The title:

COLLEGE DAZE

Simple Solutions to Societies Problems:
#1: INNOVATING EDUCATION IN AMERICA’S COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

About 20 people here at camp have already expressed interest in my book.  The few people who have read my rough draft already have really enjoyed it, have related to it, and have offered some stories of their own about education and life.

My current game plan is to get this book wrapped up after camp.  Then, time for some fun traveling around America w/ friends from camp.  Go re-visit Washington U. in St. Louis, try to sell a min. of 500 books, and get a movement started there, around the time that one of the Presidential debates will take place there in St. Louis.

Then, who knows.  I’m thinking about a second book already and have made a little connection with a proper book publisher, so that might provide me w/ some funds and marketing opportunities.  Also, may work a few months for Outward Bound again, possibly a 3-month program taking junvenile delinquents canoeing in Florida, possibly taking students in NYC on urban field trips and camping expeditions.  The opportunities are endless in this field of outdoor/experiential education.

After that, again, who knows.  Had a good talk w/ someone at camp from Aus. who wants to spend a few months driving all over her home-country, so I could tag along for that.  Would like to do some big expedition myself, maybe hike part of the Appalachian Trail, maybe see what western US and Canada looks like.  And next summer, I know I can come back and work at camp, maybe again on the ropes course, possibly as the director of the ropes course, meet more people, save more money, and then do it all over again.

Anyways…kids arrive today, which I’m really really excited about.  We’ve had a great orientation, my 2 best friends from college are here coaching tennis and doing wordworking.  Can’t say enough great things about this camp I’m workin at.  Where else am I given the opportunity to lead 175 staff in an acapella singing of Queen’s Boehemian Rhapsody?  Where else can I spend my days climbing trees w/ a South African, Columbian, and Tazmanian?

So much more to say, so much more to do.  Sorry I can’t write more…but i’ll do my best.

Hey all,

Well…i’ve been at camp nearly a week now.  Having the time of my life, meeting all kinds of great people from all over, mostly Aus. England, and S. Africa.  Lots of cute girls, especiall the life guards.  So far, there’s about 50 of us, and another 75+ are coming over the weekend, so I’m really excited about that.

Been spending my days getting trained in the ropes course, swimming in the pool and the lake, playing rugby, basketball, softball, painting in arts and crafts, and meeting all the new people here.

I published the first copy of my book.  It’s just a rough copy, but it looks realy good.  After camp, i’m gonna sharpen it up.  Well…long internet line, gotta go.  Hope everyone is enjoying their summers.

-Dan

Topic: Dan heads for another adventure

Well…6 months ago I was off to South Africa.  Now I’m off to the wonders of summer camp.  And yes, summer camp is a real job, in fact, in 2 months time, i’ll probably have more money in my pocket than most people, since I have no living or food expenses.  I’ll be working on a ropes course, playing with kids all day, spending time with some of my best friends from college and around the world, and making tons of new friends to visit.

I will have internet access, and will update when i can, and now that my digital is fixed, i’ll try to get some pictures up.

Topic: The project, job openings

I’ll be adding more this summer, but will mostly be focussed on meeting foreign girls, and dusting off my frisbee, kickball, and wiffell ball skills with the kids.  So, while i’m away, I could use some help.  I’ve got some people helping me with editing my book.  What I need are people to help me organize events.  I’m looking to visit colleges, to set-up a table and sell my book, to organize discussions w/ students and hopefully faculty and admin. about the issues of college, and to organize fun social events as well.  I’m certainly not limiting myself to colleges.  As long as, say, 10+ people are expecting me to come, I’ll get myself on a bus with some books.  That’s my basic marketing plan. 

So…anyone reading this can help.  A few people here and a few people there is all I can ask.  Anyone want to join on a road trip, it should be an interesting experience.  Anyone with other marketing ideas, here’s a chance to try out your own marketing skills.  Anyone want to have some writing published, submit around a 1000 word essay about your thoughts, tying together education, college, life, work, etc. 

And even though i’ll be online less this summer, i promise you in late aug. i’ll be back, and more eager than ever to get people talking

Topic: Giving our problems a name

This entry if most dedicated to my good friend Dara, who has been experiencing all the ups and downs of being in her first year out of college.  I just happened to pick up a book today titled, “Quarterlife Crisis,” by Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner.  Abby, as it turns out, graduated from the same school as me, 6 years earlier (another network i need to look into).  Anyways…i urge people to have a look at their webiste: http://www.quarterlifecrisis.com

Please let me know your thoughts on how you feel education, (highlighting college for those who have gone through it, but all education will do) is tied to the quarterlife crisis, after viewing the site.

