVE being around my children’s schools and the kids and employees. It’s a very fun and vibrant environment. And I hope you do too!

From Anne:

A few more perspectives on this topic:

• “Volunteer? No Way!” Anne Tergesen, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, May 8, 2006 (the comments are the most interesting part of this article, mentioning the many reasons women don’t want to volunteer in schools, also a suggestion to use a free service called SignUp Genius to make organizing and communicating with school volunteers easier.)
• “Dads Not Allowed? Is Your Classroom Father-Friendly? It should be!” Calvin Hennick, Scholastic, August 2008 (insight into why more men don’t volunteer in schools, including this interesting comment, “Schools are matriarchal . . . We discovered that school teachers actually preferred to have mothers there rather than the fathers. Who knows why?”  Also profiles the group Watch D.O.G.S (Dads of Great Students), a male-alternative to the PTA, asking Dads to volunteer one full day a year in schools)

Do you volunteer in your child’s school?  What tips do you have for school volunteers?  Please share in the comments.

The 2012 IKEA Catalog is out! While I generally don’t get too excited about snail mail, the IKEA catalog is one of the best reasons to walk to the mailbox these days. The innovative Scandinavian-modern design always manages to surprise and inspire me. If you didn’t get yours in the mail already, you can browse it online or request a mailed copy at this link.

The theme for the 2012 IKEA Catalog is “A House Doesn’t Need to be Big, Just Smart.” Since this month, we are focusing on back-to-school organizing, I was pleased to see several ideas in the IKEA catalog specifically related to organizing desks for work or study.

The office on pages 242-243 (above) shows something we discovered in our family– that kids need a desk and office space too! IKEA does it with style, giving parent and child identical desks but downscaling the child’s desk to have less surface space, a nearby cart with drawers and hanging space on the wall to display art and store more supplies. Having children and adults working side by side may help to motivate both to get their work done while providing some family bonding time. In our case, it also makes for a messier office space—something we are still trying to get under control—but we enjoy working together.

MICKE desk from the 2012 IKEA Catalog. Image © Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Used with permission.

Page 261 highlights a new price on a great desk, the MICKE, which provides a long surface space and two drawers, perfect if you have two little ones sharing a desk.

Pages 248-249 provide great solutions to help keep the surface of your desk clear and ready for work. The flat space on your desk is the most valuable real estate in your office. You want to aim to keep it clear of papers and supplies (and computer equipment if possible!) so that you can spread out and work.

Image © Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Used with permission.	GRUNDTAL rail system, initially developed for the IKEA kitchen line, can be mounted to the wall and the cutlery caddies used to store pens, pencils, scissors, etc. Rail is $8.99 and each caddy is $5.99.
Image © Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Used with permission.	GALANT desktop shelf $35. If you have to store papers or supplies on your desk, add some more surface space to your desk with a desktop shelf and store them away from the main desk surface.
Image © Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Used with permission.	GRUNDTAL knife rack. More repurposing of kitchen organizing tools for the office! The GRUNDTAL magnetic knife rack stores scissors and keys and spice containers can be used for rubber bands, paper clips, thumbtacks, etc. I love the key idea! If you don’t have a designated spot for your car keys, this mag strip could also be placed wherever you tend to dump your keys.
Image © Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Used with permission.	EKBY slanted shelving. A brilliant IKEA idea to allow you to put shelves on slanted walls. While I don’t have need for this in my office, we have a bathroom that may benefit from this innovation! You may also find a use for this shelving if you need to carve an office out of an odd space.
Image © Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Used with permission.	RETUR recycling bins. Another creative repurposing for the office. . . IKEA uses its recycling bins as a sort of desk hutch. Mount it above the desk for a way to keep your desk surface clear and hide away any untidy-looking supplies.
Image © Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Used with permission.	For another great use of the RETUR recycling bins, see page 275 where they pasted kids artwork to the front of the bins to personalize them and display more art!
Image © Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Used with permission.	PLUGGIS waste bins. If you recycle, this is a great way to easily stack and sort the recycling using very small space. You could use one bin for waste and the other for mixed recycling or add another bin and use one for office paper.

5 OTHER 2012 IKEA FAVORITES UNDER $20

Aside from the desk and office organizing ideas, I couldn’t help but notice the great ideas below to add to my IKEA shopping list.

