Travis R. Martin, CPA, MBA » Education

Lessons from the Bush Leagues: Applying the Minor League Mindset to High School Athletics (Part I)

travisrmartin — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:17:47 +0000

There may be better ways to spend a summer vacation, although I can’t think of any. For two months this summer, I traveled around the country watching Minor League Baseball games, thanks to a Teacher Creativity Grant from the Eli Lilly Foundation.

A large crowd looks on at Smokies Park in Kodak, TN

Officially, the idea was to study the marketing methods used by Minor League Baseball teams, which happen to be so good that they’ve helped some Minor League franchises across the country to record attendance, recession be damned.

Unofficially, I am never at a loss for an excuse to go watch baseball.

In the course of my travels, I was also hoping to get some ideas to bring back to the classroom.

Ah, the classroom – where I teach Business to high schoolers who are sometimes (most of the time) more interested in shooting arrows at balloons with a cartoon monkey (God bless internet games) than learning business fundamentals.

And while I did come up with the inspiration for a handful of great lesson plans, I realized that nearly everything I was seeing at the ballparks – the wacky promotions, the entertaining mascots, and the carnival-like atmospheres – could easily be applied to high school athletics.

It may sound outlandish, marketing high school sports in the same manner that a professional sports league markets its product, but, the reality is that Minor League Baseball and high school sports already have a lot in common.

I’ll give you a few examples in friendly, bullet point format:

Due to athlete turnover, both the Minor Leagues and high school athletics typically promote teams as a whole as opposed to individual players
In most markets, fans will attend Minor League games regardless of how well the team is playing. In other words, it doesn’t matter much if the team wins. Fans attend the games to have fun and see young talent develop. Is high school that much different?
Minor League teams, especially in the lower levels where the teams play in smaller towns, are a big part of their communities. As a result, the fan mix at most MiLB games is a cross-section of hardcore fans, casual observers, uninterested socialites, and hyper-active youngsters. In a lot of ways it is the same type of crowd found at a high school sporting event.

Any high school athletics program, regardless of size, can adopt a Minor League mindset to help boost community interest, fan support, school spirit, and attendance – all of which lead to more money for the school.

A group of mascots discuss their gameplan.

So, as a back to school gift for Athletic Directors everywhere, I will be offering a four part blog series on the tenets of the Minor League Mindset and how they can be applied to high school athletics.

Part I: Focus on the Fan

It is hard to create a caricature of the “typical” Minor League Baseball fan, because the crowds that attend the games are so diverse. All age groups and levels of interest are represented at the ballpark. Yet, for all their differences, fans at Minor League games seem to have one thing in common: they all have fun.

So, how do these franchises go about entertaining fans ranging in age from infants to octogenarians? Most minor league front office people readily admit that it’s not always about the team on the field.

Sure, some of the fans are there to watch baseball. But, even big baseball fans would have a hard time mustering up enough excitement to go see a lineup like this:

Means – RF
Sappelt – CF
Puckett – 2B
Mendez, C – 3B
Brown, T – LF
Coddington – DH
Day – 1B
Wideman – C
Rojas – SS
Janke – P

Not exactly household names. Nevertheless, 8,584 people piled into Fifth Third Field in Dayton, Ohio to watch these Dayton Dragons take on the Fort Wayne Tincaps on July 2nd.

If it’s not the game itself, what’s drawing 8,000+ fans a night to Dayton, and other ballparks across the country?

Minor League baseball teams have an unrelenting focus on the fan. Everything they do is designed to entertain, and most of the entertainment is interactive. Downtime between innings is filled with contests, with the participants being plucked right from the crowd. Fans may race one another around the bases, sumo wrestle, dance on dugouts, sing karaoke, and play “Let’s Make a Deal” – all before the seventh inning stretch.

As one front office executive put it to me, “baseball is just a backdrop we use to perform our shtick.”

Fans not participating in the “shtick” are treated to what basically amounts to a live-action reality show. What nine-year old will be able to put on a Dragons uniform and race around the bases the quickest? Tune in between the fourth and fifth innings to find out!

All of these contests provide family fun and help turn spectators into participators and casual fans into season ticket holders. In addition, they provide a unique opportunity for your sponsors – an issue we’ll discuss next time.

