The principal at my twins’ middle school gets it. He understands how to make kids succeed.

Research shows that kids who are “connected� to their school are less likely to get into trouble, use drugs, or have emotional problems. And kids who aren’t in trouble, in any sense of the word, are more likely to succeed – in school and life. I’ve read the research, but always wondered how one creates a school that kids connect to.

My kids’ principal knows how. Apparently, it starts with a principal who cares about what students do with their lives outside of the classroom as much as he cares about what scores students get on the ubiquitous standardized tests.

At a time of budget squeezes, not only does he refuse to let music programs wilt, he’s expanding them, and puts everything he can behind two music teachers that should be on every rich private schools recruitment list. Hundreds of kids take part in orchestra, band, jazz band, chorus, chamber singers, and pop choir. The music program not only dominates county competitions, but mops the floor with schools from neighboring states. (more…)

I do a lot of media training, often with people dealing with controversial issues and, at times, a hostile press. A consistent theme is one of control – how much control do I have over what a reporter writes or a producer edits?

Can I request to see the story before it goes to print? Can I require that my responses in a taped television segment be used in full, without editing? These are typical questions I am asked.

Generally, my response goes, is that you can only really control how well you present your message and, like a pitcher must trust his “stuff� when he’s on the mound, you have to trust your “stuff� when you are giving an interview.

Howard Kurtz had an interesting article on the same theme in yesterday’s Washington Post. “The humble interview,� he writes, “the linchpin of journalism for centuries, is under assault…. [I]n the digital age, some executives and commentators are saying they will respond only by e-mail…� He bemoans the fact that more and more print interviews are being conducted via e-mail, noting that what’s lost is the discussion, the interplay between reporter and interviewee.

I’m not a fan of putting reporters at arm’s length, unless there is a good reason to do so. (more…)

We have frequent conversations around our office (that’s right, the one with cranberry zinger colored walls) about the Administration. It’s hard to avoid such talk being in Washington and having political backgrounds with an election season approaching.

It is not uncommon for these conversations to devolve into a critique of the Administration’s PR strategy. It seems they rely too heavily on playing defense and far too much on the power of the War-time President image. As Fox News blares the “breaking news” of the “President comments on the War on Terror,” we ask is it too much to ask for the President to talk about something other than the war – even if just for one news cycle? Of course, it’s not that easy. But why not try?

Then I read this quote from the book “The CIA at War” by Ronald Kessler:

The events of 9/11 fundamentally changed the way the President looked at the world,” said McLaughlin who periodically briefed Bush and attended most of the meetings with the President to plan a counterattack. “I’m convinced he wakes up every morning thinking about how to prevent anything like that from happening again.”

[note: “McLaughlin” is John E. McLaughlin who, in 2003, the book’s publication date, was Deputy Director at the CIA.]

It’s hardly an earth-shattering statement. It’s nearly cliché. We’ve read something like it a million times since 9/11. For some reason, in light of our office discussions, it strikes me differently this week. (more…)

I stuck it to the “man� this morning. That’s right, I did. I was driving to a breakfast meeting, heading south on Connecticut Avenue. At a red light, all the cars stopped short, making sure to allow space for a “private entrance� to the right. It was the entrance to one of the most expensive and exclusive country clubs in Washington.

“Are you kidding me?� I yelled quietly inside my head. So I pulled up and audaciously stuck my spear in the ground. I blocked the entrance, and kept it blocked until my light turned green.

The “man� had to be stinging at 7:35 this morning.

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God has blessed me with the opportunity to do some special things for my children. One happened this weekend. One was yesterday.

This weekend we hosted my twins’ 13-year-old birthday bash at the community center. It featured a DJ. It was one of the first “teenâ€? parties of this group. (more…)

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. I promised our countless Blogenberg readers that, “If it’s Tuesday, it’s Blogenberg.� And yesterday was Tuesday and there was no Blogenberg. Hence, another lesson about running a small business: I was exhausted.

We had a quote due to a federal agency by 10 a.m. Monday. I worked Sunday until 11 pm and then started Monday at 2 a.m., not knocking off until 5 pm Monday. And I’m now too old to recover from what was, essentially, an all nighter, so quickly. (Not to mention I was already worn out from moving my oldest son home for the summer from college – 4 flights of stairs, no elevator!) So it was a Tuesday without a Blogenberg.

But I can report that we put together a very good proposal. (more…)

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Ok, so this isn’t really a PSA. But if it were, a new study suggests it would not just run in the late night hours. (H/T: PRSA’s PR Tactics and The Strategist Online)

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The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines ethnography as “the study and systematic recording of human cultures; also: a descriptive work produced from such research.� To increase our mutual understanding of the human experience, ethnographers often take great personal risk. I am one such ethnographer. I have ventured into the world of 13-year-old girls.

This past Friday night my 13-year-old daughter had another 13-year-old girl spend the night. Being an especially courageous ethnographer, I gingerly entered their world. I was, for example, occasionally allowed to walk into the room where they were sitting or talking. They also allowed me to drive them several places. I recorded my observations – though knowing 13-year-old girls’ survival rules dictate that ethnographers and fathers must be as quiet as possible for fear of embarrassing the 13-year-old girl, only breathing if absolutely necessary, I made mental notes only. (more…)