women's enterprise network live show transcription 20081108

8/9/2019 Women's Enterprise Network Live Show Transcription 20081108

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Copyright 2010 Betsey Merkel http://www.betseymerkel.extendr.com/ and I-Openhttp://i-open.org/. Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivative Works. Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) 4415 EuclidAve 3rd Fl Cleveland, Ohio 44103 USA

Women's Enterprise Network November 8, 2008Judson Living, Cleveland, Ohio

"2008 Presidential Campaign Issues: Growing the Economic Viability

of Women"

Part 2: Where do we go from here Mr. President?"

Link to broadcast:http://www.livestream.com/womansenterprisenetwork/video?clipId=flv_f119b799-82e2-4ba5-8f19-4d93649be313

http://www.livestream.com/womansenterprisenetwork/video?clipId=flv

_3216921b-5c63-442c-b009-7b690da9d153

If you were in a room with Senator Obama and Senator Mc Cain,what issues would you want to discuss and why?

* Restoration of Global Respect for America* Healthcare* Women's Rights* Education* Workforce Development


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Gloria Ferris: Hi, this is the Womens Enterprise Network live TVshow, brought to you here at beautiful Judson Park in ClevelandHeights, Ohio, we're here with a few of the Judson Park residentsand our topic today is going to be "Part 2: of 2008 Campaign Issues:Growing the Economic Viability of Women" and our question today is,What now, Mr. President? So welcome everybody, and out there Iknow you already know were on the womensenterprisenetwork.netplease tell your friends and neighbors about us and join us on ourchat. We do have live chat today and you can enter into ourconversation. So, okay, lets just start right in, and dont we usuallyintroduce ourselves? Im just a little foggy todayIll introduce myselffirst and Ill just let everyone start talking about What now Mr.President? as they go around and well just do it very quickly at first.My name is Gloria Ferris and Im a member of the Womens

Enterprise Network and we get together once a month to talk aboutissues that are not only important to women but to all Americans, Ibelieve. But we are giving a voice to people who might notnecessarily get on video, might not necessarily get out there and dothis kind of thing and get their voices heard and hopefully start aconversation. A thinking conversation where we all can think, so Ithink I would give the President some advice, I think that he needs toremember to take time to think. And there will be a lot of noise andthere will be a lot of people telling him, Well, you know, this is what

weve got to doweve got to change thisweve got to do that. butI think he needs to remember to slow down, to be deliberate and tothink. So, thats my story and Im sticking to it. Jay, how about if westart with you?

Jay Calabretta: Jay Calabretta, and I live here at Judson Park, andone of the criticisms that I heard about Obama was that he thinks toomuch.

Gloria Ferris: Thats interesting, I think thinking, I think part of that is

Jay, what do you think about this? I dont think that people think nowwe react a lot. Well, you said you were a psychiatric nurse; you


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thought didnt you? I mean you had to do a lot of on the fly stuff butpart of that of being able to do that was because you thought and youknew

MaryBeth Matthews: Gloria, how about letting her say what shemeans by that? What do you mean that he thinks too much?

Gloria Ferris: She didnt say that she said that

Jay Calabretta: Thats what I heard a criticism of him.

MaryBeth Mathews: So, what do you think they meant by thatcriticism?

Jay Calabretta: I think hes a very thoughtful man, from what Iveheard, from what Ive seen and any time he opens his mouth its not alot of garbage coming out its usually well thought out, well planned,you know

Gloria Ferris: I agree.

MaryBeth Matthews: By the way, since I was just jumping into thatconversation, and Im not sure if Im on camera

Gloria Ferris: Well, I don't know if you are either but I am sure we areeither, but anyway

MaryBeth Matthews: Eventually it will come around to memy nameis MaryBeth Matthews and I have been a core member of theWomens Enterprise Network as well as a teacher for the ClevelandMunicipal School District, and a partner is the manufacturingcompany called Work Holding Tools. Perhaps we should continuearound the circle

Susan Altshuler: Would you like to introduce yourself?


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Claire Marsh: Im Claire and I live at Judson. Lets seewhat do Iwant him to know about me? I want him to know what I think rightnow, I think that it is not Obama, but all the time were talking aboutcleaning up the government, how many people are going out in theirgarages and looking? You know were talking about what thegovernment does, but how many of us are wasting money by buyingthe first thing we see in the store? Filling the house up, lets start inour own places first so we can say, Hey, were following what you tellus to do. Now, lets do it to the government.

Gloria Ferris: Thats a really good point. Susan, would you like tointroduce yourself and maybe respond to what Claire said.

