If You Are a Real Estate Investor You Must Continue Your Real Estate Education

With all things that are done intentionally as a real estate investor your education comes first. A real estate investing education is primary to your success in business, and in all circumstances there is an identifiable pattern of learning that leads from thought to action. When experiencing something new, first you hear about it or learn of its existence. Next you learn what it is. Then you learn how it works. And finally, you practice it, which is where experiential learning begins.
This article is intended to discuss education, separate from experiential learning (but a little more on that below). Your real estate education should not be looked at as a phase you go through, but rather as an ongoing process. This is a requirement to stay in the real estate business and to excel. There are at least three very good reasons why your real estate investing education should be continuous and ongoing. One is that having new information can allow you to improve the process of what you're already doing, so that you can do it better. Another is that having new information can allow you to do new things that you're not already doing, such as implementing new profit centers in your real estate business. A third is that the world is always changing so that knowledge needs to be continually updated to be useful.
The fastest way to develop yourself educationally is to actively seek out as many sources of education as possible on a continuing basis. There are three common modes of education to be aware of that can help inform your search. One is private education that you digest on your own, which can include books, audio recordings, video recordings, websites, and online and offline real estate investing newsletters. Another is participatory education, which involves some sort of interaction with an educator, and can include seminars or boot camps, conference calls, and webcasts.
Yet one more is hands on education, which can be gotten by working with others already in the business. This could take the form of a mentorship or an apprenticeship with another investor. You could also take advantages of all the resources of a local real estate club, either online or offline, which is dedicated to helping investors further their education in all sorts of ways. As an ongoing business activity, your real estate education deserves management and balancing against the other ongoing activities of your business as well as all of the other demands on your time.
You should work it out however is best so as to ensure that a dedicated portion of your time and resources on a regular basis go to furthering your real estate and business education. A final word on education from experience, or experiential learning, comes last. Education can be overrated by beginning real estate investors. While it does have a large role to play in your overall progress and success, the amount you actually learn from studying educational materials is negligible compared to the amount you learn from actually performing an action or having an experience.
Keep this in perspective if you feel paralyzed by an insufficient real estate investing education.

Guiding Principles For Educational Reform

One reads a great deal concerning education reform nowadays. It might almost seem as if this were some new trend in education. Indeed, it is not. I have been an educator for over thirty years. My field of expertise is reading. After teaching in a regular elementary classroom for a couple of years, I completed a master's degree in reading and learning disabilities. Except for a five year break to attend seminary and serve as a full time minister, I have been a teacher of elementary reading. In 1995, I completed a doctorate in reading/educational psychology. At that point, I began teaching reading methods in a college setting.
Over my thirty years of involvement in education, I have seen many, many reforms. Some have come from the right, others from the left. In the field of reading, when I began my teaching, basal reading programs were in, and we attempted to teach every skill known to humanity. Next, whole language gained quite a following. Next, an oldie, but a popular one, reappeared: phonics. Now we are emphasizing a balanced approached-I think that is likely a step in the right direction.
We can easily extend this discussion beyond the boundaries of reading. When I started attending elementary school in 1960, math was a "drill and kill" activity. The expectation was learning of the basic math facts and procedures whether you understood them or not. It is rather easy to see if you learned under this method. Just attempt to explain "conceptually" why 1/2 divided by 4 is 1/8, and why to arrive at that one must "invert and multiply." I am surprised at how many cannot explain the multiplication and division of fractions at the conceptual level.
When I was about half way through my elementary school education, the so-called "new math" hit the educational world. I remember well spending most of my fourth-grade year (when it started in Kansas City) marking that 5 + 2 > 1 + 3. I liked this math. I was not too good at the old stuff, and I found this a breeze.
People become very opinionated about educational reform. I have seen many a battle over the issue of whole language vs. phonics. It seems like everyone gets involves. Classroom teachers form strong opinions. Politicians form strong opinions and include reform as part their political platform. They know education is a hot button issue with voters. One group that I watch with great diligence is the religious right. It seems as if they have turned such aspects of educational reform as phonics-based reading instruction and support for the No Child Left Behind Act into something resembling religious dogma. It seems to make little sense, turning reading methods into a religious or quasi-religions crusade, but that is what the leaders of the religious right seem committed to support (James Dobson, for example).
I reiterate: educational reform is not new. With that notion disposed of, I would like to suggest three principles of any lasting and useful educational reform. These are characteristics of reform supported over the long haul by much research and dictated by commonsense. I have arrived at these through observation of reform cycles that I have seen throughout my years of work as an educator.
First, education reform cannot be test-driven. Currently, the watchword is accountability. From this perspective, teachers are cagey, lazy actors who need to have their feet held to the fire to make them perform. I have observed thousands of teachers over the years, worked with thousands of pre-service teachers, and supervised well over a hundred student teachers. I must admit, one does rarely encounter a lazy, careless teacher, but it is unusual. The attempt to control teachers and student achievement by means of standardized tests is a misguided approach.
A recent study by the Educational Testing Service, makers of the SAT and nationally used teacher certification exams, revealed that there is much in student performance that cannot be controlled by schools. In fact, ETS discovered four variables: absenteeism, the percent of children living in single parent families, the amount of television kids watch, and how much preschoolers are read to daily by caregivers (especially parents) were very accurate predictors of reading test results used for No Child Left Behind reporting in eighth-grade. It seems that learning involves many variables (the four factors accounted for over two-thirds of the differences in aggregated state testing results). Home factors are things that schools and teachers cannot control.
Instead of testing and testing yet more, a better use of funding would be the improvement of conditions for parents and families. Funding Head Start results in a measurable increase in IQ scores for disadvantaged children. Why not continue to fund enriched environments for Head Start children when they leave the program and help retain ground already gained? Why not fund more "parents as first teachers" programs to go into the homes and teach parents how to help get their preschoolers ready for school? Why not spend more money eradicating poverty-especially since that seems to be the real issue?
Second, an effective reform program would insist on scope and sequence. By scope, I refer to the content taught, by sequence, I refer to when content is to be mastered. This was one of the downfalls of the whole language movement. It taught reading without any real coordination of materials, curriculum, or expectations for mastery in terms of when expected benchmarks should be met. Much more coordination of teaching needs to take place and curriculum guides and agreed upon content are essential.
At the same time, I am not implying that methodology needs to be completely standardized. There needs to be some general guidelines on how to go about doing things. Still, teaching is as much art as science. To address methodology too much turns teaching into a mechanical act, and we know that the relationship, or blending, of teacher and learner are all important concepts. What we need are standards and benchmarks without denying teachers the authority to make hundreds and thousands of critical decisions each day. What we need are flexible standards and flexible benchmarks.
Lastly, we need a new way of doing things. After all of the years of reform, after all the years of researching what works, an amazing trend is notable. Educational critic and researcher, John Goodlad, notes that the most common activity one observes in today's elementary schools is seatwork (i.e. worksheets, quiet work from textbooks, etc). The most common activity noted in high schools is lectures. Both of these approaches are notoriously ineffective. Just consider lectures, for example, how often do you "zone out" during sermons? And, if you do attend, what keeps you "plugged in?"
We have lost the wisdom shared with us by John Dewey so many years ago and supported by study after study. Children learn best by doing. Kids need to make a classroom democracy, not just study government in their civics textbook. They need to come up with ways they can recycle and begin a neighborhood recycling program, not just read about pollution. Education needs to become real. The real is better than the contrived. As psychologist Jerome Bruner has pointed out, doing is better than seeing, and seeing is better than just reading or hearing about something. Probably the best approach combines all three methods.
Reforms come and go. However, on these three principles, we can arrive at a reform that will stand the test of time. All of us want our schools to improve. Isn't it time to skip the political rhetoric of the right (including the religious right) and the left and do what is best for kids? Isn't it about time?

