What Florida thinks of Milwaukee
Interesting article in Wednesday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Joel Dressing interviewed Richard Florida who is professor of public policy at George Mason University and a bestselling author. Mr. Florida “touts human capital as the driving force for economic development.”
In the article, Florida cites the problem for America of developing a “world-competitive creative class.” He refers to the “talent deficit, an inability to invest in our people when they’re young and when they’re older.”
One line in particular caught our eye: “We have to make a massive investment in early childhood education. We need to rebuild our school system for the creative age.”
If you’ve read any of our earlier comments, you know where we stand on this. Too many schools, especially at the early, graded level, are running on cruise control. Further, for every school that has the enlightened thinking and the funds to push itself up, more are being left in the educational dust. It’s very frustrating to see schools, especially inner city minority schools, struggling just to provide the basics, to simply survive, while the demands of the marketplace are in fact growing. Where we most need to teach creativity, we are least accomplishing the task.
There are bright spots. Recently, we had the opportunity to spend some time with Mathew Johnson and the people at Strive Media Institute here in Milwaukee. Strive, a non-profit mentoring and training program, is doing a terrific job of providing opportunities to students who have demonstrated talent and a willingness to work hard. If you haven’t seen what they’re up to, we invite you to visit their website at http://www.strivemedia.com
or read about Strive's recent plans to expand its facility and outreach: http://www.biztimes.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=currentissue.welcome&display=Special&num=1 Strive partners with media professionals to provide training and opportunity to students in print journalism, marketing, computer media, television and radio broadcast. Above is a photo of Mathew Johnson, taken at our Open House. Next to Mathew is Jim Locatelli, a CPA we know, and B. John Bisio, of Wal-Mart Stores.
Strive exists because people like Mathew Johnson saw the need and took steps to deal with it. But more is called for and it almost seems like a pretty massive “rethink” has to happen at the primary school level in order to keep pace. (We’d love to hear from people about similar stories to Strive or with other suggestions on how this “creative gap” can be closed).
By the way, Mr. Florida pointed out that Madison “measures first in (his) creativity index for regions in its size class and eighth among all 331 regions in the country. It is doing phenomenally well.” Meanwhile, Milwaukee ranks 124th. “Milwaukee has to figure out a way to connect itself to the creative age. And Milwaukee is one of the cities that have a great shot.” “With affordable housing, the great urban neighborhoods and the rebuilding around the river, it can attract people who are being priced out of the Chicago market.”
We have so much potential here. The question is, will we make it happen? And when we do, will we share it with one another?
In the article, Florida cites the problem for America of developing a “world-competitive creative class.” He refers to the “talent deficit, an inability to invest in our people when they’re young and when they’re older.”
One line in particular caught our eye: “We have to make a massive investment in early childhood education. We need to rebuild our school system for the creative age.”
If you’ve read any of our earlier comments, you know where we stand on this. Too many schools, especially at the early, graded level, are running on cruise control. Further, for every school that has the enlightened thinking and the funds to push itself up, more are being left in the educational dust. It’s very frustrating to see schools, especially inner city minority schools, struggling just to provide the basics, to simply survive, while the demands of the marketplace are in fact growing. Where we most need to teach creativity, we are least accomplishing the task.
There are bright spots. Recently, we had the opportunity to spend some time with Mathew Johnson and the people at Strive Media Institute here in Milwaukee. Strive, a non-profit mentoring and training program, is doing a terrific job of providing opportunities to students who have demonstrated talent and a willingness to work hard. If you haven’t seen what they’re up to, we invite you to visit their website at http://www.strivemedia.com
or read about Strive's recent plans to expand its facility and outreach: http://www.biztimes.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=currentissue.welcome&display=Special&num=1 Strive partners with media professionals to provide training and opportunity to students in print journalism, marketing, computer media, television and radio broadcast. Above is a photo of Mathew Johnson, taken at our Open House. Next to Mathew is Jim Locatelli, a CPA we know, and B. John Bisio, of Wal-Mart Stores.
Strive exists because people like Mathew Johnson saw the need and took steps to deal with it. But more is called for and it almost seems like a pretty massive “rethink” has to happen at the primary school level in order to keep pace. (We’d love to hear from people about similar stories to Strive or with other suggestions on how this “creative gap” can be closed).
By the way, Mr. Florida pointed out that Madison “measures first in (his) creativity index for regions in its size class and eighth among all 331 regions in the country. It is doing phenomenally well.” Meanwhile, Milwaukee ranks 124th. “Milwaukee has to figure out a way to connect itself to the creative age. And Milwaukee is one of the cities that have a great shot.” “With affordable housing, the great urban neighborhoods and the rebuilding around the river, it can attract people who are being priced out of the Chicago market.”
We have so much potential here. The question is, will we make it happen? And when we do, will we share it with one another?
posted by Bob Welke at 1/19/2006 12:34:00 PM
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