Susan Altshuler: Im Susan Altshuler and Im a member of the

Womens Enterprise Network and Director of I-Open. Claire, youhave a very good point, I think that we always expect other people todo things for us and say if somebody from the government, say thePresident says, Well, we need to do this and a lot of people thinkwell, thats not our responsibility, and I think its every Americansresponsibility to try to help turn this country around so that we have alegacy to leave to our children and grandchildren; that theyll have abetter world than some of us have right now. Unfortunately, myparents did much better than I did and really what you want to do is

have your children always have that possibility of doing much betterthan you and being able to live a really wonderful and fulfilled life. So,I think its our responsibility to see that we help this President and notjust look at the small things, look at the big picture about creating jobgrowth and getting health care for everyone and keeping yourselfhealthy and living a healthy life because if you live a healthy life thenyou're probably not going to get sick as much as if you dont.

Gloria Ferris: Alice?

Alice Merkel: Hi, Im Alice and Im a junior at Chagrin Falls HighSchool. I think that going on Susans and Claires comment that


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America needs to turn itself around and we as citizens, act, we arepart of America, we are the foundation of America and when youthink something you start from the foundation and you work up. So itdoesnt make sense not to have the government fix everything foryou, you have to fix yourself first, so that you can build up and fixeverything above.

MaryBeth Matthews: One of John F Kennedys more famousstatement was Ask not what the country can do for me, but what Ican do for my country and we can apply that to today. When we say,well, okay, what is Barak Obama, what are the democrats going to dofor me? When we should be saying, What can I do to change theworld? And, how can I if were going to have an energy crisis, wereworried about global warming, how do I shrink my carbon footprint?

How do I consume less? How do I consume less energy? Am I in anyway contributing to the credit crisis? What is my part in the economicproblems that are facing the United States? If we can first look toourselves and fix the small things we can, then were doing our partinstead of just sitting back and saying, Help mefix the country,and then wait for somebody else to do something first.

Gloria Ferris: Weve been joined by a lady behind MaryBeth there,that is nodding her head yes, yes, yes so if you would introduce

yourself

Linda Horter: My name is Linda Horter and I live in Breuning here andIve been here for a year and Im delighted to be in this conversationand excited to be here.

Gloria Ferris: Well, thank you. I noticed you were nodding your headwhen MaryBeth was talking, so did you have maybe

Linda Horter: I agree with everything she says.

MaryBeth Matthews: Thank you.


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Gloria Ferris: Well, you now have a new friend, MaryBeth. Do youthink that what were talking about here, and let me just throw thisout: I think part of the Yes, we can slogan that they took I think thata lot of Americans took that on and that they were going to be a partof this and that President Obama expects Americans to do exactlythe things were all talking about. What do you think, or whatdo youthink that that might be it? That hes looking for some self-reliance?

Linda Horter: Everybody should do their part.

Gloria Ferris: Everybody should do their part.

Claire Marsh: I think hes hoping.

Gloria Ferris: You think hes hoping too?

Claire Marsh: Yes.

Gloria Ferris: Thats an interesting thought. Thats an interestingthought.

MaryBeth Matthews: Well, I recall that, and actually I wish I couldrecall better you know the minds the first thing to go but at some

point in is campaign one of the solutions he had to the energy crisisand our dependence on foreign oil, he said that was that people couldbe more aware of their driving habits. If we could drive to conserveenergy, it we could inflate our tires properly, that with everybodyworking together we could all, that all those little savings could add upto a lot of oil that we dont need in our countryhe said thatwhere itmade sense to me, where a number of people in the opposition thatkind of blacked that off and poo-pood it, but I thought wait a minutethat makes sense to me so many little things that add up to reallyquite


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Gloria Ferris: I think you bring up a good point, MaryBeth. I was on aweb cast a few days ago that was with Investment News puts out aweekly broadcast and they actually were saying, What now? for thefinancial markets with Obama as President. And one of the thingsthey said, and Im sorry because I dont remember the mans namehe currently is in the House of Representatives, but hes on the shortlist to become his Transportation Secretary, he rides a bicycle to workeveryday. So, I think you will see a change in how people think aboutdriving habits, maybe do the errands in a circular instead of the backand forth and that wastes a lot.

Susan Altshuler: Those little trips that waste so much gas.

Jay Calabretta: Well, that's a no brainer.

Gloria Ferris: For you Jay, for you...

