AndreKoen.com

 It's 7:00. My mother gets us ready for bed, and she does three things before we go to bed. She makes sure that we've brushed our teeth, that we've washed behind our ears, and she makes sure that we get a big spoonful of cod liver oil. Yuck! Seven at 7. So, she'd line us up every night before we went to bed and made sure those three things happened. We brushed our teeth, washed behind our ears and got a big spoon of cod liver oil. Fast forward 30 years. Before I go to bed, what do you think I do? I brush my teeth, I wash behind my ears, and I do not drink cod liver oil. But why do you think I do those things 30 years later? Because those things have become a part of what I do. They've become a habit.

But how do we structure, how do we get habits? We get habits through routines. Because I did those things on a regular basis, I did those things on a regular basis, they became a habit. So we know that a habit is a learned pattern of behavior that's become automatic, but what is a routine? A routine is a cognitive, something that you think about. It is also something that is scheduled, so it is a cognitive scheduled behavior that we do on a regular basis. And we do that so much that it becomes a habit.

So if you have bad habits, what does that mean about your routines? You once had bad routines. Smokers, when they first start out, have to think about buying and getting cigarettes until it becomes a habit, and they don't have to think about it.

It's funny, Kung Fu fighters and Wing Chung masters and boxers and athletes, they practice these moves over and over and over and over again. They go through drills. They exercise their mind, thinking this thing through. They stretch. They prepare. They do all of these things so that when game time comes it has become a habit.

Whatever you do on a regular basis, that you're cognitively thinking about, something that is important to you, those things become your habits. Be careful what routines you set because that's a powerful thing, because those routines will become your habits, and those habits become the sum total of your behavior. And your behavior is what people see about how you act.

Philip Uri Treisman is a professor of mathematics and public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and also the founder and executive director of the Charles A. Dana Center for Mathematics and Science Education, an organized research unit at The University of Texas at Austin. Treisman, who has been a pioneer in advocacy for mathematics education for more than 30 years, is often considered a “translation researcher”—one who translates research data into practices that have powerful effects in transforming educational outcomes.

Treisman’s findings crystallized the importance of helping students learn to navigate the boundaries of the academic and social worlds of higher education. In particular, helping students to develop and “try on” identities as mathematicians, as academics, and as professionals increased their productive persistence in their studies and, he believed, shaped the way they made sense of the academic content they were studying.


http://www.utdanacenter.org/downloads/articles/studying_students.pdf

Mrs Young

Her name was Mrs. Young, and I loved Mrs. Young for three reasons. One, she drove a tangerine orange Corvette, and that was hot. The second reason that I loved Mrs. Young was because she had green hair. Now, she was too old to be a punk rocker, so it was probably an old lady dye job gone bad, but it looked really cool in her tangerine orange Corvette. The third reason I loved Mrs. Young was because I felt that she had my best interests at heart, that she never would do anything to hurt me and wanted the best for me. And so, in 1982 I took a test in Mrs. Young's class, and this was one of the questions on the test. And the test asked, how many planets are there in the solar system? And in 1982, what was my answer? Nine. In 1982 there were nine planets in the solar system.

If I were to ask a six grader today that very same question, how many planets are there in the solar system, what answers might I get? More popularly, I would get eight. Why eight? Why for thousands of years have we had nine planets, and as of recently we only have eight. It has something to do with our concept of the truth. Now if you ask people what the truth is, typically they will say that it's things based on fact. It's based on information. It's based on empirical data.

I want to offer to you that those are small pieces of what the truth is, but the truth ultimately is based on what we know about our world, about our environment, about ourselves today.

I don't know if this has ever happened to you, but I reflect on some of my childhood upbringing. And I look at that upbringing now with a different light, and the truth has shifted for me. For example, I recall when I was a small child going to school, and more recently I have been serving on a board that works with Head Start.

When I was a child I just went to school. And I'm sitting in this board meeting, and things are starting to sound familiar to me. I'm getting flashes of my childhood coming back.

And so, after the board meeting I called my mother, and I said, mom, these are some of the things that are coming to me when I was at this board meeting, talking about the things we need to do to help Head Start. I said, mom, why does it sound so familiar? And she laughs, and she looks at me and she says, son, you were in Head Start. And all of a sudden my whole trust about what it meant to grow up had just shifted a little bit. My truth had changed.

