Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Past failure and success can no longer be experienced. Right now is where life happens. To fail or succeed are just two more concepts others like to hang around our necks. Then, as our life unfolds, we are shaped, corralled by the overuse, abuse…
Author: Art Baird, Founding Partner of Creative Marbles Consultancy
Art melds his passion for acquiring and disseminating knowledge with his decades of experience teaching into straightforward, collaborative advising. His pointed questioning facilitates debate, empowering clients to achieve their vision in education and in life.
Learning with a Purpose
Let the semester unfold slowly–looking to make adjustments to your learning process–as your interactions with both the teacher and your other classmates set the tone for your learning experience. This is easier said than done, especially in the later years of one’s youth, when influence creep seems to be in full swing with the attendant…
Thomas Jefferson for the Twenty-First Century American
Many years ago, in my role as a high school teacher of U.S. Government, I had the unique opportunity that allowed me to experiment–teach one and only one concept, one document to one group of kids for the entire school year. We studied the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson–attempting to understand and apply…
From Reluctance, Blossoms an Impassioned Papa
All of the things I thought I would become, a father was never one. My marriage having failed in my early thirties, only helped to solidify the idea that fatherhood was for everyone else, but me. The last thing the world needed was for me to be in a position of influencing a member of…
Stop, Smell the Roses and Improve Your View at the Same Time
Seek to grow each day, in a mildly different way, than what you observed about yourself the day before. Stop what you’re doing, letting the mundane day-to-day come to a halt. Once the forward motion that stirred up so much commotion, day in and day out, also ceases, then you can get a glimpse into the…
Embrace, Don’t Shun Worry and Stress; a Normal Part of Living
We spend our lives–first, learning and then, embracing–the idea that stress and worry should be avoided, denied, and minimized, but seldom understood. Art shares his view on worry and stress with a high school junior client and their family, as well as how one can work with stress and worry to become stronger, not weaker…
The Climb to the Summit is Always the Most Beautiful, Yet Dangerous
The University of California deadline comes to pass at Midnight (U.S) West Coast time, November 30. Plus, a number of highly selective private and flagship public colleges—notable names include the University of Southern California (USC)—have a deadline for Midnight Dec 1. Students and their families scurrying to complete applications within this backdrop are confronted with…
Teaching Style Can Create Stress Among Some Students in a Classroom of Thirty Five Students
Today’s podcast is an edited conversation with a client (high school junior) who was attempting to identify pressure surrounding the day-to-day academic grind. Within the broader conversation, the student suggested that the teaching style of their AP English teacher was creating undo stress and anxiety on the part of the student and their family.
Long Live the College Admission Essay
Being in the trenches over the last month or so of the college admissions process and more specifically, the writing portion of the application process–a process I have experienced again and again without tiring (this is my 18th season working with students on the writing of the autobiographical college essay), playing the role of editor…
College Selection and Financial Aid in the Age of Rising College Tuition: Part Three
We finish our podcast series today on College Selection and Financial Aid, by discussing the need to define the value of college in an era where tuitions are rising faster then the cost of pretty much everything else we consume. Furthermore, we offer simple questions that any family can ask early, and often, in helping…
Happy, Happy Thanksgivings To One and All From Your Friends at Creative Marbles
Our resident seven year old history teacher–while once again practicing the oral tradition of concentrating when listening to an instruction and sharing it from memory with others–recites a historical synopsis of Thanksgiving in helping to define the importance of this day. At Creative Marbles Consultancy, we take a somewhat day off today (college deadlines happen…
College Selection and Financial Aid in the Age of Rising College Tuition: Part Two
We continue our series on college selection and financial aid, by discussing the clash between the demand–and even right to attend college–and the dawning reality that rising tuitions (at a rate greater than inflation), alongside average student debt increasing at an unsustainable rate, are beginning to price some deserving candidates out of the college marketplace.…
Prudent Fiscal Planning (Part 6): What Do I Really Own
In our last post in this series, we discussed broadly the balance sheet, which in the sum of all its parts, defines your worth. Remember, everyone has a balance sheet, even though most of us never take the time to actually define our total worth on paper. To define and actually manage our worth, we must define…
Ode to Dale Carnegie By Art Baird
Attempting to motivate others has been my life’s work. Some would say I was born to the task; others would add that I am capable of motivating a dog to leap from a fully packed meat truck. Much of my supposed ability to motivate others seems to stem from a more inherent desire to help…
Peace Comes to the Old Dog Via The School of Hard Knocks
We are told that states of being at peace and happiness are our divine right–just reach out and grab them and struggle no more. Peace and happiness, though, seem difficult when it comes to the everyday job of making choices within a sea of possibilities. The default logic for living is that we achieve peace…