Susan Altshuler: And walking if you can instead of driving, but I thinkthat people are starting to think about that because I always think thatthey, I think that people didnt look to themselves to try to help, to doit themselves, that they always think others should do it for them,number one; number two, I think that the way Obama had hiscampaign I think people really were looking at those new kinds of

ways that Americans can help in their own small way, because youdont look at a problem and say, Oh, my gosh, its so big I cant doit. You go right down to the very bottom and say, What little step canI take? If all Americans did that little step imagine how much wewould save and how much energy we might save or not spend asmuch money on gas so were not so dependent on the foreign oil untilwe can figure out what were going to do.

Alice Merkel: I think thatumOh; I had a pointI forgot.

Gloria Ferris: How about if we go to Jay, she had a point too and thenwell come back to you, Alice?


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Jay Calabretta: Okay, all right. I keep reading about ourtransportation system here in Cleveland, how they want to cut out thebuses and stuff, and I think, what a wonderful opportunity is goingdown the drain. You know, people do things by habit. Get them in thehabit now of using the buses. Okay? Increase service; dont decreaseit. Once you get people in the habit of doing something theyre goingto continue, especially if it works for them.

Alice Merkel: I think that the mass majority of Americans know aboutglobal warming, the energy crisis, all that good stuff and yet they justdont even think, pay attention or think or act on it. They acknowledgeit, but then they just kind of, Oh, well, you know, that doesnt reallyinvolve me. They need to accept the responsibility as citizens andact on it.

Gloria Ferris: Thats very good. We have been joined by another lady,that lives here at Judson Park, and if you would please just introduceyourself and our topic today, just so we get you up to speed is, 2008Campaign Issues: The Economic Viability of Women and What NowMr. President? So today, were kind of like, what issue is important tous that we want to kind of put out there for the new President Obamato talk about?

Dorothy Schade: Hard to begin with, Id like to be over there so I canhave a piece of paper and sit at the table. My name is DorothySchade and Ive lived here since 03. Cleveland Heights was myhusbands home so when he retired from the military we came hereto live. Im very happy to be here and I'm from New Orleans,Louisiana and thats it.

Gloria Ferris: Okay, all right.

Dorothy Schade: Is that what you wanted?


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Gloria Ferris: That is what I wanted. Thank you very much, Dorothy,and well take care of moving you aroundI want to ask MaryBeth tomaybe, I dont mean to put you on the spot but maybe you havesome thoughts about education, so lets get the education topic intothis conversation. What would you like from the Federal government,because thats where the President is, with education, do you see itas a local issue or do you think Federal?

MaryBeth Matthews: You know what? Right now we have some veryserious educational problems but theyre at the state level in Ohio forfunding. Our funding process of course has long been known to beunconstitutional, but now that we have a new State Legislature,hopefully we can get some of those funding issues resolved. So thatswhere my focus has been through this last election cycle has been to

get the changes in our state government. As far as the Federalgovernment is concernednow, there are some problems with theNo Child Left Behind Act. Just mostly because there are lots ofmandates, but there was no funding to back up the mandates. Whenyou say that you have to bring all these children up to a standard andyet youre not giving them money especially in impoverished districts.The impoverished districts are not helped financially, and how do theycompete with the well off districts? We have children that come toyou, damaged. I teach in the City of Cleveland in the urban school

district and so many of our kids they come to us poisoned fromimpoverished situations and when the kindergarten teacher haschildren in her class that dont even know their name as opposed toin the suburban schools where theyre coming into a kindergartenclass and theyre reading. You cant expect the playing field to beleveled when youve got kids coming in, theyre broken, theyredamaged, theyre coming in so far behind that they may never catchup. And to do that with out funding, its inane. The people who aremaking these mandates just dont seem to understand what thesituation isWell, all children can learn.Well, yeah, all children

can learn but theyre not all starting out at the same point.


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Gloria Ferris: Well, you know, I think you bring up a good point. I thinkthe Federal government can do something about lead poisoning.Thats an issue that we all know is an issue. They can do somethingabout maybe some early childhood care development for kids thatare, that dont have the parents who know the importance of that, fortheir kids to get a good start. I think that is where the problem lies, forthe Federal government up to this point has done the mandates foreducation and said, These are the standards. Well, basically, everyschool system knows the standards for a kid to succeed; they didntneed that, what they needed was

Ginny Becker: Money

Gloria Ferris: Well, they needed, and maybe not so much money, but

what they needed where the things behind that that cause some kidsnot to be able to live up to it. Exactly what MaryBeth was saying, weneed to look behind the slogan and the mandate.

Ginny Becker: What about Head Start?