Now, I know that some of you out there will say, well, there is this ultimate truth that does not change, and I can't disagree with that. But what I do know is that people create the truth. And one of two either happens. Either you create the truth for yourself, or other people tell you what the truth is.

Here's another example. So I was taught that time was constant, that 3:00 today will be similar if not the same as 3:00 tomorrow, give or take a couple of seconds for leap year. Something happened more recently that shook my belief in what time is or what time was.

And I don't know where you live, but where I live daylight savings time was moved by a total of two weeks. Now, I have questions about that because I was taught that there were 24 hours in the day because of the earth's rotation and that the earth goes around the sun creating that 365 day year and that those things are constant. And so, I got really confused and concerned when time was moved or changed.

Now, I don't know what this means to you, but for me it meant a lot because if people can change time, what else can be changed? And what I found out as I investigated how time was changed. I figured out that time was changed through legislation.

So, ultimately time is a law and who makes up our legislative process? People interact with the law. People create laws so that we know how to operate with each other, so we know what the confines of human behavior are, what's acceptable, what the norms are. People create those laws.

Now, again, there are some ultimate laws that I'm not really talking about, but I'm talking about those socialized human norms that we've created. And so, again, one of two things happen. Either you create those laws for yourself, or someone will create those laws for you. And so, my question for you is, what is it that you believe that you...

This was a Question and Answer session we conducted after a Diversity Keynote

It is clear that we need a new paradigm for Diversity this presentation explore what that new Paradigm should be and ways that you can be helpful in Creating the this NEW PARADIGM.

This clip was made in the 1970's Bill Cosby is acting out what he perceived about people at that time in American History? Are there things that he say that you might hear today? What do you think this says about our Diversity efforts? What should we do next in term of Diversity and Inclusion?

The Shoes

So I don't do a whole lot of shout outs to different companies or what not, because they don't give me... I don't get any endorsements from them, right? But there is a place that I absolutely love at the Mall of America. That's a plug. All right, and its Nordstrom Rack. I'm a shoe dude. I don't know if you... I like shoes. Shoes are like... I don't know, I think they make... Shoes and belts, shoes and belts make an outfit. It doesn't... If you got nice shoes and a good belt, you got an outfit.

So I'm at Nordstrom Rack and I'm in the shoe aisle. And their shoe aisles are amazing, because it is like the Matrix. So you stand and it is just like rows of shoes everywhere. I love the shoe aisle. So I'm standing in the shoe aisle and I'm trying to find the perfect shoe on... I'm hunting for big game, right? So I'm in the shoe aisle and in the next aisle, I hear a bunch of teenagers and they're using the "N" word.

They are referring to each other in a... Using the "N" word. Right? Now, the "N" word is very confusing for white people because they are like, Why is it bad for me to say, but black people call themselves that all the time." Well, let me just tell you, not all black people call themselves that and you still can't say it. I mean like there are things that you... Somebody... You can talk about your mama and you can talk about cousins, but nobody else can talk about your cousin and your mama, right? But we'll get back to the "N" word later in the story.

But at any rate, so the kids were calling each other the "N" word back and forth. And, "What's up, man?" And, "Hey, man," and "Aw, man..." Like that, right? And so much so, that they weren't catching a breath in between using the "N" word. So as a stand up member of the community, a diversity trainer, a person out to make sure that our young people are engaged in positive activity, I said to myself, "If they say it one more time, I will say something."

Yeah. So guess what happened? They said it one more time. Now, I don't know about you, but I personally am not afraid of kids. Right? Because I can... But I do have a respect for young people, and I know sometimes they can get out of hand. Right? So I try to interact with everyone that I interact with in very positive ways. And so, I kind of garnered up my courage and because I said I was going to walk over there, I decided to follow through because something I want to follow through, right?

So I decided to follow through. So I walked over there and I kind of stand over there and I say, "Excuse me, would you guys mind not using the "N" word?" And they stopped, just stopped. And one of the bigger boys of the group kind of parts the group and he comes face to face to with me. And so, I kind of puff my chest a little bit and he puffs his chest a little bit. And I kind of lift my chin and he kind of lift his chin, and I kind of brace myself and he kind of leans a little bit because he was taller than I was.

