Anand Sanwal

On April 17, 2017, my dad passed away For the last 13 months, I worked @CBinsights and also ran his chemical manufacturing biz in India It was acquired on June 1 Lessons, thank yous and observations here cbinsights.com/research/team-…

“You owe it to your grandchildren” These companies are hurting a generation of young men.

Gotten some fair pushback on this. I didn’t make my point well. The “parents know the schedule” critique is valid. My larger point is that the school calendar is a fiction. 180 days on paper. But those days are riddled with half-days, late starts, early dismissals, and testing weeks that aren’t real instruction. Students get less time. in a system that is increasingly less rigorous. The results we are seeing suggest that this method is not working. Now add in the push many states have for 4 day school weeks and it’s unclear if kids benefit from these efforts

Why do schools have so many random days off, half-days, late starts, etc? These always seemed like a tax on families * Parents scramble for child care * Parents change around work schedules * Kids sit at home mostly bored on these days We've thought about this at Forge Prep We have our breaks + Federal holidays off That's it. We thought designing a thoughtful education model requires also requires analyzing the daily and annual schedule to ensure it makes sense This is one of those other 'paper walls' of education, i.e. a thing that when you ask why it's done that way, nobody really knows. Education has many of these paper walls where the only justification is "it's always been done that way"

@EDUwithEmily They do, however

@asanwal I’m tired of seeing this question. The school calendar is published prior to the start of the school year. These days are not “random” and shouldn’t leave families scrambling. Teacher prep days, PD, conferences, and holidays are all reasonable reasons for kids to have off.

@IanJBlach Yup. Dumb.

@asanwal State laws require so many hours of professional development. The hours are typically spread throughout the year in the form of shorter school days or random days off.

Why did the # of disabled students in Texas climb 10.5% in a single year? What could possibly explain this?

@pfmanna This is the right explanation I suspect.

@asanwal Likely spending their parents' money, not their own.

Students in-line for the Chipotle BOGO right now are bribing people $20 to jump in front of them in the line They are spending $20 to move to the front to get a free burrito (~$12) Seems like math education in the USA is going pretty great

@grizzlybizzly Could be.

@asanwal Maybe it’s about the experience

@rossiadam This is a very rational (and disastrous) response to incentives The primary incentive is # of students enrolled It is not # of students educated

K-12 education spending has exploded higher while test scores have flatlined or fallen. At national level and in every state. Administrator vs teacher spending graph looks similar. Admin explodes higher, teacher wages flatlined. What else explains this abysmal performance?

@grizzlybizzly as i said in my post, it's important to find non-insane people for this coup

@asanwal I’ve seen a coup on the BOE, it was just some moms 4 lib who wanted to ban books and cut the budget but couldnt point to any specific programs they actuslly wanted to cut

For parents who hate the direction of their kids' school My $.02 is to get organized and stage a coup. Yes - I'm talking about taking over the school board. These elections get incredibly low turnout. Single digit to maybe 10%. My oversimplified Coup 101: A few hundred organized parents could flip a board, and a board majority can get isht done, i.e., fire a superintendent, scrap a broken reading curriculum, and change what school looks like for thousands of kids. It’s not instant, but it’s real leverage. And it doesn't require asking permission from anyone in your statehouse or Washington. Cuz if we're being honest, the Governor can't really do isht. They're not going to fight all the bureaucracies built to outlast them. They just can't and won't engage in a decade long fight. Your kid also doesn't have a decade. Your school board can actually move quick (or at least quicker). Find two or three non-insane people who are done complaining. Get on the ballot. Grab a seat. And take over. Winning the seat, of course, is step one. Running the system well is the real work. We need both new models and better public schools. The path to better public schools which we really need is through the school board.

Prep school admissions decisions went out Def a northeast thing...unsure if this is everywhere

Down to 49 "you know"s in 29 minute today 1.7 YKPM today 3.1 YKPM yday YKPM = "you knows" per minute Still work to do, but better Thanks all for the wisdom and encouragement Good reminder that this site is not always just rage-inducing

Just looked at a transcript of a call I had and I said "you know" 110 times in 35 mins What's the most effective way for me to get rid of this?

@SecretCFO Yes. I do think I will have to become very deliberate about fixing this. Appreciate the insights.

@asanwal But it needed a lot of deliberate effort , and almost became my ‘main thing’ for a while to improve it

@TheNickRuffini Like the music analogy. Thx

As a musician, we're taught that silence is more powerful than playing more notes. Most people play too many notes because silence makes them uncomfortable (subconsciously) ... I think that translates to talking, too (most people play the way they talk and vice versa) ...all that to say, try to get more comfortable with the silence and those extra notes (aka filler words) will start to disappear.

@jeffreysorensen Very fair point. I’m just trying to reduce it as this number feels excessive

@asanwal I'm not convinced removing filler words is always an improvement. If you're already effective at connecting with people, making them feel at ease, and communicating your ideas, maybe the filler words are part of that process!

@jrs41 this is good...the breath thing is so important

@asanwal Practice. And I liked this tactic:

@mrjmetz excellent idea..thx

@asanwal Try “sabes!” Then it’s in Spanish!