Gloria Ferris: Head Start, actually I believe does a very good

Ginny Becker: Yes, they do

Gloria Ferris: Very good, its a very good program that is somethingyou need to be sure its still there.

Ginny Becker: Well, Im a retired teacher and I know that all thechildren I had in the middle grades, the best ones were Head Startstudents.

Gloria Ferris: They keep that through their life, usually they do, so


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Ginny Becker: The ones that succeeding, I know of two, ones alawyer and the second one is becoming a doctor. But, they all hadHead Start.

Marybeth Matthews: Im so glad you brought that up because that isjust fabulous antidotal story to back up what most of us already knowbut that although there are people that want to disregard theimportance of early childhood education.

Gloria Ferris: Well there, thats one of our issues, early childhoodeducation.

Ginny Becker: Head Start. Head Start.

Jay Calabretta: I find it really hard to believe that children come toschool and dont know their names.

MaryBeth Matthews: Well, here, Ill give you an antidotal storyafriend of mine was a kindergarten teacher and she was reading herclass roster, all the names of her nineteen, twenty students, and shehad the same number of students in front of her and each child wouldraise their hand and one name was called and no child raised theirhand for that name. Finally, she comes to the end and she says,

Well, is there anyone here whose name I didnt call? And the littleboy says, You didnt call my name. What is your name, honey?Well, my names Big Daddy.

Jay Calabretta: Spaghetti?

MaryBeth Matthews and Residents: Big Daddy. Big Daddy.

Jay Calabretta: Big Daddy?

MaryBeth Matthews: Big Daddy. He knew his nickname; he didntknow his real name; because no one is his real family ever called him


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his real name, so he came to kindergarten not knowing his ownname.

Ginny Becker: Most of them know how to print their name.

Jay Calabretta: Well, okay, thats kind of a cultural thing.

MaryBeth Matthews: Well, no I wouldnt call it a cultural thing; I wouldcall it well ignorance on the part of the parents. You have parentswho

Ginny Becker: Neglect.

MaryBeth Matthews: Yes, neglect. Precisely.

Ginny Becker: When they sign their kids up for kindergarten, theyshould give them a handout telling them these are the things yourchild should be knowing. His name, his address, when he was born,was she born and how put their coats on, you know

Gloria Ferris: And their phone number.

MaryBeth Matthews: And the thing is the school districts do those

things, they have parenting classes and they do give that informationout and yet there are parents who dont pay any regard to it. But youcant not educate the child because the parents arent ready tobecome parents. The child needs to come in, and you need to step inwhere the parents

Gloria Ferris: Pre-school for parents.

Susan Altshuler: The parents have to be partially responsible for theirchildren. My daughter works for an elementary school in Shaker and

a lot of these parents think school is a babysitter for their children andthey dont have any responsibility to work with them at home if theyre


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having problems reading, I mean, I think we have to look, they haveto look themselves and say, If you want you child to succeed youhave to be a part of their life and encourage them. If a kid comes toschool hungry, how can he do anything? How can he work if a child ishungry? My sister-in-law used to work in the city schools and shesaid the kids would come to school no breakfast, starving, and youcant function unless you have good nutrition.

MaryBeth Matthews: Let me kind of jump in on this. Because we allknow what the parents responsibilities are supposed to be, and aseducators, and Im a teacher I can say, I can shift the blame we cansay, We cant do our job because the parents arent doing their job.But do you know what? We cant shift the blame what we have to dois accept the fact that there will be parents that dont do their jobs and

those kids will be coming to us, so, we just have to say, okay, wevegot kids here who arent getting breakfast so what do we do? Wevegot kids here who dont have the basics, who dont have the parentalsupport, who might not know their name, who might not know theiraddress, who might not know their phone number because they arecoming to us damaged, this is where we have to start. This ishowwhat are we going to do? How can we fix this as educators?Not just throw up our hands and say, well, its the parents job. Iguess we cant do ours because the parents arent doing theirs.

Gloria Ferris: That goes back to before, Dorothy and Mary I thinkcame, when we talked about being responsible. About being self-reliant. I think MaryBeth brings up a good point, A friend of mine whowas a very avid community activist in our neighborhood would alwayssay that too many people are really comfortable with the phrase, LetGeorge do it. Let somebody else do it. I dont have time, I dont havethis, I dont have that. And I think that as Americans and citizens eventhough we wanted to talk about the President and what he could do,weve talked a lot about what we can do as everyday people which I

think is a good trend. Lets ask Alice what the climate is at her highschool with this new President. What did the other students say?