A fan participates in a dice rolling game at Bowling Green Ballpark

Focusing on the fan also means providing a comfortable atmosphere. I visited over 20 Minor League stadiums this summer, and I don’t recall seeing a single scrap of paper laying on the ground in any of the concourses or men’s rooms. All of the stadiums were clean, all had good food (some obviously better than others) and regardless of where I was at, it was always easy to spot an usher if I needed something.

Adopting a Minor League mindset requires more from an Athletic Director than scheduling officials, chalking the field, and turning on the lights. It’s about creating an environment where people are always wondering “what are they going to do next?”

And, the beautiful thing is, adopting a fan-friendly focus doesn’t take a lot of extra money or staff. Work with students to develop theme nights and contests. Leverage your school’s existing website to advertise your programs (a topic which we’ll cover in part three). Partner with the booster club to find volunteers to serve as ushers/fan assistants.

In the end, fans that have fun at a sporting event will continue to come back. The Minor Leagues have proven that. There’s no reason why the same wouldn’t hold true at the high school level.

Next Time – Part II: Get Creative and Get Fans

What do these eyes have to do with drawing fans and providing value for sponsors? Find out next time.

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Kindle DX: The Textbook Killer?

travisrmartin — Wed, 06 May 2009 02:39:13 +0000

What is big and bulky, useless after six months, and costs about $150? Your average college textbook, of course (although the Ford Festiva I drove in college also fits that description). Thanks to e-commerce titan Amazon.com, the textbooks of tomorrow may continue to cost an arm and a leg, but they won’t otherwise physically impair students with their girth.

Today’s Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon is set to continue the digital assault on all things paper with a new version of its electronic reading device, Kindle. The new Kindle DX, which features a larger viewing area, is designed to display textbooks in a reader-friendly format.

Gadget loving bloggers have been quick to revel in the potential convenience that the Kindle offers – namely the ability to replace sacks full of textbooks with fingers full of white plastic.

Now, textbooks are heavy. That is a given. But, we have had a solution for that long before the new Kindle came along. It’s called Cliffs Notes.

As a college freshman, I took an Old Testament Survey class. The required reading for the class came in the form of the New Oxford Annotated Bible, whose hardback cover and 1,400 pages checked in at a hefty two-and-a-half pounds. In the interest of economization, I made a trip to the local Books-a-Million and picked up a copy of Cliffs Notes for the Old Testament. Thanks to that little yellow book, I was able to replace a bulky text with a lightweight alternative. No Kindle was required.

Dr. Roberts, I'm Sorry. I Used Cliffs Notes.

(Yes, you can get Cliffs Notes for the Old Testament, and yes, I am still wondering what consequence buying Cliffs Notes over the Bible will have on my mortal soul).

There are other ways the Kindle will fall short when it comes to replicating the college textbook experience.

When I was in college, I didn’t view the textbooks I bought every August and January as purchases. Instead, the textbooks were more like deposits on my bi-annual trips home. I would buy the textbooks at the start of the term, and then sell them back at the end of each semester for gas money to get home. If I did not have something tangible to sell to the college bookstore back in December of 1997, i.e. if all my books were on a Kindle, I would still be stranded in my freshman dorm room.

Even the books I was unable to resell have proven to be valuable. Whenever the bookstore refused to buy a book from me, the book went on my shelf. Between those unwanted books, and the other books I’ve acquired over the years, I have amassed quite a collection. I display these books prominently throughout my home. My hope is that when visitors see my small library, they will assume that I am intelligent. After all, a moron wouldn’t surround himself with such great works as West’s Federal Taxation – 2001 Edition and Seven Theories of Human Nature, would he? It’s the same strategy used by the legal, financial, and medical experts you see every night on the evening news. They’re always surrounded by an office full of books. But, if their books were trapped inside a Kindle, they would be unable to create that aura of intelligence.

Amazon’s Kindle may succeed in recreating the words that are contained in college textbooks (and it wouldn’t even be the first device to accomplish that). But, for me, no gadget will be able to replace the actual textbook experience.