Oh…and although this didn’t work out for me, here’s a friendly response from the President of Harvard University regarding writing a forward for my book.  Just shows, you don’t know unless your try.

Dear Mr. Lilienthal:

Thank you very much for your email regarding your book on higher
education.  I appreciate your taking the time to write.

Unfortunately, given my current position and busy schedule, I am unable
to
contribute to your book at this time.

I do hope you understand, and I wish you the best of luck in publishing
your book.

Sincerely,
Larry Summers

First of all, to everyone new to my site, “Hey, what’s up, welcome, thanks for making it.”  I’m glad that word is somehow spreading, and people are somehow finding their way here.  This is grassroots at its finest, i’m not even sure what that means, but this site has grown since my first post in November, and there seems to be a little momentum, and that’s all i can ask for.  

I had a long talk w/ a friend of mine from college at Wash U., and we both kind of felt that we didn’t quite fulfill what we thought we might have.  We both said we noticed all these connections between classes, and had so many thoughts in our heads, but somehow, they never materialized to anything.  For those of you not yet in the working world, you’ll soon see how after college, it will be very difficult to see what might have come of your curiousities, your imagination, your questions about things.

TOPIC: If you could have one year of college, with all the students, professors, campus, environment of college, etc., but none of the college responsibility (no grades, tests, no external pressure at all), what would you do with it?  What experiences would you seek, and what would you want to learn?

I would take one semester to road trip around America, visit the whole place, and get some of my own perspectives on the country.  Then, I’d spend a semester in disussion about some of the things I saw, and things I heard.  I’d want to learn a bit about forming organizations, and different strategies for growing organizations.  I’d want to see if there were any common problems people spoke about, and to in some way dissect what those problems really were.  Were they problems of perspective, meaning, people complaining about money, when they might not be aware of people poorer than themselves?  Were they self-inflicted problems?  And most importantly, were they problems that could be fixed, and wouldn’t require political action, but a little energy and innovation from a handful of individuals?

TOPIC#2: Many financial advertisements today imply the need to make money in order to be able to afford to send your kids to college.  These advertisements say you need money to buy a house.  They say you need a lot of money for your retirement.  While I don’t think we shouldn’t think about the importance of money for our future, might we question the assumptions underlying these advertisements.  If we decide to only send our colleges to state schools, are we suddenly less worried about money?  If we decide that owning a house big enough for 20, but housing only our family of 4, is not in our future, are we suddenly less worried about money?  There is a problem of people pursuing and not pursuing certain types of jobs because of money.  Why teach, when you can trade stock?  Why do Peace Corps, when you can be an accountant?  Can we really not afford to do the jobs we want, or are some people simply inefficient with how they choose to spend their money?  Some schools are recognizing the influence college debt is having on the jobs students take.  Does anyone have any info or thoughts on how pursuing a college education may indirectly be causing people to sacrafice lifelong dreams by pushing people’s hands into jobs they might not have taken were it not for college debt?

 

Topic: Why don’t we listen to ourselves???

If we ever look back, look at history, read books, listen to people talk, we’d realize that our culture needs improvement.   I write this not as a criticism, since it is my responsibility, like anyone else with complaints, to fix it.  I read a great quote by someone, that the beauty of our democracy and freedom of speach is that we can have two-faced values and hypocrisy.  And, as American citizens, we’re fortunate enough that if we care enough about something, we can speak out.

Anyways…I just started re-reading Catcher in the Rye, and it seems every book or article I read, tells me that the people in charge of education, have no 3rd person, outside perspective on how they’re running things.  It’s like nobody is looking to see what’s not working, and therefor, there’s no creativity to fix the damn thing.  Failing test scores is not a problem, just as good test scores is not a solution.

One thing that really bothers me, is Holocaust museums.  Their purpose is to remember the injustices of this world, so we can prevent them from happening again.  Yet, there are no museums about the present.  No museums about the atrocities going on around the world (I can only speak about Zimbabwe, since I spent 6mos. in Africa, but I know there are many others).  While I am a Jew, it bothers me that the only atrocity we choose to remember in such a popular way as a museum, is the Holocaust.  Anyways…this isn’t a matter of politics.  The issue is, what else should we be remembering?  What else should we be aware of today?