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Alice Merkel: I live in Chagrin Falls, its kind of a well-to-docommunity, kind of exclusive, slightly, and they usually are heavilyRepublican, but this year we had a lot of Obama supporters. Somesay, hes going to ruin the country, others say that you know McCannis going to do the same thing. Everyone was respectful, we didnt yellat each other but we had very high opinions. They might have beendifferent from our parents, our friends but we had very highexpectations for the candidates and whoever is going to win, which isObama. So, I feel that the students think that, we recognized that ournation is in a bit of trouble right now, were all feeling it in one way oranother. I think that our main concern is how were going to get tocollege, our jobs, house market, debts, like were going to likebasically, we have a great education and we all appreciate it everyday, but when we get out of school were not sure how were going to

function. And all the families they come from families that are wellto do and they dont really know, any kind of hit in their financialstatus, everyones feeling it and so theyre wondering, whats going tohappen when I get out of college, if I can go to college, whats goingto happen when I start searching for a job, if I can get a house; so weare concerned because we have to look forward to the future and weall recognize that.

Gloria Ferris: I think that is a good point to stop. Were going to take

our break and were going to come back to that. This is the WomensEnterprise Network live Internet TV show brought to you at JudsonPark and we have five very intelligent, aware women with us who aretalking about some of the campaign issues and problems that faceour new President Obama and well be back with you in five minutes.Well take a little break.

BREAK

Gloria Ferris: Okay, while we were off with the little blurb about our

group Womens Enterprise dot Net, Sarah Hollister joined us? Your


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name, Mame? Is Livingston? Yes, Sarah Livingston who was theAssistant Superintendent of Cleveland Schools?

Sarah Livingston: Support Services.

Gloria Ferris: Support Services of Cleveland Schools. And weretalking about networks, the question is, Do we have anybody whorepresents us at the State Legislature? Our core group of womenknow a lot of people and we have different kinds of networks of ourown, and the way a network works is that, Claire was talking aboutthat maybe our next topic should be, What are we going to do in thisgroup? What would we like to take forward? So, what we would dowith that is we would decide what we wanted to do and then wewould say, Okay, how do we get that out and how do we get

something done? And then we start thinking, well, so and so knowsthis person and we need to talk to that person and we need to getthat person involved. So, thats how we work that, Mary. But, beforewe took the break, and I want to thank Judson Park again for beingour gracious host here forthis is the fourth conversation that wevehad here and our group kind of grows and changes, we have newvoices, we have a few of the same faces, but were getting new facesand thats how this all works. We are talking today about Part Two2008 Campaign Issues: Growing the Economic Viability of Women

But before we took our break, Alice was talking about the youngerpeople and the students shes going to school with and they say thatthings are okay now, they realize they are getting a good baseeducation and a good foundation, quite a few of the kids she goes toschool with dont have financial difficulty at this point, but they wonderabout what will happen when theyre on their own. First of all, I mightask you ladies to talk about your experiences when you wereyounger, starting nursing school, going to college teaching, and howyou survived those years, that might be a good point. The other thingis, shes talking about financial problems, financial difficulties, we

have foreclosuresthe other day I read on the Internet, and I think itwas Ed Morrison, one of our Directors at I-Open, the Institute for


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Open Economic Networks, referred to an article that said that thisgeneration of young people will be less educated than their parents.That is the way we are going. That we are now going back, that wewill not be as educated and that is a huge problem.

MaryBeth Matthews: I can speak from personal experience. I teach atMax Hayes High School, in the Cleveland District. One of the thingsmy students are very concerned about is that they look at the cost ofa college education and they say, my parents cant afford it, I cantafford it and the financial aide packages that are offered to them dontcover it. So they say, hey, I guess Im not going to college. Quite afew of my students see the military as their only option to further theireducation. If they go into the military that perhaps they can get theircollege education from the military. Other than that, they all have very

high hopes but in some ways they all, at least they say to theirfriends, Well, yeah, Im going to go to College but then when youtalk to them privately, they say, I dont really think Ill be able to.

Dorothy Schade: I happen to be the wife of a retired career officer.The education that the kids get in the Army isnt bad they arequalified for anything really; so, dont feel sorry for the ones that getinto the service.

MaryBeth Matthews: Oh, I dont feel sorry for them at all. Its just thatits interesting to see how things are changing. Ive been teachingnow for close to thirty years and I didnt have as many students whosaw the military as their only option before. In fact, when I went tocollege I paid nothing, I went to college in the 1970s and that wasreally an era of, everybody got a grant. I paid nothing for my collegeeducation at Ohio University. I dont even remember what kind ofgrant I got, I just filled out the paper work and my tuition was paid for,my housing was paid for, my books were paid for, everything waspaid for.