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When Carpets Become Spittoons

travisrmartin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 01:57:46 +0000

Here’s another entry from my personal journal of the 2008-2009 school year. Look for other tales from the classroom under the tag “Rotten Apples.” Please note that all student and school names have been changed in the interest of privacy.
____________________________________________________________________________________________

September 11, 2008

When Carpets Become Spittoons

It was a lovely end to the day today. About 15 minutes before the final bell, I happened to notice Michael Williams spitting something onto the floor. I walked over to his seat in the back row and observed a brown lake forming on the carpet between him and his neighbor.

“What’s all this,” I said, pointing at the carpet. “Are you dipping?”

“No, I didn’t do nothin,’” he mumbled as he looked away.

I grabbed a piece of paper out of the printer, put it over the wet spot on the floor and stepped on it. The fresh spit soaked into the paper, turning it brown.

“So, that’s not your puddle of spit on the floor?”

I have gotten used to seeing tobacco and trash on the bathroom floor. On my classroom floor? Not so much.

“No, I didn’t do nothin’.'” Michael said, this time looking me directly in the eye.

“Ok,” I gestured towards the student sitting next to Michael, “so that wad of dip sitting in the floor is Bobby’s?”

Bobby Chandler didn’t even look up. Earlier in the period he had discovered a video game site that our web blocking software had yet to find, so he was busy shooting cartoon cats out of a cannon.

“I don’t know.”

“Mike, I watched you spit it out.”

“I’m not dipping…wook,” Michael said as he pulled out his lower lip, causing him to slur his “l.”

“I know there’s nothing in there, bud…I watched you spit it out. It’s sitting right here on the floor.”

I directed his attention toward the damning evidence. I thought I made a pretty good case.

“Well. It ain’t mine.”

We were at a stalemate. I decided to pull out the heavy guns.

I pointed at the black plastic bubble protruding from the ceiling, “Mike, there’s the camera. It is aimed right at you. Do I really have to go to the tape and get the pictures of you spitting on the floor?”

He didn’t answer. I took that to be his admission of guilt. Having scored the touchdown, I went for the extra point.

“Why would you spit on the carpet….” I struggled for words. What I wanted to say was “what the *#@!* is wrong with you?” I settled for something that was less likely to get me fired. “That’s just gross. Do you spit on the floor when you’re at home?”

“Yeah.” He looked at me defiantly.

“You spit on the floor at home?” I asked again. Sometimes students say something so crazy, that you just have to ask for confirmation.

“YEAH!” He was starting to get worked up. I really think if I pressed the issue he may have tried to punch me. Which, given the circumstances, might not have been too bad. Getting slugged by a student at school would have to entitle me to at least one day off.

I weighed the options and relented. “Well, you’re going to clean this crap up.” I called the custodians and they brought a bucket of suds and some paper towels. Michael spent the last three minutes of class scrubbing the carpet.

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From the Cubicle to the Classroom

travisrmartin — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:57:58 +0000

My name is Travis Martin. I am 29 years old, and I am an idiot. I wasn’t always an idiot, though. In the old days when I went to work, people would listen to me. They respected me, my credentials, and my opinions. I was a CPA at a large public accounting firm. The initials at the end of my name were enough to garner a certain amount of respect from most anyone I crossed paths with.

Then something happened. After four years of juggling the endless minutia of tax forms, financial statements and audit reports, I started to wonder what in the hell I was doing with my life.

Clients were no longer people; they were random names affixed to manila folders and faceless voices on the other end of a phone line.

Seasons were no longer defined by the weather, but by the type of job I was working on. Spring was tax season. Fall and winter were audit season. Summer was a blur of loose ends and unfinished jobs.

Co-workers shuffled into and out of the firm, leaving little evidence that they were ever there in the first place. I felt like a cog in a machine, counting my life away in fifteen minute increments using the firms’ billing software.

It all seemed pointless.

I wanted more. I wanted creativity. I wanted spontaneity. I wanted to change the world. I decided I wanted to be a high school teacher. That was five years, thirty-six graduate credit hours in Education, and $12,000 in tuition ago.

Unfortunately, somewhere between the cubicle and the classroom I became an idiot.

The Idiot Chaperoning at the Senior Prom in 2006

Parents with no training in business or education questioned my teaching methods and qualifications. Principals tracked my every move from afar, demanding copies of my lessons, tests, gradebooks, and syllabi while seldom stepping foot into my room. Students accused me of a litany of offenses, including losing their homework, miscalculating their grades and generally ruining their lives. Co-workers held secret caucuses to discuss the environment inside my classroom.

