Capitol QIPS

(Quality Improvement Process Strategy) –

a parent perspective on what’s happening in the United States    12-19-07  Part I of II

 “The greatest gift we can give one another is rapt attention to one another's existence.”--Sue Atchley Ebaugh

FEED THEIR MINDS AND THEIR TUMMIES

The hustle and bustle of the holiday season finds many people weary, frustrated, and stressed.  Then there comes a time when we can relax because the preparations are finished and we have time to enjoy our families and friends.  It might be a good time to sit down with a child and read them a book.  A series of books by author Mark Hoog seeks to enrich the lives of all who read them; just as Hoog’s own life was enriched by someone this country will never forget.  The theme of Hoog’s books is one of the paths to safety.  A little about the author:

Mark joins the literary world by way of the airline industry. The youngest pilot hired, and youngest Captain at a major U.S. Airline, Mark has spent his career providing command and leadership training to airline crews from around the world including China, New Zealand, Russia, the U.S. Military, and FAA representatives.

Inspired by the loss of a friend flying as Captain on Flight 93 on September 11th, Mark authored the Growing Field children’s personal growth and leadership book series. The series, best described as Tony Robbins meets Dr. Seuss, is the first children’s series designed as a tool to teach young children the life changing ideas and behaviors associated with personal growth, high self-esteem, self-empowerment, leadership, and strong character. The series has captured national attention and has been endorsed by former Secretary of Education Richard Riley, top motivation speaker W. Mitchell, top success coach Brian Tracy, and by former President Bill Clinton.

Mr. Hoog is the founder and Executive Director of the Children’s Leadership Institute (CLI), a Colorado non-profit organization that uses literature, public speaking, animated films, community outreach, television programming, and public service announcements to share the personal growth and leadership message with children in hopes they fully understand their life is without limit.

Mark travels the country and speaks with children, business organizations, and parent groups to deliver his message on Conscious Leadership; A lesson shown to him by Jason Dahl that challenges people from all walks of life to develop their unique gifts and talents and to share these gifts with the world through their own leadership contribution.

Mr. Hoog lives in Colorado with his wife Kristi and their three children Branson, Morgan and Mitchell.  His website is www.GrowingField.com.

INTERVIEW WITH MARK HOOG

Vicki:  Why would a United Airlines pilot want to write children’s books? 

Hoog:  How does one explain why or when inspiration strikes?  Writing a children’s series was never a goal or intention of mine. 

I was fortunate to have another United pilot (Jason Dahl) ask me two questions that offered me a life-changing paradigm shift.  When his aircraft went down on 9-11 (Jason was the Captain of United Flight 93) it forced me to reflect more on his challenge to me.  It was out of this reflection that the Growing Field book series was born.  I named the series the “Growing Field” in honor of his crash site in Pennsylvania.  I guess it is safe to say that it is his challenge, and his message, that plays out in every Growing Field story.

Vicki:  Had you ever thought about writing books before you became a pilot?

Hoog:  No I had not.  I have always enjoyed reading.  In fact, after Jason’s challenge to me, I seemed to gravitate more to books on leadership, personal growth and philosophy.  It was the seeds planted by these readings that eventually percolated into the messages found in the Growing Field series.

Vicki:  How did you teach your own children the values you address in your books?

Hoog:  There are so many ways to approach that question.  First I believe children are great impersonators and poor interpreters- which is to say the best thing we can do for our children is to be a great example for them.  I will also say that my children have a wonderful mother!  J

I also think it is so important to realize that our children CAN understand the concepts of personal growth, self-empowerment and leadership at a very early age.  Leadership can be broken down into character traits, beliefs, behaviors and habits.  Pick your favorite leaders- and it is easy to recognize the qualities that they possess that make them a great leader.  Any of those traits, beliefs, behaviors and habits can be taught, learned, practiced by our children at a very early age. We need only to plant the seed, water it a bit every day and allow it to grow.  It has been said that children don’t lack capacity - they lack teachers.  I believe that we can all do a better job of teaching and preparing this generation of young people to be the leaders we need for tomorrow.