Image © Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Used with permission.	ENUDDEN double toilet paper roll holder $6.49 Holds two rolls AND gives you a small shelf to store other toiletries or decorative items! This would be great for a small bathroom or powder room to conserve space.
Image © Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Used with permission.	LJUSA hand powered flashlight $4.99 A must for your emergency preparedness kit– particularly if children in your home always seem to find the flashlights to play with.
Image © Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Used with permission.	HATTEN side table. The picture showing this table as a storage area for knitting had my attention immediately! Fantastic and a great conversation piece! $19.99
Image © Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Used with permission.	SKURAR hanging planters. These lacy-edged hanging planters are adorable and at $4.99 each add a huge boost of style. These would be particularly great in winter to remind us of plants and greenery as we wait for spring.
Image © Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Used with permission.	VARMLUFT light. When I first saw this simple paper lamp concept, I wasn’t quite sold on it. But then I saw how the IKEA designer staged it in a group of 3 in this bedroom and I saw its genius. Simple, modern, edgy, cool. And for about $9 with the cord set, a cheap way to give a modern art look to any space.

Something else I loved about the 2012 IKEA Catalog . . .the shots of food starting on page 296. The food looks so fresh and delicious and inspires me to learn how to cook! Maybe next year they will include a recipe or two!

Has your 2012 IKEA Catalog arrived? What IKEA items are piquing your interest these days? Please share in the comments.

Even the most organized person is going to face challenges once in a while adapting to the organizing demands of a particular situation.  School environments really test all of us.  There are many different ways of teaching the same subject matter, different teacher personalities, different textbooks and learning materials, and varying levels of difficulty within each subject area.

My experience in graduate school illustrates how one person can be very organized in one school context and struggle to stay afloat in another.  I pursued both an MBA and a law degree.  Each school had radically different approaches to teaching.

Straightforward Business

In the MBA program, the courses and materials were oriented toward working professionals.  The goal was to teach the concepts in a relatively straightforward way and then challenge students to apply those concepts to new situations likely to be encountered in the business world.  Textbooks were well-organized with each chapter providing a brief introductory overview, sections and examples illustrating each of the main points, highlighted vocabulary words and an end-of-chapter review.  Most professors taught according to the book’s structure, moving in order from chapter 1 to chapter 2, etc. and provided a detailed syllabus with reading assignments and due dates.  Occasionally, a chapter was skipped here and there or a supplemental reading packet was required but generally it was easy to anticipate what was coming next.

The biggest organizational challenge in the MBA program was in coordinating the numerous group projects required.  There was rarely any assignment that was not done in group format or that did nor require a group class presentation.  While an independent worker might find this frustrating, this group structure had a purpose.  It was a great way to practice leadership skills, resolve conflicts and understand different points of view.

Studying in the MBA program was relatively straightforward and similar to what I had done in college and even high school.  There was some memorization, some application of mathematical concepts and some creative thinking.

Hidden Law

In the law program, the Socratic method was used.  Ideally, with this method, the professor uses the class discussion to help students make leaps of knowledge, assuming everyone has already read and understands the material.  In practice, this is hard to achieve.

First, every law textbook I ever encountered was strangely organized, making it difficult to teach yourself the material.  There were always chapter headings but no introductory or closing summaries of law.  Each chapter contained various important cases, illustrating some concept or rare application of law.  After each case were a series of complicated questions illustrating a unique way to apply legal concepts that could only be answered with hours of additional research.  There were no answer keys, no bullet points, no highlighting of key terms.  Each professor had a unique spin on the law and almost never provided a straightforward lecture telling you exactly which points were important to study or whether your understanding of the material was correct.  It was always puzzling to me why professors felt that the study of law was not hard enough as it is and that the textbooks and lectures needed to hide the main points as obscurely as possible.

Second, the professors made it difficult to stay current with the immense reading assignments.  Some professors never provided a syllabus.  Even if they did provide a syllabus, only a few professors would list all the reading assignments on the syllabus, the rest would parcel out reading assignments at each class.  Most professors never went in textbook order.  One day you would start at page 33, the next day you were reading a supplemental class handout, then skipping to page 152 or back to page 12.

It seemed to me that the only reason the readings weren’t listed in the syllabus was because it was one more incentive to get students to attend class.  Believe it or not, some of the best law students my first year almost never attended class!  They read the textbook on their own (or a Cliff’s notes case summary version) and memorized various study guides instead.

