Message from the CEO
David Schwartz is the inventor of BinderBuddies® and the new DOCOAtm Organizing Assistanttm. His company is responsible for the on-going development and delivery of the Organize360tm curriculum intervention.
The expression goes "you can't teach an old dog new tricks". Well, we know that when it comes to organizing, everyone develops their own personal style, and "locks in on it", and this would seem to lend support and meaning to that phrase. But we here at PE LLC believe differently.
I like to start by asking the question, "Does that mean you can't teach a young dog old tricks?". We know from recent research on mirror neurons*, that children like to mimic the rules and behaviors they are shown, even if they see a way to do a task more quickly or efficiently. They seem to know that following rules engenders learning, and until they develop and find ways to trust their intuition and "invent", they gladly copy or follow.
To us, this means everything! Our methods of organizing dynamics are tested and proven, and they employ some "old tricks" for organzing that really do work. And we have shown that these tricks are readily employed by young children, with subsequent improvements in educational outcomes. Now, that would suggest we can teach old tricks to the young ones. And, in all fairness to our more aged peers, it also turns out to be true that we can teach these very same "old tricks" to young adults and adults! What a relief to discover this at any age.
It is our hope that by connecting with each and every one of you, through our tools, we can inspire you to become better organziers, and more importantly, if you are in a position to mentor a friend or child, that you will share the tricks you have learned and make the experience of becoming self-organized a life long and joyful journey. I would like to share a few other points with you and then welcome you to find what you need here on our website as you pursue your mission.
Knowledge is the result of what each and every one of us takes as input, "stirred" by our individual imaginations. The process of taking information in is really a process of organizing and structuring, on every level. We do it when we learn the spelling and grammar of our language and begin to read, and we do it every day as we gather and absorb the things we have the power to observe, value, and choose to keep. When a child is unorganized, with papers flying left and right, and no sense of order in the storing and access of important information, the input part of the knowledge equation is not working to its fullest potential.Part of our mission is to enable the child and adult to be better at the "input part" of knowledge formation.
But knowledge is just as much a form of expression. It is not only what we take in and "imaginate" into something meaningful, but how we share what we know with ourselves and with others. So we not only have to take stuff in and process it with our imagination, but we need to output it or communicate it in a relevant and appropriate way. I am an advocate of the simple principle that if you allow each and every child to have the tools to structure and represent information, i.e. handle the input part of the process, they will develop the essential critical thinking skills to become creative imaginers, great learners, great believers in themselves,and great contributors.
We hope to provide some of the basic tools for paper handling and knowledge representation that we can all use at any age, to make some of the important discoveries about critical thinking that learning how to organize can teach us. By doing this, we hope to empower the imaginations of each individual and enable them to experience knowledge in new and leveraged ways. Our company will seek to keep this objective clear and serve this mission in every activity it engages.
Sincerely,
David C. Schwartz
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
*Research on mirror neurons: The New York Times: Science Times "Cells That Read Minds" Sandra Blakeslee January 10, 2006