This year I will be beginning my fourth year as an idiot. I am guessing some of your teachers, or your children’s teachers, are idiots too.

It’s not all our fault though.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Prior to the beginning of this school year, I decided to keep a journal to document my day-to-day experiences as a high school teacher. The above post, along with the posts The Legend of Mr. Tooters and Weiner, AR – The Capital of Adolescent Humor, are excerpts from my journal. Future excerpts from the journal will be posted under the tag Rotten Apples. I hope to have the entire journal finished and ready to submit for publication by August 2009.

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Weiner, Arkansas – the Capital of Adolescent Humor

travisrmartin — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 02:46:04 +0000

Some of the greatest achievements in the history of mankind occurred by accident. Coke, for instance, was invented when Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton mixed together a handful of random ingredients while trying to invent a cure for headaches. Penicillin was stumbled upon when an absent-minded scientist forgot to clean his laboratory prior to going on vacation.

On this day, April 7, 2009, another breakthrough was made – one that will be remembered for all eternity by sophomore boys who enjoy sophomoric humor. For it was today, at 1:03 pm, when two of my Computer Applications students discovered a town called Weiner.

Weiner, Arkansas...Home of the Fighting Cardinals

The discovery came while the students were researching weather conditions for a database project. Each two person team was assigned the task of gathering current weather conditions from 20 different cities, and compiling the information into a database, where it could then be organized and manipulated in a number of different ways.

For some of my students, the idea of creating a database is about as appealing as the idea of having an acne outbreak before a big date, so I tried to incorporate an element of fun into the assignment by encouraging the class to find cities with odd names. (Although the suggestion may not seem like much, I have found that small twists of this nature can make the difference between a student completing or not completing an assignment)

As I sauntered around the room, I noticed most of my students had taken the conventional route – selecting common cities such as Chicago, St. Louis, and Louisville. Then I came to “Brad” and “Steven,” my compadres in the back of the classroom. As I glanced at their computer screen, I noticed they had comprised a database solely of wacky towns. There was Tennessee, Illinois, Crapo, Maryland, Quitman, Georgia, Winner, South Dakota, Sheboygan, Wisconsin and Forks, Washington. Satisfied that my advice had taken hold with at least one group, I continued around the room. I returned to Brad and Steven moments later when I heard them laughing hysterically. When I asked them what they had found, all they could do was point at their screen, which was displaying up-to-the minute weather information for Weiner, Arkansas.

Part of me, the part that didn’t have to worry about maintaining order in a classroom with twenty-eight fifteen and sixteen year-olds, wanted to laugh. Hard. The “responsible teacher” part of me won out though, so I just grinned and told them that the preferred spelling of “weiner,” was in fact “w-i-e-n-e-r” (thank you, Principal Skinner). My spelling lesson did little to dampen their enthusiasm.

“What kind of stuff you think they have in Weiner?” Steven asked Brad excitedly, just before rephrasing the question and typing it into Google.

Normally Google processes queries in a snap, but Steven’s Weiner query seemed to take forever, which allowed plenty of time for a group of curious students to make their way back to see the results.

It turns out there’s not much in Weiner, AR. Just a school. The Weiner School District, to be exact. Of course, that link was where Steven’s mouse landed and within seconds, Brad and Steven were treating half of the class to an impromptu tour of the internet home of the Weiner High School Cardinals. The small group howled at the risqué irony when Steven clicked on February’s Teacher of the Month, Mr. Woody. Even the trivial statements made on the Principal’s page (“It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to Weiner High School”) drew a chorus of laughter.

After a few minutes, the laughter died down and the group of students returned to their seats to conduct their own Weiner research. One student, skilled in the art of browsing Wikipedia, noted that, with a total area of 1.4 square miles, Weiner just wasn’t that larg… “Brandon!” I cut the student off before he could finish.

As the bell rang and the students exited the room, I had the sinking feeling that I had inadvertently done more to improve the students’ comedic skills than their database building skills.