Studying in the law program was a challenge.  I found that there was so much information to digest that most of my time was spent summarizing and re-summarizing material.  As an example, first you might read a very long case and write a 1-2 page summary about it.  After you had done this for 50 or 100 cases in a class, you realize that even your summary has too much information and that you need to remember that case only for one or two key concepts.  So you make a summary of the case summaries.  Then, you need to create a course outline highlighting the key concepts of law, drawing from class lectures, the textbook and supplemental study materials.  The outline often was 20 or 30 single spaced pages!  When you prepped for a test, there was no way to remember 20 or 30 pages so you had to take each concept in the outline and boil it down to about 5 points you could remember in case that concept came up on an exam. Multiply this effort times 4 classes at a time and you can see why most law students are a stressed out bunch.

Lessons Learned

These contrasting experiences taught me a lot about the learning process.  The MBA program was focused on teaching for clarity.  The refrain students heard most often was, “Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you’ve told them.”  This was the golden rule for presentations and papers.  Essentially, you were presenting the same material 3 times in different formats.  When it is critical that your message be understood, simplicity, repetition and clarity are the guidelines.

Teaching Strategies that Promote Comprehension

1. Textbook Organization. Choose a clearly written textbook with table of contents, index and end of chapter summary reviews.  Follow the textbook order or create your own custom reading packet that is read in page order so there is no guessing what comes next and students can work at their own pace.  Make the textbook and syllabus available as soon as possible, ideally as soon as the prior semester is over and students are registering for class.
2. Lecture Organization. Provide a lecture outline or slides that students can follow as they listen.  Reserve note-taking for fill-in-the blank items, questions or class discussion items.
3. Test Organization. Provide a review or study sheet of concepts to be covered on the exam.  Work through example problems/cases.

Some subjects, particularly those in the liberal arts, don’t lend themselves easily to organizational frameworks.  However, most people cannot make sense of a jumble of information without at least some structure.  If your instructor does not provide the structure for you and you can’t figure it out yourself, seek help from classmates or a tutor.  Look for clues from the instructor’s presentation style.  Does the instructor primarily compare and contrast different ideas?  Is the instructor more focused on the logical or historical progression of ideas?  When your instructor refers back to something you have already learned, what key points is the instructor focusing on? Those are the points to highlight and study.

Strategies to Cope with Unclear Instruction

1. Read ahead in classes where the assignments are given in advance so you will have time to adapt to classes where the assignments are unknown or vary from week to week.
2. Try not to get behind.  Create a running outline summarizing course information that you update after each class.
3. Highlight any information that the instructor repeats in subsequent classes or summarizes.  These are often important topics that appear on the exams.
4. Form a study or test review group and ask questions of the instructor.
5. Try not to get too stressed out. If everyone is struggling with the class, most often grades are curved upward in the end.

What lessons have you learned as a student or teacher?  Which courses were easiest or most difficult for you?  What study methods did you rely on?  Please share in the comments.

Last week was a huge event for our family. We welcomed a wonderful boy! Our son is tiny and cute and his arrival requires that my husband and I update our parenting skills to learn more about raising boys.

Ana Homayoun’s book, That Crumpled Paper was Due Last Week: Helping Disorganized and Distracted Boys Succeed in School and Life, was a timely read. Ms. Homayoun is a former financial analyst for a major Wall Street firm turned educational organizer. Her specialty is helping junior high and high school age children, particularly boys, organize their time and energy to do better in school.

Why the focus on boys? Certainly girls have many of the same organizational challenges when it comes to school. Ms. Homayoun gives a couple of data points here:

“Scientists have discovered in recent years that the brains of men and women seem to be wired differently; women can more easily handle language-based multi-tasking—writing notes while listening to someone speak, for instance—while men are superior at spatial-based multi-tasking, which comes in handy in sports and videogames, but is rarely any help in the classroom. . . .”

–Ana Homayoun, That Crumpled Paper Was Due Last Week

She also indicates that since boys end puberty as many as three years later than girls, differences in brain maturation rates also account for why boys struggle with school more often than girls. While the book focuses solely on the needs of pre-teen and teenage boys, the advice can be easily translated to girls or even adults.

First, a few things not to do . . .

1) Don’t take it personally. If your son is disorganized or not doing well in school, don’t assume that this is a reflection of your poor parenting or example.