I used to wrestle in high school so I know how to... I did restraints when I work in residential treatment centers so I know what to do, right? So I'm ready. And he looks over at me and he kind of clears his throat and he looks down at me and he says, "Yes, sir." Not quite what I was expecting. So he says, "Yes, sir," and he turns back around. So I mean, outside I was cool. All right, thank you. All right, good, good.

On the inside I was like, "Wow! We made a difference!" Right? And I wouldn't think that was amount. What was going on there? I mean, these are kids that folks would label them thugs or gangsters or be afraid of. And what did I do to those kids? Well, it's been made very clear to me that everybody needs direction and everybody has goals and desires. At the same time, everybody wants to be accountable to somebody for something.

Will those kids go off and use the "N" word in public and with each other? Probably. Will those kids think about their behavior out in the public? More than likely, they will. Did I change the world? No, I didn't change the world. However, what I did do was make them accountable for being a part of a community. I hear people say, "Well, we got to take back our communities, and we got to do this to our communities and snatch these back from other folks."

No, all we really have to do is have standards on our community. We have to stand up and say these are things that are not acceptable and these are things that are acceptable, and we can be in this together. Could I preach to those kids? Yeah, I could preach to them. "That word is a bad word. Don't use that word, blah, blah, blah." But no, I didn't choose to go that route because priest speech, so forth and so on.

But what I did say to them was that I have some standards, and I respect you and I want you to respect me, too. So what is it that you stand for?

Sunday. Oh, church all day. But you know what? I'm feeling a little spunky. So, I'm like I'm going to gamble on Jesus. I'm going to "Come on, Jesus, come on." All right? And so, I go asked my dad and I said, "Dad, can I borrow the car?" And what does my dad say? He says, "No." Not only does he say no but he gives me a lecture on top of it. No would have been just enough but he is like knowing... All these kinds of stuff. And so, I take all that and so I say my dad has what kind of an attitude? A bad attitude or a negative attitude. And consequently, what did he say about my attitude? That I have a negative or bad attitude. So, what is it that actually determines an attitude? Perspective? It starts with G and ends in O. Your goal dictates your attitude.

Think about some of your employees, right? When they have that attitude, it is clear what? What's clear? That they're not... That work is interfering with their goal. I remember working in a couple of places and people are like, "Man, if I haven't had to work today, I would be doing this or that other thing." Guess what I have told him? "Go do it. Quit bugging me and go do what your goal is because you won't be happy. As a matter of fact, you make the rest of us miserable."

And so, attitude is a symptom. So, if I see someone with attitude and I deal with kind of a special team in infant, right? Minnesota family investment program and so I'm dealing with social workers and they deal with people who have lots of attitude. And so, one of the things that we know that if we have a person that is giving us a lot of attitude, it is obvious that they are not what?

Meeting their goal. So, when we have someone with an attitude, what is the first thing we have to find out to be able to be hopefuls in them? What's your goal? What's your goal? And I'm sure we all have been to a department store and either had a problem with an item or it didn't fit or you got a lot of complaints with the warranty or what not. And you have those people who are not listening to you at the customer service pieces and we'll just give you coupons. No, I don't want coupons or we'll just give you 50% off of that. No, I don't want 50%. This is funny, right? So, I had a dog that is a Chow Chow. Is anyone familiar with a Chow Chow? All right. So, they are really fluffy and they have a black tongue and curly tail and Cassius, that was my boy. Oh, Cassius, I love my dog Cassius, right?

So, we go to a... So, Cassius... I forgot what happened but his hair got a little mad because if you don't comb it like in on a regular basis, it will be tangled. So, I decided this is summer time. Oh, this is... So, it's summer time and we are going to get those tangles out. Well, my girlfriend at the time was like, "Well, I'll cut his hair." I'm like "It doesn't sound like a good idea." But she can piss him, right?

So, I come home and I look at my dog and he looks a little different. And she was like, "Well, I can fix it." I was like "No, let's just take it somewhere. You done way too much work already. I'm sure it was tiring. Let's just have somebody else do it, right?" So, Io take him over to PetSmart. Now, I thought PetSmart knew what they were doing first of all, right? So, we take him over to PetSmart and so, I gave him specific instructions.