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The Curse of Options

travisrmartin — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:36:30 +0000

As a teacher who works in a high school with a graduation rate that ranges from bad to atrocious depending on the year, I have become a sucker for a good “lost youth overcomes the odds” story. This past weekend, the online edition of the Chicago Tribune delivered such a tale with an article about Ben Symko, a former high school dropout who made the transition from juvenile delinquent to practicing attorney.

Stories like Symko’s are certainly inspirational, but what practical use do they hold for schools and communities dealing with soaring dropout rates? Probably not much.

Ben Symko (Rex Larsen - Grand Rapids Press)

The reality of the situation is that it often takes an extraordinarily random chain of events to turn around a high school dropout. No single well-meaning teacher in a classroom can do it alone.

Just look at the string of coincidences Symko benefited from. At 17, he was looking at a 93-day prison sentence for stealing alcohol. Instead of forcing Symko to serve his sentence in jail, the judge in the case allowed him to travel with his father to a monastic style “spiritual boot camp” in Florida. While at the camp in Florida, Symko became friends with a nun who arranged for him to travel to Italy and manage a clinic for heroin addicts. One year later, the same nun arranged for him to move to the Dominican Republic to help mentor orphans. While in the Dominican Republic, Symko met Bren Simon, a philiantrophist from Indiana. Simon was so impressed with the work that Symko was doing, that she agreed to finance his entire undergraduate education, plus three extra years for law school.

Although, Symko’s teenage years were rife with struggle, he eventually hit a streak of good fortune that helped him turn his life around.

In the book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell suggests that being in the right place at the right time is only half of the equation for success. The other half, Gladwell argues, is a capacity for hard work – as demonstrated by accumulating 10,000 hours of practice to master a given skill.

When one combines opportunity with hard work, like Symko did, good things happen. But, where exactly did Symko’s newfound penchant for hard work come from? How did he go from an unmotivated high school dropout to someone who was willing to work around the clock for nominal pay in far-away locales? It’s all about options.

Many teenagers do not see education as a necessary step to getting what they want out of life. As crazy as it seems, some students think they have the option of getting a good paying job without a high school diploma. I have had numerous students tell me that they can make upwards of $40-$50 an hour “working with their dad” or doing unskilled manual labor, even without having a diploma or a GED. They perceive that they have options that do not require school.

And if the $40-an-hour job doesn’t come to fruition? They have that scenario covered too, with the option of living off of friends, family, or the federal government.

It is entirely possible that Symko saw these options for himself when he was a wayward teenager. However, when Symko was shipped to Florida, Italy, and the Dominican Republic, he found himself stripped of options. Gone were the comforts of home – things like running water, cable television, the internet, and easy access to alcohol. All that was left in their place was hard work and sacrifice, which Symko then embraced.

To me, this is an interesting paradox. The traditional line of thinking is that communities should provide “at-risk” students with more opportunity – newer schools, better teachers, and state-of-the art computers -so they will, in turn, perform better.

Perhaps we have the dropout problem backwards. Maybe these students need less opportunity and fewer options. Maybe they need to see life through the eyes of an orphan in the Dominican Republic or a heroin addict in Italy.

It worked for Ben Symko.

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The Hidden Cost of School Accountability

travisrmartin — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 03:14:26 +0000

It’s a script fit for Hollywood, or at least a Lifetime Network movie of the week. A talented principal comes into a struggling inner-city school and transforms it into one of the best schools in the state.

The star of this “underdog overcomes the odds” story is Janet Ham, Principal of Maplewood Elementary School in Indianapolis. But, after nine years of rising test scores and national recognition, allegations are forming that the Maplewood turnaround orchestrated by Ham may be more fiction than reality.

Saturday’s Indianapolis Star reported that Wayne Township School officials are investigating Ham in response to an anonymous call received by the district’s testing director. The caller accused Ham of giving inappropriate instructions to her staff regarding the time limits for the state’s ISTEP test. Since students across the state are to receive the same amount of time to finish their standardized tests, any additional time given to one group could cause an unfair advantage – and higher test scores.

Wayne Township School officials hope to conclude their investigation into Principal Ham’s actions by April 1^st. Even if she is found innocent of any wrongdoing, the shadow of doubt has already been cast. Right or wrong, the public will now look at the dramatic improvement in Maplewood’s ISTEP scores (available here) with a certain degree of suspicion.