“I meet a lot of parents who feel personally embarrassed and guilty about their son’s poor academic performance, detachment from school, and general malaise. Yet by complaining about their son’s shortcomings, they are actually (unwittingly) creating a more toxic environment. The parents who come into my office assuming the worst of their child (“He never gets it . . . he’s always doing this”) are often the ones digging their children—and themselves—a bigger hole, complete with the emotional baggage that makes it more difficult for their children to become organized, responsible and accountable.”

–Ana Homayoun, That Crumpled Paper Was Due Last Week

2) Don’t get too involved.

“Some moms who come into my office are terrifically organized—nearly perfectly so . . . and they wonder why their sons are so disorganized. Part of the problem is, of course, that with Mom so on top of it, these sons have never been forced to develop such skills on their own. When confronted with the need to organize themselves, they consequently react with frustration and, finally, give up on organization altogether.”

–Ana Homayoun, That Crumpled Paper Was Due Last Week

3) Don’t pay your child for grades.

“To help your child grow and develop as a student and a person, he needs to feel comfortable making mistakes and growing within his own abilities. By bribing him, you are setting the bar where you think it should be instead of allowing him to develop the intrinsic motivation that, who knows, could likely have him one day exceeding your wildest expectations.”

–Ana Homayoun, That Crumpled Paper Was Due Last Week

4) Don’t complain about your son’s shortcomings in his presence.

“By humiliating him, you’re telling him that mistakes and failure are synonymous; they’re not. If they were, we’d all be getting Fs every day of our lives.”

–Ana Homayoun, That Crumpled Paper Was Due Last Week

Ms. Homayoun then outlines 8 different personality types typically associated with disorganized boys. (Again, I think you can apply these personality types to just about anyone. I certainly found myself among the types.) The reasons for disorganization can vary from the “Over-Scheduled Procrastinator” to the “Sincere Slacker.” Different organizational techniques may be required to address each personality type.

Ms. Homayoun emphasizes the need to set goals with your student and gives child-appropriate questions to ask to help develop these goals. Ms. Homayoun encourages the whole family to get in on the act and post their goals in a public spot. Regularly, the family should check in with each other to see how everyone is doing with their goals.

“In coming up with these goals, students are taking two very important steps: They’re establishing a clear purpose and path for accomplishing what they want to accomplish, and they’re beginning to view being organized as an important part of finding their own personal pathway.”

–Ana Homayoun, That Crumpled Paper Was Due Last Week

For those excited about purchasing school supplies, Ms. Homayoun also has a chapter on specific organizational techniques. A few tips (and some examples from amazon.com) . . .

• She prefers binders, one for each subject, including subjects that don’t generally have a lot of paperwork, like music or P.E. Her argument is that everything generates at least some paperwork and you need a slot to put that in. Within each binder, create five tabs: notes, homework, handouts, tests/quizzes and paper.
• She prefers “reinforced binder paper” to prevent paper from tearing at the holes.
• Since creating flash cards is one of her recommended techniques for studying, she recommends that you purchase recipe card or index card boxes to store the flash cards in for easy access.
• All students need a planner and she recommends planners that provide one full page for each school day (surprisingly hard to find!).

Wilson Jones (W362-14W) 3-Hole View Binder, 1-Inch Rings, 11 Inch by 8 1/2 Inch, White at amazon.com.
Pendaflex Oxford Blank Index Cards, 3x5 Inches, White, 1000 cards at zmazon.com.	Plastic Index Card File Box, 300 3"x5" Card Capacity at amazon.com.
Academic Year Daily Business Planners - July 2011 at amazon.com.	Avery WorkSaver Insertable Tab Dividers, 5-Tab Set, 1 Set at amazon.com.

Ms. Homayoun’s expertise in the school environment really shows. She has chapters on learning differences, separation/divorce and chronic illness. She discusses the impact of technology on this age group, including cell phones, Facebook and online learning management systems. She suggests ideal study areas in the home–notably not in the child’s bedroom– and homework and test strategies.

For more from Ms. Homayoun, see the video clip below:

This book was a great read both for parents who have children in middle and high school as well as those, like myself, who have many years until that time. It was helpful to get a preview of the organizational skills kids need as they progress in school and has challenged me to come up with simple ways to begin developing these skills in my children now.

