My wife and I had the pleasure of attending a private party at our friends' Oakdale Farm home last night, at which Neil Bush was the guest of honor. You may recognize his name as the brother of our current US President, George W Bush, and son of our former US President, George HW Bush and Barabara Bush. In case you're not familiar with him, this link will take you to a page outlining some of Mr Neil Bush's accomplishments, as well as plenty negative press, which is never in shortage in our national media. Our time with Mr Bush was quite enjoyable, with around 100 various guests, consisting of numerous well-known business owners, members of Oklahoma City Rotary, Oklahoma County Medical Society Alliance members, and Leadership Oklahoma City alumni.

As possibly the only non-political member of the Bush family, it was interesting to experience Mr Bush's true passion for education. By his account, around the time he was in the 7th grade, his Mother was told that he would never graduate high school. I can only imagine the pressure brought on by this in a family of such over-achievers. He suffered from dyslexia and struggled immensely in a system that he feels is failing our children. In the end, he did graduate high-school and went on to earn an economics degree and then an MBA from Tulane University. While the reasons may be debatable, few of us would deny that our public schools are falling short of their mark. It's not for lack of trying but rather, many times, lack of effectiveness of our current systems.

Mr Bush's own son, Pierce Bush, experienced some of the same struggles through middle-school and for that reason, Mr Bush co-founded an educational software company in 1999, Ignite! Learning. I won't pretend to fully understand all the ins and outs of his software, but I can tell you that it uses multiple-intelligence methods that I believe would engage students in a way that textbooks fail so many of our children. Even in our local Edmond Public Schools system, which is touted as one of the best in the State of Oklahoma, there's always room for improvement. Mr Bush put on a brief demonstration of the "COW" (Curriculum on Wheels) and, speaking from my own experiences, I can see how this tool would engage and teach students. If I'd had something like this in my classrooms as a student, I'm certain I would have paid more attention and learned more, simply by the interactive nature of this system. It's great to see someone taking the time and making the effort to reform what we know is a somewhat failing public school system by giving the teachers tools that they can easily use to capture the attention of their students. After all, engaging them in topics is far more effective than teaching them to memorize material. My wife and I feel strongly that this type of learning is the solution to many of the learning disabilities that we all hear so much about these days. ADD & ADHD are often dealt with through medication, rather than finding a more effective way of teaching.

Obviously, Mr Bush's intention with his demonstration was to increase exposure and interest in this system. His goal is to get it into public school systems throughout the US through school funding, private funding and donations. After speaking with him in detail about the cost of the systems, I'll be surprised if we don't see this system take on a life of it's own in the near future. Personally, I see this as a great way for us, as professionals, to really step up. For a minimal investment, we could all really make a substantial, lasting difference in the future of our children and our communities across the country. I'll stay off my soap box for now, but if you're interested in finding out more, I encourage you to contact Ignite! Learning directly.

We thoroughly enjoyed our evening and thank our friends for the invitation. It was an eye-opening experience and an evening of delicious Mexican food from Ted's Cafe Escondido, great company and a fantastic mariachi band.