Coach Bill / Dad, Entrepreneur Special Educator, American Political Scientist, Writer, Musician.

It does not seem to be that being outspoken, non-tribal critical thinkers are valued or rightly understood for what they can offer the local and national community. The established, public school educational order seems to disregard the creation of Americans with these mindsets, and appears to be tilted in favoring the shaping of minds primarily into important specific knowledge focuses (science, technology, education, math).  The creation, valuing and support of open-minded, non-tribal, ideologically free, moral critical thinkers is  one of  the greatest gifts any nation seeking to maintain individual freedom and liberty can give itself, because these protect and defend, not firstly with weapons made of iron, but with the intangible instruments of the mind: common sense, refined executive functions, and intellects crafted to become observant, analytical, fair and balanced in perspective, ever-ready to the questioning and refinement of one’s education.  Edu...

In special education, the ability to innovate with practical ways of developing and strengthening neural connectivity that leads to new ‘thinking pathways,’ even alternative sequences of thinking process that create new mental perspectives, is both easy and challenging. The vast majority of Special Educators are stationed within a formal classroom environment, and thus, must work within the physical parameters of the school building and the individual educational plan agreed to in team meetings. Should the Special Educator adapt to more entrepreneurial outlooks, allowing for themselves to take on a much more independent thinking style in line with that of what is known as the ‘clinical educator?’ Taking license from the entrepreneurial mode of production, clinical educators look first unto observing, reflecting, and studying how their own instructional approach, as a series of methods, strategies, mindsets, and fine-tuning of their professional relationship with those they teach,...

Mr. Newlin's son on Mount Rainier, Dad took photo A while back I was fortunate to pin down an incredible Dad, Philippe Newlin. He has constantly transitioned and transformed himself across his life and I wanted to share a segment of his life, as well as his thoughts on skateboarding with the public. In and of itself, skateboarding helps us practice important life skills, which can be extrapolated across our life far away from the Olympic sport of skateboarding. Mr. Newlin’s story is quite interesting in that he has steadfastly kept up his mental prowess over the years, catapulting from one endeavor to another without skipping a beat.  Soft skills (which are ‘abstract’ life skills, like humility, perseverance, grit, tenacity) and cognitive executive function skills flexed in his youth on the streets of Manhattan seem to not have lost their mental-muscle power over the years. Mr. Newlin, manages a wine importing business in the United States for a family-owned compa...

Thinking outside the box   is a term widely-used to describe the action of bringing in new thinking to solve a present challenge. It involves mental flexibility to shift between mental models, or perspectives, allowing one or a whole team to ‘see’ different possible routes to problem-solving through to task completion. In this manner, the individual or team allows themselves the liberty to ‘step outside the box’ of established patterns of problem-solving and bring in a strategy, methods and momentum to break through for the ‘win.’   In the case of our public school systems, it has been found that a great many of them across the United States of America struggle to create students who are ready to be part of the twenty first century work force. Many grow up without a concrete vision of what they can become, who they can be or how far they can go. Without a strong vision and belief that they are capable in reaching great peaks, complacency enters their minds and hea...

Children, as they grow up in their formative years form a great amount of their understandings of the world based on their experiences as they are processed emotionally and physically. In this essay, I question how the emotional and physical processing influences behavior and movement. Do our experiences influence how we hold our body? Likewise, do our experiences, especially those in our childhood and adolescence influence how we hold our facial muscles? I posit that the ‘processed’ experiences place a signature mark on our whole selves and we live out our lives with this coded information. I also posit that we are able to change, or re-code this information while toning our cognitive-physical health. The way we walk,  The way we hold our face muscles,  the way we talk the way we dance. Their is a physical, emotional code that is created and affirmed and the ability to change that signature mark can be done practically through purposeful,...

Oscar Romero, child of God Setting time aside once a month to give back to one’s community where it is needed is an exercise in humility and gratitude which is not forgotten by one’s heart and mind. Does serving one’s community strengthen our cognitive skills, such as our executive function abilities? Is community service therapeutic for one’s heart of hears? 2.  How can parents organically do this with their family? My late-fathers congregation does something special once a month in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. At sundown they go and feed people who are down and out. Some are local, some are from the U.S. mainland, mostly all are homeless,  heroin drug addicts  and the down and out that roam the cobble-stone streets of the city show up. Built over five hundred years ago, the walled-in and fortified city holds the seat of the islands government and preeminence as the epicenter of the island’s culture. The youth skateboard area is not far in ‘Bal...

The older we get the harder it is to change our ways. Our ways form mental habits complete with brain circuitry, like roads which facilitate our thinking patterns. These can be changed and the younger we are, the more apt our mental flexibility is, allowing us to change the course of our habits like pivoting on a dime. Setbacks on the road to bring about real change in our life can stem from lack of clarity of purpose, low physical energy, inadequate support by family and community and a non-serving attitude which toughens our hearts against instilling lasting positive changes. ………………………………… Recently, I have been asked what I do for a living many times. I give my generic, surface answers… I am a Special Educator, I am an artist, an Executive Function Skills Coach and co-founder and teacher in a skateboard company start-up. I am then asked what kind of art I make, to which I reply, I create dance videos which are focused at changing the way special education i...