The Bright Tomorrow of Online Education

Online education will play a major role in the future of postsecondary education in America. Colleges and universities are scrambling to be aboard, and state legislatures, with long-term economy in mind, are making major commitments of support. There are, however, many hurdles before viable cost-effective/learning-effective online education programs are in common use. At this point, the majority of programs is simply an extension of passive lecture or lecture discussion through electronic means. Few institutions understand the economies of these programs, nor have they faced the structural changes that are required. As important, institutions have not understood the quality and accessibility of programs that will be needed to meet the challenge from private sector initiatives.
"You Can't Predict the Future But You Can Plan for It"
The following are ten important questions concerning the future of distance learning:
o Will faculty adapt? The pay isn't great, but the job of a full-time faculty member is really very nice. By tradition a faculty member controls his own work; functions independently; gets to perform by lecturing; and has adequate time for study, reflection and interaction with stimulating colleagues. The use of technology in education, and particularly in distance learning, requires cooperation, teamwork, performing a role in an organized structure, more effort in design than in delivery, and less self-directed time. Quite simply, it is counter-culture for faculty. Will sufficient numbers of faculty adjust to permit institutions to design and deliver educational services in new ways?
o Will online education grow through shadow colleges? In many instances, rather than face the obstacles presented by traditional faculty, the existing work rules, union contracts, and faculty attitude, many institutions have created new organizations outside of the basic institution. These organizations have new salary schedules, reward systems and work policies. Will this be the only way that colleges can restructure? Can these organizations exist within traditional institutions?
o Will college administrations adopt new, more sophisticated planning and/or management systems? While it will be difficult for faculty to adapt to new delivery arrangements, it will also be difficult for administration. In educational budgets, management has typically been concerned with only three variables -- classrooms, mean class size and professors. The use of information technology and online education introduces a myriad of new cost elements that have to be worked into the basic cost structure. New and more sophisticated planning/management systems must be put into place, or the new arrangements will simply cost more and will not be practical to initiate.
o Will state bureaucracies establish a single online education institution? It is no secret that in recent years state legislatures and bureaucracies have increased their control and decision-making with regard to public higher education. In a number of states significant appropriations are being made to develop infrastructures for distance learning. The question that will be asked is, "if distance programs are expensive to develop, and if all of our sites are tied together, why not have one organization that delivers these services statewide." Colleges and universities need to prepare to answer that question.
o Will funds become available to develop quality learning software that uses the full capability of information technology? To date, substantial state appropriations for online education have gone for infrastructure, equipment and networks. While these are useful, there is real question as to the need for these expenditures. There are so many networks (for example, the Internet) available to use. Important advancements in learning can be made if significant appropriations are shifted to learning software. This software should use the full capabilities of information technology and the research on adult learning.
o How will learning be certified? In the United States each institution basically makes its own decisions with regard to what learning will be credited. Very often decisions are based on a well entrenched "not invented here" syndrome. As increasing numbers of individuals register for courses and learn through a wide array of institutions, there will be a demand from the public for that learning to be assessed and credited toward degrees and certificates.
o Can colleges keep their certification monopoly? The strongest cards that colleges and universities hold in competing with private organizations in online education are prestige and certification control. To keep the certification monopoly. Colleges and universities are going to have to work with other organizations and be considerably more accommodating in recognizing learning that was not provided by their institution.
o How will on-campus and distance use of technology integrate? Much present online education is simply the extension of the lecture classroom to distance locations. But, there are few examples of the instructional software designed for distance coming back into use on campus. Materials that are developed that are time and place independent. As well as time variable. Can be used on campus with the addition of more interaction with college staff. This would provide new options for students and increase student volume. Thus providing more capability for greater expenditures on development of quality educational software.
o How can we substitute for the inspiration of personal interaction with faculty members? In all of my years at Miami-Dade Community College, I never received a letter complementing a college program without reference to a faculty member or other staff member who had inspired or contributed to the development of the writer. Almost all of us can point to an individual, very often a faculty member, who had major impact on our lives. Is there a way to keep that inspiration in an online education situation? Is there something to be substituted?