Ham’s story may serve as a cautionary tale of the hidden costs of school accountability. In an era where schools are punished or rewarded for their scores on high-stakes tests, educators are not short on incentives to cheat. Further magnifying the incentive is the likelihood that cheaters will go undetected.

Economist Steven Levitt suggested in his book Freakonomics that educator cheating on standardized tests may be a common phenomenon, given the low risks and high returns involved. Levitt studied seven years worth of testing data – 700,000 sets of tests and nearly 100 million individual student answers -from the Chicago Public School (CPS) system. From the data, Levitt observed that students in certain CPS classrooms experienced a large spike in their test scores one year, followed by a dramatic drop the next. Upon further inspection, Levitt noted the presence of suspicious patterns – groups of eight to ten questions with the exact same student responses – in the tests from these same classrooms. These two red flags led Levitt to believe that some teachers were manipulating test results by directly changing answers on their students’ tests after they had been handed in.

Just how widespread was the cheating in CPS? Based on his study, Levitt believes that roughly five percent of CPS teachers were changing answers. Keep in mind that this estimate does not include other, more subtle, forms of test manipulation like giving students extra time.

As the push for increased school accountability through standardized testing continues, we could be seeing more instances of test rigging from schools throughout the country.

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Obama Looks to Teachers to Save Country

travisrmartin — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 02:35:28 +0000

If you see me in the near future, and I appear to be stressed, please excuse me. I just received word from the President that I am one of the most important people in America. In fact, our President says the future of the entire country rests, at least in part, in my hands.

Staying hydrated is critical when you are trying to save a nation.

I know, I know, it’s hard to believe. Before Tuesday, I was just your run-of-the mill, nondescript high school teacher. Now, thanks to President Obama’s most recent speech on Education, my job description has been amended to include “saving the nation.”

Trust me, it’s not easy preparing the nation’s youth for competition in a fast-paced, Darwinian global economy, especially while the whole world keeps tabs on your progress (or lack thereof). But, for the past four years, I’ve been on the job 7-5-180 (that’s 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, 180 days a year) trying my best to help American teenagers keep up with the 繁體中文版 (aka, the Joneses).

Unfortunately, my best efforts, and the best efforts of my colleagues, have not been good enough. Test scores are falling precipitously. Students aren’t finishing high school. Other countries have leapfrogged us in math and science achievement. Schools are crumbling and hallways are becoming increasingly violent.

But, help is on the way. In this case, the cavalry comes in the form of a $100 Billion funding injection for schools. The question is: will the Government’s stimulus plan bring schools into the 21^st century, or will the $100 Billion buy the American taxpayers more of the same? As of right now, this is one question that I don’t have an answer key for.

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Texting Goes from Classroom to Cash Register

travisrmartin — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 07:46:21 +0000

I fight on the front lines in a losing battle. My enemy is small in stature, no bigger than a deck of cards. It has the ability to stealthy move between pockets, purses, and palms. It invades my territory on a regular basis with an impenetrable wall of distraction.

I fight it everyday. Sometimes I win, but only because I’ve come to recognize certain tell-tale signs – like the soft glow of a blue light underneath a table. Once I see the enemy, it is mine – at least for a day.

My battleground is a high school classroom. My nemesis is the cell phone. And I’m not alone.

From California to Florida, school administrators are scrambling to develop plans that will prevent students from spending their high school years with their heads bowed toward the floor praying to the text messaging gods. For the most part these plans have done little to curb the rampant use of cell phones in the classroom.

Meanwhile, lawmakers have had their hands full trying to decide what to do about “sexting,” an emerging trend in which teenagers send racy messages and photos to one another with their cell phones.

Where will the next faceoff between adults and teenage cell phone users take place? My guess is at your local retail and fast food establishments.

In the last month, I’ve noticed two teenage “associates” at my friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart ducked away in far-flung corners of the store (no one will see me in the Christmas Clearance aisle!) tapping out messages on their cell phones.

The last time I went through the drive-thru at my local Taco Bell, I watched in disbelief as an employee carried on a text conversation while taking orders over her headphone. A second employee actually had to squeeze her way around the texter just to get to the window and hand out my food.

These are only two examples, but I do not think they are isolated incidents. For businesses that rely on teenagers to provide front-line service to customers, the rise of texting in the workplace could definitely be bad news.

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