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Archive for June, 2007

Humbled

annie-wood.JPGAnnie Wood is one of the student contributors to MAP 150’s Students Speak Out. Annie is part of a filmmaking group, TVbyGIRLS. Recently, she teamed with an older adult and filmed their experience. I asked Annie what she learned. And for those who think students don’t have much to say, I suspect you’ll find Annie’s response humbling:

It’s interesting, because at the beginning, Bea (as well as many of the other women) said she didn’t really do anything great in her life. But I realized that what people consider “great” is what famous people do. We do great things everyday, and what we do–who we vote for, what we like, how we live–is what makes history. Maybe someday when I’m an old lady, someone will ask me what it was like to grow up during the War in Iraq, or when iPods were invented (I bet by then, they’ll be like caveman technology, like phones with cords…ha ha.) and I won’t think of it as anything spectacular. But it’s so important to learn and tell these stories, because they ARE history–and they can help us understand where we’ve come from and help us shape the decisions we make in the future.

Systems vs. Outcomes

My faith in “citizens”– regular people– keeps growing. Sean and I made a presentation about MAP 150 to the Minnesota Public Health Association, where one woman very insightfully commented: “Experts think about systems, people think about outcomes. Experts talk about the health care system, people talk abouyt health. Experts talk about the educational system, people talk about learning. Experts talk about the transportation system; people talk about traffic.”

Hmmm… It makes sense. When experts and special interests talk about an issue, they are consumed with the “rules” of the system (see previous Policy and a Pint blog posts.) When people talk about an issue, they sense simply that the outcome is not right, and thus they are far more inpatient and frustrated with all the gibberish about how this or that won’t work…