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Okay, here’s a pet peeve popping up: the No Child Left Behind Act.

It seems as though this program continues to be evaluated for its effectiveness, and all the stories I’ve read on it say it comes up way short on accomplishing its desired outcome since its inception - high standards and accountability for the learning of all children.

I LOVE the idea of finding ways to assist all of our kids to learn and grow into healthy, socially resourceful adults. What makes me crazy is that it was doomed from the start BECAUSE OF ITS TITLE.

Try this experiment: DON’T think about elephants. No, really - DON’T THINK ABOUT ELEPHANTS! What’s happening? Are you thinking about elephants? And the more you try NOT to think about elephants, are they starting to stampede through your mind?

It’s a simple brain thing - the mind doesn’t register “don’t”, “can’t”, or “not”. It just registers what comes after it. Have you ever told a child: “Do not climb on the counter!”? Where’s the next place you found that child?

The subtle, unconscious problem with NCLB is that all the mind registers is “Child Left Behind Act.” It’s totally contradictory to what we actually want for our children.

So the obvious first step to turning our good intentions into real solutions is to change the name. What if it was called the EVERY CHILD INCLUDED ACT?

Think about the energy behind these opposing titles. What’s going on in your body when you think about “NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND?” For me, my body takes a fighting stance, fist waving in the air - quite the shadow energy of fear, defensiveness, ready to attack. This is NOT where solutions live.

Now pay attention to what’s going on in your body when you think about “EVERY CHILD INCLUDED.”

My body feels an expanding energy, a sense of community, and a belief that it’s actually possible to somehow include every child. I easily shift into possibility and solution thinking - how can we include every child?

We must be much more vigilant about how we are unconsciously sabotaging the very things we want in the world by choosing the thoughts and words that contradict what we want.

This is the way you can CHOOSE LOVE TODAY - pay attention and choose your words CAREFULLY.

Ripped from the headlines in today’s Rocky Mountain News:

“Find a party … to ring out the bad news of 2008″

That headline struck me as odd. It seems to imply that if we can survive until midnight on December 31^st, then we can say, “Whew, I’m glad that year’s over!”

Why is it that we think we can only start fresh on the first day of January every year? It seems that we’re missing out on a gazillion more opportunities to begin anew.

We actually get to start over every month, every day, every hour, every minute, every second. This is what it means to me to BE in the present moment. To know, and to really understand, that every thought I think, every word I speak and every action and response I choose is a chance to start fresh.

I think there’s a danger in placing such high expectations on the “new year” to fix everything that happened over the last 365 days. The higher the expectations, the farther the potential fall into disillusionment, anger, and frustration.

What if we “rang in” every day with anticipation and celebration? What if we intentionally and deliberately sought out the lessons from yesterday and applied that new wisdom to our choices today? What if we chose to bless the past rather than try to run away from it?

What if we created the intention to “ring in” every moment as a chance to begin anew?

I think I’ll give it a try, starting…….. NOW!