Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day! This is one of my favorite days of the year. Have a relaxing day with your family and friends. If you are working or not, we all labor in some form or another. I celebrate you today! Be optimistic about your job prospects, your promotion and your new life after you earn your degree. The seeds you sow today multiply in your future. We all have an opportunity to impact the world around us with our talents and gifts. Some talents will be developed as you progress through your degree program. In this new economy, we need to be thinking about innovation and creativity. How can you use your degree to impact the world around you? Will you be the one to start a new company, create jobs or improve the company you work for?

This Labor Day, meditate on your impact to society. How can you impact Labor Day?

Freya Sullivan Williams, MBA, PHR
Adult Learning Coach

Here's a little history on Labor Day!

Retrieved September 6, 2010 from http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/laborday.htm.

Labor Day: How it Came About; What it Means

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

Founder of Labor Day

More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.

Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."

But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.

The First Labor Day

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.

In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.

Labor Day Legislation

Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From them developed the movement to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.

A Nationwide Holiday

The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take were outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades have proved a problem. This change, however, is more a shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day addresses by leading union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and government officials are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio, and television.

The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.

April Is National Math Month

It's National Math month and I know many of you are saying, so what I hate Math. Well, to my Math lovers it's a great time for us to share our love of Math. For those of us who "hate Math" as my adult students tell me, then you wish this month would quickly pass by.

I'm here to share with you my top 10 reasons to love Math!

10.) Math can help you count your money.
9.) Math can empower you to make more money - This knowlege is priceless!
8.) Math is a universal language! - It can be applied in any profession
7.) Math makes you feel and look smart! Just say something like "Pie R Squared!" - Math folks know what that means. :-)
6.) Math can keep you from getting cheated
5.) Math can help you solve problems - even your relationship problems (LOL)
4.) Math can help you get a job!
3.) Math can build your analytical skills
2.) Math gets you respect - if you can crunch numbers, people respect you!
1.) Math brings you closer to your kids. Yes, they will think you are the smartest person in the world if you can help them with a Math problem. Guess what? To them you are.

So, explore Math today. Do some problems with your kids and watch how much they respect you. Here's a problem you can do with them.

Mrs. O. Angle has 12 students in her advanced algebra class. On a recent test, the average was 80. When Beth asked for her score, Mrs. Angle could not find it, but she did remember adding Beth's score in the average. She also remembered that Beth had passed. These are the scores of the other students:
65, 65, 70, 70, 80, 85, 85, 90, 90, 90, 100

Tell how Mrs. Angle can figure out the missing score. What is that score?
Find the answer at: http://sln.fi.edu/school/math2/april.html

Visit the National Math Month webiste http://www.mathaware.org/index.html to learn more about Math events around the country.

Lastly, here's a corny Math joke:
"Students nowadays are so clueless", the math professor complains to a colleague. "Yesterday, a student came to my office hours and wanted to know if General Calculus was a Roman war hero..."

Until next time, keep on focusing your goals. You can make it if you don't quit!

Freya S. Williams, MBA, PHR
Founder of Inspire Learning Solutions
"Supplemental Education and Motivation for Adult Learners
www.adultlearningcoach.blogspot.com
inspirelearning1@gmail.com

What do you want to be when you grow up?

What do you want to be when you grow up? You may think that this a silly question but many people are still trying to figure out why they are here. The world is changing and this new economy is forcing many to rethink their career choices. Think about how you ended up in your career. How did you start working in the profession that you are in? Was it happenstance or did you go through formal training? Did you dream about becoming who are you are today when you were a little child? However you got here, you are here! You have managed to successfully carve out your niche but is this really your niche? So, what do you want to be when you grow up?

If you are in transition and you are caught between a layoff and a layup, now is the time to think about what you have been called to do. What you have been called to do is innate to you. It is something you love and it is something that you would do that is effortless. You do not get stressed about this calling because you love it. It comes natural to you. This gift inspires, motivates and impacts others positively. It brings out the best in you. It is a part who you really have been called to be and what you have been called to do. It is something you will do even if you are not compensated. It excites you and causes you to excite others.

Let us look at these times as a time to become who we really have been called to be and not settle on what we happened to become. Transitions are made to move you through life’s roads so you do not get stuck in the same lane. Get in your own lane and work out your dream!

It is time to learn something new! Invest in you!
Keep on moving, don’t stop!

Freya S. Williams, MBA, PHR
Adult Learning Coach
Inspire Learning Solutions
Supplemental Education and Motivation for the Adult Learner
www.inspirelearningsolutions.com
inspirelearning1@gmail.com