I say, "Look, obviously, this is a Chow and I'm wanting him to keep that Mayan look. So, I know, just nick over here and nick over her. Cut that part down and leave the rest so leave his tail bushy and leave his head bushy. I know he is going to look goofy but that is what I want, right?" And so, I leave the dog. That same day, I actually have dental. I have a dental procedure that was going to be done, right? So, I dropped the dog off.

I go get my dental procedure done and then, they call me and tell me that my dog is ready. So, I go in to go pick up my dog and I had a cavity filled. So, I still had... My mouth was still numb and so, nothing is working. So, it was easier instead of biting my tongue, it was easier for me to like this. So, my tongue was contained and what do you all think? Now, I do not want to be alarmed but I'm African American.

And there's something about talking like this as an African American that is extremely intimidating to white people. So, I'm already like this and so, I'm looking for my dog and I cannot find him. And I see this lamb. I see this little lamb running around the pet store and I'm like... Right? So, I realize that they have shaved my dog completely. And so, I'm talking to the guy and he's like "That would be $74." No, no $74 here.

So, I'm like talking like this, "What is going..." My girlfriend is going to kill me because I just put it off on her, right? Because she is not there and it's easy to do. "She is going to kill me. I got to put up with this woman." So, at this point, I have decided I'm not paying for this haircut but they are trying to make me pay for the haircut. And I'm like this is not happening.

And so, finally, the manager comes and he's like "Sir, I understand that you are upset." I'm like "I'm not upset. I'm not upset. All I just want... I'm not paying for this." He was like "OK, Sir, well, how do we work this out?" And so, they brought me like mugs and cups and all sorts. Everyone is crazy that I walk out with bags, fancy stuff.

But I was never satisfied because I left specific instructions and I wanted them to hear that they not follow those instructions. And so, I had an attitude and guess what? I've never gone back to PetSmart. Right? And I will not go to PetSmart. As a matter of fact, I might right a Facebook posting about how to boycott, no I am just kidding.

So, those are some things to remember in terms of how to talk with people and things that I have learned from my classmates. So, this is me as a new baby. Wasn't I cute? And this is... That's me and that's my brother Will and my sister Krystal. And it is really funny. Krystal has five kids and two girls. Krystal was bald and her two daughters were also bald which is just like weird.

Her boys have full heads of hair. It's interesting and then this is my grandmother and my grandfather. This is my Uncle John and this is my Uncle Waldo and this is my Dad William. And this is my family. This is our Cosby years. If you look more closely, you can see Theo, Vanessa and other staff. And I said that at one thing and one of the kids, "You were really in the Cosby?" "No."

And so, OK, I love Facebook and I hate Facebook all at the same time. Love it and hate it, right? I love it because I have put my persona on Facebook. And I'm a highly evolved individual, right? So, I do vermicultures so I have worms that you may compost to in my kitchen. I eat organic. I do yoga. I do landscaping. I'm highly evolved. But Facebook... People keep putting up pictures that are blowing my image.

And so, this is one of those pictures that I have forgotten about and hope it would just go away. And as a friend of... It's a picture of my friend, Samesha, and I at a concert and Samesha is holding a boozie, a semi automatic weapon in her left hand and I'm holding a double barrel soft air shotgun to Sharon's head. Sharon's in the middle and Sharon is like "Oh, my goodness" because that is cute for some reason. I know that could be scary but let me put it in context because the context will make it equally as scary, right?

So, we were at a concert and I don't know if the band sings, it doesn't matter but the name of the band kind of give you the spirit of the event. And we were at the concert by a band called Public Enemy, right? So, Public Enemy. So, we were fighting the power and also, I have to apologize because in this picture, I'm also sagging my pants. We kind of started that in the late 80's and early 90's of the second instinct and I just...

We did not know the... Pandora's box that we open because now people... They are showing their boxers. They are showing their trump stamps. It's just crazy all the stuff that they are showing that. And so... But that was it. And I thank God that I don't have to be who I used to be. That I can learn changing growth but there's one thing that you must know about me that is extremely important that is a theme of this picture.

And that is I am my father's son.