Vicki:  How do your own children feel about their father writing books for other kids?

Hoog:  This chapter of my life has been wonderful to share with my children.  They are my biggest fans and also my toughest critics.  I enjoy sharing the stories with them to see what they get out of them, to see which parts resonate and also to find which parts of the stories need work.

Vicki:  Do you think children should be taught character education in our schools?

Hoog:  That is a difficult question that can, again, be answered on various levels.  Yes I think there are powerful opportunities to teach character education in schools.  Our curriculums are rich with people like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Edison, Newton, Beethoven, Martin Luther King Jr., Steinbeck, Thomas Paine, and so many others that share powerful character traits that we can all learn from. 

I also believe that character education can be more than it is currently.  Many times character education is, for lack of a better term, a noun.  It is a word on a poster and a poster on a wall.  To be as effective as possible we must find ways to make it a verb - an action word.  A child could never learn to hit a baseball by reading the word “bat and ball” on a poster.  To learn to hit you must give the child the experience of actually hitting the ball.  Character education is the same.  We must move it from posters and words and actually provide the opportunity to discuss it and then put it into action. 

Vicki:  The issue of bullying is very serious these days with our kids.  How do you think your books will work to teach children differently?

Hoog:  I agree that bullying is a very serious issue today.  I also believe it won’t change until we fundamentally change how we approach the problem.  Let me give you an example…

Finish this statement…”We cannot love someone else until we love________.”   The answer: ourselves.

If a child lacks self-esteem (does not hold him or herself in high esteem) they lash out at others in various forms of bullying.  You can give them all the books you want on sharing, caring, being nice, playing well with others, etc., but the cure will be temporary at best because the root of the problem has not been addressed. 

So the question becomes, “What if…we start working on the self esteem (internal) early and helping our children build strong mental constitutions?  This is where the Growing Field focuses.  Each story focuses on personal growth behaviors like the recognition of unique gifts and abilities, how to start discovering your own gifts and talents, how to plant own personal “seeds of success” and make dreams come true, the importance of working towards goals, overcoming personal adversity and never giving up on yourself or your dreams.  All are internal messages to build critical self-esteem.

If we teach our children these concepts and ideas…I believe bullying will be addressed more effectively than the approach we currently take.

Vicki:  Why would your books appeal to “children of all ages?”

Hoog:  Abraham Maslow gave us the “hierarchy of needs.”  We all remember that at the bottom are the basic human needs….food, safety, shelter.  At the top is the most important of his human needs and the one all people have - self-actualization.  Maslow defines this as the need to understand we CAN become more than we are.  That not only is there something we can become… there is something we MUST become.

The Growing Field series speaks to the child in each of us that still desires to know that we can become more than we are.  These ideas, which have been shared by so many leaders are timeless and speak to each of us on a different level.  For that reason this series has found an audience far outside of what we thought would be our target and has now touched children as young as four, junior high students, high school students, college graduates, and even executives and sales teams. 

We all need reminding once in awhile that life is without limit and we are without limit.  I guess that is why Secretary of Education Richard Riley said, “Everyone can benefit from the seeds to be found in the Growing Field.

Vicki:  When you do public speaking engagements, what thoughts do you want the audience to leave with?

Hoog:  In each of my presentations I share a message I call “Conscious Leadership.”  The message contains four simple elements that I believe we all must address if we are to have our own personal success.  It is a series of stories that I hope make them laugh, make them cry…but most importantly make them THINK!  Think about their ability and their possibility.  Think about the impact they are making on the world around them and to know that their own masterpiece called “life” is without limit.

What I want the audience to leave with was best summed up by a young third grade boy after one of my presentations.  He approached me and said, “Mr. Hoog, I think I know what it is you’re trying to tell me.”  I asked him to share and he said this, “I think you are telling me that I can be the Captain of my own life.”  That is still the best I have ever heard it said- I wish I could take credit for it.

Regardless of my audience, which now includes kindergarten through college students, business executives to board members, community volunteers to teachers or coaches- I want them to leave the presentation with a renewed outlook on life and their role in making a difference in it.

END OF INTERVIEW