Ginny Becker: That was the times.


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MaryBeth Matthews: Oh, yeah, a college education at that point inhistory was for everyone. The only people who didnt go to collegewere those who didnt want to. If you wanted to go to college,everyone could afford it. Now, the smartest students at my schoolmay not go to college because they might get a scholarship, say theyget a $15,000 scholarship, well, they need $20,000 for a year ofcollege and thats not counting the books. So, they cant go to collegewithout incurring a serious, serious debt.

Ginny Becker: Well, luckily, we have a Governor who is for education.Ed Strickland. And I think that if you go to his office, they couldchannel you to some sources, some grant sources.

MaryBeth Matthews: Id like to see more grants made available for

Jay Calabretta: You know MaryBeth, I think we have beenbrainwashed that you need to go to college. Okay? And I dont thinkthat a college education is the end all, be all. I have worked with lotsof educated fools. [Laughter] I worked with a nurse who had amasters degree. I couldnt trust her. I was a supervisor. When shewas on duty, I couldnt trust her to dono common sense.

MaryBeth Matthews: Ah, but she had a degree.

Ginny Becker: Just get that paper.

Gloria Ferris: Well you know, I think we need to speak to that. Imwondering if thats one of the ways education is shifting, is that for awhile, it was a college degree. Now, maybe, were shifting intoIagree with you, Ive worked with those educated fools too, and youwonder why, God, they can really take a test but they couldnt domuch with life. Im wondering now if maybe life experiencesIT, Ithink is a huge place. It was very funny when I was visiting my

daughter and son-in-law, they stop everything at 7:30 and they watchJeopardy, and they brought back these people that had been the high


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school kids that had won twenty years ago. What was reallyinteresting was the young man who won it back then was the onlyone when asked that no he wasnt going to college because he wasinto computers and he wouldnt learn that in college and he was theonly one who won again. He was the only one who did not have acollege education. But, he owned his own company, he had sold two,he had made all this money and he was the only one of the ninethatBill Gates is another one and I have a friend who is an inventorwho says that education is a good foundation, but its not everything.

MaryBeth Matthews: It isnt the end all be all. It is a good foundation.Of course for most of you who know me, but for those of you dont,Im also involved in promoting manufacturing. I am a partner in asmall manufacturing company, component manufacturing, metal

parts, pieces and parts for various machines and things. One of theissues in manufacturing is we cant find the workers. I see the facesheremanufacturing jobs all going out overseas, well, a lot of thecompanies have gone overseas, but the thing is people arent beingtrained in those skills anymore, there are very few young people aremachinists who know how to run a machine. The current machinistsare all retiring. So, for those of us who have companies, werestealing each others employees to keep our companies going.

Ginny Becker: You need know-how.

MaryBeth Matthews: We need that know-how and young people arenot going into manufacturing because all they hear on the news isthat companies are shutting their doors, theyre going overseas,theyre being off-shored, theyre being out-sourced and nobodysgoing into it. So, its kind of a real conundrum.

Dorothy Schade: Overseas they have the workers.

Sarah Livingston: Somewhere along the line, we have put a XX oneducating, but certain types of education. You know, if you go to


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college, you do this, you do this, and the thing we need to be doing isdeveloping students who have a feel for their own work and the workof the things that they are doing. One of the things that has happenedas I have worked with students along the way, some of the childrenwho are bright and do well, sometimes get passed by their parents,because they didnt get this education a certain way and they didntdo certain things a certain way. Thats one of the things thatshappening to small manufacturing. Now, if you look around you, thepeople who are getting pushed around are the ones who are goinginto jobs where theyre going to be a doctor or a special person or aspecial something but one of the things that is happening is with thestudents coming along now that are getting sent to China, Japan, andplaces like that which havent always had these things and we haveto put on what it is we value, I think, thats one of the things. So I think

that what youre saying is just the thing. So, if we stop worrying aboutwhether or not this child is as bright as the next child and put on theworth of, is this child a good person? Does he understand, right here,that he occupies a space that he is supposed to contributesomething?

MaryBeth Matthews: Yes, exactly. And what is that individuals gift?They may not be the lawyer because he doesnt want to be and hedoesnt need to be. Weve got enough lawyers. Weve got enough

kids going into law school, we need more kids using computers andtechnology and the trades we need trades today, not just manuallabor, we have to have skills in order to be a tradesman nowadays.You need specific technical skills.

