TEACHING RAINBOWS (Part 17)

The following continues my serialization of Chapter 3 on education from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity:

The Stanford Challenge

University President John Hennessy in 2006 announced The Stanford Challenge. I even got what looked like a personally signed letter of appeal, dated, September 2007. He intimated that there comes a time in the course of an organization when critical decisions must be made to have a monumental impact on their future and the world. Stanford is not that old, as the first student in 1891 was our 31^st President, Herbert Hoover. Hennessy cites Frederick Terman and Wallace Sterling as laying the groundwork for Silicon Valley, and bemoaned the fate of GM, Ford and Chrysler for their apathy and IBM for its focus on mainframe computers. Not unlike horse and buggy or typewriter firms of their day, the world changed and they did not. Stanford will, he says.

Stanford will marshal University resources to address some of the century’s great challenges in the environment, peace and health through genetic mechanisms. Interesting that Simple Solutions for Planet Earth (or, Book 1) takes on the environment, Chapter 1 of this book does peace and Chapter 2 genetics. It’s almost like I was there when the plan was crafted. I’m sure I did not contribute a bit during my nearly four year stay there almost half a century ago.

As Stanford is an academic institute, Hennessy also indicated that the other half of their efforts will be on education (this chapter). Clearly, I’m going to have to send him a copy of this book to congratulate them for their perspicuity. More so, their commitment will be on K-12 education, and, in particular, starting a new charter school. He didn’t quite say that relationship was an important 4^th R, but when they read this chapter, certainly, they might reconsider. Oh, they plan to raise $4.3 billion over the next five years to support The Stanford Challenge. To close, he quoted Jane Stanford: “our children’s children’s children” will thank us for the courage of that vision. Evidently, that is from whom I borrowed when I co-directed a NASA public education program on “Earth 2020—Visions for Our Children’s Children.” No, as I think of it, I contributed Earth 2020, it was Hans Mark, then director of the Ames Research Center (located down the road from Stanford), and later, Chancellor of the University of Texas System, who used Jane Stanford’s vision.

Now, the following experiment came way before this Challenge was announced, but if with more than $4 billion they can even approach the significance of these results, wow! I then give you…

…The Stanford Marshmallow Test (continued later this week)

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The Dow Jones Industrials dropped 119 to 9763, with world markets almost all declining. Interesting and short article to view on the indicators showing that the economy seems to be recovering. Gold is sinking, down another $13/toz to $1028, while crude oil also slipped, now down to $77/barrel.

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Looks like Typhoon Mirinae, now at 95 MPH, will weaken a bit and on Saturday squeeze between Manila and the portion of Northern Luzon that got the brunt of Typhoon Parma's rain. Already since last month nearly 1000 have been killed by these typhoons and more than 100,000 remain in evacuation centers. Of particular concern is that All Saints Day occurs on Sunday, when people visit cemeteries.

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