What exactly is wrong with society?  Let’s come up with some ideas, because a problem well stated, is a problem half-solved.  What is wrong with our education, our economic policy, our foreign policy?  I know we’re not all scholars here, but we can at least ask the questions, maybe together, we can come up with some answers.

This is an activity I do w/ groups at camp and Outward Bound:

What was the high point, and low point of your day, and who was your hero for the day?

Topic: It’s inspirational, it’s cliche, yet, there must be some truth and commentary behind this…What does this say to you, and what does this say about our culture?

(plus…thanks for feedback on the title, i think A is for apathy, and bullshit 101 are in the running”

Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven’t thought about it, don’t have it on their schedule, didn’t know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.

I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back.  From then on, I’ve tried to be a little more flexible.

How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn’t suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed?  Does the word “refrigeration” mean nothing to you?

How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched ‘Jeopardy’ on television?

I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, “How about going to lunch in a half hour?”  She would gas up and stammer, “I can’t. I have clothes on the line.  My hair is dirty.  I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain.”  And my personal favorite:  “It’s Monday.” …She died a few years ago.  We never did have lunch together.

Because Americans cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches.  We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!

We’ll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Stevie toilet-trained.  We’ll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet.  We’ll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older.  The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of “I’m going to,” “I plan on,” and “Someday, when things are settled down a b it.”

When anyone calls my ‘seize the moment’ friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas.  Her enthusiasm for life is contagious.  You talk with her for five minutes, and you’re ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Rollerblades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.

(did somebody say bungee?)

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years.  I love ice cream. It’s just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process.  The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-decker.  If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.

Now…go on and have a nice day.  Do something you WANT to……not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say?  And why are you waiting?

Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why I sent this to you.

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground?  Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly?  When you ask “How are you?”  Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head?  Ever told your child, “We’ll do it tomorrow.”  And in your haste, not see his sorrow?  Ever lost touch?  Let a good friendship die?  Just call to say “Hi”?

When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift…Thrown away… Life is not a race. Take it slower.  Hear the music before the song is over

Topic: Judge a Book By Its Cover

Well…as my site says, I am writing a book.  And, I’m realizing that writing a book is easy.  Getting people to buy it is what’s going to be hard.  And making the ideas inside of it materialize is going to require more resources than I can ever possibly provide.

The cover of my book, despite the popular saying, is what many people will judge, when deciding whether or not they want to buy it.  It’s in our nature to pre-judge.  Obviously, the layers beneath the cover are important, but it’s the cover that can make-or-break whether or not people choose to look at those layers.

I have several ideas for my title and cover.  Please comment on the following:

1- The College Bubble Crisis

2- My Fake Thesis

3- Life after College

4- College: What is it good for?

5- Failing College

6- College 2040

7- Life begins when college ends

8- College daze

9- A is for apathy

10- A is for apathy, B is for boredom,

11- A is for apathy, B is for boredom, C is for cynical

12- A is for apathy, B is for boredom, C is for cynical, D is for depression, E is for evaluations, F is for failure, G is for grades, H is for honors, I is for innovation, J is for jaded, 

13- The meaning of college

14- Bullshit 101

 

 

(photo of my Washington University Diploma on a toilet)
or
(photo of me on top of some mountain in South Afirca)

The Need for Innovative Education Reform In America’s Colleges and Universities

Dan Lilienthal
Washington University in St. Louis, Class of 2003

 

 

Topic: Breakfast

Cereal is my favorite food.  I have it every morning for breakfast, and usually before I go to bed.  Life is my favorite, but i also enjoy Frosted mini wheats, basic 4, Post’s banana nut crunch, almond delight, raison nut bran, cinamon toast crunch, honey nut cheerios, and golden grahams, to name a few.  On the weekends, I like hot bagels, usually egg or sesame, sometimes poppy seed, and cinimon raisin, but i prefer that more for lunch than for breakfast.  I like my bagels with either cream cheese, or with egg and cheese.  and a nice glass of tropican orange juice.

What are your thoughts on breakfast?  on cereal?  on bagels?