Gloria Ferris: You know, I think Sarah brings up a really good point.We have said that, what if a young man wanted to be the best welderin the world? I use that because my three cousins were welders and Iknow that welding is really goingone of them was, and the twoolder brothers would always laugh because my youngest cousin was

the one that they always called for the joints when they knew theywere going to be inspected because he did them perfectly. He didnt


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work as fast as his two brothers but he was the one, they used to sayhe was the artist of the welders. He always said, You know, if youare going to do something, you need to do your best. And he alwayssaid that, he was the youngest of the three, but he said that and myfeeling is that, yeah, you should be able to be whatever you want tobe in America, but just strive to be the best you can be, taking amilitary thing, it shouldnt matter to us, if you want to do something, allwe ask of you is that you know who you are in the scheme of thingsas a citizen, that you do whatever you do welland you do it.

Sarah Livingston: And that what you are doing on this earth isimportant.

Gloria Ferris: Yes.

Sarah Livingston: That is what is sometimes hard to tell. Im workingwith the children all the time. One of the children who was workingwith me, was going to, he was wanting to be, it wasnt a welder, buthe was doing something in the manufacturing but these people werepushing his being this doctor. And of course, hes going now to, Icant think of the school, one of the schools in Cleveland

Gloria Ferris: Its probably Max Hayes.

Sarah Livingston: It might be Max Hayes.

Gloria Ferris: Theyre the only vocational school we have in theCleveland School system.

Sarah Livingston: Max Hayes is the only vocation school but there isanother school where they also do some of those things

Gloria Ferris: Sarah, thats not important. You know hes going there

and thats whats important. So, go on with your story. Hes important.


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Sarah Livingston: One kid kept saying to me, Ms. Livingston, my Dadwants me to go here because this is where he went. He loves hisfamily; he wanted to be in this manufacturing situation. And Im justsaying we sometimes put too much stress on when you are a doctorthis or a doctor that

Ginny Becker: They need to be happy in their skin, they call it.

Sarah Livingston: Right.

Gloria Ferris: Being happy in your skin, Mary, did you say? Thatsgood.

Sarah Livingston: You have to be a good person, then.

MaryBeth Matthews: The thing that I tell my students, theyreteenagers, they say People always ask me what do I want to bewhen I grow up? But, I dont know. I dont know. They could be adoctor or a lawyer. They always say, A doctor or a lawyer. Or, I couldbe a football player, a basketball playerthey name maybe aboutfive jobs where they can make a lot of money and I say, but whatdo you like to do? Whats fun for you? What do you do when you arenot being pushed? What do you do for enjoyment?

Mary/Ginny: Sarah, do you think we need more counselors in theschool?

Sarah Livingston: Actually, not so much more counselors as just getin the families. Trust your children for what they are and teach themhow to be a good person, how to get along with people. Let themknow that what they do is contributing.

MaryBeth Matthews: And support, support what they want to do.

Sarah Livingston: And support what they want to do, because theydont knowtwelve or fourteenthey dont know what they want to


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do. Right then, whatever is popular and as they get a little older theybegin to understand. And as you say, if they want to be a plumberand you dont think a plumber is quite important enough, you wantthem to be a doctor, but maybe a plumber is all they can do, but theycan make money plumbing.

? And they are respected.

Gloria Ferris: The thing is we need plumbers. We need plumbers, butI think that

Jay Calabretta: They make good money.

Gloria Ferris: I think thats part of the reframing of the conversation

about education. I also think the other thing our daughter went with aliberal arts education and all of our friends said, How can you let herdo that? She wont be able to get a job. And my husband said, Ifyou can write effectively and you can communicate effectively, howwill you not be employable? Shes never had a day of unemploymentsince she graduated from college. So the whole thing of going tocollege for a specific purpose is not necessarily why someone shouldgo to college. Our other daughter on the other hand, is an artist. Shehad a scholarship to CIA but like MaryBeth said, she realized that

with that scholarship that was quite substantial she would still have aforty thousand dollar debt when she got out after five years. She toldus, No way, Im not going to go to college and be in debt. So, sheswaiting shes doing it a different way, shes doing it her way. Maybenot the way her Dad and I would want her to do it, but shes doing it.And I agree Sarah; part of being a parent is allowing your kids to fly.And maybe as a nation, we need to think about, how do we readythese kids to fly? And maybe were notwere still doing things theway we did forty years ago. Thats not the world today and thats notthe world tomorrow. I think Sarah brings up a good point as

tomaybe we need to rethink this a bit, of how we fit in and what weshould expect of young people today.