Do you agree that boys struggle more with school organization than girls? What techniques have you found especially helpful for organizing boys? Please share in the comments.

Being an elementary or secondary student these days is a tough job. You have to be to school on time, usually at an early hour of the morning, manage numerous classes and subjects every day, do your homework on time and cope with the stress of tests, papers, and everyday social interaction with fellow students. It is at least as stressful as having a full-time job.

Student success requires organization. You need to make sure you bring the right materials each day, turn in assignments on time, plan ahead and budget your time effectively to take into account any additional lessons or extracurricular activities. Add to this complexity, the high academic demands of today’s school environment and it is no surprise that many children struggle to keep up with it all!

Every student has some basic struggles with motivation, including studying, procrastinating and going to bed on time. But some students struggle more than others, taking hours to complete assignments or forgetting to turn in homework that has been completed. Other struggles these children may face include:

1. Easily distracted. Loses track of what they are supposed to be doing.

2. Inappropriate behavior even when the child knows how they are “supposed” to behave.

3. Cognitive rigidity. Easily stressed by any changes to established routines or new social situations. Frustrated when other kids don’t follow the rules.

4. Struggles to pay attention and follow directions; makes “careless” mistakes.

5. Difficulty setting personal limits. Does not realize when fatigued; needs help figuring out how best to manage stress.

6. Takes a long time transitioning to bedtime/rest.

7. “Reacts to failure with decreased effort, avoidance and declarations that they ‘don’t care.’”

8. Reading and writing difficulties.

– Extracts from Late, Lost and Unprepared: A Parents’ Guide to Helping Children with Executive Functioning by clinical psychologists Joyce Cooper-Kahn, Ph.D. and Laurie Dietzel, Ph.D.

Often, these students have diagnosed conditions like AD/HD or learning disabilities, but sometimes their troubles are undefined and described as failures in “executive functioning.”

Late, Lost and Unprepared: A Parents’ Guide to Helping Children with Executive Functioning by clinical psychologists Joyce Cooper-Kahn, Ph.D. and Laurie Dietzel, Ph.D. defines executive functioning as:
The executive functions are a set of processes that all have to do with managing oneself and one’s resources in order to achieve a goal. It is an umbrella term for the neurologically-based skills involving mental control and self-regulation.

Within the context of the school environment, Cooper-Kahn and Dietzel identify 8 cognitive functions in “executive functioning” that affect student success:

1. Inhibition (the ability to exercise impulse control, such as raising your hand and waiting your turn to speak, etc.)

2. Shift (adapting to changing situations)

3. Emotional Control

4. Initiation (getting started on a task, i.e. avoiding procrastination)

5. Working Memory

6. Planning/Organization

7. Organization of Materials

8. Self-Monitoring (follow-through and completion of tasks)

It can take until your early 30’s for the areas of the brain responsible for executive functioning to fully mature and some people may never fully develop these functions. If you are looking at this list and are thinking you still struggle as an adult with these functions, you probably do!

It is important to remember that executive functioning is not necessarily related to intelligence and it is possible to be a very intelligent person with weak executive functioning. I would be willing to wager that everyone struggles with at least one aspect of executive functioning on an ongoing basis.

As I read Cooper-Kahn and Dietzel’s book, I have to confess that I am still a bit confused as to exactly when a defect in executive functioning is a diagnosable problem! So many of the situations described in the book sounded like “normal” kid reactions, such as being too excited, forgetting, lacking enthusiasm for homework or assignments, etc. Likewise, much of the advice offered for these problems sounded like typical mom advice, like “If you want any help from me on your homework you must ask me before 9 p.m.” I wasn’t exactly turned on by this advice and it was the sort of mundane, repetitive advice that really irritated me as a child.

After thinking about this for a while, I realized that these defects in executive functioning aren’t necessarily problematic in all areas of a child’s life but can be very problematic in the typical school environment. When you have a classroom of 30 children to teach, it is hard to get anything accomplished if every single child can’t sit still, listen, remember, do their work on time and get along with their peers. Most schools and most parents don’t have the resources to tailor educational offerings to the needs of each child so the child must tailor his/her behavior to what is being offered. It is really quite amazing when you think about it that most children can adapt to what is expected and that the schools function as well as they do!

