*** Brains Replace Brawn: Many youth say that school is a waste, that they know many people who have survived without education and skills. But many of those people won't be going as far into our new, high tech millennium as your students. Show them they'll need education and skills to survive. At the start of the 20th century, 80% of jobs were manual labor. At the start of the 21st century, an amazingly tiny 15% of jobs are manual labor. A strong back has been replaced by brains and fingertips.



*** Got Skills?: Few schools have a formal plan to train students on the nuts and bolts of being a student. Some students look that way! They don't seem to have a clue how often to talk in class, manage their homework, arrive on time, etc. Be sure you teach all these skills, no matter how old or young your students are. Until they obtain these basic skills, they will struggle. Here is a very enjoyable way to easily teach even oppositional students to hear the homework assignment: Let your students know that "embedded" in some of the next assignments, will be a "goodie" that they will easily obtain just by carefully listening to the assignment as it is given. (You could direct listeners to cached cookies or stickers, for examples.) Be sure to cover all other aspects of homework management too. Many of our books provide dozens of lessons to teach all those additional components.

*** What is On Time, Really? Being on time can seem like unimportant to your youngsters. Ask them if they will ever need to work. When they say they will, ask them to name all the jobs that allow you to show up whenever you want, or never show up at all. There are none.

*** BONUS TIP: For students who are nasty to others, adapt the preceding intervention. Ask the student to name all the jobs and businesses they can do and be mean whenever they want. There are none. Ask recently fired, winning Indiana coach Bobby Knight, who makes an excellent example of how anyone can lose their job. Show them nastiness does matter.

*** Lost in Cyber Space: High tech tools are becoming absolutely essential. In 5-10 years, most bills may come via e-mail. Test your students' readiness to survive on our High Tech Planet by having them define these terms: Mailer Daemon, DSL, Spam, Server, Secure, Domain.