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MaryBeth Matthews: We put an awful lot of emphasis on collegepreparatory training in high school where we said every studentshould be given the chance in the classes so that they can go tocollege. And what we left behind were the career, tech and vocationalclasses, and they cut back those programs drastically. Now, what arewe lacking in this country? We are lacking machinists; were lackingpeople to build our infrastructure, to rebuild our infrastructure. Theroads and the bridges and all the things that make our country what itis.

Sarah Livingston: But its honorable to build bridges.

MaryBeth Matthews: And those are good paying jobs. But we donthave enough people to do them now, because everyone was put on

this college track and not all of them were successfulwerelacking

Gloria Ferris: Our hour is almost up, ladies. I cant believe that, Im sointerested inand Im looking at the clockbefore we stop Id like tothank Judson Park and I thank all of you Judson Park residents forcoming and to let you know we are going to be here again, December13th at 10 AM and well do this again and well do it all over and ourtopic is going to be, What are we going to do? So, in the next month,

think about our conversation today, I have a few ideas; I like Jaystransportation issue

Mary: Could we get a book of the Ohio Assembly in Columbus? Abook of the different committee chairmen

Gloria Ferris: Yeah, we have that and you know what? Ill bring someof those names with us for next time around transportation, educationand health care, I think is basically what our three topics were today.So, well do that. And does anybody have anything they would like to

say in closing? Or, anything else? WellClaire?


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Claire Marsh: I have something about a part of what were saying.What Im thinking is, there is a bunch of us here from Judson, howmany of us really care about who is the upper thing, and how many ofus really care and couldnt get along without the attendants who haveno college, probably. We have to have those people who help usphysically and know how to be cheerful and care. I dont care whoseup there in the big office.

Gloria Ferris: That brings us back to what we were talking aboutearlier, with small stepsand what do we do as individuals and thatcomes back to Sarahs point of we all have worth, we all have value.We all are important to the foundation that Alice talked about with thebricks and the mortar; were the bricks and the mortar of America. Wekind of keep it moving and it doesnt matter whose at the top. You

know what my husband kept saying about people were so worryingwho was going to be President. And he goes, You know what?Basically, our lives arent going to change much day by day, we stillhave to keep on going and keep on pushing for what we believe isright. Yes, it makes a difference a little bit, it makes it easier for whatyou might think is important, but basically day by day its up to us. Itsup to us to change. Its up to us to find cash instead of going intodebt. You know I heard another thing that when I said that this groupof people, this group of young people not having the education that

their parents had

Betsey Merkel: We have a comment, when you are finished.

Gloria Ferris: Oh, all right. Okay, good. But, this is the first time acollege debt is more than one years salary for someone leavingcollege. Theyre debt is more than their starting entry pay. So, we doneed to think of value in different ways. So, Betsey says we have acommentfrom one of our online people.Betsey Merkel: Yes, Jill at NPR says, Good morning, Ladies. Two

items I want to add regarding economic impact on women. First, astory on how parents are pulling kids from childcare because they


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cant afford it. What will be the ripple affect of that? and second,women suffer from job loss twice as much as men. That was in theWomens E-News this morning, she said and she said shell Twitterlinks to me. So well include more information in our follow up to youand after the show closes we can talk about how we can stayconnected.

Gloria Ferris: Oh, great.

MaryBeth Matthews: Thanks, Jill.

Gloria Ferris: Thanks Jill, good job. Jill is a Blogger, she writes online,shes actually by education, she worked as a social worker atBellfaire and then she went to law school and shes an attorney, but

she is now a journalist, she started bloggingshe is blogging atNewsweek, I cant think of what herNewsweek Ruckus, I think itscalled. She is in a group of women Bloggers, they call themselvesBloggher they are all women Bloggers from all over the UnitedStates and they have gotten together as a collective and have all oftheir blogs up so you can read the different things that theyreshe issometimes on the Sound of Ideas, NPR, if you ever listen to that.Recently, she was asked by NPR to go to Washington, DC onElection night and do their blogging for them so, but I guess that kind

of tells you education is different, you went for one thing and youredoing a whole different thing. Thank you.

Related Links

Book: October 2008 "2008 Presidential Campaign Issues: Growingthe Economic Viability of Women" Part 1: A Pre-Election Discussion"

Women's Enterprise Network Broadcast channel

Link: http://www.livestream.com/womansenterprisenetwork


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Womens Enterprise Network on Strategy-Nets

Link: http://womens-enterprise-network.strategy-nets.net

women's enterprise network live show transcription 20081108

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