Three Sex Education Lessons From The Teen Pep Stories

One of the oft-repeated comments by characters in my novel, The Sex Ed Chronicles is that, in the absence of sex education, children learn about sex from their friends. However, the novel was based in 1980, before New Jersey high schools started to involve students in peer counseling.
On Valentines Day 2008, I read about a mini-controversy involving peer counseling on a New Jersey radio news Web site. The news coverage came out of one New Jersey high school: Clearview Regional High School in Harrison Township in the southern part of the state. There, parents object to peer counselors, high school juniors and seniors, counseling freshmen on a variety of topics related to sex education. The counseling model comes from a program called Teen Pep. Designed by the Princeton Center for Leadership Training (not affiliated with Princeton University), Teen Pep has been implemented in over 50 Garden State high schools for the past eight years. Therefore, Teen Pep is not a new program and school districts have had time to investigate its merits-only now, one school has made the news.
Teen Pep trains not only students, but also faculty advisors, to work one-to-one, but also as a team in various counseling situations. Schools contracting for Teen Pep work with the Princeton Center for a minimum of two years and there are supervisory field visits by qualified professionals to help ensure the program is running smoothly. A school that engages in Teen Pep makes a considerable intellectual investment, as well as a financial investment, to make it work. Part of this investment is to explain this program to parents.
Which takes me to lesson number one: if you are not ready to take these investments seriously, don't make them.
As I read about the incident at Clearview High, it became clear to me that the fault is not with the program, but with the school administration. It would have been easier for them to consult parents and clergy from the get-go, as they are supposed to do. I realize that teachers have objected to this-they did back in 1980 as well-but sex education is a subject where parents and clergy believe they have important opinions and knowledge.
I found it interesting to read that an advisory board would be formed after parents objected to individual aspects of the program. That should have been in place from day one.
Which takes me to lesson number two: after consulting parents, decide which topics students are qualified to discuss with peers.
Parental objections at Clearview stemmed from the idea that "kids were teaching kids to have sex. But there had to be clear differences between the topics teen peer counselors were allowed to teach, and those that had to be covered by a qualified sex education teacher-but they didn't make it in the press. Parents deserved to know, if they asked before school started. I realize that pro-abstinence organizations also use young speakers; their programs should be subject to the same parental review as the peer-counseling program.
Then I get to lesson number three: make sure you have qualified teachers.
The federal No Child Left Behind Act emphasizes a need for qualified teachers, meaning that a teacher should be certified in the subject they teach. That applies as much to sex education as any other subject. In the example of Clearview High, the program leader was an English teacher. When I reached family life education, I learned that sex education instructors were most likely to come from health education, home economics or social studies as well as nursing. I would also assume that guidance counselors could become qualified sex educators; they handle personal student issues as part of their job description.
It appears Teen Pep is working in most schools; only one school is in the news complaining, but those involved with this program should consider offering an alternative: to use degree candidates in counseling and education to counsel students.
This would not be peer counseling, but it would appease parents who worry about kids teaching kids about sex. It would also help provide professional development for sex educators.

Stuart Nachbar operates EducatedQuest.com, a blog on education politics, policy and technology. He has been involved with education politics and economic development as an urban planner, government affairs manager, software executive, and now as a writer. His first novel, The Sex Ed Chronicles, about sex education and school politics in 1980 New Jersey, earned a coveted "Publishers Choice" selection from iUniverse.