Therefore, I conceive of Cooper-Kahn and Dietzel’s book as more of a survival guide for the public (or private) school system. If you don’t have the option to change the type of education your child receives, then both parents and children need to adjust their routines and behaviors to match what the school system requires. When the balance does not seem to be working, the authors offer many suggestions based on the type of executive functioning defect present. Some of these suggestions include:

Solutions for People with Executive Functioning Defects

1. Lower the bar – avoid situations where the expectations are too high for your abilities (ex. change schools, switch to lower-level classes).

2. Cut back on extracurricular activities to alleviate stress/time pressures.

3. Develop habits and routines for everyday activities.

4. Have psychological testing done. There are many advantages to private testing but it is expensive and often not covered by insurance. Most public schools will provide educational psychological testing free of charge.

5. Obtain evaluation and treatment for other psychological disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders, OCD, depression and bipolar disorder

6. Enforce tighter limits and closer supervision for children with weak impulse control who may be susceptible to substance abuse and other risky behaviors.

– Extracts from Late, Lost and Unprepared: A Parents’ Guide to Helping Children with Executive Functioning by clinical psychologists Joyce Cooper-Kahn, Ph.D. and Laurie Dietzel, Ph.D.

I was, of course, particularly interested in the chapters related to helping children with organization. The ideas the authors put forward were not necessarily novel but certainly are part of any sound organizational strategy. Below are some of their suggestions and my own comments on how I would work to implement them with children.

Organizational Tools to Help with Executive Functioning in Kids

1. Calendars – I find calendaring a challenge even as an adult. I finally learned that I needed to write every appointment down twice—once in my digital calendar and once on my paper calendar to have the information available in the formats I needed it in to process the information. For a child, you may need to do the same thing and keep the calendar in more than one place or in more than one format. For example, the child may need a large multi-month wall calendar to understand how long the semester/term/school year is and a small planner the child can take to school to mark down daily or weekly assignments.

2. Daily schedule – If you have a predictable routine in your household and your child struggles to remember what the routine is, making a list of to do items may be helpful. For example, a list of things to do to get ready in the morning, after school chores, etc. If there is something essential that just has to get done every day, such as feeding pets, taking medicines, you may also want to formalize this in a daily schedule. Some people use wall-mounted charts with stickers or dry-erase markers. This was an interesting idea to create a Job Jar, by writing the individual tasks on popsicle sticks and transfer the sticks to a “done” area when complete.

3. Visual time aids – Time is something that is difficult to keep in your head. For a child who cannot tell time or make relationships such as “30 minutes until the bus comes,” using a visual time aid, like an hourglass, may be helpful. However, a child who struggles with time management is going to need a lot more help than just a colored clock and may need more intensive personal coaching from the parent.

4. Chore cards and checklists. If your child likes firm direction or forgets what needs to be done on routine chores, listing the individual steps to complete a task on an index card or a checklist can be helpful. For example, you could list the steps needed to clean a room, proofread a homework assignment, etc.

5. Note taking. I know many people who struggle with note taking even as adults. I have always been a good note taker. I don’t attribute this to any intellectual gift but rather as a coping skill to help me focus when listening to others in classes or meetings. Some people can just listen and remember and find that taking notes distracts them from the listening process. I have to take notes or my mind wanders or I forget. When I was in the seventh grade, a teacher arranged for an outside consultant to come to our class to demonstrate a new note-taking method where you used “summary” paper to write down notes from class on the left hand column of the paper. You left the right column blank until your designated review time where you would write questions about the material. You could then use your notes like flashcards to review the material by covering up the left hand side of the page and trying to answer the questions on the right side. After junior high, I don’t remember using this method but it might have helped me if I did!

6. Visual organizers/clustering. I was surprised to see the authors mention “visual organizers” so frequently in the text. When I was in school, this was called clustering and was primarily a technique that was taught in creative writing classes to help you organize your writing, such as main idea, topic sentence and supporting ideas. The authors suggest you could use this with a child with executive functioning to help the child understand simple planning like the steps in throwing a party for a friend. If you have no idea what a visual organizer or cluster looks like, an example illustrating the points in this blog post is below.

Overall, this book is a good starting point if you are concerned your child may have a serious problem with executive functioning. It may not answer every question that you have or provide all the solutions you are looking for but there is a list of references and resources as well to consult for further research.

Do you or your child struggle with executive functioning? Is the problem worse in the school setting?  Please share in the comments.